Keeping Company :: June Invitation

Can you believe it's already June?  We're halfway through our calendar year, and I'm taking that opportunity to re-examine our principles and practices as I get things ready for the school year to come.  One thing I have been considering is our Keeping habits and how I might more effectively scaffold and nurture those as my kids get older and I add more (and more!) students to our homeschool.

One of my favorite places to find inspiration is the posts you share in this link-up!  And so I've been doing a little Keeping about Keeping: whenever I come on an inspiring thought, a particularly useful bit of practical advice, or an image that resonates with my own notebooking goals, I make note of it in my planning notebook, which I have out almost every evening now as I slowly think through our school schedule.  So thank you for sharing!

There's still plenty of time to read and add to the May collection.  Stop by and see if you find something to inspire you in your school planning for the next year.

Monthly Feature

This month I'd like to introduce you to Kristyn at Beraca Family Academy, who has quickly become one of my favorite bloggers thanks to her beautiful photos, helpful advice, and dedication to Charlotte Mason's methods.  I think you'll find her blog a delight too.

She has shared quite a few posts with our link-up over the past few months, and I feel like I'm learning something new every time I click over.  Her son's personal timeline, her own commonplace entries and her children's copybooks, their family Calendar of Firsts, drawn narrations of art and music, and more--lots of notebooking going on in their home!

And I asked about moms' nature journals last month--Kristyn obliged with some careful looks at a pair of cardinals and a Carolina wolf spider, both from right in her backyard.

from Beraca Family Academy

And as a sidenote: it's not too late to share your own nature journal!  I haven't even had a chance to post about mine yet this month, but I will soon, and I'd love if you joined in.  Any post on any CM Keeping topic is welcome at any time.

This month's optional prompt

I know this is one quite a few of you have been waiting for: let's talk about time tools of all sorts!  Book of Centuries, timelines, History of Me project, century charts--the format and content will depend on the age of the student (or the mom!), but the Charlotte Mason vision for history education has a little something for every stage.

What habits have you incorporated?  Do you have a special way of implementing this aspect of history study?  What are your favorite resources?  How have your children responded?  And since the Book of Centuries is meant to be a lifelong practice: do you keep one of your own?

Finally, a question from a Keeping Company reader, particularly for those that have had students keep a Book of Centuries long-term: have you found them to be an effective learning tool over time?  What benefits have you seen in your student's understanding of the "pageant of history" through the use of these written records?

I'll be back here next Tuesday, June 9th, to post the next link-up.  In the meantime, the May link-up is still active, so feel free to continue reading and sharing there.