Keeping Company :: Spring 2019

Happy Spring! It's time for our quarterly notebook chat -- I hope you'll grab a cup of tea and join me below for some keeping conversation. :)

Catching Up

Before sharing notebooks from our home and from the community, I wanted to point you to a couple different new resources...

I hosted a week on Getting Started with Notebooks @charlottemasonirl last month. For tips on beginning notebook-keeping for yourself or for your children, you might find that series of posts helpful.

I also did a Coffee Chat on IGTV all about commonplace books with my Common Place Quarterly co-writer, Mariah Kochis. We talked about the spirit of notebook keeping as well as a bunch of logistics: how we organize our books, what we include, how we got started, how we have begun the practice with our children. If you have a chance to watch it, let me know what you think!

Speaking of Common Place Quarterly: if you are a subscriber, did you get a chance to read our column, "The Art and Practice of Keeping"? Mariah and I will be switching off quarters sharing our passion in that space. We would love to hear your thoughts on our first article, "Considering the Commonplace."

Starting the Conversation

Okay, so we're almost through the school year...what are your notebooks looking like this spring quarter? 

I find that a notebook can be such a comfort during the dreary weeks of late winter and early spring and the best companion for the fresh sunshine of spring days. I find myself gravitating toward my commonplace and my nature journal alternately, depending on the weather!

I shared this one from my pre-reading commonplace a couple weeks ago...

And this from Kristin Lavransdatter, my current fiction read, took my breath away. Motherhood is in so many ways our sanctification.

I am keeping to not-quite-weekly nature entries, which I'm pleased with. I know my nature journal will explode as wildflower season arrives!

The children have been working hard on their Books of Centuries, maps, and weekly paintings...

Il Cappuccetto Rosso - King Richard II - Mother Ambrosine
King Henry V with tennis balls - Henry V

tea in honor of the Boston Tea Party
cheeses from the Netherlands - Mr. Herriot and the Market Square Dog
Mr. Herriot and his wife on a picnic

Keeping in Community

Some inspiring shares @keepingcompanycm...

@jessarie.dawn - @jo.downing - @englishhomeeducator
@stoppingforbutterflies - @naturekeeping - @cmhomeschoolmom

And in the blog world...

Nancy Kelly has wonderful suggestions for livening up your Book of Centuries at your local museum, which is really how Mason envisioned the BoC to work. Fantastic advice here!

Minimalist Homeschooling talks about the transition to "notebooking" in her home.

It's always refreshing to see Australian Carol's summertime keeping during our winter months -- nature journals, commonplaces and more!


The Link-Up

:: For BLOGGERS: Leave a link to any blog posts related to CM-style keeping in the comments section of this post all quarter.  I will be sure to click over and read so I can highlight them here in the next edition!

:: For INSTAGRAMMERS: Tag related photos with #KeepingCompanyCM.  You can also follow my new account: @keepingcompanycm. I will be re-sharing daily on that account from posts tagged!
:: Any posts about CM-style Keeping are welcome.  Your post can be as simple as a photo of your commonplace book or your kids' drawing.
:: You can grab the button over there on the sidebar if you'd like to add it to your post or site.

Keeping Company :: Winter 2019

Happy New Year, and welcome to another year of Keeping Company together! I thought I'd give a little re-introduction on...

How This Works

Just as a reminder: throughout the year, I reshare CM-style notebooking posts @keepingcompanycm. Then at the beginning of each quarter, I pull together a post here on the blog with some special highlights from Instagram and the blog world.

If you would like to share about the notebooks you or your students have been keeping (and I would love if you would!), you can...
:: leave a comment below with a link to your blog post, or
:: leave a comment below with a description of what you have been up to, or
:: tag #keepingcompanycm on Instagram.

The purpose of this Keeping Company link-up is to join in community as keepers, encouraging one another to notice, record, and engage with ideas in tangible ways. The details are always at the bottom of each Keeping Company post. Feel free to jump in at any time!

Catching Up

Before I round up some notebook-keeping ideas from around the web, I'd like to share a couple keeping-related "news" items:

I'll be speaking about notebooks at Motherwell in Charlottesville, Virginia this April! I'll be sharing how my Pre-Reading Journal revolutionized my posture as a teacher and giving a talk on notebooks for students. If you are new to keeping or want to give your notebook habits a bit of a boost, I think this will be a great event.

My friend Mariah and I are co-writing a column on notebook-keeping for the new Charlotte Mason print magazine, Common Place Quarterly. In the first issue coming out in just a couple weeks (woohoo!), we discussed some thoughts behind the commonplace book and shared the simple Reading Journal we are each keeping alongside the magazine. We'll also be chatting about our column on Instagram Live as part of the CPQ Coffee Chat series in the next month or so. I'll try to share here as a heads-up if you would like to pop over and watch! The account is public, so you don't have to be an Instagram user to view. :)

Starting the Conversation

Have you been working in your notebooks this quarter? Any New Year's keeping resolutions?

I thought about trying a daily sketch challenge for January, but then decided that my energies ought to be put toward some other habits I'm working to build, so for now, I'm sticking with my weekly work in my (pre-)Reading Journal, Book of Centuries, and nature journal. I was behind in making sketches in my BoC this fall, so I have been taking a bit of time over the Christmas break to do a few.

My Reading Journal continues to be a joy to work in. I'll give a more thorough look into Year 7 through my eyes when the year is over, but here's a preview.

The kids have been enjoying their BoCs so much. There have been a lot of entries inspired by our "illustrated" version of Beowulf (the illustrations are really just photos of artifacts, which is perfect!) and quite a few straight out of Arnold-Forster as well. They have really hit their stride with this practice.

I started a pretty new gratitude journal with another one of the notebooks from my favorite little lined set.

(And did you see that EcoQua now has a TEAL option?! It's such a pretty shade and a nice change from the warm tones they offered before. I grabbed a small blank one to begin my CPQ Reading Journal that I mentioned above.)

Keeping in Community

We are talking notebook-keeping goals over @keepingcompanycm too!

@sarah_jonna - @naturekeeping - @mariah___dawn

There is more to come on that topic next week. But there was plenty of fantastic content in the last few months of 2018 too! For example, lots of science examples (which we don't see enough of!)...

@sageparnassus - @jessicaseverne - @jessarie.dawn

...plenty of commonplace-related chat...

@hspambarnhill

@charlottemasonmemphis

...an illustrated journey to the Celestial City...

@athena_amidstthereeds

and more!

Also: Erin and Crystin are both talking about commonplace books this quarter, and Frannie is pondering how all those things we "keep" in our minds and hearts and how memorization can be a spiritual act. Good words!

I am always humbled and inspired by the ladies that share their thoughts and work, from those just starting out to the experienced keepers -- it is really nice to be in community with others moms in this process. So thank you for another year of keeping me company and I can't wait to see what 2019 holds.  Please join us!

The Link-Up

:: For BLOGGERS: Leave a link to any blog posts related to CM-style keeping in the comments section of this post all quarter.  I will be sure to click over and read so I can highlight them here in the next edition!

:: For INSTAGRAMMERS: Tag related photos with #KeepingCompanyCM.  You can also follow my new account: @keepingcompanycm. I will be re-sharing daily on that account from posts tagged!
:: Any posts about CM-style Keeping are welcome.  Your post can be as simple as a photo of your commonplace book or your kids' drawing.
:: You can grab the button over there on the sidebar if you'd like to add it to your post or site.

Keeping Company :: Fall 2018

Hi friends! Happy Fall!  It's time for our quarterly consideration of all-things-notebooks, inspired by the blogosphere and the @keepingcompanycm community.

Starting the Conversation

We have been engaged in lots of notebook-keeping now that school has restarted.

Gianna and Vincent are making weekly drawings in their Books of Centuries.  I am making almost-weekly drawings. I can never quite keep up with them! :)

I am at weekly work on my new pre-reading notebook -- and enjoying it as much as I did last year.

My Form I and II kids are all reading a geographical text called Our Country and Its People. They decided to start a pictorial map alongside.

Xavier, my 8yo, asked if he could please start a commonplace book like his older siblings this year. He does this in his free time, separate from the copywork he does with me. (If I assigned it, I am sure he would be less enthusiastic at this age. ;)) His entries are so sweet -- I love how they give me a window into his mind.

Cate started formal written narrations this year. She is very excited about her Narration Notebook.

My Form I kids are keeping a small notebook alongside The Burgess Bird Book. Xavier said Mr. and Mrs. Wren reminded him of Mary and Martha. <3

It is always an injection of motivation to begin fresh notebooks at the start of the year! I would love to see into your new-school-year keeping.

From the Community

This past month, I curated a week on Mother's Diaries @keepingcompanycm, inspired by my talk on reflection for the CMEC retreat in July. Some mamas shared a peek into the notebooks they are keeping for each of their children, and I linked to the wonderful two-part article, A Mother's Diary by Miss Beale. Nancy Kelly has a great series on this form as well.

You can read all of the posts here!

Do you keep a Mother's Diary?

We have also had a bunch of mamas talking about fall!

@llward1

@essentials_with_jane

@accidentalstars

Aussie Carol shares a helpful and inspiring post all about nature study over the past couple months.

Isn't this beautiful?

Melissa shared one of her favorite homeschool tools for notebooking -- have you ever used one of these?  She also rounds up the tangible signs of their learning from this past year.

And now it's your turn!

The Link-Up

:: For BLOGGERS: Leave a link to any blog posts related to CM-style keeping in the comments section of this post all quarter.  I will be sure to click over and read so I can highlight them here in the next edition!

:: For INSTAGRAMMERS: Tag related photos with #KeepingCompanyCM.  You can also follow my new account: @keepingcompanycm. I will be re-sharing daily on that account from posts tagged!
:: Any posts about CM-style Keeping are welcome.  Your post can be as simple as a photo of your commonplace book or your kids' drawing.
:: You can grab the button over there on the sidebar if you'd like to add it to your post or site.


Thanks for your participation! Can't wait to see what you are up to.

Keeping Company :: Summer 2018

Welcome!  Happy Summer!  Has the summer been keeping you busy? Are you keeping up with your notebooks?  (Sorry, I really can't resist. ;)) I hope you're enjoying a refreshing break from lessons with plenty of time for the quiet work of writing and drawing in notebooks.

Starting the Discussion

Did you see my posts about our notebooks from this past school year?  I shared about my Year 6 kids' history, science notebooks and my Form I kids' timelines, maps, and narration notebooks.

It was fun to go through and look back on all their work from this year! Here's a peek...

Click over to read more.  (P.S. You can seek inside their notebooks from the year before here: A School Year Kept.)

I've been working in my commonplaces and my nature journal weekly. I have had significantly more free reading time over this summer than I did last school year, so my commonplace is filling up!

I actually just started a couple new ones to replace my fiction and educational philosophy collections. I decided to try these little notebooks. They come in a pack of three, but I only have two of them in the rotation right now. Aren't they lovely?

Virginia Lee posted about them last year and I immediately grabbed a set to try out. I love my Moleskines and EcoQua notebooks, but these are affordable and really nice quality. Smooth, thicker-than-average paper, and very light lines. And they are so pretty to look at. <3

Remember how I said I was going to be catching up in my Book of Centuries this summer? Hasn't happened yet. :/ I got a few entries up at the very start of summer, and then it has sat on the shelf since then. I'm hoping once I get through conference month (aka July) I'll have some time to devote!

I'd love to hear what you have been up to in your notebooks this summer!

From the Community

On Instagram, @keepingcompanycm has been running over a month of mothers' notebooks!

It has been tremendously inspiring to see the variety and enthusiasm. A few examples...

love this pre-reading journal from @charis.arielle

@amanda.reiser 's beautiful nature journal

@accidentalstars planted a native plant garden to paint from!

@ourhappygoldenyears is keeping history visually

@emilyannepastor preps a special study -- in her notebook

There are lots more where that came from and a week's worth ready to go in the queue!

Speaking of mama notebooks, my in-real-life friend Candy Kim has a resource she is using for her personal timeline that I thought you'd love to know about. I asked if I could share about it here and she kindly agreed.

She took the design for our binder timeline and adapted it to this fantastic accordian-style watercolor landscape notebook. It's a 4x6 notebook, so it would be great for mothers as something a bit different and fun. (Probably too small for little hands.)

She even pointed out that since it's watercolor paper, you could lightly paint an artifact in the background of each column to represent the century. Isn't that a fantastic idea? I am thinking about doing this alongside my newest Year 1 student (#5!) this year.

Carol shares a bunch of gems from her commonplace book of Formation of Character. I happen to be reading Volume 5 right now also, and she gets to the heart of what character means in this post! I'm looking forward to reading more.

She also shares recent family nature journaling in a variety of media, inspired by a nature illustration course and their rambles outdoors. So inspiring.  (As is her Instagram account! I so appreciate that she is about to share a variety of older-student notebooks.)

And now it's your turn!

The Link-Up

:: For BLOGGERS: Leave a link to any blog posts related to CM-style keeping in the comments section of this post all quarter.  I will be sure to click over and read so I can highlight them here in the next edition!

:: For INSTAGRAMMERS: Tag related photos with #KeepingCompanyCM.  You can also follow my new account: @keepingcompanycm. I will be re-sharing daily on that account from posts tagged!
:: Any posts about CM-style Keeping are welcome.  Your post can be as simple as a photo of your commonplace book or your kids' drawing.
:: You can grab the button over there on the sidebar if you'd like to add it to your post or site.


Thanks for your participation, friends!