Inside Our Form II Binder

I shared our Form I binder a couple weeks ago; today I'm going to share the Form II binder that I'm using for my Year 4 students this year.  (You can read more about our Year 4 plans here.)

As I mentioned, this binder is just a more robust version of the Form I binder they have used since first grade.  It's a place to store their current work as well as reference aids, ongoing projects, assignment instructions, and more.

Here's a little tour... (And I apologize in advance for the quality of these photos--it was super cloudy today, but I really wanted to get this post up, so this was the best I could do!)

Their weekly schedule sheet.  We actually started this last year, so it's not specific to Form II, but each year it gets a bit more detailed as they take on more of their work on their own.  (For example, my Year 1 student doesn't have her own checklist at all since we do everything together.)  This page charts their daily work, weekly assignments, naptime block schedule, and chores.  They keep it in the front pocket since they refer to it so often.  I'll go into more detail about what's on this little sheet when I write about this year's schedule.

Copywork.  My Year 4 students have now moved on to just cursive copywork this year.  I print all of our pages using Startwrite.  They have two kinds of copywork sheets: our dictation selection for the week, which I have them use for copywork first, and some miscellaneous sheets for them to use on the days following.  This term I am pulling our dictation from Bambi, which we are reading on a schedule (two chapters per week).  For their other copywork, I choose prayers and poetry.  They work on cursive for ten minutes three days a week.  On the fourth day, they spend that ten minutes working in their Prose and Poetry Copybook (more on that in a minute).

Dictation and grammar assignments.  We are sitting down for ten minutes daily to do dictation or grammar together.  Most of the time, it's a bit of both, since we're currently using our dictation selections to discuss grammatical topics (right now we're simply identifying subjects, verbs, and objects, since that's what we're doing in Latin too).  I've been printing out dictation pages with a space for copywork at the top and then two printed copies of the selection below that.  One they use for studying from, so they can mark it up as they choose.  The second we use for identifying parts of speech and whatever else comes up during our grammar chats.

Written Italian work.  Once a week they have a written Italian assignment that they are responsible for doing independently, and I pop it into their binder so they know where to find it.  Sometimes it is a poem to translate, sometimes it's a little writing assignment, sometimes it's a worksheet.

A cursive alphabet sheet.  This gets quite a bit of use during my oldest daughter's free time, much of which she spends writing little stories. :)

Maps for mapwork, map drills, and reference.  We have quite a bit of mapwork going on in this house!  They have the same binder maps that my Form I student does.  They also have blank maps for charting places mentioned from our readings, including a map of the Thirteen Colonies, a map of Europe, and a larger map of the United States.  These are kept casually and I encourage them to make entries as they come up in their reading.

They also have the maps they are using for our ongoing map drills.  Right now, Vincent is finishing up Europe and Gianna is working on Asia.  They color and write in a few countries every couple weeks and move on once they know them to include more.

And then they have some maps that they're keeping a bit more formally.  They started this watercolor map of California for our state history/geography reading this term, and I think that's going to be a lot of fun.  (I was inspired by Heather's lovely example.)  They began with a grid and transferred the image, then went over it in marker, and this week they're adding the watercolor.  They'll be adding more paint details as well as labeling the places we encounter while reading The Cruise of the Arctic Star and The First Californian this year.  They're doing the same thing but with colored pencils for the Mississippi River and Holling's Minn.

Binder timeline and century chart.  I opted to wait for my kids to start a Book of Centuries for a few reasons.  My kids are on the young side of the age range for such a Keeping task, so I don't have a real need to start quite yet.  I also thought a century chart would be more valuable this year, when we're focused almost exclusively on the 18th century.  And the history rotation starts over in Year 6, which I think might be a convenient time to begin the practice.  So this year, we're continuing their Form I binder timeline but adding in a simple century chart. (Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page talks about these, and Jeanne has a nice description too.)  I'll share when it's all filled in later in the year!

Memory work.  Each child has in her binder a copy of the selections we're working on: a hymn, a folk song, a poem, a passage from Shakespeare, and a passage from the Bible.  Once they learn the selections, I remove all but their poems, which they illustrate and then give to me to add to our family poetry folder.

Drawing drill sheets.  They alternate map drill with drawing drill, using the same sheets from Donna Young's site that we have used the last few years.  (No, we have not exhausted them all yet--there are so many posted!)  << Note: Donna Young's site is now subscription-only, and I do not subscribe, so we will eventually drop these from our schedule.

Math drill sheets.  I usually print sheets from math-aids.com for whatever mathematical topic I think they could use review in.  Last week it was long division, this week, multiplying decimals.  I love that these are simple, customizable, and free.  They work on these for five minutes a day.

Geometry.  For the next couple years, we'll be working through RightStart Level G, which is a hands-on, drawing-based geometry program.  I have them do one lesson together per week.  The worksheets for the term are here in their binders, and each week they just grab the next one.

Grammar worksheets.  I do have grammar worksheets for the weeks that we are super busy and they need to do grammar on their own instead of with me  I printed some simple identification sheets from KISS grammar, recommended by Ambleside Online, and I keep them here so I can assign as necessary.

Paper for written narrations.  Right now they're assigned one per week.  I collect them when they're finished.

Drawing assignments.  The kids have a weekly art lesson, and they keep their past and current work in the back of their binders in page protectors for now.  Eventually, I suppose I'll need to get them a portfolio of some sort!  (And Gianna's eye was completed with the help of her teacher. ;))

Reading log.  This is something Gianna requested, so I printed some blank pages for her to record her free reading.  She wants to keep notes of the books she has read like Mommy does. ;)

Miscellaneous.  Sometimes they choose little projects on their own based on school assignments, which they keep in their binders too.  For example, they wanted to make a listening map for Brahms' "Hungarian Dance No. 5" after I showed them one a couple weeks ago.

They don't keep everything in their binders--they also have a few notebooks for particular topics:

Foreign language notebook.  We have been doing Italian (fairly casually) for the past few years and this year we added our second foreign language: Latin!  We also have beefed up our Italian with a bit of written work.  So they're using a spiral notebook to keep their foreign language work in order.  They split the notebook into two sections, one for Italian and one for Latin.

Math notebook.  I prefer to have them do their math in a spiral notebook simply as a way to keep the loose papers at bay.  It gets tossed when finished.

Prose and Poetry copybook.  They started this last year as a precursor to a commonplace book, simply a notebook in which to transcribe selections of their choosing from their school readings.  They work on this in lieu of cursive once a week.  It is a treat to see the passages they pick--it is like a peek into their brains and souls.

Music copybook.  I got this idea from Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page, where she mentions the music notebooks that Miss Mason's students used to keep.  They would copy in favorite bits studied during music lessons and composer study.  I told my kids they could do the same with songs they were learning to play or the themes of compositions we are studying.  But this will be totally optional.  (I picked these up very inexpensively at Rainbow Resource.)

Nature journal.  I know I've shown their nature journals many times--they're here on the shelf alongside the binders and notebooks too.

(And that big black binder alongside houses our family Keeping: our Book of Firsts, our Life Lists, and the illustrated poems.  The little white book amid the nature journals is my kindergartener's.)

That may seem like a lot, but it's really not!  Compared to most learning methods, a Charlotte Mason education produces very little paper clutter, which I'm grateful for.  This is our way of keeping what little we do have fairly organized and contained--and giving my kids the responsibility for taking care of their assignments.

Next time, I'll be talking about our weekly schedule sheet!