My Reading Journal :: A Commonplace with a Creative Twist

This post, and the many pictures that follow, is for...

The mama who wants to pre-read but needs something to liven up the task.

Or the mama who wants to get better at nature journaling by adding some extra drawing practice into her week -- but needs it to be meaningful.

Or the mama who loves keeping and is always up for trying a new notebooking process to see if it suits her mental flow.

Or the mama who relies on her children's school reading to be the bulk of her personal reading too, and so wants to engage more intimately with the material to feed her soul.

Or the mama who has a newborn and needs a little extra creative outlet to keep herself sane.

(Or maybe you meet all of those criteria, like me!)

Last year, I decided to expand my pre-reading by keeping a commonplace, maps, a timeline, and a century chart alongside my kids.  (You can see some of the results here.) For me, this was a life-giving activity rather than a time-sucking one. I appreciated adding these tasks to my week because I felt like they made my pre-reading and planning sessions more pleasant.

Schole-ified them, if you will. ;)

This year, I was wanted to try something that meshed all of these worthy actions into one notebook that would also challenge me creatively.  Because honestly, I need an excuse for creativity, especially during a newborn year.  Something new and fun sounded like just the trick.  And this notebook, which I am calling my Year 6 Reading Journal, has been working perfectly.

This is what I've "kept" so far during this first nine weeks of our school year:

in progress -- waiting for the perfect fit for that long spot on the bottom :)

my kids and I will be learning the countries of africa starting in Term 2

in progress -- still have a little corner there at the top to fill in :)

my WW2 map will be on this page

As for the logistics: this is a notebook I have been meaning to try -- it is lovely. Creamy, smooth cardstock-weight pages that lie flat, sewn bound, with a sturdy cover.  It's also, in my opinion, the perfect size for this kind of project. (The one I have is the Flexbook Sketchbook, 6x8.5, blank.  Way cheaper at Dick Blick than at Amazon, though they carry it too. I found it for a deal a year ago, and it has been sitting on my shelf waiting for the perfect use.)

Almost all of what I keep in here is for my Year 6 reading, though I have an occasional quote from someplace else that I couldn't resist adding because it struck me as "in conversation" with the readings here.  This doesn't take the place of my other commonplace books: favorite quotes from my Year 3 and Year 2 readings go in the notebook I keep for school-related selections, and then I have notebooks for Charlotte Mason reading, religious reading, etc. But the ones for Year 6 go in here.  It also doesn't take the place of my pre-reading notes; I still keep those on a weekly sheet.

I don't require myself to keep a certain amount per week; I just fit it in when I can. I keep a large post-it on the inside cover, and as I do my pre-reading for the week, I make note of quotes, diagrams, maps, or sketches I want to add.  And then when I get a chance, I know just what to start in on.

Most of my drawings here are what I think of as drawing copywork -- I am copying illustrations from our books or maps I find online. Trying to draw my own scenes and such stresses me out. So I just don't do that. ;)

To be honest, it has become one of my favorite things to do when I do get a spare moment without a babe in arms.  Can you tell?  That's why I wanted to share it here, in case it might be something you would enjoy trying as well.  I only wish I had thought of it sooner!

I'll be sharing updates from this notebook in my {Keeping Company} posts each month, when I think of it.

If you decide to try out something similar (or if you're already keeping something fun like this!), I'd love to see what your version looks like. I am always inspired to see how each mama adapts habits such as these for her own uses, needs, and personality.