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!