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.