Schooling by Heart: The start of a new year!

So our new school year is officially up and running! This year I am all about doing interactive notebooks… a wonderful alternative to the lapbooking that I’ve always loved. This technique uses foldables along with traditional notebooks to create fun, hands-on learning. There are wonderful websites out there that have free printable lapbooks (with lesson plans) and free templates that you can use to fit your needs. www.homeschoolshare.com is my favorite!

We have done a combination of both so far for our school year. For American History I created my own foldables and templates based on the what we are studying… currently Christopher Columbus. We’ve been reading Pedro’s Journal by Pam Conrad as a wonderful historical fiction go-along. So, for example, we made a cute ship’s journal foldable for our notebooks.

In Reading I printed the adorable Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lapbook and we have been simply putting the foldables in our notebooks rather than a traditional lapbooking folder.

And speaking of notebooks… I have been on a KICK creating adorable notebooks for the girls. I used simple bound composition books and created individualized covers for them. They are easier to keep up with, the pages don’t tear and there are no metal spirals to bend, and here’s a great tip: I love to wrap them in clear contact paper. This keeps the printed covers I made protected and attached to the notebook, keeps the binding from pulling up, and protects them from spills. You can find the clear contact paper at Walmart (or similar store) with the shelf paper. The notebooks are also so personalized that they don’t get mixed up like the dozens of solid colored spirals that usually drift all over our house during the school year.

Hope everyone is off to a great start this year, and I look forward to sharing more of our learning adventures!