Planning Your Student Notebooks

Although this is my second post, let me introduce myself!   I'm Kristi, and I have 6 children, age 12, 10, 6, 3, 3, and 2.  This is our second go-round with Tapestry of Grace Year 1.  We did it a couple of years ago, but circumstances forced us to leave TOG, sadly.  Things have settled somewhat for us, though, and my daughter begged me to return to Tapestry this year.  When a kid BEGS you for a certain curriculum, I would suggest sitting up and taking notice!  So I did, and here we are!  Since she particularly wanted to study Ancients, we just started the cycle over again with Year 1, and we're so excited about the upcoming year!  Today, I'm going to show you how I put together our Student Notebooks for this year.  This year, we'll have students in Lower Grammar, Upper Grammar, and Dialectic.

Now, there are a few ways to do your student notebooks.  In the past, I used three ring binders, and basically followed the instructions laid out at Tapestry of Grace and in the Teacher Training DVDs (HIGHLY recommended, by the way!!).  They worked, and worked well.  But, now we have many more little ones to contend with, and that just wasn't going to work for us.  Besides, I got my super cool new binding tool, so I wanted to play with that. :D

((NOTE:  Some of these pictures uploaded upside down for some strange reason.  I'm working on getting them fixed, but in the meantime, this still gives you a pretty good overview of how we're appproaching our Notebooks this year.))

This works much better for us, because there's no paperwork to get lost all over the house.  Everything is bound together, in one place, and all they have to do is switch to the next thing.

Grammar Binder, Maps and SAPs.  That's all these binders have in them. 

For my Lower and Upper Grammar books, the process was pretty simple.  I just downloaded the Student Activity Pages (blue pages, located in your curriculum, or on the Loom), and the maps.  I love Map Aids, so that's what we use.  Then, I printed them off, week by week.  Being Type A, I tried not to waste paper or space, so everything's duplex printed.  It was very easy to do.  Then, I added a cover and back, and binded them.  My binding tool is a Pro Click Binding tool, and you can get them on Amazon, or at most office supply stores that I've seen.  I haven't put together their planning notebooks yet, but they'll both just sit with me and plan off of my DE, since they're not ready to start being that independent yet, anyway.  Their Student Planners also work for our family for keeping track of reading lists, activities, and many different things, which is one reason I keep them separate.

My Dialectic Student's binder is a little more involved.  She IS ready to be more independent in her planning, so I printed off the Threads (purple pages), the Reading Schedule (yellow sheets), her SAP's (blue pages), and her maps.  She will be doing a transparency project, but it's going to be it's own separate notebook, and isn't included with this one.

Dialectic Binder--Threads and Reading pages

Reading pages and SAPs

SAPs and Maps

I put the threads first, then the reading pages.  This is so she can open up and get a good overview for what's going on every week.  Then, I put in her SAPs, and finally the maps.  Afterwards, I added the cover and backing, and binded them up.  Again, she'll have her own separate Student Planner.

Kaitlyn will also have a binder for her Transparency Project, and I'll be adding a post showing how we do that in the near future.  In the meantime, we hope you enjoyed this peek at our system!

Kristi is the homeschooling mom of 6, from 12 down to 2.  Currently, she's using Year 1, and has a Lower Grammar, Upper Grammar, and Dialectic student.  You can see her blog about the rest of their school days at The Potter's Hand Academy.  You can find Kristi on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, and Instagram.