Journals And Lesson Books

Since the girls had nature school today (which means that I had five hours to myself and therefor nothing really worth documenting for a blogpost) it felt like the perfect time to finally share some pictures from the their journals and main lesson books that I've over the last few weeks.

While main lesson books have been a usual thing for us, journal writing is new. The journal initially came about as a way for Grace to practice her cursive.

However, as the weeks wore on they both expressed wanting to be ale to write and spell better without copying things that they had dictated to me. With the knowledge of what they wanted I pondered for a bit about how to best/most naturally help them achieve this goal. It was during that pondering that "Friday Journals" were born. 

Each Friday we gather and discuss what they liked best about the week. On a piece of scrap paper they write their thoughts, being sure to take their time with the spelling (and asking for help when they get stuck). Once the sentence is to their liking they then copy it into their journals and add a picture to go with it. 

As they get better the number of sentences they write will increase, but for now we are sticking with one. They love Friday Journals, and since we've been doing this we have seen a major improvement in their confidence and their independent writing! 

Their main lesson books continue to have wonderful entries, too. Curly g's and y's are favorites of both girls (and their mama)! 

I love seeing how much they grow from the first book of each year to the last. Grace used the stars this time since it added to the charm of her page, whereas Emma is still using them to help with her spacing between words. I have no doubt that come springtime she will no longer need those stars though. We've also noticed a major improvement in Emma's drawing in recent weeks, as well. She's applying the "scrap paper technique" to her drawings and it has really helped her become much more confident and happy with how her creations are turning out. As she is only a handful of months away from turning eight we are seeing her writing and drawing become that of an older kid. It's a bit bittersweet if I'm being honest, but it's super exciting too!  xo