Eight Aboard!

We've kept journals from the very beginning of homeschooling as a way of getting in daily writing practice.  I make no requirements on what the kids write -- only that they write to fill about a page.  That's worked well.  But rarely do the kids write about what they've learned.  Normally, they write about their frustrations or fantasies, or they'll continue serial stories they've been working on over the course of days or weeks.

For a couple years now, I've been recording our daily activities on assignment cards I created to function as checklists.  They've also served as a record of the subjects we've covered (or not covered), field trips we've taken, and projects we've done around the house.


What's been missing is a record of our activities from the kids' unique perspective -- a log of the research, reading, and projects they've done, as experienced by them, the students.

Thus, "Today-I-learned" booklets were born.  I simply stapled folded books of blank paper between a half-sheet of construction paper and labeled the front of the booklet for each child.  The rest is up to them!


Each day, they record anything they learned and would like to remember.  They can draw pictures, comics or cartoons, make a list, write a story or journal entry, or even paste a photo inside -- whatever they're inspired to put on the page for the day.

I'll make these at the beginning of each month, so at the end of the year, they'll have a cute little collection of twelve booklets to store in the annual archive bin.