Saturday, February 17, 2007

New Project For School


We wanted to try Notebooking with our school lessons a year or two ago, but never got around to it, and the interest faded. And so the idea came up again in the last few weeks and was met with LOTS of enthusiasm (Mom too !). So we have decided that we want to try Notebooking ... for U.S. History and also for Science & Nature Journals right now (maybe other subjects as things progress).


There is a lot of information out on the web about Notebooking, and so many types / styles, supplies, and ideas ... the creativity is JUST what we need to bring our lessons to LIFE and bring in a little change and some more independence.


So I went out today for supplies - papers, tools, art supplies (always need more of those !), scrapbooking materials, scissors, glue, and other items. I also found this really neat software too at Staples. The software is intended for Scrapbooking, but seems to can do what we need as well. Clip art, fonts, templates, photorealistic emblishments ... all through my printer after one completes the design, or to be printed and cut out and attached as per the "idea". (Probably cut and pasted the old fashioned way so we can WRITE on them too and practice our writing skills and penmanship.)


The software was an extra ... not a NEEDED supply, nor one I planned for. But after reading reviews on it, we think it is goign to be a great multi-purpose tool !! It is our hope that the children will take more opportunities to use the computer for projects, as being computer savvy is a necessity today. We limit their web-access to ONLY when we are literally watching, so software loaded on the PC is a way for them to use the PC without the risks of web-use. And this is creative and requires thought and planning, unlike "just games". So we shall see.


We will certainly post photos of some of our projects ... our first project (on Wednesday afternoon) is on Skunks because they are "out and about" in our area lately, and we found a den to take photos of ... now we are reading about them in a book we had here in our home library. This will be our "Test Run" to get a "feel" for Notebooking, so this first project will likely result in 5 of the same project ... then hopefully they will show their creative sides and work more on their own after that, juices flowing. I always hated art / craft classes LOADED with very minute-detail moment-by-moment instructions so that everyone's "project" was identical. But we HAVE to have atleast one "for the purpose of instruction" project to get started I fear.


This is a link to software I bought (reviews are great for it - HOORAY !!)

1 comment:

Lisa said...

Sounds fun. Can't wait to see.