Here is an idea for a unit study notebook that can be customized for any topic!
We had planned to take some time off of homeschooling after our new baby was born (he’s almost 3 weeks already! I can’t believe it!), but as it turns out, a lot of “down time” just doesn’t work with a house full of boys! Aidan has been doing some school work each day – mainly the things that he can do on his own.
This year, we are doing Sonlight Core D, which is American History Part 1. If you’re not familiar with Sonlight, it’s a literature-based approach to history. Aidan has a history textbook (which I read to him), history books and a workbook that he does on his own, readers that correspond with the topics we are studying, and books that I read out loud to him. The books on our Sonlight list are the best of children’s literature, I think.
One day, the idea struck me to do a history notebook as sort of a scrapbook of all that he is studying this year. This has proved to be a great idea!
We found a 3 ring binder that wasn’t currently being used, and Aidan made a page for the cover.
He has written and typed three reports for his notebook so far – one on George Washington, one on the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and he is working on one about the Constitution right now. Writing, editing, and typing have been a good experience for him, and the typing part especially keeps him busy for a long time!
We have also added maps and artwork. Aidan traced this map of the original 13 colonies from a workbook and labeled each of them.
This week, he wrote out the preamble to the Constitution on a brown paper bag – to make it look old. 
What makes this notebook so great is that Aidan does his best work on it since each item is part of a larger finished product! He enjoys showing his work to his grandparents and reading his reports to them. The other benefit is that it’s so open ended that I can cover many different skills as I see the need. We have done lists of American history spelling words (battle, colonist, convention, etc.). The spelling words are easy to come up with – I just read his writing and pick ones that he has spelled incorrectly!
And at the end of the year, we’re going to have this great scrapbook of the work that Aidan did during his third grade year. I have a feeling that we’ll hang onto this one forever!
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