8 Ways to use Charlotte Mason Journaling for Homeschool

If you're new to the idea of keeping journals/notebooks, here are some easy ways to begin incorporating them!

I love journals and the idea of journaling. I have countless journals saved that contain a few weeks worth of consistent entries. Then life happens and as a result I get busy. My daily tasks take over my desire to just sit still, write and be. But as a fellow lifelong learner, I always work to get myself back in the habit when I fall out of it so that my children see it has inherent value and don't argue about using their own notebooks ;)

Journaling is a great way to encourage your children to write well, be creative, practice proper grammar, penmanship skills and much more.

Our family has Common Place (reading/quotes) journals as well as history journals now that we’re in the high school years. We have utilized a Book of Centuries, Geography notebooks, copywork notebooks, and more over the years. All have value and have been very helpful.

There are many ways to use journaling in your homeschool. As with anything new, getting started is often the hardest part. Here are a few ideas to help kickstart your homeschool journaling adventure!

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8 Ways to Use Journaling in Your Homeschool

• Narration

I love using narration in my homeschool after my children read a book, an online article or watch a movie. Having them share what they've learned and enjoyed in their own words is priceless. This opens the door for conversations about important topics, comparing and contrasting, character qualities and much more! If you’d like to learn more about the art of narration, Your Questions Answered: Narration by Sonya Shafer is a good place to start.

• Writing prompts

This has proven to be a great way to encourage my reluctant writer to journal. Simply giving him a question, word or topic to get started has given him confidence to sit down and write. Now that he’s more comfortable writing

• Nature studies

Getting the kids out of the house and exploring nature is the best way to cover science in your homeschool! Have you children bring their journals along with them to write about the flora and fauna they see in nature.

• Copywork

I believe that all children should practice both manuscript and cursive as part of their copywork assignments. Journaling provides the perfect opportunity to encourage your students to write neatly, hence I make this a requirement for my children's journaling studies. Find some of our favorite copywork resources from Awaken to Delight here.

• Art journaling

Art journaling is a creative outlet that allows students to share their thoughts, dreams and struggles. It also gives your artistic students the opportunity to draw their own creations, sketch what they've seen in nature, create a comic book or graphic novel and much more! This works as a means of narration, as well.

• Correspondence journaling

As children grow up there may be some topics that they want to discuss but aren't sure how to get started. Using journals for correspondence writing can allow them to bring up and discuss things that they might not bring up in regular conversation. This can also be an amazing tool for parenting and homeschooling. (You share a notebook with your child and communicate back and forth in letter style)

• Reflection

Teaching our children to take time for reflection is important. They need to have the ability to look over a specific time and reflect on their decisions and actions, as well as the outcome and consequences of each. Journaling provides an amazing opportunity for reflection, one that they can look back over throughout their lives. Scripture journaling is one of my favorite types of reflective journaling.

• Music studies

Since my children love to read, we use literature as part of nearly every subject in our homeschool. Music class typically includes reading a biography of the composer we're studying, so often my children use this opportunity to journal about their music studies.

Journaling should be an activity that your children enjoy. Before you begin, consider how it would work best for each of your students. Each child learns differently, therefore the style of journaling you assign them should reflect their unique learning style.

How do you use journaling in your homeschool?