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Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 4:26 pm
by mtmom9107
Can someone help me find the thread about the student making their own notebooking and experiment pages vs. finding some pre-designed ones on FB groups? I'm getting weary of messy work and pictures so big that there's no room left to label. :cry: I feel it's one of the things I should be able to leave her to do on her own while I work with another child. We are finishing up week 15 of Bigger. I should add that we are finally to week 15 after working since September. :? I want to read that thread again to re-convince me and encourage me as to the "why" of having the child design their own page.
Also, if you have "been there done that" can you explain to me the benefits of the guides way? Why it may be harder now but will be for the best in the long run?

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 4:34 pm
by StephanieU

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 10:03 am
by Carrie
Laura,

One of the tough things for kiddos at the Bigger Heart's age is learning to write smaller and to use the provided space on a page well. Kiddos at this age either draw huge pictures or draw very small. There doesn't seem to be much in between! Messy writing often is the product simply because the kiddos are not very good at writing yet. It takes time to develop those skills. The notebook pages that we created for CTC on up require smaller writing and better sketching skills. The pages are beautiful and help showcase students' work. Notebooking pages for Bigger Hearts and Preparing Hearts need to serve a different purpose. They need to help kiddos grow in developing drawing and writing skills. :D

When I wrote Bigger Hearts, we had not created any notebooking pages yet. The concept was still new to us, and we desired to make the guide as economical as possible too. After using Bigger Hearts three different times with my own youngest three boys, I still feel that developing notebooking skills takes time. Throughout Bigger Hearts, my boys did learn so much about writing smaller, writing neatly, and using their blank page well. I did have to coach and help them as they made their pages. In looking at the guide from a parent's perspective, it can be challenging to help a student create a notebook page from scratch. :D

So, with our quest to aid the parent and child as much as possible, we are in the process of designing notebook pages for Bigger Hearts. These pages will also work with the older Bigger Hearts guide for most units with some exceptions. I am having to rewrite the directions for the notebooking days in the newest edition of the Bigger Hearts guide to work with the new notebooking pages. We are also adding a schedule for English 3 to the new edition of the Bigger Hearts guide as well for families who need that option for an older student. :D

We pray this new edition of the guide and the new notebooking pages will bless many families! It is a joy to be able to make changes and additions to the guides that we believe will make the products even better and more user friendly. The Bigger Hearts notebooking pages are geared for a much younger audience and are designed to give kiddos the space they need to develop their notebooking skills. The pages are being designed in our beautiful full-color format too! :D

Blessings,
Carrie

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 11:30 am
by manyblessings
I am so glad this question was asked, and the answer made perfect sense regarding purpose of notebooking in the different guides. I can remember that the intended purpose was realized when my 3rd and 4th grader were using it years ago. They did learn to write more neatly and use the space better over time, with coaching. I am also very glad to hear that Carrie is creating notebooking pages for Bigger in the future, because Bigger is a very teacher-intensive guide, and I think prepared pages would definitely have made it easier on me as a mom at the time :) Looking forward to possibly using this with my youngest when she gets to 3rd grade!

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 4:30 pm
by StephanieU
Carrie,

Will the new pages be a must with a new guide? Or will it be an option still to use blank paper?

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 5:01 pm
by mtmom9107
Carrie,
Wow! Thank you for your exciting response.
In re-reading my original post I wonder if I came across as a bit negative and I apologize, I certainly didn't intend to. :oops: We are thoroughly enjoying our school year using Heart of Dakota and plan to continue! :D lol, even though we're just finishing up unit 15, I already have everything figured up for when we order Preparing whenever we finish Bigger! 8) :lol:

I do have to say that I am so very excited for these notebooking pages! When are these planning on being released? It sounds like it'll make doing this guide again with my other 3 children a little less daunting! Will they gradually have the student do more on the page to help in developing the skills as they go through the guide? Are you doing the same for Preparing?
Sorry about all the questions! :P

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Thu May 03, 2018 5:06 pm
by StephanieU
And one last question. Will the pages be just history (like CtC-MtMM) or will they be science as well?

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 6:44 pm
by mtmom9107
Also, will there be changes (notebooking pages or anything else) made to Preparing in the next few months? Would like to wait for updates prior to ordering.

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 8:02 pm
by Carrie
The pages for Bigger Hearts will only be for the history portion of the guide much as the guides from CTC on up. The science will not be included in the notebooking pages. As far as Preparing Hearts goes, we plan to eventually make notebooking pages for the history portion of that guide as well. This is due to the fact that the students coming out of the new Bigger Hearts guide will be used to notebook pages. So, we will plan to have those pages done by this time next year in order for those students to be able to continue with the pages in Preparing. We have not yet begun on the notebook pages for Preparing Hearts at this time. :D

For those families who have older guides, it is important to note that your guide will function just fine as is without the need to purchase the new notebooking pages. So, you can still use your guides as written. :D

Blessings,
Carrie

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 7:14 pm
by Nealewill
While I am sure the new guides will have beautiful with their notebooking pages like CtC and up, I must admit that I absolutely love that my kids made their own for a few years. It really taught them how to use the space well and how to be creative. I am sure the new notebooking pages will be beautiful though. But there is something sentimental about the creativity that went into those activities.

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:03 am
by mtmom9107
Carrie wrote: For those families who have older guides, it is important to note that your guide will function just fine as is without the need to purchase the new notebooking pages. So, you can still use your guides as written. :D

Blessings,
Carrie
Thank you Carrie! I'm looking for some clarification as I'm not quite understanding. Can I use the new notebooking pages with an old guide? Or in order to use the new notebooking pages will a new guide need to be purchased? The guide I'm currently working out of is copyright 2015.
Also, interested to know the same about the new Preparing notebooking pages as I would be purchasing the Preparing program about 6 months before those notebook pages are finished. Thank you for your clarification. :)

Re: Pre-designed vs. making own notebooking pages

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:55 pm
by Carrie
Ladies,

When creating the notebook pages for Bigger Hearts, I tried to stay as close as possible to the previous notebook assignments in earlier versions of the Bigger Hearts guides. In the end, I would say that about 75%-80% of the note booking assignments will work quite closely to the way the plans were written in the previous versions of the Bigger Hearts guide. :D The other 20%-25% of the assignments also correspond with the plans in previous versions of the guide, but the student may not know exactly what to do with the page as their part has changed.

There is also a large foldable timeline to assemble at the end of the notebook pages. If you have an earlier version of the Bigger Hearts guide, you can find assembly directions for the Bigger Hearts timeline on Unit 1 - Day 5 in the "Timeline" Box of the sample plans on our website. We have updated those sample pages as of last night, so they show the 2018 version of the plans. :D Link: https://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/BHFHG ... s-2018.pdf

I hope this helps! Of course, if you have a previous version of the guide it still works as written without the new pages. Happy notebooking! :D

Blessings,
Carrie