I gave a few talks about Thomas Jefferson Education at homeschool conferences this summer and made the same suggestion Rachel DeMille made in Core & Love of Learning CD/lecture notes. I think this is particularly good for younger kids or kids just starting a reading journal. My older girls (14, 16 at the time) kept a reading journal this past year. It specifically dealt with their literature reading assignment. By the end of the year this was an informal essay, beyond simply recapping what they read.
My son is 12 and I plan to start the year with a journal entry at the end of each day. This will tell me what he “really learned” that day. He has made journal entries for specific readings, similar to narrations. We have used it especially with his Bible readings. He writes a paragraph about what he read in his morning devotions. I believe this helps reinforce what he read.
Our journal helps my kids keep writing on a daily basis, but I don’t think it teaches writing. I use IEW to make a longer assignment that gives my kids the opportunity to write to a final draft form. So, they have two types of writing – informal journal about what they are reading/learning and formal writing assignments where they learn how to improve their writing. There are times we will use a journal entry to “work on” writing, polishing it to final draft form.
Kerry Beck
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