Truth, Goodness, and Beauty Notebooks

 One new idea that I'm incorporating this year is basically a mashup of a commonplace notebook, a timeline notebook, and a written narration.  I'm calling them Truth, Goodness, and Beauty notebooks.  

Each day at the end of the day, we'll have tea time (which the kids have elected to name "The Council", after the council of Elrond....) During this time, each child will have a chance to draw on the whiteboard or write something that they remember about the day's lessons.  I will also encourage them to think about if any of the characters they encountered in history or topics covered in science or math or poetry or literature demonstrated any elements of Truth, Goodness, or Beauty. 

You see, we'll be covering a lot of horrible bits of history this year.  And I do want them to grasp that people who lived in those times were just that....people.  Flawed characters, but still made in the image of their creator.  I want my children to look for truth, goodness, and beauty in dark places and call it out.  So they'll have notebooks where they can draw or write or even copy lines from their stories or poems or hymns.  Whatever they deem worthy can be placed in their notebooks.  

And their notebooks are not graded.  I simply want to cultivate a Philippians 4:8 mentality in my kids, and this is one way that I can do it.