When I started homeschooling 17 years ago, I followed a pretty “traditional” approach. We used Bob Jones or A Beka for everything. It was a very easy approach to implement and was very helpful, with detailed teachers’ manuals telling me exactly what to do and when.
Over the years I’ve become more “eclectic” in my approach. We don’t use many textbooks anymore and I’ve incorporated ideas and curriculum that would probably be best defined as “Classical” or “Charolotte Mason”. The most exciting part of homeschooling, to me, is picking curriculum and lesson planning. So I’m always on the lookout for what’s new and different. As soon as I feel like I’m in a rut with something we’re doing, I make a change. I think it’s that constant change that has kept me still excited, after all these years, about homeschooling!
My newest project is the creation of Math Notebooks for my two elementary aged students (grades 3rd and 5th). It’s a work in progress, but they are both very excited about it, and if they are excited about something math-related, I’m running with it!
I picked up a package of numbered (1-24) tabs at Staples for the Table of Contents. The idea is that we will create some type of foldable, or mini-book, or activity for any concepts they struggle with in math. The notebook will be used as a resource during their actual math lesson. They both use Teaching Textbooks, so theoretically I’m not involved in the math lesson. If they still don’t understand a concept after the math lesson on the computer, they come to me and we create a page for it in the notebook. It’s one thing to hear something taught. It’s another thing to see it taught on the whiteboard. It’s another thing altogether, though, to create some type of book or project about the concept. 
We’ve only been implementing the Math Notebook for a couple of weeks now, so its effectiveness is still to be seen. But I am so excited to see how this new project works out!
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