Free Journal Cards & 2013 Homeschool Idea

I’m excited about starting a 2013 Project Life Homeschool Journal.

Want to join me?Project Life is about documenting every day moments. Homeschooling is a big part of our everyday and I love the idea of scrapping things we learn.

In a nutshell: Project Life is a spend-more-time-making-the-memories-rather-than-preserving-them project!

There is no right way to do it. Some scrapbook 52 weekly spreads to summarize the year, some highlight a few memories each month. The main thing in making memories, and keeping it SIMPLE. I blogged about it how the system works here. You can also see Becky Higgin’s videos.

In a nutshell, Project Life is a simplified way to scrapbook placing photos and cards into pockets I’m giving you free Pocket Journal Cards to help you get started. See the end of this post.

To document our homeschooling, I will take photos with my cell phone, add a few journaling cards and post every Tuesday (Lots of Project Lifers post on Project Life Tuesdays with The CreativeMom Blog Meme).

In this video Becky announces new products but she also includes a peek at setting up a book with her son’s schoolwork which shows you how you can incorporate this program with homeschooling.

I thought a Project Life Homeschool Journal was brilliant, original idea but then I serached the Internet and found a few other homeschool moms have been using Project Life to document their homeschooling efforts. See samples below. Click on the images to go to the blogs.

Keeping Life Creative

Pam is a homeschool mommy of four who loves to craft, cook, shop at thrift stores, and coupon. Her  blog is Keeping Life Creative. She documents her familys’ everyday life through stories and scrapbook pages.

Delightful Learning

Muchelle is in her 8th year of homeschooling 6 children. She blogs at Delightful Learning. Her family lives in Wyoming and is  building a homestead in Montana. Michelle is using Project Life to document her Five in a Row learning.

Daily Dwelling

Monica, homeschool mom of four, lives in VA and blogs at the Daily Dwelling. She is a digital scrapbooker and did Project Life in 2012. Her pages are about everyday life with homeschooling interwoven throughout.

ArenaFive

Sarah from ArenaFive is a Wisconsin girl raising three boys and has been doing project Life for three years!  Her blog is chock full of fun family layouts and a few homeschool photos too.

Mealnie Britt

 Mealnie Britt is a homeschool mom of four and digital scrapbooker living in Oklahoma. She keeps her homeschool adventures as part of her record keeping system, separate from her scrapbook albums.

Marty’s Musings

Marty has been homeshooling 18 years. Her blog Marty’s Musings includes posts on DIY projects and crafts, homeschooling, bargain hunting, scrapbooking,  and frugal living. Her Project Life pages are about family with s sprinkling of homeschooling thrown in.

Things you can include in a Homeschool Project Life Album

The cards come in 3×4 and 4×6 sizes so they are perfect for note cards or even mini copy work. I recreated some Bible worksheets on cards below.

Include Photos and Journal Cards of:

• Books read (grab the image cover online, love keeping track of books read)
• Bible Stories read
• Art work  (great way to keep papers to minimum)
• Writing (printing, cursive, creative)
• Experiments
• Projects
• Field trips
• What you did
• What you bought
• What you learned
• What you taught
• Fun things
• Things Kids said
• Play Time
• Projects
• Crafts
• Support Group Meetings

How Much Does it Cost?

Frugel Alternatives

There are several frugal alternatives.You could adher the cards to a piece of 12×12 cardstock instead of the pocket pages. You could use index cards or scrapbook scraps to make your own card or download freebies like the ones below.

Browse Becky’s Site or Pinterest for ideas  on how to put it all together. You can document a week or month on one page or a two page spread. Do what works for your family.

I’m very excited about documenting school this way. It’s more than a memory maker for our family.  It will help me be accountable and be an encouragement to moms considering homescholing.

My plan is to take photos and notes during school time then document a week on one page. I’ll share each Tuesday here. If there is enough interest I’ll start a Facebook group. I made several cards to use and I’m sharing below.  As I work on our book I’ll make more cards.

Going Digital

Lots of Digital Scrapbookers areturning to Project life too. To create digital pages you need a program like Photoshop Elements. You can purchase digital cards online or learn to make your own. My designs are avaialble in the Digi Scrap Delights Store. 

Cost

• 20 Cards in the Sky Blue Bundle – 9.99
• 12 Sky Blue Calendar Cards – 3.00
• 18 School Cards – Blog Freebie  (below)
• 12  Card 2012 Highlights  - Blog Freebie
• Total 102 Cards for $12.99

Download Free Pocket Journal Cards

These cards are for print (PDF) or digital(PNG). This pack comes with 4×6 Heading cards, 3×4 title pages and 3×4 journaling cards. You can print as many as you need. The grid pages are handy because you can journal horizontally or vertically. Click on the images to download. I print mine on cardstock.

4×6 Cards

• Matching digital scrapbook kit available here.
• Matching Pocket 2013 Calendar Cards available here
• Matching Everyday Journal and Filler Cards available here

More Becky Higgin’s Videos

Let me know in the comments if you are interested in joining in.

Be sure to join my Digi Scrap Delights Facebook Page so you will see new free cards as they are announced.