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When doing notebooking, do you just let the child go for it. Think up their own thoughts and get them recorded and not be concerned about the technicalities of writing and spelling? Just wondering whether to let my 2nd grader sort of go for it on his own with minimal guidance from me or whether to dictate spelling for him while he does it.

I usually shoot for a balance. I spell something if they ask for it, but otherwise let them just write. I know there are plenty of other times during the school day that we focus on the spelling, handwriting, grammar, etc. and they need freedom to just write their thoughts sometimes. I think being overly concerned with perfection can really inhibit their freedom to express themselves. However, I also don't like the idea of them consistently practicing wrong things. So, if there's a word that they consistently mess up I'll just metion it in their notebooking, without making them go back and correct anything, just bring it to their attention. We can work on it later.

Another great option with a second grader, I think, is to have him dictate outloud to you the things he wants to write down, you write it on a markerboard or clean piece of paper, and then have him copy down what you wrote into his notebook or workbook. That's the way HOD has you start with the written narrations in Preparing when they get to that level-it works well! I've also used it in DITHOR for the workbook pages.

Very little of the notebooking in Bigger Hearts is composed by the child. I guess there's the "guess" and the "conclusion" in the Science part, but most of the history is copied. That said, even copying my daughter doesn't always spell right and sometimes her handwriting is terrible. When she has to compose sentences I do help her because she doesn't like spelling things wrong. But if your child doesn't care, then I would probably not worry too much about it. I would suggest, or ask if they want to know how to spell the words right and if they seem open to that help then help them out. But otherwise, it is something they are creating and it is okay if it is not perfect. At least to me. The point is to remember and reinforce what has been learned and to have something to look back at when you are done.