Here's a little information about how we use notebooking in our homeschool.  There  lot's of other great websites out there with information on notebooking, so please read as much as you can from lots of different places.  Every homeschooling family probably has something new that they can teach you!

 

What is notebooking?
How do you start?
How does our family do notebooking?
How does our family use our Nature Journal?
Page Protectors

 

What is notebooking?

There are lots of websites out there all about notebooking, and for a good reason, because notebooking is wonderful! 

Notebooking is not some big, mysterious thing that only special homeschooling moms can do...it is actually very easy to start. In fact, notebooking has been the easiest thing we have done in our homeschool.  Let me explain...

When we started our first year of homeschooling I knew NOTHING about notebooking.  I started out with a lot of worksheets (the kind that come in all of those workbooks) and by the end of the year we had a ton of worksheets to show for our first year of homeschooling.  We put them all in a binder to keep for our portfolio, but when we look back through our work for that year, it all looks a little messy and the worksheets just don't bring back  special memories.

When I stumbled upon the idea of notebooking, my whole mindset about homeschooling changed.  It completely transformed our homeschool and our lives.

Okay...so let me tell you what notebooking is to our family.

Notebooking is simply letting your children write and/or draw what they have learned for whatever subject you are working on. Allowing your children to write about what they remember from their reading, movie, nature walk, and so on. 

In example, If you started a Bible notebook you could read the bible story about Adam and Eve, and then give your child a notebooking sheet and let him illustrate and write about what he remembers to be the main idea of the story, or what they liked most about the story.

If you do this with every story, you will eventually have a notebook filled with your child's drawings and illustrations that will become a beautiful keepsake.

You can add dividers to your notebooks and add things such as maps, copywork, vocabulary, memory work, and the list goes on.

You don't have to figure it all out before you get started.  Just START!  I promise you that before you know it...notebooking will forever transform your homeschool too!

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How do you start?

Start by purchasing a few 3 ring binders.  You can use one for each subject that you will be notebooking.

Add in some dividers if you want and print out some free notebooking pages like the ones found here on Our Free pages.

The next time you read from one of your history, science, or literature books, just tell the kids, "Hey, let's notebook what we just learned."  Let them show you what they remember and let them tell you in their own way.  Use illustrations, or magazine clippings to decorate the page.  Your kids will love it!

Then once you get the hang of it you will want to start adding more things to your notebook like copywork, maps, and more.

Once you start, notebooking will automatically weave its way into becoming the core of your homeschool routine,  and before long you will become a notebooking momma too!

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How does our family do notebooking?

We are notebooking freaks!  We notebook EVERYTHING!

Notebooking has become the "thing to do" at our home.  Our children enjoy doing it so much.  

In addition to notebooking for our homeschool subjects, the kids will just notebook things they learn on their own. 

They will find some kind of insect in the yard, come inside and notebook something about the insect.  Maybe what it was eating, doing, or even questions they want to find out about the bug.

They notebook about places we go, movies they watch, books they read, and the list goes on.

You see, when a child is "notebooking" something, they are creating something special using their own imagination, words, and illustrations.  They are creating something they are proud of.

In the kitchen we keep all kinds of paper: plain, lined, blank on top with lines at the bottom, pages with borders and pictures.  We also have markers, colored pencils, stickers, stencils, page protectors.....all the things the kids might need to notebook anything they want at anytime.

My kids also have their own prayer journals that they write in almost daily.  The prayer Journal that  we have for sale here is the exact one that we use in our family.  I cannot tell you how wonderful it is for the children to write about a need or a want in their life, and then later on when God has answered that prayer, they can go back and look at their prayer request. They can see how God was faithful to them, and it builds their faith in him.

I have started a prayer journal of my own, and we write in it together every morning after breakfast.

Before our family started using notebooking in our homeschool, I remember that my daughter hated writing.

Every morning I would give her a simple sentence to complete in her journal.  For example: "I saw a wild horse today and the horse was...."

My daughter hated writing so much that she couldn't even bring herself to finish the sentence.  She would actually sit at the table for 5 to 10 minutes staring at the paper before going to her bed and sobbing.  

This would happen EVERY morning.  

I would try and encourage her by giving her ideas about how "I" would finish the sentence, but the tears wouldn't stop.  If I even mentioned that she had to write ANYTHING she would race to get in her bed.  Finally I just backed off and stopped asking her to write.

Luckily we found notebooking not too long after that. 

We started a nature journal and went into our yard to write about bugs.  It didn't take long before she started writing pages on her own without me asking her to do it.  

Now, my daughter is a great writer.  She writes her own short stories and has begun to write poetry.  I got a tear in my eye when she told me one day "Mom, I think that when I grow up I might want to be a writer if I can't be a horse doctor."

I have prayed a lot over my children and our homeschool.  The Lord answered my prayers about my daughters writing as he led me to discover notebooking.

We have created beautiful notebooks that my kids take out to show friends and family.  They will even take out their old notebooks and read them to each other.

There is no right or wrong way to do this...just start it, pray for guidance, and most of all...have fun!

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How does our family use our Nature Journal?

In our family everyone has their own Nature Journal.  The kids can use these anytime they want, but Friday is our Nature Journaling day.  I try to keep everyone on a schedule so that on Fridays at about 10 AM we are finished with all of our work,  and the rest of the day is spent outside observing nature.  

Nature Journals can be anything you want them to be.  They may be  as simple as a regular notebook or sketch pad, or a little more elaborate like ours.

Our Nature Journals are a three ring binder.  We have dividers for different animal classifications, trees and flowers, and habitats.  We have lots of notebooking pages in our Journal with pictures of different animals on them, like the ones we have for free here.
And we have empty page protectors for storing anything we might find along our way.


If we are studying a specific insect or animal for science, then of Friday we may go out and spend time observing that animal.  If we are not studying a specific animal then we may go and observe anything we choose to.  

We draw lots of pictures of things we see.  We go into the woods behind our house and look for bugs and different plants and flowers.  We also collect samples of things to keep, like butterfly wings, bones of animals, molted skin of insects, bird feathers, empty eggs... anything of interest.

We also will bring unknown insects back home to observe and find out about.

When going out we will take different field guides to aid us in identifying unknown birds and insects.

We usually take along a magnifying glass and a container for bugs.

Our Fridays have become a blessing for us.  It is so relaxing to go out into nature together.  It gives us something to look forward to all week, and gives the kids a reason to make sure all their work is finished.

I encourage you to set aside time to go out into nature each week with your kids, and to definitely start a Nature Journal.

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Page Protectors

I can't stress to you enough how wonderful page protectors are.  I can't believe that there was a time when I didn't know about them!  

If you are going to start a notebook then you MUST put your pages in page protectors.  These notebooks that your children will create will become treasures that you will want to keep FOREVER.  The last thing you want is to have something special from your child get ruined from water spills, smudges, tears, or whatever else might happen to them.  

Page protectors really do PROTECT your child's work.
We use them for all of our notebooking.  

If you buy them in bulk you will save some money. 

And don't forget to put your pages back to back in each page protector (you will have 2 pages in one protector) 

Believe it or not, I didn't think of this at first and the notebooks got a little to heavy to deal with.  So, I went through the notebooks and put all the pages back to back in each protector, and I ended up with about 100 extra page protectors!  Funny but true.

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