Record Your Learning Adventures In An Educational Journal
"Notebooking" is a term used to describe the process of creating a written and illustrated record of learning. Unlike other methods of education which are based on cosumable workbooks and texts, notebooking produces a journal of past educational adventures, which can be added to whenever additional learning takes place. Notebooks are a great way to review information and are an excellent way to share your learning experience with others.
You can make your notebook from any kind of paper and use any kind of notebook to keep it in- a spiral bound notepad, a three ring binder, a scrapbook. You can even bind your pages into a book or do them on the computer. You can make your pages from scratch or start with premade templates. The possibilities are endless.
Where's The Recipe?
Things To Put In A Notebook
Notebooking is a fairly simple concept, but getting started can be rather intimidating. The most common questions from beginners seem to involve the types of information to be included. While there is no "recipe" for notebooking, here are a few ingredients you might like to try:
* Narrations- Writing a short summary of things that have been read, stories that have been listened to, or field trips and activities that have been experienced is a great way to "review" learning and make sure those memories don't get lost. It's also makes it easier to share those memories with others.* Copywork- Copying great quotes and literature is an excellent way to practice writing skills. You can do a complete notebook of copywork or you can choose appropriate copywork to add to any other notebook. A few ideas you might try are: adding famous speechs to your history notebooks, folk tales to your geography, or quotes from great scientists to your science notebook.
* Maps and Illustrations- These can be drawn or copied and pasted into your notebook, adding beauty and additional information.
*Pictures- These can be cut from magazines, photocopies, or printed clipart. Photographs are another nice addition.
* Interactive Elements- Paper money, food labels, and stamps are great additions to geography notebooks. Pressed flowers or leaves, feathers, and such can be added to your science notebooks. A pocket might be added to a page in your math or language arts journal to hold flash cards or games. Mini-books (such as you would put in a lapbook) can be used to add additional "layers" to your notebook pages.* Book lists- It's handy to have a record of where information was found, in case you need to look it up again.
* Lists of grammar, spelling, or math rules- These help to cement information in your memory and come in handy if you happen to forget.
* reports or creative writing assignments
* Drawings or Diagrams* Timelines
* Lab records or field trip reports
* Directions for projects
* Recipes- Cooking traditional foods is a great way to learn both history and geography and recipes make a great addition to your notebooks.
AND . . .
* Anything else you can think of that will fit
A great way to begin notebooking is to have children keep a journal in which they write a brief description of the events of the day. This can be done in a simple spiral bound notebook which can be decorate with scrapbook paper and stickers if desired.
Examples of Notebooking
See what others have done.
- Webshots
- Pictures of several notebooks.
- Homeschooling His Way
- Pictures and a description of notebooking.
- Artful Thoughts
- Homeschool mom who creates beautiful graphics for her childrens' notebooks. See examples of their notebook pages and download her graphics for free.
- The Heart of Harmony
- Ideas and pictures of nature notebooks.
- Footprints On Our Land
- What is homeschooling?, pictures, and free South Africa notebook pages (including some nice animal pages).
- Creative Thinking With Notebooks
- Notebooking is for big people too!
- The Notebooking Group on Flickr
- Great pictures / great ideas!
Holding It All Together
OK, I've done a notebook page. Now where do I put it?
As I said before, notebook pages can be kept in a three ring binder (either in plastic page protectors or three hole punched). You can also create your notebook in a bound book like a scrapbook or spiral notebook. You can keep it in a folder with prongs or you can buy a comb binder to bind your pages. If you'd like some thing a little nicer, you can try one of the book binding technics at the links below.
- How to bind a book
- Learn how to bind a book with this step-by-step format. The author, who perfected the process on his own, developed the procedure through trial and error.
- How to bind a book - Instructables
- How do you make that magical step between loose pages and a beautiful, fully bound volume?
Read on, fellow bibliophiles, read on. - Book-Binding, Making Your Own Book
- Let your imagination and creativity go to work.
An Easier Way to Bind Your Notebooks
GBC ProClick P50 Desktop Binding Machine (2515650)
Amazon Price: $48.92 (as of 07/25/2008)
The Best of Both Worlds
or how to convert a lapbook
Lapbooks are basically just another form of notebooking using really small pages. These pages are in the form of minibooks glued into a file folder. These minibooks provide a way for the child to interact with their studies in creative and fun ways. But where do you keep the extra worksheets or notebook pages you might complete?There are actually several methods you can use to combine lapbooking and notebooking if you want "the best of both worlds."
To the left is a picture showing how we added notebook pages to my daughter's Thanksgiving lapbook. They are simply stapled to the front of an extention which was taped into the lapbook.
Molly from Homeschooling with index cards suggests attaching a three prong folder to the back of your lapbook. You can see pictures here .
Valerie from Christian Preschool Printables uses this method to create a pocket folder.
And here is a clever method for inserting lapbooks into notebooks using duct tape.
Our favorite method, however, is to simply glue our minibooks to cardstock which has been three-hole punched and insert these interactive pages into our notebooks. Or, sometimes we just add one minibook onto a notebook page.
Educational Scrapbooking
Another type of notebook is an educational scrapbook. While most notebooks are a collection of frequently added updates detailing the learning process, an educational scrapbook is a more carefully composed artistic display of learning. The pages consist of report-like summaries of the topic and beautifully designed visual ellements. Scrapbooking is a more involved, time consuming process, which might appeal to a more careful or artistic child. Occasional scrapbook pages can also be added as highlights to "regular" notebooks. 
Online Ideas & Freebies to Embellish Your Pages
- Scrapbooking To Learn
- Students show enthusiasm about almost any subject if they are able to scrapbook.
- Cannon Scrapbooking
- Free scrapbooking printables.
- ScrapbookScrapbook.com
- More free scrapbooking printables.
- Little Pillow
- Free printable scrapbooking pages.
- HP Scrapbooking
- FREE printable layouts, artwork, and projects for scrapbooking.
- Scrap and Learn.com
- Educational Scrapbooking Kits. Download their free Pirates Resouce List!
Draw Write Now, Book 1-8 (Draw Write Now)
Amazon Price: $60.47 (as of 07/25/2008)
Great way to teach drawing and penmanship. We use these to add pictures to our science and geography notebooks.
Notebooking Pages On the Web
Sites with free and affordable "pre-made" pages
If want to save some time, you can use these forms to help with the layout of your pages. Some are general forms with lines, image boxes, and a place to write your title. Others are more specific with titles and pictures already included. Most of the "for sale" pages are in digital format so you can print as many copies as you need . . .
- Notebooking Nook
- Notebooking Pages to Ignite a Greater Love of Learning. Some very nice forms for sale and a great selection of freebies.
- Notebooking Pages.com
- Great selection of free and affordable notebooking pages.
- Currclick
- Weekly free download often featuring notebooking pages. Notebooking pages for sale from several different companies.
- Jeannie Fulbright Notebooking
- Information and examples of notebooking from Jeannie Fulbright. She also has free notebooking pages to go along with her science curriculum.
- History Portfolio
- Excellent pre-bound history notebooks. Interactive elements available for Ancient and Medieval history.
- Highland Heritage Homeschool
- Information on notebooking and tons of free pages.
- Homeschooling With Index Cards
- Lots of free forms.
- Hold That Thought
- Notebook materials that leave a lasting impression.
- Mrs. Happy Housewife
- A nice selection of simple free forms
- Simply Charlotte Mason
- Free downloads of poems, hymns, and Bible verses to use for beginning copywork.
- Christian Copywork
- Copywork consists of verses from the scriptures, poetry, literature, addresses, and quotes, etc. sent out weekly.
- The Ambleside Online Copywork Project
- A group dedicated to creating copywork samples that correspond to the Ambleside Online curriculum. Copywork samples are available in the files section and updated regularly as they are added by our wonderful volunteers.
- Nature Study Pages
- free pages for a nature notebook
- Lilliput Station
- Newspaper-style notebook pages, Nursery Rhyme notebook pages, Medieval History notebook pages, and interactive notebook kits.
- Notebook Learning
- Free, printable notebooking pages. New pages every weekday.
- Homeschool Launch
- Lots of notebooking pages are available here for free.
- Crayola
- Coloring/activity pages are great for notebooks for younger kids.
Seasonal Notebook Pages
Some Free, Some Not.
- National Parks, Monuments, & Memorials Notebooking Pages
- A large combined set of over 500 notebooking pages covering over 100 of the United States national parks, monuments, & memorials. Great for a summer study.
- US Elections
- A series of notebooking pages to help us in our observations of the U.S. presidential elections in 2008.
- American Government Notebook Pages
- In this file you will find decorated pages you can print and use in each child's American Government Journal. Designed to enhance the learning process as well as the fun, your child can use the pages for their daily work, map drawing, project designs, and much more.
- A Hungry Caterpillar Preschool Interactive Notebook
- Make some memories with your preschoolers as you introduce them to the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle using the Hungry Caterpillar Interactive Notebook. Great addition to a study of gardening and insects.
- Gardens Unit Study Complete Set
- Amanda Bennett unit study and notebook pages.
- Summer Time Notebooking Pages
- This set of over 145 notebooking pages would make a fun copywork or narration notebook for over the summer season. There are both primary and basic-lined options with a wide variety of template choices. There are also both color and black and white illustrations to choose from.
- Nature Study Combo
- Nature Study Combo Includes:
* Nature Study of Mammals Notebooking Pages
* Nature Study of North American Birds Notebooking Pages
* Nature Study of Desert Wildlife Notebooking Pages
* Owl Study Notebooking Pages - Patriotic Holidays Notebook Pages
- In this file you will find decorated pages you can print and use in each child's Patriotic Holidays Journal. Your child can use the pages for their daily work, map drawing, project designs, and much more.
What Type of Notebooking Pages Can You Buy?
Here are few examples of the many notebooking sets that are available
- Nursery Rhyme Notebook
- from Lilliput Station
- Old Testament Bible Set
- FREE from NotebookingPages.com
- Nature Study of Mammals
- from Notebooking Nook
- 50 States Notebooking Bundle
- from NotebookingPages.com
- Children Come Unto Me Copywork Verses For Children
- from Graham Family Ministries
- American Presidents Copywork
- from A Journey Through Learning
Resources For Creating Your Own Forms
Make Your Own Notebook Pages
Notebooking template pages are easy to create with a little computer knowledge and a few of these extras.
Notebooking Q & A With Betsy
I really want to learn notebooking. How do I start? How do you choose what, how, and when to notebook? ~Debbie
Hi Debbie,My best advice would be to just start. Don't wait until everything "looks" a certain way or you think you have everything you "need". Your kids will surprise you with their creativity.
When I started notebooking I began with history, but this was just me. I love to notebook history because there is so much you can include: historical maps of the civilization, event, empire; quotes from whomever you are studying; and great images you might find online. We love the Usborne Internet Linked World History Encyclopedia! Along with the links to enhance your studies, they also have maps and clipart you can add to your pages.
At the moment, we are working on the dinosaur packet available on my website. We spent a couple days last week reading about dinosaurs. This week we are filling out fact sheets for the dinosaurs and then from those we write up a brief narration about the dinosaur, color the picture, and mark on the map where fossil evidence has been found.
Another really easy way to start is to begin a nature notebook. Just spend some time outside and have the kids look for something interesting to write about. It might be a cluster of lady bugs in a bush or an ant hill. They can take pictures of the things they find and use the pictures to look up what they find. The pictures can be included in their notebook, along with any information they find in their research.
I like to print most of my pages onto 24 lb. paper, but you could use 18 lb. without any problems. I print cover pages onto card stock. If the kids are going to be doing a lot of gluing on a page we might also use card stock. I collect scrapbook materials when I find them on sale. We like to use "fancy" paper behind some of the images as borders or use punched out shapes to dress up the pages. This is not the most important part of notebooking, but once the research is done and the pages are mostly put together you can add all the "frills". ~Betsy
Can you tell me a little bit more about copy work and how you notebook it? ~Jeannie
Jeannie,Copywork is means of showing your child how a piece of literature should look and be written. When your child does copywork it is important that they not look at a word and copy one letter at time, but look at the whole word and write it. This really helps a lot with spelling. Seeing the proper way to punctuate and the usage the different parts of speech is also a key to copywork. Your child can't help but do better in their writing if they are daily see great works of literature and copying them.
Copywork can very easily be brought into notebooking. I keep a bookshelf in my schoolroom with books of poetry, fables and quotes. They also take their copywork from their literature. I also have a binder where I put quotes and scripture verses for them to copy. I still have young children who copy and so I make sure to find very short verses for them. However, since they are used to copywork, I can also give them a longer
piece to copy and they might spend a week on it, copying one or two lines a day. I couldn't do this with my older kids when we first started out because it would overwhelm them.
All you need is a basic notebook page for these notebooks. If your child enjoys illustrating make sure there is an illustration box for them to add a drawing to. I like to look for coloring pages for my younger ones and shrink them down to fit onto their pages. I copy it to my desktop, drag it into my drawing program and create a page for them. This way the page is all ready for them to write and color. One of my younger kids enjoys drawing his own pictures and another likes coloring a picture which has already been provided for her. I do have a primary copywork packet available on my website.
Over the years I've done different things to get the kids motivated about doing their copywork . . . I used to keep separate jars with scripture verses, quotes, and poems and they would pull them out and that was their copywork for the day. We still alternate days doing a verse, quote, poem, literature and their choice for each day of the week. Although, like I mentioned before, some selections take more then one day. ~Betsy
I bought the book on inventors and the notebook pages from you, but what do I do with them?How do we study the subject? What is my part and what is my son's part? ~Valerie
Hi Valerie,Much of notebooking is having your kids narrate back what is read that day. The pages you purchased will be nice to have him copy his narration onto. Use the fact sheet to fill in the facts as you come to them or have him research the answers over the next few days. Once that is completed he could use it to write a report on the subject.
If you have the inventors book you could just read through one or two sections a day and have him write about what you read. You can also do further study by checking out books from the library and utilizing the internet.
The empty boxes provided on some pages are for illustrations, such as diagrams. The boxes could also be used to add quotes, maps of where the invention was introduced or the inventors birthplace. You might find a picture of a monument in his honor. If your son enjoys making models he could put something together that relates to what you are studying and add a picture of it to his page.
One other thing about narration . . . I have an 8 year old who narrates to me as I write it on a separate piece of paper. I still have him use primary lines (he's a bit messy) and often use a highlighter, writing in the narration for him to trace over. If his narration is long, we decide together what the most important part of the narration was, and he writes it on the paper. I still add his whole narration to his notebook, but because writing is a struggle for him I don't push it too much. I usually type it out for him. Although, he really enjoys typing and will sometimes type part of them out himself. ~Betsy
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Betsy, her husband Allen and their 6 children are a Christian family who live in Arizona where they have homeschooled for 10 years. Notebooking is a large part of her homeschool. She started Notebooking Nook in hopes of helping homeschool parents who are seeking a better and more affordable way of helping their children learn. She enjoys sharing information and resources with other homeschooling families.
Curriculums That Are Great With Notebooking
Science
You can notebook with pretty much any curriculum. These are just some we've used.
Exploring Creation With Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day
Amazon Price: (as of 07/25/2008)
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day (Apologia Science Young Explorers)
Amazon Price: (as of 07/25/2008)
Considering God's Creation Student Book
Amazon Price: (as of 07/25/2008)
Christian Kids Explore Biology (Christian Kids Explore)
Amazon Price: $23.36 (as of 07/25/2008)
History
You can notebook with pretty much any curriculum. These are just some we've used.
Mystery of History Vol 2 (Mystery of History)
Amazon Price: $32.97 (as of 07/25/2008)
Mystery of History Vol 1 (Mystery of History)
The Mystery of History is our absolute favorite history program! It is Bible based, chronological, and full of interesting narrative. It includes project ideas, suggestions for setting up a notebook, and timeline directions.
Amazon Price: $34.00 (as of 07/25/2008)
New World Explorers CD (Time Travelers History Study)
The best word to describe this series is "wow!" If you like active, hands-on, historical fun, you will love the Time Travelers series. This is a CD Rom with printable lapbook, notebook pages, file folder games, recipes, projects, lesson plans, and directions for an end of unit party. Amy Pak's artwork is first class. You won't find nicer notebook pages anywhere.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/25/2008)
Colonial Life (Time Travelers History Study Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 07/25/2008)
History Through the Ages - Collection CD (History Through the Ages)
This isn't a curriculum, but these timeline figures are indepensible for creating your own notebook pages.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/25/2008)
Geography
You can notebook with pretty much any curriculum. These are just some we've used.
Galloping the Globe: Geography Unit Study for Young Learners
This book is a great introduction to geography and a great introduction to unit studies.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/25/2008)
Around the World Coloring Book
Dover coloring book pages make nice additions to your notebooks.
Amazon Price: $3.95 (as of 07/25/2008)
Notebooking Yahoo Groups
Yahoo Groups can be a great source of infomation both for rookies and for experts.
- Notebooking
- Large, active group. Great advice and files section.
- Notebooking Nook
- Smaller group run by Betsy of Notebookingnook.com
There are some wonderful freebies in the files and also on her website. - Homeschool Form Share
- Very large group filled with many talented women. Great source of information if you want to learn to make your own pages and the files section is filled with free pages.
- Lilliput Station
- Some freebies in the files section, made by me.
- Notebooking2Learn
- The files you will find here are all notebooking and lapbooking templates created by Jessica.
- HSTreasureTrove: HomeSchool Treasure Trove
- Homeschool Forms, Files, Photos, and Fabulous Finds. Sonia, the group owner, makes some beautiful notebook pages.
Digital Notebooking
What is it and why would I do it?
If your child balks at the idea of all that writing, digital notebooking may be your solution. With digital notebooking, all the work is completed on the computer using a desktop publishing program or a program such as power point. While I have no personal experience with digital notebooking the benefits I can see are:
* aquisition of computer skills in addition to other learning
* fewer expenses as no paper, ink, etc. are involved
* greater versatility
* easier to share with friends and relatives who live far away
* less mess
* makes notebooking accesable to those with various physical challenges
* kids think it's fun
If you would like to learn more about this form of notebooking, please see the links below.
* aquisition of computer skills in addition to other learning
* fewer expenses as no paper, ink, etc. are involved
* greater versatility
* easier to share with friends and relatives who live far away
* less mess
* makes notebooking accesable to those with various physical challenges
* kids think it's fun
If you would like to learn more about this form of notebooking, please see the links below.
Digital Notebooking Online
Where To Go For Info & Ideas
- Scrapbooking To Learn
- All about digital notebooking & free downloads to get you started.
- Moore Homeschool Adventures
- This blog is an excellent source of info on digital notebooking!
- Digital Notebooking Yahoo Group
- This Yahoo Group is a communication hub where homeschooling families can share how they use computers in their homeschool notebooking.
- Virtual Homeschool Group
- Free digital notebooking course.
- Open Office
- Useful if you don't have Power Point.
Blog Posts On Notebooking
- Easy Record-Keeping for the Reluctant Homeschool Mom! By Cindy Rushton
- Every state and school district has differing requirements. Find other homeschool families in your area and see how each of them manages their homeschool records. Find the easiest way possible to meet the requirements. ...
- Rainy Day Art
- Remy has been carrying a notebook and a pencil around at all times lately. He can't get enough things out of his head and onto paper. He is even spelling almost 100% correctly the things he writes on the notebook. ...
- Day 1 of 23-Day Back to (Home)School Countdown--*free* planner!
- After taking a look back, though, I've decided to print it out and put it into my own notebook and go ahead and start today--the funny coincidence is that I wrote it years ago when I just happened to have 23 days to go 'til school ...
- Betsy Stout started a discussion called Lap Notebook Photos in ...
- Betsy Stout Betsy Stout started a discussion called Lap Notebook Photos in Tapestry of Grace Users.
Still have questions?
Please let me know if I've missed anything . . .
Missy
Excellent information. Thanks so much.
Posted June 17, 2008
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juliejohnsons
I like this lens. Your superb work of putting together all the valuable informations and facts is worth of five star rate. I will bookmark this for easy future access. There's also one lens that I like and would want to share to you accounting course online I have read useful informations, facts and links about online studies. You got to check it out. Posted April 17, 2008 |
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Hip2Homeschool
Hi Melissa, Posted April 02, 2008 |
Melanie
Hi - Thanks so much for including the work I've done at Homeschool Help Web! It means a lot to have my work recognized.
I'm slowly moving all the notebooking stuff over to a new site, along with a lot of new pages. You can find all of my new stuff at NotebookLearning.com - http://www.notebooklearning.com
Thanks again!
Posted March 29, 2008
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riff999
Great lens. We have been doing something similar when we take trips with the kids. You have given me lots of new ideas that we can incorporate. Thanks for the tips. 5* Posted March 24, 2008 |
