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.
-
Notebooking With Younger Children
-
Notebooking is a great way to learn and there is no reason why it can't work just as well for younger children as it does for the older ones. There are many ways to include early learners in the notebooking experience. Here are a few tried and true m...
-
Notebooks and Lapbooks Headquarters
-
This group is for all things related to notebooking, lapbooking, or any combination of the two. If you aren't sure what "notebooking" or "lapbooking" are, please visit some of the lenses below to learn more about these great m...
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.
Draw Write Now, Book 1-8
Amazon Price: $69.30 (as of 12/25/2009)
Great way to teach drawing and penmanship. We use these to add pictures to our science and geography notebooks. You can view some sample lessons from these books at the publisher's website.
Subjects You Can Notebook
-
Bible Notebooking
-
Notebooking can be applied to any subject of study, including the Bible! Enrich your Bible study times by recording what you learn and documenting it in notebooks. The notebook is not the same as a personal prayer or devotional journal although a Bi...
-
Science Notebooking
-
If you're new to notebooking, you'll discover that science is a great topic to begin with. Because science is so broad and lends itself to a variety of methods of expression such as charts, diagrams, paragraphs, and photos, it's perfect for notebooki...
-
Math Notebooking
-
Whether you call them math notebooks or math journals, writing about math and documenting math activities are a great way to cement mathematical understanding. And along the way, you're creating a wonderful record of your math studies that can be use...
What Does Notebooking Look Like?
Here are a few examples of what others have done.
Notebooking Exhibit
What is notebooking? What does it actually look like, and how does it work?
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/ideas!
Webshots
Pictures of several notebooks.
Notebooking Exhibit
What is notebooking? What does it actually look like, and how does it work?
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 LandWhat 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/ideas!
Webshots
Pictures of several notebooks.
Ways To Bind Notebook Pages
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.
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.
GBC ProClick P50 Desktop Binding Machine (2515650)
Amazon Price: $55.64 (as of 12/25/2009)
You can use the Pro Click to Make Your Own Spiral Bound Notebooks.
Educational Scrapbooking
A fancier 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 elements. 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.Check out these sites for some great educational scrapbooking supplies!
- Scrap and Learn.com
- This company sells very nice educational scrapbooking kits. Many of the pages shown in the pictures below were made using their products. Download their free pirates resource list! You can read my review of them HERE.
- 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.
- Scrapbooking To Learn
- Students show enthusiasm about almost any subject if they are able to scrapbook.
Combining Notebooking and Lapbooking
Many notebookers like to combine lapbooking with their notebooking. 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.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. We also like to 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.
Here are a few more ways people have found
to combine these two methods.- Three Prong Attachment
- Add notebook pages to your lapbook by attaching a three prong folder to the back of it.
- New Use For Duct Tape
- This clever method allows you to insert lapbooks into a three ring binder.
Pocket Lapbook
Use this method to create a pocket folder within your lapbook to hold notebook pages.
Use this method to create a pocket folder within your lapbook to hold notebook pages.
Digital Notebooking
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.
- 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.
- "Blogbooking"
- A sample of some of the different things you can do to make your blog post look something like a lapbook and/or notebook.
Loading poll. Please Wait...
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
***********************************************
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.
More Information on Notebooking
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.
- HSTreasureTrove
- Homeschool Forms, Files, Photos, and Fabulous Finds. Sonia, the group owner, makes some beautiful notebook pages.
Premade Notebook Pages
Start your notebooks with free and affordable "pre-made" pages
Make Your Own Notebook Pages
Notebooking template pages are easy to create with a little computer knowledge and a few extras.
If you'd rather save some time, you can use these forms which others have made 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
- Learning is a very exciting thing, but most methods of education quickly remove this excitement. Here at Lilliput Station, we believe that children (and adults) learn best by experience.
- 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.
Loading poll. Please Wait...
Science Curriculums That Are Great With Notebooking
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 12/25/2009)
Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day (Apologia Science Young Explorers)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/25/2009)
Considering God's Creation Student Book
Amazon Price: (as of 12/25/2009)
Christian Kids Explore Biology
Amazon Price: $23.07 (as of 12/25/2009)
History Curriculums That Are Great With Notebooking
You can notebook with pretty much any curriculum. These are just some we've used.
Mystery of History Vol 2
Amazon Price: $32.97 (as of 12/25/2009)
Mystery of History Vol 1
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: $32.97 (as of 12/25/2009)
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 12/25/2009)
Colonial Life (Time Travelers History Study Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/25/2009)
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 12/25/2009)
Geography Curriculums That Are Great With Notebooking
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 12/25/2009)
Around the World Coloring Book
Dover coloring book pages make nice additions to your notebooks.
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 12/25/2009)
A Childs Geography Explore the Holy Land
You can read my review of this title and purchase a digital version at Currclick.
Amazon Price: $25.51 (as of 12/25/2009)
Blog Posts On Notebooking
- Step by Step, Piece by Piece – Notebooking | Heart of the Matter ...
- Last month we took some time to learn how to piece together mini-books for Lapbooking. This month we will take a look at how to piece together Notebook pages.
- Notebooking Pages
- We have been using materials from Notebooking Pages in our homeschool for the past 3 years. Their online store has reasonable prices and a large variety of themed templates for children to use as they write about their studies. ...
- Science Notebooking: Our Week in Science
- Science Notebooking. A site dedicated to educators interested in adding notebooking to their science curriculum at the elementary school level. Sunday, December 13, 2009. Our Week in Science. Monday - The main focus of the lesson was ...
- Handbook of Nature Study: Notebooking Pages Reminder
- Notebooking Pages Reminder. If you didn't already know, NotebookingPages.com has all their products on sale for 35% off until Monday, November 30th. This might be a good time to pick up those nature study pages you have been thinking ...
Still have questions?
Please let me know if I've missed anything . . .
submit
-
Reply
- tandemonimom tandemonimom Apr 9, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
- Excellent resource for notebooking! 5* and now a Featured Lens in the newly redesigned Homeschooling Group (under new management)!
-
Reply
- madison madison Feb 13, 2009 @ 5:07 pm
- hi
-
Reply
- Pamela Pamela Jan 2, 2009 @ 6:15 pm
- Thank you for you time collecting these resources. I think it is the best collection of notebooking materials on the web!
-
Reply
- ChildBlessed ChildBlessed Oct 3, 2008 @ 11:58 am
- This is a great lens. I have bookmarked it and use the information to put together our units of study.
http://www.squidoo.com/historyfreebies
-
Reply
- Missy Missy Jun 17, 2008 @ 9:55 am
- Excellent information. Thanks so much.
- Load More
by LilliputStation
Homeschooling mother of eight: ages 0-13. We love notebooking, lapbooking, unit studies, and hands-on education. Visit Lilliput Station Adventures to... (more)
Explore related pages
Star Charts: Reward Charts for Kids- We all crave a gold star or reward badge that says "I'm special!" or "I did it!"...
Chronological History of the World Unit-Studies for Homeschoolers- We are secular homeschoolers, and as such we will be studying the progression of...
Homeschooling Gifted Teens- How do you handle a gifted teenager? Is homeschooling them a good idea? Sh...
Old Testament Bible Lessons- Your studies of ancient history start with a look at the facinating stories and...
Sewing Lapbook
- Learn what you need to know to begin sewing (and a little about the history of s...
Bringing the World To Your Living Room- So, you've made the decision to do a geography unit study. You've finally let go...
