Perhaps you’ve heard of notebooking or maybe this term is new to you. I thought I would share how we use notebooking in our homeschooling to give you a better sense of what it’s like and whether or not it may be a good fit for you.
Notebooking for us:
With so many kids, many different learning styles and some special needs thrown into the mix, it’s hard to find a homeschool curriculum or tool that works for everyone. It makes my life so much easier when I do! Notebooking is one of the few things that I’ve found that I can use with all of the kids at the same time.
Writing comes quite naturally for some of my kids, but one in particular struggles with all types of writing. One of our sons who has Aspergers and dysgraphia finds any type of writing akin to torture. For him, notebooking is good writing practise without being too much pressure. It’s actually the only form of writing we can get him to complete without tears.
Our oldest daughter on the other hand is always asking me if I can print her out more notebooking pages to work on! She can’t seem to get enough of writing.
I find that notebooking is much different than busywork or workbooks. Notebooking encourages reading, exploring, and pursuing areas of interest. My kids care about the finished products and are proud of them. They show them off to their dad or grandparents and they want to keep them.
Students are engaged while they are learning. Therefore, they are able to better retain the information.
Using Notebooking Pages:
There are so many ways to use Notebooking in your homeschooling. The possibilities really are endless. Any subject, any age, any ability level can fit with this type of learning. We have used it with Bible, Science, History, Nature Study, Countries, Holidays, Biographies, and more.
Recently, we began growing sunflowers on our deck. Naturally, the kids wanted to study them and learn more about them. Because of my membership with Notebooking Pages, I was able to quickly print off some pages for them specific to sunflowers from the Wildflowers, Weeds and Garden Flowers Nature Study and they sat outside to learn and record their discoveries on paper.
The kids all really enjoyed the tree notebooking pages, especially these ones where they were able to do a rubbing of the bark of the tree. This pack also included pages where they did rubbings of the leaves of the tree as well. It is a perfect pack for Spring or Fall.
One of the unique aspects of Notebooking Pages is their Publisher Web App which allows you to create your own notebooking or copywork pages. If your child were interested in studying something that they did not have pages for, you could simply create your own using graphics they supply or upload your own graphics.
I have used this app to create simple meal planning menus for myself and to create copywork for the kids for quotes or poems that they are working on memorizing.
Notebooking Pages at Productive Homeschooling:
While I have piece mealed things together here and there from different sources, my favourite is Productive Homeschooling. There are so many products to choose from! If you’re not sure if your kids would enjoy Notebooking, try the Free Homeschool Resource Hub. There are many Free notebooking pages available to try. That will give you a better idea if this method would work well for your child.
Join the LIFETIME Notebooking Pages Treasury Memberships and get access to thousands of notebooking pages . . . all of their products and all new updates indefinitely!
It is also possible to purchase individual packs to correspond to an area of interest or current study.
And of course by using the Web App, you are also able to customize both notebooking and copywork pages. The only limit to what can be created is your imagination!