notebooking

You know I love answering your questions and when I get one that I think others can benefit from, then I like to share with you.  The dynamic reader question-how to begin notebooking is one I want to share today.

Look at Karen’s question:

I realize this may sound silly, but I have thought of using notebooking pages in the past and have never really understood how to go about it. Now my kids are 6th grade and 9th grade, I feel we need a drastic change. If it’s not too late to start notebooking…can you suggest how do we begin? What and how do you decide to use these wonderful printables? How would I incorporate notebooking into high school?

It’s not silly at all.  As creative teachers, we want to push ourselves outside of what we feel comfortable with when it comes to teaching. 

Not only will your children love this, but you might discover some hidden talents among you and your children.

Notebooking Needs to Be Tweaked for Your Family

Notebooking is a tool, which means we decide how it best suits our family.  Often, I am told that notebooking is for older kids and lapbooking is for younger kids, but I don’t hail to that thinking.  I think each tool can present challenges and win-win situations.

I think one of the best ways to describe notebooking is to tell what it is not.  It is not a worksheet.  Oh you can make it a worksheet, but notebooking is about your student showcasing his work in a format that is easy to understand.

Some homeschool moms encourage just writing or text on the page.  I do not.  Each of my sons are different learners which means the page needs to be suited to meet each of my son’s needs.

Notebooking is about making the page come alive and organizing content in a way that your children understand.  For example, other things like drawings, sketches, collections (examples like leaves and shed skin of a snake my son collected) can go on the notebooking pages.

Each child is different in how they best recall information learned or how they want to showcase mastery of it.  Your job as the teacher is to help them (as needed) to organize it in a way they understand, not you.

Do not limit what your child wants to include from printable board games to minibooks.

How to Begin Notebooking?

Basically, notebooking is about your child taking charge of the way he wants to remember his information.  While he is young, there is nothing wrong with you helping him to lay out his page.

For example, part of the page can be writing, part of it may be illustrations.  Depending on the ages of your children, the page may look more like a drawing. 

To begin notebooking and keep it easy, use pages created by others.  There are so many free notebooking pages found on homeschool blogs and websites that you want to use them to save time and utilize work by other hardworking moms.  Also, the basics of any notebooking pages are just boxes or shapes which contain bits of information.

If you have the basic skills to use any program like Word or other free document creating software, you can create a few boxes on topics your family chooses to learn about. 

Really, with the ages your kids are, just let them create boxes, circles or graphs depending on what you are studying.  

Also, my sons remember key points best by funny sayings or mnemonics.  We used divorced-beheaded-died-divorced-beheaded-survived to remember the fate of the wives of Henry VIII.  So sayings like this can be added by your children as a way to remember information.

What and How Do You Decide Notebooking Printables?

I like to use notebooking pages or lapbooking pages as much as possible though it takes more work.  I view notebooking and lapbooking as a significant return on our learning efforts.  Paying upfront so to speak by taking more time in prepping pages equals a huge return later because the pages are something we can visit and use year after year.  They can always be added to as your child grows and learns.

I like to use the pages too when I want the boys to remember something important or when they find something that interests them.  Because they do take longer to do, it also means that your child has a tool that can be used over and over again to study. 

Studying something your child prepares allows him to take ownership for learning instead of memorizing boring worksheets created by others.

Try to remember that less means more sometimes.  The public educational system would have us think at times that “more” equals productivity.  It may mean more busywork and not meaningful productivity. 

Making the notebooking pages meaningful and focusing on the delight of the topic at hand will make your children masters of their page. 

Master of their pages and content is your ultimate goal and not a mass of pages that have no meaning to your children.

The pages can include photographs of experiments and activities.  You can see that it not only becomes a valuable and fun way to memorize information, but a great way to keep a portfolio of your child’s work each year.

Because notebooking pages can be decorated by them, (or not) they take ownership of it.  Some kids thrive on being crafty, others do not find satisfaction that way. 

Again, this is an advantage of notebooking because their page reflect personality in style and set up.

How Would I Incorporate Notebooking into High School?

Notebooking is especially good in high school when note taking becomes more important.  Doodling should be permitted on notebooking pages because if it helps them remember a key point, then it’s important. 

The rule is there is no rule for how a page should be set up at this age.  As they enter adulthood, they need to hone in on the best way they learn information and it is an art on how they should lay out information on a page.  Too, I know many adults who do not know how to easily convey their thoughts and ideas to others.

High school becomes a time when they not only learn how to review their notes and organize thoughts but how they articulate it to others.

At first, it may seem strained or take time to refine information to a page, but after you have done notebooking for a while, you see the freedom in creating pages either like a timeline page, illustration page, text page or even an art page.

In high school give them superior resources to choose from to add to their unique pages. The pages may include timelines, bits of information from primary sources and include their own feelings about perceived injustices on certain controversial topics like government and religions.

A lot of high school students, including mine, struggle with how to streamline content.  Notebooking reminds me a bit like outlining because your students have to decide how to narrow down the key point to remember.

There could be no more important skill to learn in high school than to streamline content AND more importantly to be able to look at their visual set up and recall critical information.

I have one son who wants more text and one who wants less when creating their pages.  We have successfully used notebooking when I have sat down with each of my sons and spend a bit of time creating with them to suit their learning style. 

A bit of guidance in the beginning helps the highschooler who wants clear guidelines of what they are doing.  Once they understand that notebooking is about helping THEM recall and display information learned instead of meeting your requirements, they feel the freedom.

Also, you can use notebooking for your expectations and grading.  They will be called on plenty of times in college to manipulate information and present it in a clear, concise and organized manner. 

Really, college bound or not, honing in on key points when explaining to others is a valuable communication skill for any adult.

Free Resources for Homeschool Notebooking, Any Ages!!!

I think the queen of notebooking is Jimmie Lanley at Notebooking Fairy.  You need to scoot by her site and check out her free pages for all ages.  You will love how easy she makes notebooking for all ages!

Check out some of these other free notebooking pages.  I listed just a few and a variety of them so that you can see what you can find on line for any homeschool subject.

http://harringtonharmonies.com/2013/06/free-state-notebooking-pages-2.html

https://www.tinasdynamichomeschoolplus.com/world-wars-to-today/geography-country-studies-timelines-2/

http://www.livingandlearningathome.com/2013/09/animal-kingdom-science-notebooking-pages.html

http://thesetemporarytents.com/2013/09/11/wassily-kandinsky-notebooking-study/

http://www.brightideaspress.com/2013/01/amelia-earhart-pages/

http://imanshomeschool.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/human-body-notebooking-pages-5/

http://museofthemorning.com/homeschool/2014/02/07/free-basic-notebooking-pages/

http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/free-pages/free-sonlight-world-history-pages/

http://ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com/2013/03/m-is-for-monkey-printable-notebooking.html

Don’t forget to check out my blog category for my free learning printables.

https://www.tinasdynamichomeschoolplus.com/category/1-my-learning-printables-any-topic/

And finally, remember that minibooks are part of notebooking too which is why I think lapbooking and notebooking overlaps so much. Minibooks can be glued on any page.

When you glue minibooks on pages, the variety of setups are then endless: minibooks with part text, minibooks with part graphics, all minibooks and no text, minibooks and nature drawing or minibooks and shapes.

Don’t make notebooking boring and your kids won’t be bored with it!! 

Give it a try!

Hugs and love ya,