We love notebooking! As a family we have filled at least 10 big binders (guess who has the most? yup, Mom!). We fill them with notes, essays, maps, drawings, clip art, mini books, timelines, photos, vocabulary lists and much more. All it takes is a binder, lots of paper, colored pencils, a library card and some free, or low cost, internet resources. If you love scrapbooking like I do, notebooking is a great way to use those extra supplies.

What is notebooking? It’s an easy and fun way to learn using various learning styles. It can be as simple as storing all your school papers in one notebook or as creative as the most elaborate scrapbook page. It’s easy, fun and inexpensive. There are tons of resources on-line to help you. A great place to start is www.notebookingpages.com or see the link on the sidebar.

You can create a one topic notebook about an area of special interest to your child or use one notebook for all your work. We use one notebook, divided into general sections of math, bible, reading, and copywork. Every page from everything we read; literature, history, science, etc goes into the reading section. Since my son is a reluctant writer, right now he does a lot of copywork so that has its own section. You can use more detailed divisions if that fits your needs and style.

One of the greatest benefits of notebooking is the ability to customize it to meet your needs. If you have young children, don’t bother with multiple binders or tab dividers, just fill it up with all those precious drawings and early attempts at letters. Elementary school children can expand into several binders or multiple divisions. And, here’s the best part: if your child hates to write like mine, you can focus on maps, timelines, clip art, drawings, and copywork. If you have a writer in the house, fill the notebook with stories, essays, book reports, project data, and journal entries. All of these are valid ways to show what you’ve learned.

Another link to check: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CindyRushton/3711/

Next week I’ll post a mini unit study showing how we use notebooks at our house.