Creating Learning Notebooks With NotebookingPages.com

Early in our homeschooling career, I realized that traditional textbooks and workbooks weren't going to be a good fit for me or for the kids. As I learned about other homeschooling styles and methods, I came across notebooking. I loved using this method of learning, and the kids often enjoyed it as well. Along the way, I've often used free notebooking pages that I found online or I've made our own. I've also allowed the kids to just make pages for their own notebooks. For some time I've explored around the NotebookingPages.com site, and I was super excited to receive a Notebooking Pages Lifetime Membership from NotebookingPages.com.

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What is notebooking?

Notebooking involves creating a binder of pages to showcase what you're learning. Instead of filling in blanks on a worksheet or just answering basic comprehension questions, students record various information and store this information in a binder.

We've used notebooking in a variety of ways. Sometimes we'll keep a notebook for a particular subject all year. Our history curriculum is unit study based, and we typically keep a history binder with various sections. As we complete notebooking pages or other activities we add them to the binder. We've also done smaller notebooks with a more limited subject. We'll be studying one event or one character, and we'll keep a small notebook with pages to record what we're learning.

Notebooks can get really fancy or can be really simple. They can be as simple as having kids record facts on blank paper or having kids write a narration on paper after listening to an oral reading. Or notebooks can contain themed papers that kids use to record information, write mini reports, or complete written narrations.

Whether you have elaborate notebooks or plain notebooks, the idea behind notebooking is that it provides kids with a way to really connect with what they're learning. Beyond fill-in-the blank, beyond basic comprehension, when kids record information in a notebook, they'll remember more because they need to internalize what they're hearing in order to record it in some way in the notebook.

About NotebookingPages.com

Although notebooking can be done in a plain and simple way, it's always more fun to have beautiful themed pages on which to record information for your notebook. It makes the notebook more than just a place to record information. Instead, the notebook becomes a full-on project. And when you're finished with the subject of study, kids have a beautiful, complete project that they can show and look at themselves again and again.

This is where NotebookingPages.com comes in. This site has a huge variety of themed, blank notebooking pages that kids can use to complete their notebooks. There are pages for history, for science, for the arts, and more. The site offers a large variety of free notebooking pages, sets of notebooking pages that can be purchased, and a lifetime membership that allows members access to all of the pages currently on the site as well as any that are added.

Notebooking Pages Lifetime Membership

When I first received my membership, I was really thankful for a series of emails that came along with it. The emails sent out after purchase of a membership really help you to jump into the site and begin using it. It can be a little overwhelming at first because of the sheer number of resources available. The emails have information about how to get started and some tutorials that will help you to jump in. There is also an Easy Start Guide in the Members Center that will cover the same information as the emails, and you can always access it once you're a member.

As I began exploring my Lifetime Membership, I found a great variety of notebooking pages.

• Any Study pages that can be used with any theme or topic
• A-Z pages that feature themes such as animals or sports and feature each letter of the alphabet
• Bible character pages with pages for popular Bible stories as well as character studies
• Famous People pages that include topics such as first ladies, presidents, missionaries, and more
• Fine Arts pages that include artists and picture study pages as well as composer themed pages
• Geography pages that include maps as well as country study pages and USA study pages
• History pages that include timeline pages as well as history topics divided by time period
• Holidays pages with holidays organized by month
• Language Arts pages with a large variety of designed pages for copywork as well as some Latin and Greek word study pages
• Science and Nature pages with science topics presented in alphabetical order

Along with blank pages intended for recording notes, writings about the topic, reports, and more, there are some copywork pages as well within these topics. Because these pages are blank or lined, you can use them with any age. Kids that are studying the topic will just record information at their own level. I've also done the recording for a really young child, allowing them to dictate with me writing. Because you can use them with all ages, notebooking pages are definitely a whole family learning experience.

When you select a topic that fits your current course of study, you can choose to download all of the pages in that topic as a zip file or you can choose to download and print pages separately. You'll also find a Table of Contents and a Catalog in each topic. The Table of Contents shows what pages you'll find.

The Catalog not only lists the pages you'll find, but shows you a thumbnail of each.

I loved, loved, loved this level of organization. It made things so easy to find. And I love the flexibility. I can download a whole topic as a zip file so that I can send it off to be printed at the office supply store- as I do large printings. Or I can print only a few select sheets from my home printer as we need them. And because I can see all of the pages in the topic from the Catalog overview, I know which pages I need without having to download and open every single one.

Our notebooks

For this summer's study, I've been reading a Laura Ingalls Wilder biography to my younger girls- Ashlyne (12) and Rachel (10). This has been a follow up to our American history and study of pioneers this spring. I looked through the notebooking pages and found a whole set of Laura Ingalls Wilder pages in the Famous People section as well as a set of pages about the Homestead Act in the History section.

I set the girls up with a small binder- since we were only focusing on a small topic. They put both sets of pages in the binder to keep throughout our readings this summer.

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One of the things I've had them do in their notebooks is just practice writing down facts. This is great practice for note taking. I read aloud, and they record facts from what I've read. The great themed paper makes it more fun for them, and at the end of the summer, they'll have these pretty notebooks to be able to show for what they've learned.

My thoughts about NotebookingPages.com

In case I haven't said it enough, I love NotebookingPages.com. I love the concept of notebooking, allowing kids to make connections and internalize learning. I love the huge variety of sheets available on the site. I love the way it's organized and easy to use. I love that there were emails and videos, helping me to navigate as I learned my way around the site.

I've already found a variety of pages that are going to fit in well with topics we're covering in the fall when our new regular school year starts- not only for the younger girls, but for my older high schoolers as well. And I'm sure that this Lifetime Membership is something we'll be using throughout our homeschooling years.



Don't forget that NotebookingPages.com has free notebooking pages and resources too!

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NotebookingPages.com is having an awesome sale- January 25-27 (2017). Get your membership for $25 off of the normal price. This is such a great deal! Don't miss it.

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Other Crew members received a Lifetime Membership to NotebookingPages.com. You can see what they thought by clicking below.