Notes on Notebooking

I heard about notebooking at the beginning of this school year and wanted to try my hand at it.  I'm still trying to get the hang of it but I can already see results.  When I ask my 2nd grader to write in her nature journal to describe the picture that she just drew her usual scribbling is something like... "I saw a bird".  REALLY?  That's it?!  Where did you find the bird?  What did it look like (what color)?  What was it doing?  I urged her repeatedly to add more detail to her sentences.  For weeks it looked like my efforts were in vain and then one day she took her journal out on her own and she drew a very simple picture but her sentence made me smile.
"I saw a mushroom in the grass in my front yard"
YES!  Sweet victory.  You see this same child was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder when she was 3-years-old.  It only affected her speech.  With alot of prayer, speech therapy and encouragement she is now talking and writing in longer more detailed sentences.  Hallelujah!

I wanted to share some resources to get you started if you're thinking about trying notebooking in your homeschool.  If you want to find out more about notebooking like how it works and how it will work in your homeschool; just follow these links.
http://www.lifestyle-homeschool.com/how-do-i-start-notebooking.html

Article by Cindy Rushton

http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/charlotte-mason/notebooking

These journals are great for K-2nd graders.  It gives them plenty of space to draw and write.  The primary lines are plenty big but may not be big enough for K5 children that have issues with writing.


http://www.mead.com/meadstore/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=09956


The internet has been such a great resource of teaching resources.  There are so many great notebooking pages out there just waiting for you to print out and use.

For nature journals:  
http://www.hsunlimited.com/freestuff/dl/Nature%20Study%20Pages.pdf

Great freebie page but this site also has some great pages for sale.
http://notebookingnook.blogspot.com/2009/10/freebies-organized-by.html

Very cute site.  Has some great pages and tips.  The blog is especially worth noting.
http://notebookingfairy.com/
More free pages.  Slightly more varied categories.
http://www.homeschoolnotebooking.com/category/free-pages/
Printable paper just like from the Primary Journal I mentioned above,.
http://donnayoung.org/penmanship/blank-top-paper.htm

Another great Donna Young link
http://www.donnayoung.org/forms/planners/notebook.htm


I hope I have encouraged you to possibly jump out of your box and try notebooking.  I hope to post more about our notebooking experiences in the coming months.  Happy Notebooking!