With the Homeschool Conference Season in full swing I thought you might like to know one of the things I do to help eliminate the busywork in our homeschooling.
Notebooking.
In my curriculum series curriculum I like and use & why and curriculum I don’t like and why I realized that I neglected to tell you about our notebooking! I tried doing lapbooks and they were FAR too much work for me. Even trying the pre-made ones still left too much work for me in scheduling each tiny book piece. Ugh.
Then I stumbled upon notebooking. I don’t remember when or where now. I initially started by buying a set of pages that tied in with what we were studying to try it all out. Yes, I knew of all the free notebooking pages out there, but it was w-a-y too much work to coordinate it all on top of everything else I was *supposed to be doing*. I am not sorry I got the CD of notebooking pages in the least. What I am sorry about is that I didn’t sign up for the lifetime membership in the first place! Hindsight is perfect.
I became a lifetime member of Notebooking Pages and LOVE IT! It is hard to pick *one* thing as a favorite of a lifetime membership. I love the freedom this gives me. I LOVE not having to search and search and search for *that* notebook page on my computer (and still not find it). I love the notebooks full of what Arrow has learned. I love the huge variety of pages Debra has created. I love the tips and helps Debra has on her website. I love that I won one of her drawings for a ProClick System!! That is something I would have never purchased for myself but it is SO helpful!
She is having a special right now through the end of this month ~
The following is an article by Debra, the lady behind NotebookingPages.com:
Before notebooking, our school days were chocked full of a variety of learning activities and curriculums, but the learning was so dry and dull. By the end of the day, and I mean the-END-of-the-day, the kids were wiped out and so was I. Do you have days like these?
Notebooking will refresh and rejuvenate your homeschooling. It opens the door for meaningful learning while saving you time, money, and those precious hours you currently spend (if you’re like most homeschooling moms) trying to tweak everything that you currently do to make your day better.
Today, I want to help you get started. Notebooking is a very simple tool. Basically, we just want to help our children get what’s in their brain onto paper using both what they can “see” and what they can verbalize. I have been amazed out how effective this has worked with my children. Over the past few years, we have been able to completely eliminate the worksheet/test method from our schooling. We now use notebooking for just about e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g!
We have saved time, money, and SO much frustration by using this tool. Now, instead of a trashcan (or tote that gets tucked away in the back of the closet) full of oodles of paperwork that we’ll never look at again, we have beautifully crafted and individualized notebooks full of their best work–their OWN work–their very OWN homemade books! You will pull these notebooks out time and time again throughout the years, just like your old photo albums, to treasure over and over again.
To give you some getting started pointers, I have prepared a detailed description of how to start your first pages and how to gently add notebooking to your day. We still follow these basic principles outlined in this article with our children today: Read more . . .
(Reprinted with permission from Debra Reed, NotebookingPages.com)
We will be using the notebooking pages in a bit different way this year. Since Arrow’s daddy’s death I have been a bit concerned that he is not grieving. So I will be using some of the notebooking pages for him to write his thoughts down about Daddy. Things they liked to do together, things he remembers Daddy telling him about Christ, life, his own childhood, places we went as a family, places they went without me and anything else that crosses my mind or his. It will be a whole notebook that he makes which will be *All About My Dad* full of his thoughts, his memories, all the things that are important to him. We will be able to incorporate any photos we may have, and Arrow can make drawings of anything he thinks of.
THAT will be a notebook that Arrow’s children and grandchildren will CHERISH!
Blessings, ~Aunt Mae
I am an affiliate with Notebooking Pages. Links in the article use my affiliate link. All opinions are my own.
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