Three of my FAVORITES are having Weekend Sales *smile*
Alright, when three of your absolute favorite homeschool resources have great sales all in the one weekend… you just have to share. Even if you really don’t love sharing ‘sales’. This is kind of worth letting you in on, friends!
Our Journey Westward ( NaturExplorers) 25% off all Christmas and winter NaturExplorers and Curriculum!
Um, I love NaturExplorers so much that I have an entire tab devoted to them… click here to read more. *smile* Here is my official review of Coping with the Cold (an AMAZING Winter Nature Study!!!)
Brave Writer Cyber Monday Sale (November 28th starting at 9am). This is a very rare oppotunity to save 30% on Brave Writer curriculum for 24 hours!
Use the coupon code: givethempie
And last, but not least, NotebookingPages.com Cyber Weekend Sale…
Alright, for those of you who know me – you know I love Notebooking! I have really enjoyed and benefited from our Lifetime Membership at Notebooking Pages.
This weekend, memberships are on sale for $25 off. Just thought I would share this sale and show some of the ways we’ve included Notebooking in our homeschool over the past few years!
Have a great weekend, friends.
Here are some of my past Notebooking Posts:
Simplifying and Enriching our Homeschool with Notebooking -Part 1
Simplifying and Enriching our Homeschool with Notebooking -Part 2
Spiral-bound Notebooks for Planning
Photos of our past Notebooks –
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| What our Notebooks looked like at the beginning of the year. |
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| What they looked like at the end of the year. *smile* |
A Bunch of Alex’s Pages (he’s 7):
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| On the right are some of my pages that I created to go along with Charlotte Mason Geography! I can’t wait to share them with you all… now I’m motivated to get them done. |
Some of Simon’s Pages (he’s 10/11 here):
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| Bible Road Trip page on the left and some home-made Proverbs copywork on the right. I used the Web-App on NotebookingPages.com to create them. |
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| One of the things my son EXCELS at is Lego. I mean, this boy can build. He mostly creates things completely out of his imagination or using pictures and then completely creating the Lego design on his own. (Like his Taj Mahal and other famous bits of architecture on the right.) We decided to take photos of his Lego creations and add them to his Notebook. |
A Bunch of Audrey’s Pages (she’s 8/9):
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| More Notebooking Pages I created to go along with Long’s Elementary Geography. |
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| This is an example of oral narration turned into a written narration. The child can orally narrate while you write down what they say – then they can use that as copywork for a Notebooking page. |
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| From our Five in a Row study of The Tree Lady – page on the right is from NotebookingPages.com |
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| Home-made poetry copywork page. These are life-savers when I have nothing prepared for copywork. |
More Notebooking Pages we’ve created that were previously uploaded:
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| These Life-Cycle pages are also from NotebookingPages.com |
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| My son’s pages from the I AM CANADA series. I absolutely LOVE these. He orally narrated, I typed. Then we put together visually pleasing pages to reflect his learning. |
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| Typed oral narration. |
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| Basic Draw Write Now lined page. We use these like CRAZY for younger learners. |
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| A 7-year-old’s oral narration. |
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| An example of a bit more creative oral narration – we created a newspaper article. |
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| Home-made poetry pages. |
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| Charlotte Mason Geography |
A Couple Questions You’ve Asked about Notebooking:
Do I have to have a membership to NotebookingPages.com to Notebook properly?
Of course not. You don’t need a membership to anything to Notebook. However, having access to thousands of Notebooking Pages at the click of a mouse is a HUGE benefit when you are planning to implement Notebooking on a regular basis in your home. NotebookingPages.com is by far the BEST site I’ve found for Notebooking. The insight and inspiration that Debra offers as a homeschool Mama of many is wonderful. The pages and good quality and plentiful (I’ve yet to run into many things that I couldn’t find a page for…!)
So, the answer is – no, you don’t need any kind of membership to truly embrace Notebooking. There are tons of free pages on Pinterest and all over the internet. You can also create your own if you have the time/ability.
What is awesome about having a membership though is the ease. The convenience of having access to any and everything you will likely need is worth a TON. I always try to think of what my time is worth to me. If I had to spend hours making out own pages or getting creative with how to Notebook different topics -I wouldn’t have time for other things (like writing this post!).
Yep, it is an investment, but if you are serious about Notebooking – I think its worth it. There are actually a bunch of sales coming up at the end of this month too… like this one –
“Do you print out all the Notebooking Pages ahead of time?”
I didn’t print CERTAIN Notebooking Pages much more than a week ahead. This is because I’m notorious for changing my mind about what we are doing within our homeschool and what we will Notebook. If I were to print tons of specific Notebooking Pages at the beginning of the school year with the notion that we would certainly complete all those specific pages – I’d be probably wasting a WHOLE lot of ink and paper. (I’ve done this before, trust me!)
So, by this I mean, Notebooking Pages that are specific to one topic or person or idea. So, I would probably not print out pages and pages months in advance because I’m not even sure we will get to those specific topics. You know?
The only exception to this is basic Notebooking sheets (generic ones that can be used for anything) and also copy work pages. For example, I had a pile of poetry copy work pages that my daughter could choose from at any point throughout the year. This was helpful for her, since she actually enjoys copywork and went through them rather quickly. I also had lots of blank notebooking sheets that fit the format for Draw Write Now, that my son could grab and use whenever he was doing copywork.
“What *didn’t* you include in your big Notebooks?”
Well, we didn’t include Math because we use Teaching Textbooks which is done on the computer and in a pre-coiled math book.
We also didn’t include dictation/spelling and grammar type work. These were all done in separate notebooks of their own. (Simple, cheap, 5 cent ones that I really regret using!) In hindsight, I kind of regret this system thought because now I have all these extra notebooks kicking around that I don’t feel right about throwing away but I also don’t know what do to with them – but it is a bit inevitable, I think. It would make more sense to have a binder to fit them into and keep them along with all the Notebooking Pages….
I will also talk about this with the binder vs. spiral bound notebook post. *wink*
“Did you ever notebook with a 6 year old? She doesn’t know how to read or write yet. I know my 8 year old son will eat this up I’m just wondering if a notebook will be a bit much for my 6 year old daughter. I’m picturing her notebook filled with drawings and the beginnings of words and copy work. Which excites me…”
“Do you incorporate lap book pages or other printables? If the child isn’t particularly fond of or quick with cutting, do you pre-cut pages and small pieces to be used? How many pages do you use for each study? Do you incorporate the FIAR notebook builder? Do you have a different notebook for each subject or just everything in one for one child until it’s full? Your notebooks have been on my mind as we try to navigate them right now. We are just starting them and I’m wondering if I’m overdoing/overthinking… “
Are you interested in learning more about Notebooking? Here are some of the ‘Helpful Links’ I’ve shared in the past from NotebookingPages.com:
The Doom and Gloom of Homeschooling (Part 1)
3 Homeschooling Myths that Trapped Me (Part 2)
Can any of you relate to believing these lies? (I can…)
Victory over Busywork, Boredom, and Burnout (Part 3)
Tutorial #1 – Change Your Mindset
Tutorial #2 – The Glue that Makes it All Stick Together (Narrations)
Tutorial #3 – Time for Notebooking
This is an AWESOME post that covers questions like, “What is Notebooking?” and also shows a typical day with reading, narration, and notebooking.
Copywork and Notebooking
A great post all about how to implement copywork into Notebooking.
Notebooking with a Structured Writing Plan
Language Arts Notebooks
“Our Story” Video from Debra Reed
Some snapshots of a few more of the Notebooking pages we’ve created in our homeschool:
You can also follow my Notebooking Pinterest Board where I’m always trying to add helpful links to free Notebooking pages and resources:
Follow Cassandra’s board Notebooking and Lapbooking on Pinterest.
One Comment
emegren
Forgive me if I missed this but, Do you make the notebooks? How many pages do you start with and what kind/weight of paper? I really love how you organize everything into one book for the year. I am definitely going to start implementing this. I am really enjoying jumping around on your blog, it has been refreshing.