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JennGM
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I'm having a hard time visualizing when someone mentions making a notebook, like Catechism Notebooks, First Communion Notebooks, Blessed Mother Notebooks, Easter Vigil Notebooks, Confirmation Notebooks, etc. (And these are just the religion examples )
Binders? insert pages as you go along? With plastic protectors?
Do you type up some information? Do your children write it all from scratch and decorate it? What different approaches do you do to "add them to the notebook"?
These are to learn, or marking learning that's been done? For example, add questions they have memorized into the binder as they are learned, or add a sheet at a time to learn, and then add next set after these are learned.
Is the notebook to be looked over again and again, or a "finalized" project, to be shelved?
For younger children who aren't proficient in art or writing, what helps do you do?
Don't feel like you have to answer all the questions; I would just love some descriptions in your home.
I know for me I couldn't do a spiral bound or bound notebook, as I need flow and room for rearrangement, mistakes, and additions.
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TxTrish
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Jenn -
Is this primary comp book what you are thinking of?
They sell them at Walmart. Top half the page for drawing or taping in (whatever..) and bottom half lined?
We use these all the time. Cheaper than the ones I originally bought from the curric. fair! And sturdier!
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JennGM
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I've been trying to sort in my head (STILL) on notebooking.
In school, we had a dedicated notebook for each subject. In it were our notes for that subject, or work we did.
So, I'm seeing notebooking is now an expanded version of this. If you're using Classical or Charlotte Mason methods, in particular, this would be a place that copywork could be done (and decorated), spelling words, some written narration, dictation, etc.
This could also be a Journal of sorts, and illustrations included along, so that a notebook journal (part blank page for illustrations, and half page for writing) would be a wonderful notebook.
What I guess I'm trying to grasp is that often this is beyond a Mead journal notebook, or spiral bound.
Marilyn had shown me her notebooks, and they were 3 ring binders for the subjects.
I know this is a simple concept, but I guess I need to visually "see" what your notebooks look like?
TxTrish wrote:
Jenn -
Is this primary comp book what you are thinking of?
They sell them at Walmart. Top half the page for drawing or taping in (whatever..) and bottom half lined?
We use these all the time. Cheaper than the ones I originally bought from the curric. fair! And sturdier! |
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Yes, those are what I use. I bought mine at Wal-mart, too. Maria Rioux had recommended them awhile back and they have been wonderful.
But I guess I'm wondering IF you do a CM approach, WHAT do your notebooks look like?
I know we discussed some different types of notebooks and journals here, but I want to make the connection from the "idea" to the "implementation" and visually see it in your homes.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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Mackfam
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Jenn,
Do you want a picture or a description of our notebooks?
Each of my children has 3 right now:
** A Book of Centuries which contains significant events and people on a timeline, as well as maps and written narrations (biographies) of pertinent people in their BOC.
** A copywork book - contains poetry and various quotes of copywork from the year.
** A new notebook we just started which has notebooking pages that coordinate with the Handbook of Nature Study - Wildflowers, Weeds, and Garden Flowers from Notebooking Pages.
We use 3 ring binders (favorite size is either 1/2" or 1"). We're very fortunate to inherit a large number of these from dh's work. The children select scrapbooking paper (their choice) for the cover and spine of their notebooks. Both kids are working in their notebooks right now...I'll take a couple of pics. What else are you looking for in terms of how we use notebooks in a CM way?
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Jen Mackintosh
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CrunchyMom
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Have you looked at Theresa's examples of notebooking? Her son is older, so they are "fancier" than what I would imagine coming from a second grader, but it will give you a visual of a creation beyond that of a spiral notebook.
I also bookmarked this example of a first communion notebook for reference.
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JennGM
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Pictures always welcome!
Here's another question, do you make some notebooks "fancier" or more special than others? Is each very individual to create, or you use similar plans, and just decoration and some materials can be different if it's a special one (like First Communion or Easter Vigil)?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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TxTrish
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Did you see that link above for notebook exhibit?
Mine look like those.
All of them, or some combination thereof.
We have some in 3ring binders, some in comp books, some in sketch books, one FHC notebook we did in a "scrap book" I picked up someplace that was really pretty.
We tape things in, glue them in, draw, lapbook, take pictures. We write, narrate to mom, use printed notebook pages, and have one of those templates to write straight on paper with no lines.
We usually start with notebooks for each subject, but they always get mixed around in the day to day use. Someone runs out with their science notebook (comp or sketch for this) instead of nature so they get mixed together. I am not hung up about this - we just go with it. I am not big on sheet protectors for the kids. I just never got into them making each page a work of art, and placing it in a page protector the keep forever. But, that is just us - and our style.
They are learning and remembering, and enjoying it - that is what I am going for.
I am artsy craftsy, so we do all those type projects, usually in spurts and with certain subjects.
Does that help you "see" what we do?
Or do you want a picture of our messy notebooks? 
I've seen some of you gals blogs - our notebooks are unlikely to inspire others, but they work for us.
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Mackfam
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You can build a notebook around any theme and make it as special or practical and useful as you and your child want to make it. Take an idea your son enjoys - a FHC notebook is a great place to start (ours are treasures!) and just start! Work on one and really enjoy the time spent with it.
Some of our favorite notebooks have contained special unit study type themes - A Holling C. Holling notebook which contained all sorts of copywork and illustrations, maps, and snippets of knowledge was one of our favorites. We've had notebooks about horses, geography, US history, Lewis and Clark (that was fun!), science topics...
These are examples of current books which are pretty utilitarian:
These are a few of my oldest dd's notebooks. On the left is her Wildflowers, Weeds, and Garden Flowers notebook which she is working in below:
This is an example of some copywork from her copywork book.
I know you have boys, so I'm including my son's books.
An example of his copywork from last year - no fluff. Just so you know we don't illustrate every page. My daughter would, but not my son. So, if it's not his preference, I let him exercise his creative energy elsewhere. If this had been copywork of Newton's 3rd law of motion, you can bet there would have been an enthusiastic illustration!!!
Pick a topic that you're studying together, and give that study a fun notebook for narrations, copywork, poetry, illustrations to live in. Let your son choose some neat scrapbook paper for his cover - makes the book special. You can use sheet protectors to hold special illustrations you don't want to 3 hole punch. He'll be so proud to show his notebook of work to his dad - and it will become a treasure of work accomplished for you when he's done! These are just my thoughts...hope this helps!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Helen
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This is a great thread Jenn.
Jen, thanks for including pictures of your boy's notebook. Notebooking has not been received enthusiastically with my sons. On the other hand, my daughters are very inclined to keep notebooks.
We'll just have to keep trying. 
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KC in TX
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Jen,
All your things are so pretty!
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SeaStar
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Jen-
What is your source for the pretty printed pages with lines?
Did you make them yourself? They are so nice.
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Mackfam
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SeaStar wrote:
Jen-
What is your source for the pretty printed pages with lines?
Did you make them yourself? They are so nice. |
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I didn't make them myself. They are my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE homeschooling language arts resource!!!!!!! VERY affordable!
Notebooking Pages - each "page" has many variations offered - some with narrow lines for older children, some with larger/wider lines including the dotted middle line for younger children, some pages with a total of 3 or 4 lines, some pages that are completely lined. So, there are many options to choose from for just one page. The copywork pages are well suited to copying poetry as there are many options to choose from - 2 stanza, 3 stanza, 4 stanza, etc. If you subscribe to their email newsletter there are regular and frequent sales and coupons which make the affordable prices even more affordable.
Here's what I do...purchase a set of pages and I keep all my collections of notebooking pages in a special file on my desktop so they're easily accessible because we print one often. Then, I print a TOC for each set because this helps me see exactly which pages would be useful to print (this isn't necessary, but it helps me manage a large collection of notebooking pages - I don't want to be wasteful of that resource!) Then, the kids or I print the pages we need.
The pages you see pictured are both from my dd's notebooks - the second picture from the top contains pages from the set of Wildflowers, Weeds, and Garden Flowers notebooking pages. These pages coordinate with Anna Comstock's book, Handbook of Nature Study. Both my son and daughter are really enjoying this new notebook. I choose one flower or weed to study for the week, we find it outside, read about it in Handbook of Nature Study, study some more, illustrate and label with our notebooking pages, include copywork of poetry or some other botanical fact, color the flower, label parts. It's a wonderful spring botanical nature study!
The third picture from the top (in my post above) is copywork written on Floral Copywork Pages. These are my dd's preferred choice for copywork pages. My son prefers Animal Designs and Basic Lined Notebooking Pages. But, really, there are so many great notebooking pages there already set up around great themes - they're just waiting for some living books to inspire and color pencils!!!!!!
These are MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE RESOURCE!!!!! I'm sorry for gushing!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Maria B.
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This is a wonderful thread. I am so excited! Jennifer, the notebooking website makes me feel like I am in a candy store! You ladies are an incredible wealth of info. Thank you!
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Paula in MN
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Okay, I gave in, I bought them. And I got DISCOUNTS!!
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SuzanneG
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Mackfam wrote:
Notebooking Pages
These are MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE RESOURCE!!!!! I'm sorry for gushing! |
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She does 50% sales a couple times a year, so sign up for email specials. We love them here too! I use them a lot as well!
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Suzanne in ID
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JennGM
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From other threads on notebooks:
Sharyn wrote:
Did you know there is a difference between notebooking and lapbooking? http://www.squidoo.com/groups/NotebooksNLapbooks
I thought it was all the same thing until I found this site earlier this week 
I spent yesterday reorganising the childrens work that we are going to make 'notebooks' from. They were all in their own scrapbooks. They are now all in the same 3 ring binder. Everything is in plastic sleeves. Each different section has its own plastic sleeve divider in which I have put a cover page for that subject. Each subject page includes the subject title, child's name and school level.
This year we are notebooking the following:
Nature study, Birds of Australia, Science, World history, World geography, Australian history and geography, and First Holy Communion.
For us notebooking is me asking for a narration which I type into Word.(My eldest I do a mix of typing it for her and getting her to write it herself) I print it, make a box for drawing pictures in using a scrapbooking stencil, they draw their pictures, glue on other pictures or decorations as required.
At the end of the school year I will take each subject out of the plastic sleeves and bind it.
I'm interested in using a little bit of lapbooking in our notebooking, but only a little. I find making lots of little fold out things too much for us to do lots of.
For the homemaking journal my dd is doing we are making our notebooking a little more 'scrapbookish'.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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JennGM
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Mackfam wrote:
SeaStar wrote:
Jen-
What is your source for the pretty printed pages with lines?
Did you make them yourself? They are so nice. |
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I didn't make them myself. They are my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE homeschooling language arts resource!!!!!!! VERY affordable!
Notebooking Pages - each "page" has many variations offered - some with narrow lines for older children, some with larger/wider lines including the dotted middle line for younger children, some pages with a total of 3 or 4 lines, some pages that are completely lined. So, there are many options to choose from for just one page. The copywork pages are well suited to copying poetry as there are many options to choose from - 2 stanza, 3 stanza, 4 stanza, etc. If you subscribe to their email newsletter there are regular and frequent sales and coupons which make the affordable prices even more affordable. |
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Jen, I'm going to ask some very elementary questions about this resource.
Do you print them out yourself, or they are delivered?
Are they 3 hole-punched?
Is the main difference between these pages and those I can buy at Staples and such is that they are lined?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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JennGM
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Helen wrote:
This is a great thread Jenn.
Jen, thanks for including pictures of your boy's notebook. Notebooking has not been received enthusiastically with my sons. On the other hand, my daughters are very inclined to keep notebooks.
We'll just have to keep trying. |
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Yes, you bring up a good point, Helen. What does notebooking look for boys?
Younger and older?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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SuzanneG
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JennGM wrote:
I'm going to ask some very elementary questions about this resource.
Do you print them out yourself, or they are delivered?
Are they 3 hole-punched?
Is the main difference between these pages and those I can buy at Staples and such is that they are lined? |
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You print them out yourself. You get an electronic file. They are so easy to use b/c you go to your computer and the SET that you are looking for, and then look at the table of contents and go to that section.
But, I do take my disc to our library and print out an entire set, b/c we get 75 free pages printed from the computer per week, per card. BUT, if I didn't have this, I wouldn't do that probably.
It's easier to find the PERFECT page on the computer than thumbing through the hard copies....but I do like having hard copies too.....already printed out, but it's not nec...and i only do it b/c it's free.
They are not 3-holed punch....b/c you are printing them out on your own paper on your printer.
She has a "free section" where you can get a really good idea of what they are and how to use them. I used the free section for a couple months before I bought a set or two from her sale.
What do you mean when you say "from Staples?"
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Suzanne in ID
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SuzanneG
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And, Debra just came up with an entire new set of Simply Designed, which are definitely on the more boy-side of things....more masculine pages for all those little boys of YOURS!
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Suzanne in ID
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Topic: Describe Your Notebooks, Please
