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Zeliemum
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| Posted: July 11 2007 at 11:48pm | IP Logged
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I have been homeschooling since the beginning of my children's education yet I am having trouble with the concepts of notebooking (and to a smaller degree lapbooking). I think I have worked out the lapbooking thing although we haven't finished one entirely yet. The thread by Aussie Mum At His Feet (Hi Tricia  )was a great help to me so I think that may help clear up the lapbooking question.
I would love to hear from anyone with examples of notebooking or good sites to peruse or any wisdom to help me. Some of my friends have tried to explain these two ways of documenting dc's work but I'm a bit slow of the mark I think or just stuck in my workbook mentality (I do however like workbooks and so do the dc's). I am not a CM educator but these two concepts sound really good and would be a nice change for the children away from the norm from some of their subjects and our way of working.
I'll look forward to hearing from anyone that can help.
Thanks
God Bless
Chemai
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vmalott
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| Posted: July 12 2007 at 8:14am | IP Logged
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Here are some websites I have found helpful:
Homeschooling With Notebooks
Notebooking Pages
Scrapbooking to Learn
Notebooking Nook Free Pages
The Homeschool Shop (I especially like their History Scribe and Study Starters downloads, very reasonably priced and great looking forms)
Hope this gives you a start, anyway.
Valerie
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 12 2007 at 3:09pm | IP Logged
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Simply put, notebooking is having the child narrate and then illustrate. Really that is it in a nutshell. Instead of filling out multiple choice q's they tell all they know about a subject and then add pictures to help explain further.
These pages can be as simple as a narration you have typed as the child retold it and a picture printed off the internet to illustrate it. Or, you put more emphasis on the illustration using watercolors or beeswax crayons like the Waldorf schools use.
Notebooking takes more time to do so you have to make peace with that. The perk is that if you believe education is about relationship as CM says then it is time well-spent. The child who throws himself into the perfect diagram of a bug or copies a period reproduction of knight's armor on their page is engaging with the information in ways that he never would with a workbook.
anything this visually appealing is bound to be revisited as well. Notebooks invite sharing with grandparents etc. They solidify knowledge because the child is essentially teaching or presenting that knowledge gained for a viewing audience. The best way to learn is to teach!
Although I would have to issue a page long disclaimer about Rudolf Steiner mysticism I will say Waldorf schools get notebooking right. An internet search (particularly an image search) for 'main lesson books' turns up lovely examples of notebook pages.
Kim
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Zeliemum
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| Posted: July 12 2007 at 10:28pm | IP Logged
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Dear Valerie,
Thank you for the links I will definitely check them out.
God Bless you.
Chemai
Dear Kim,
Just a couple of questions if you don't mind. "Simply put, notebooking is having the child narrate and then illustrate". Do you mean that they don't write it for themselves? Obviously if a child is little then Mum would have to do it, but as my dc's are well into writing themselves as they write their own stories and do a lot of independent drawing of things of interest. Would they still narrate to me and I do the typing for them?
We do use exercise books where they write things out and do their own pictures on the subject - Which doesn't sound to much different - except that they don't narrate, although there is always discussion.
I can see what you mean about "bound to be revisited" as they do love to look back at projects that we have done in other ways.
How would you present it - a notebook? Do you use an exercise book, Botany book (lined pages one side and a plain page on the other, I thought I would explain that in case you call them something different) or a folder with plastic leaf and lined A4?
Although I use workbooks and I do like them but I do also want to be creative, which I probably am in certain ways. I think notebooking will step in here.
Thank you for your input it is very interesting.
God Bless
Chemai 
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Erin
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Hi Chemai
Great to hear from you, I use a display book for our notebooking, then at the end of the year I bind it all together. Obviously if your dc are more copious writers then you may have enough for several books.
Notebooks can be fairly basic or you can get very creative, it is all an individual matter. If you look under Theresa's blog in her sidebar you will find some wonderful examples of notebooking. Mine are far more simpler.
Regards narrating the idea is that it frees the children up to express themselves without getting bogged down in the mechanics of writing, CM recommended mum taking down the children's narrations until the age of 10 or so. Once again this is an individual thing and you may feel quite confident that your chidren can write their own narrations (btw narrations are not always recorded via the written word) Notebbook pages don'e always have narrations nor any written work, we often will do wonderful, creative illustrations which record our learning.
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Zeliemum
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 8:05am | IP Logged
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Thanks Erin!
What do you mean by a display book, An A4 booklet that has clear slips already attached? I hope I have explained that clearly.
I will check out the blog that you recommended and take it from there, see if I can clear this up a bit.
So notebooking really only goes with a CM approach, the concept could be used in many other ways though? I'll probably fiddle with the end result.
Hope all is well for you down in Grafton.
Our Mission up here a couple of weeks ago was to say the least Awesome!!! We saw Brendan and encouraged him to come but he said that he had to start a new job.
We gave it a shot anyway.
God Bless
Chemai
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Zeliemum
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 8:16am | IP Logged
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Hi Erin,
I checked out Theresa's blog and yes I have looked through them all before actually with the kids and they loved them, especially Tom - I'd just forgotten. My memory is never good when I'm pregnant, come to mention it - even when I'm not. 
They're very very good, how inspiring. 
I can do it I'm sure, even with out being a CMer, I think I can make it work. 
Thank you for reminding me of that Mum's blog, she is really together. 
God Bless
Chemai
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Kim F
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 8:53am | IP Logged
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So notebooking really only goes with a CM approach>>
I am on my way out but real quick - no, notebooking isnt a CM thing by any stretch. Montessori schools, Waldorf schools, and the classical curriculum all employ notebooking. It's one of those universally successful techniques.
Kim
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 13 2007 at 4:30pm | IP Logged
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Chem39 wrote:
Thank you for reminding me of that Mum's blog, she is really together.
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Oh, if you only knew... 
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us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Zeliemum
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| Posted: July 16 2007 at 3:24am | IP Logged
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Thanks Kim,
I am starting back at school tomorrow and I think we will try a note book this term. The dc's will decide what they will like to do and we will venture from there. You never know I may post the end result.
God Bless
Chemai
Hey Theresa (Great name),
Well I love your notebooks anyway!
God Bless
Chemai.
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domchurch3
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| Posted: July 17 2007 at 11:59am | IP Logged
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Hello,
I find that looking through other peoples notebooks leaves me feeling a bit inadequate. Granted we have not tried to do a notebook, I'm still deciding what would be a good topic to have my 5 year old daughter narrate, but I was wondering if anyone had similar feelings and if they overcame them.
Many Blessings,
Elizabeth
Four In Heaven, One To Hold
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Zeliemum
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| Posted: July 19 2007 at 4:44pm | IP Logged
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Hi Elizabeth,
I think it could for me also but I just take it as different people have different levels of creativity. Some of my dc's are far more creative than I am so I think they will come up with some great artistic work with the practical guidance from me.
As well I think you must get better the more you try something. With a five year old she would be happy with just having a go and anything she finishes will be a treasure I'm sure.
Don't be too hard on yourself we all have to start somewhere. Once you’re into it you may surprise yourself.
God Bless
Chemai
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Kelly
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| Posted: July 24 2007 at 8:50pm | IP Logged
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Just a comment about notebooking...you don't have to write paragraphs or papers all the time---when my kids have needed a break from writing in their history notebooks-or just a change of pace- we've done a variety of non-papery projects ranging from making "tourist brochures" about some historical site, to recruiting posters (as we did for the Virginia Company!),to Wanted posters for infamous people in history (like we did for Martin Luther, tee hee), to drawings of some places we've studied (like the reducciones in South America), to poems about a person or a place ("My name is Jeremiah, Horrocks is my name, I was an English astrologer, And a seeker of fame..." by dd), newspaper articles "Smallpox Vaccine Discovered!"), imaginary fan letters (like a fan letter to William Harvey, "Mr. Harvey, Thou art the coolest!"), editorials for the Humor section of the paper, "Lodestone MADNESS" on the publication "De Magnete" by Wm. Gilbert), diaramas (that we photograph and put in the books), kids dressed in costumes (likewise photographed and titled---btw, writing descriptive titles is a good exercise, too!), artistic copies of great art and so on and so forth---you get the picture! My children tend to wear out on paper after paper, so all these kind of activities make for a nice break, AND nice additions to their various notebooks.
As for feelings of inadequacy, we ALL suffer that-and shouldn't. One of the BEST things about notebooks, for us, has been going back to those early notebooks and getting a good giggle from them. My kids love pouring over their old notebooks and seeing their pictures of, say, Noah and the Ark in their Bible notebook---where Noah (AND his ark) both look like rather large amoebas, or five-year old dictations along the lines of this one by my five year old "Shaka was a great Zulu Chief, but he wasn't always great. First he was just a little boy who loved his mother." Or a picture of the Mayflower, painted pink. That kind of thing is what makes the notebooking special! I promise!
Have fun with it! Kelly in FL
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Zeliemum
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| Posted: July 25 2007 at 9:28am | IP Logged
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Thanks Kelly,
Lots of very interesting ideas in your post. I may just steal a idea or two, maybe three, could be four...
C
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TracyQ
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Notebooks can have so many things in them. Our History/Geography notebooks, for instance, have many maps, timelines, pictures from the internet, old textbooks, brochures we sent for, etc. etc.
Our science notebooks may have data, charts, lab reports, biographies of scientists and inventors, etc. It could have maps of where the scientist is from, etc.
Our Math notebook may have examples of what we're learning, some fun math we may do, multiplication charts, addtion charts, fun math design coloring sheets, etc. etc.
Our English notebooks may have word walls, or vocabulary. It could have their writing work, or a sheet typed out about the writing process. It could have parts of speech and examples, or how to write an essay with their work on essays, etc. It could have biography sheets on a certain author or poet, and a picture of them with it.
You get the idea. You can use minit books (the little books you do in lapbooks) and put them in the notebooks. You can put in charts, maps, pictures, writing, poems, quotes, articles from the internet or newspaper, their own drawing and writing, etc. etc.
Notebooking is taking their learning, and putting it creatively in a binder/notebook to make their own creative work of their learning in that subject. We also had the kids choose one notebook just to work on something they really loved and wanted to learn more about. My oldest son did his on plastic army men (strange, but true, and very neat at the time). Our second son did his on the Revolutionary War, and our youngest did hers on butterflies, which we'd raised in our home (Monarchs).
I hope you have fun!!!!
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Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Karen T
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Erin wrote:
Hi Chemai
Great to hear from you, I use a display book for our notebooking, then at the end of the year I bind it all together. Obviously if your dc are more copious writers then you may have enough for several books.
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Erin, could you explain more what a display book is? I have used notebooking just a little for history mostly but use a large binder with dividers, notebook paper for written work and page protectors for maps, etc. I'm not clear what yours is. do you have it bound at Kinko's etc?
Karen T
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Now Notebooking?
