Posted in notebooking

Notebooking... it is one of my favorite subjects!

Anyone can notebook, and many already 'notebook' and just don't realize it.

Notebooking is simply 'gathering and hunting' information on a subject/s and putting it all in notebook. Notebooks can be made with three ring-binders, spiral notebooks, paper tied with string, journals and even scrapbooks. Notebooks can be as simple as a journal or as fancy as a scrapbook layout.

In my three years of leading notebooking chats at The Homeschool Encouragement Center and moderating "Firetime notebooking" (Terri Camp's group)the uses of notebooks are endless. They can be for your personal use to keep track of finances, recipes, your prayer journal or to be 'portfolio's' of your childrens work. They can also be wonderful artistic places for children to learn whatever they want about a subject/s.

My favorite type of notebooks are the ones that children can work on all by themselves. It is their notebook and they can learn about any subject they want. They can get as creative as they want with them. I know of one child who collected 'scat' of the animal she was notebooking on and kept it in her notebook in a plastic baggy. Notebooking gives a child a sense of ownership. "Look what I am doing!" or "Look what I made today!" For us parents they make wonderful memories!

A child can 'notebook' at any age. My two oldest children started notebooking when they were 3 and 4. It was just a simple spiral notebook that they each took with us on our walks and they would draw trees, rocks, bugs. (At that age, they were scribbles so I labeled their drawings) Now that they are 9 and 7 those first notebooks hold precious memories. (Now my 4 year old is enjoying the joys of notebooks. He takes HUGE pride in his airplane notebook!) Their notebooks now contain more than just scribbles, they contain: stickers, drawings, poems, magazine cut outs, stories they find or write, photos, charts, labels...  I let them get as creative as they want, I just keep them supplied with what they need and I teach them how to 'hunt and gather' their information. I let my children work on them when they want, sometimes that is when I am reading out loud to them, or even after dinner.

There really isn't any one way to start a 'notebook,' just pick a subject and 'hunt and gather! Get creative, have fun and show it off!

Happy Notebooking!

Dianna A.