Notebooking Nook

LABOR DAY GIVEAWAY!!!

{ 7:32 AM, Aug. 27, 2007 }

I'm going to be giving away 3 of each and every product available on my website!!! That's
right, EVERYTHING!

OVER 100 PRODUCTS WILL BE GIVEN AWAY!!!

If you are interested in FREE products (and who isn't) you will need to join our mailing list for all the exciting details.

The information will be sent out on the Saturday before Labor Day! Sign up HERE!

You don't want to miss this offer!!!

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The Vikings!

{ 7:32 AM, Jul. 26, 2007 }

We are just about to start back up with school and this year are excited to study the Middle Ages for history. I've just completed one of several sets I plan on making for our study of this time period. The Vikings, is always an interesting subject to delve deeply into and this set of notebooking pages will be a great addition to our study!

For those of you studying the Middle Ages, you might also be interest in the Daily Life in the Medieval World Notebooking Pages.

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Thomas Edison Notebooking Pages

{ 7:24 AM, Jul. 26, 2007 }

If you are planning on studying Thomas Edison any time soon, you will want to check out these notebooking pages! They would be an excellent addition to your study.

There are several other Great Inventors to choose from as well. I have only one set left to make for the Great inventors, The Wright Brothers will be the final set included and then I will sell a complete set with all the inventors included in one. The completed packet will be sold for less than $10.

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Night at the Museum Notebooking Pages

{ 9:11 AM, Jul. 22, 2007 }

These Night at the Museum Notebooking Pages were posted on my Notebooking Nook group and I thought it seemed like a lot of fun. If you aren't planning on starting school anytime soon, this might be a fun thing for your kids to work on.
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Copywork ~ What's it All About?

{ 7:45 AM, Jul. 12, 2007 }

Copywork is exactly what it sounds like... copying! Your child will spend a few minutes each day copying great pieces of work from a wide variety of sources – literature, poetry, scripture, fables, quotes, and so on. While your child is copying these great works, emphasize the importance of using their very best penmanship and making their copy as close to the original as possible. By using this method, your child will see the proper way to punctuate, usage of different parts of speech, as well as capitalization. Basically, they will see how a great piece literature should look and be written.

Copywork will allow your child to see different writing styles and structure, which in turn, if consistent, will help them become better writers. If your child can manage it, have them look and write the whole word instead of letter by letter, this will assist them in becoming better spellers. My younger children who started out doing copywork from the start are much better writers and spellers. They don't seem to have to work so hard at spelling. While my older children, who began copywork later struggled a bit more. That’s not to say copywork was a for sure cure for spelling, however, I do believe it helped a lot.

If your child is very young, you can start with the formation of their letters. Spend only as much time as your child can handle doing this. Once this is mastered you will move on to words, sentences, paragraphs, poems, scripture, quotes... I think you get the point.

Allow them to illustrate their pages or find pages that are made for copywork practice. Placing these pages in a notebook is a great way to store their work. This allows them to not only be able to show off their beautiful penmanship to grandparents and friends, but also allows both you and your child to see their progression. My kids often like to illustrate or color a picture that goes along with their copywork for the day. Some children enjoy illustrating their own pictures while others enjoy coloring pictures already provided for them. Copywork notebooks allow your child to add any illustration, making them very personal.

Over the years I've done different things to get my children motivated about doing their copywork – I used to keep separate jars with scripture verses, quotes, and poems and they would pull them out and that was their copywork for the day. We still alternate days doing a verse, quote, poem, literature and their choice for each day of the week. However, some selections take more than one day to complete. One bookshelf in my schoolroom is dedicated to keeping books of poetry, fables, quotes and so forth. I also keep a notebook where I continually add verses, poems and quotes to be used for copywork.

In short, if you choose to use this method, you will find that your child will become better at spelling, writing, grammar and penmanship. It is so easy to implement, there really is no reason to not give it a try!

Click here for free pages I have a available for copywork.

Click here to see some products I have available for copywork.

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Proud to be an American

{ 4:56 PM, Jul. 8, 2007 }

I put out my set of Proud to be an American notebooking pages about two weeks ago. Someone from my Notebooking Nook Yahoo! group pointed out a spelling error on my Benjamin Franklin pages and I wanted to let those who purchased from Homeschoolestore that these pages have been revised. They are available free on my website for anyone to use. You can find them by clicking here.

I also put these pages on sale through July 20th! If you use the PROMO CODE: ProudAmerican you wil receive this set of notebooking pages for $5.00! Click here for a direct link to this set of notebooking pages.

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Charlotte's Web Notebooking Pages

{ 6:36 PM, Jun. 12, 2007 }

I've added notebooking pages to enhance a study of Charlotte's Web by E. B.
White. I just completed reading this wonderful classic aloud to my two youngest children and
made these pages as we went along. They had a wonderful time putting together their
Charlotte's Web notebook. Their pages turned out so cute!

I've included the following in this set...

Title page
Copywork for each chapter using basic lines
Handwriting practice for each chapter using primary lines
Vocabulary page (words not included)
9 spider pages
pig diagram
56 bonus farm animal notebooking & coloring pages
There are a total of 121 pages in this set.

You can see samples for this set here.

I'm putting these pages on sale through the end of June. Use the promo code
SOMEPIG and receive $3.00 off.

I also have free farm animal pages you can download from this set.

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Free Bird Notebooking Pages

{ 9:30 PM, May. 22, 2007 }

My two youngest kids (11 dd and 8 ds) are just beginning a study of birds using Jeannie Fulbright's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. I made up copywork / narration notebooking pages to go along with this study and added them to my website. There are 48 pages of both basic and primary lined pages.

We have been enjoying our study so much! We have found three birds nests in our yard this year, which I believe is a record. We also have a roadrunner living nearby and he visits the our back yard often. The kids are using the pages not only for copywork and narration but also to write about what we see in our own back yard.
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What is Notebooking?

{ 10:00 AM, Apr. 3, 2007 }

Notebooking is essentially a scrapbook where your child creates pages using his lessons. It's an expression of their learning in a scrapbook format were they can add essays, illustrations, photos, maps, quotes, poetry, scripture or whatever they feel impressed to add. Many homeschool families have found notebooking to be a breathe of fresh air compared to the old workbook route. Your child will write his own book rather than filling in the blanks.

What can I notebook?

Just about anything you can think of! Here's a few ideas....copywork, dictation, history, timelines, science, nature journals, personal journal, scripture study, writing assignments, vocabulary, grammar, spelling.... anything at all!!! The sky is the limit when it comes to notebooking!

Where do I find the resources I need to create a notebook page?

There is a vast amount of information all around us. You could use the internet, library, field trips, nature, curriculum you have laying around, books you've collected, scripture, atlases... The list goes on and on. There are so many learning opportunities all around us and they can all be added to a notebook.

What do I need to get started?

The basics would include the following...

1. A three ring binder with page dividers or
several binders, one for each subject.

2. Clear page protectors, for your finished
pages.

3. Scissors, glue, colored pencils, markers,
paints, and/or crayons, colored paper (for
embellishing), and some way of storing it
all.

If you want to get really elaborate you could pick up stickers, stencils, or any scrapbooking
type of embellishment.

For extra "perks", but in no way necessary, you could consider the following...

Some homeschoolers have invested in binding machines such as the ProClick.
I purchased mine from Amazon for about $50. I have found it to be a very good
investment. The spines for the ProClick open and close which allows your child to
continue to add to there notebooks day after day. The only downfall about the ProClick
is that the largest spine they offer only holds 85 pages. However, I'm still very happy with it.

Another thing you could purchase is a laminator to help preserve their pages or just for the covers of their books. I also invested in one of these. There are several types to choose from, I chose to purchase a cold laminator from 3M which I've have for several years.

How do I organized the supplies needed for notebooking?

You could use anything from an old shoe box to a hutch. What I use are the plastic drawer
storage bins you would find at Walmart. They have several sizes, they stack nicely and they are very affordable. You can store them in a closet or in plain site. I also make sure to label
all the drawers so the kids know where everything belongs. I keep mine on bookshelves in my schoolroom. We also scrapbook, so all the supplies are together in one area.

If my kids are working on a page for more than a day or more we keep them in pocket folders. Each child has a folder clearly labeled with their name where he keeps his unfinished pages. You can purchase these folders in different colors, so each of my kids has their own color. When they complete the pages they get punched with the ProClick and placed in their notebook.
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Notebooking Nook Website

{ 1:26 PM, Mar. 31, 2007 }

I finally got everything figured out for my new website. What a learning experience it's been! My oldest daughter was a huge help in making it all happen. She knows much more than I ever thought she did about building a website! I really can't express my thanks to her enough for all her help! Love you Ali!

I have uploaded my free pages from my Notebooking Nook Yahoo! Group and also have 6 packets at this time for sale.

Here is a list of what I have to offer.

Ancient Egypt Notebooking Pages - Primary Edition

Daily Country Life in 18th Century America

Dinosaur Notebooking Pages

North American Desert Wildlife

Primary Copywork Pages

Nature Journal Pages / Copywork Pages (Floral)

I also have a few others packets in the works. I really want to thank everyone who gave suggestions for packets as well as encouragement through the beginning stages of this new venture. I still would like to hear your ideas, if you have something you would like to see out on the market you can contact me at betsy@notebookingnook.com

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Notebooking Pages

{ 8:40 PM, Feb. 28, 2007 }

I'm in the process of putting together several different notebooking pages for a new business I'm starting. I'm hoping to have my website up and running by April 1 or so. I've had several problems with this but I'm getting them figured out! Finally...

In the meantime, you can find my free notebooking pages at my Notebooking Nook yahoo group.

I have free pages for the following subjects...

Ancient History notebooking pages

Nature notebooking pages

Science notebooking pages

Literature notebooking pages

Journal notebooking pages

Holiday notebooking pages

IEW Writing Prompts

Planning forms

and more!!!

My pages will definitely be affordable. I want them to be available to all who are interested in them.

If you have a request for a special notebooking page, please don't hesitate to ask.
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