Notebooking Nook

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.

{ Posted in Notebooking } { 1 comments } { Link }

Work ~ School ~ Play!

{ 8:08 AM, Jun. 1, 2007 }

Our summer has official begun and the kids were so excited... that is until we sat them all down yesterday and laid out their summer schedule. We run three businesses from home and have two other businesses outside the home, so we are EXTREMELY busy! Things have really started getting out of control and we needed to enroll the kids help. So here's the plan...

Up at 5am (everyone has their own alarm clock and responsible for themselves)
Outside with dad by 5:15
Family works together outside until 6:30 (we live in the Mohave Desert and we have to work outside early before the heat takes over)
Mom and dd 15 make breakfast for family from 6-6:30.
Breakfast / Devotional / Family Prayer from 6:30-7
Finish outside chores if needed and do all inside chores. Everyone must do chores until 9am

This is the "Work" portion of our day. We accomplished so much this morning... pruned some trees and bushes, mowed the lawn, we did our usual "dog thing". For those of you unaware we own a commercial dog kennel and have over 150 dogs. We cleaned the carpets in 4 rooms and then we did all our "normal" chores, bedrooms, dishes, etc.

We are being quite strict with the kids because they have become a bit lazy while we were busy running all these businesses. If we catch them not working, if they are outside later than 5:15 or if they are not asking what they can do next, we add an additional hour of work after school and also don't allow them to be with friends that day. So far so good, they all want to see their friends so they are being very careful not to mess up! It's great!

Once the work is done the kids get a 30 minute break to have a snack, be on the computer or whatever it is they want to do.

We are still going to be doing some school over the summer... reading, writing, math and science. Of course, I'm always looking for teaching moments and run with those when they come up. But here's the plan for school....

9:30-9:45 ~ Devotional
9:45~10:15 ~ Math
10:15-11:00 ~ Reading
11:00~11:30 ~ Science
11:30-12:00 ~ Writing (either about science lesson or reading assignment)

After all this is finished, they are free for the rest of the day. However, they have to be home from friends by 6pm for dinner, night-time chores done by 8pm and in their rooms by 9pm. I have 4 teenagers and they thought this was very unreasonable, however, we are not going to be completely unreasonable. We will allow them to go out with their friends if something comes up and they have a church youth group on Thursday nights which means they won't be home until after 9pm. But, this is the plan. I really hope we can stick to it, we really need to get things flowing more smoothly around here.

{ 2 comments } { Link }

Discount on North American Birds Notebooking Pages

{ 7:53 AM, May. 31, 2007 }

I've just posted a brand new set of notebooking pages on my website... Nature Study of North American Birds Notebooking Pages.

If you use the promotion code SPRINGSALE07 you will receive $3.00 off until June 8th!

You will find in this set the following pages....

7 template choices
52 species of birds
primary-lined pages
basic lined pages
range pages in both primary and basic lines for each bird
fact sheet for each bird
a page to diagram a bird
a page to illustrate and define types of beaks
title page
additional templates for further study

Click here to see a list of the birds included in this packet. Click here to see samples.

{ 0 comments } { Link }

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.
{ Posted in Notebooking } { 0 comments } { Link }

Free Books!

{ 1:08 PM, May. 16, 2007 }

I'm sure many of you have already heard of this awesome book company, but for those of you who haven't here's it is.... It's called WOWIO and they allow you to download 5 books everyday. Today I downloaded the following...

Great Ancient Egypt Projects You can Build Yourself
Tools of Native Americans: a Kid's Guide to the History and Culture of the First Amercans
Great Pioneer Projects You can Build Yourself
Great Colonial America Projects You can Build Youself
Great Wold War II Projects You can Build Yourself

These books are so well done! There are a few more I have set to download tomorrow and can't wait to get them!

If you sign up using your email address, be patient, it took them a day to get back to me. One other down side is that it is only available to US residents.

{ 1 comments } { Link }

Lapbooking

{ 3:30 PM, May. 1, 2007 }

I'm really no authority on lapbooking as I have not done a lot of it myself. However, this article on lapbooking was sent to my Notebooking Nook yahoo group this morning and I found it to be very well done. I hope those of you looking more closely into lapbooking will find it helpful.
{ Posted in Homeschooling } { 2 comments } { Link }

Our Straw Bail House

{ 11:16 AM, May. 1, 2007 }

When we were planning to build our house several years ago my husband mentioned perhaps building a house out of straw bails. We had read about this in Mother Earth News many years prior and had put it in the back of our minds. When we spoke to our draftsman about it, he thought we were crazy, of course, but was open minded enough to help us out. We drew up plans and he made it work. We live in a beautiful home that stays cool most of the year. We live in the Mohave Desert, so AC is a must after about mid-June.

I'm not sure we saved money by doing it the way we did with all the extras, but it's fun to say we live in a straw bail house. Our windows are all deep set, about 2 feet. We have yet to put in a "proof window", but maybe someday. If I had to do over again, we would still build a straw bail house, however, I would go with a more simple floor plan and rustic features. We moved in May of 200 and overall we are all very happy with our home.
{ Posted in Family } { 2 comments } { Link }

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.
{ Posted in Notebooking } { 3 comments } { Link }

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

{ Posted in Notebooking } { 3 comments } { Link }

Mystery of History Notebooking Pages

{ 11:11 AM, Mar. 6, 2007 }

For those of you using The Mystery of History you might be interested in the notebooking pages I have available for book 1. I've been making pages for MOH since we began last summer. You can find the pages at my Notebooking Nook group. I have pages available through week 22 at this point. These pages would work great for most studies of ancient history though.

For those of you using Mystery of History 2 you can find notebook pages at the Lilliput Station group. This group is run by my friend Melissa Telling, she is an amazing source of information. She has much more than just MOH pages. Make sure you check out her group and blog.

{ 7 comments } { Link }

Trumpet of the Swan

{ 9:17 AM, Mar. 1, 2007 }

I've been reading the Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White with my 10 yod and 7 yos. They are enjoying it so much. We dedicated the month of February to a study of birds and have been enjoying it so much we are going to continue with it for a couple more weeks.

We have have planted sunflowers, made clay bird house (they did this with a friend of mine), gone through at least 3 big bags of bird seed, made up lots of notebooking pages on the subject and read piles of library books.

I did make up some notebooking pages to go along with the Trumpet of the Swan. If you are interested in something like this you can find them at my Notebooking Nook group. There are also a few pages that are just for a study of trumpeter swans, they are all in the same file. If you join the group, you can find them in Science / Notebook Pages.
{ Posted in Homeschooling } { 0 comments } { Link }

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.
{ Posted in Notebooking } { 0 comments } { Link }