Notebooking Questions and Answers

I really want to learn notebooking. How do I start? How do you choose what, how, and when to notebook?

My best advice would be to just start. Don't wait until everything "looks" a certain way or you think you have everything you "need". Your kids will surprise you with their creativity.

When I started notebooking I began with history, but this was just me. I love to notebook history because there is so much you can include: historical maps of the civilization, event, empire; quotes from whomever you are studying; and great images you might find online. We love the Usborne Internet Linked World History Encyclopedia! Along with the links to enhance your studies, they also have maps and clipart you can add to your pages.

At the moment, we are working on the dinosaur packet available on my website. We spent a couple days last week reading about dinosaurs. This week we are filling out fact sheets for the dinosaurs and then from those we write up a brief narration about the dinosaur, color the picture, and mark on the map where fossil evidence has been found.

Another really easy way to start is to begin a nature notebook. Just spend some time outside and have the kids look for something interesting to write about. It might be a cluster of lady bugs in a bush or an ant hill. They can take pictures of the things they find and use the pictures to look up what they find. The pictures can be included in their notebook, along with any information they find in their research.

I like to print most of my pages onto 24 lb. paper, but you could use 18 lb. without any problems. I print cover pages onto card stock. If the kids are going to be doing a lot of gluing on a page we might also use card stock. I collect scrapbook materials when I find them on sale. We like to use "fancy" paper behind some of the images as borders or use punched out shapes to dress up the pages. This is not the most important part of notebooking, but once the research is done and the pages are mostly put together you can add all the "frills".

Can you tell me a little bit more about copy work and how you notebook it?

Copywork is means of showing your child how a piece of literature should look and be written. When your child does copywork it is important that they not look at a word and copy one letter at time, but look at the whole word and write it. This really helps a lot with spelling. Seeing the proper way to punctuate and the usage the different parts of speech is also a key to copywork. Your child can't help but do better in their writing if they are daily see great works of literature and copying them.

Copywork can very easily be brought into notebooking. I keep a bookshelf in my schoolroom with books of poetry, fables and quotes. They also take their copywork from their literature. I also have a binder where I put quotes and scripture verses for them to copy. I still have young children who copy and so I make sure to find very short verses for them. However, since they are used to copywork, I can also give them a longer
piece to copy and they might spend a week on it, copying one or two lines a day. I couldn't do this with my older kids when we first started out because it would overwhelm them.

All you need is a basic notebook page for these notebooks. If your child enjoys illustrating make sure there is an illustration box for them to add a drawing to. I like to look for coloring pages for my younger ones and shrink them down to fit onto their pages. I copy it to my desktop, drag it into my drawing program and create a page for them. This way the page is all ready for them to write and color. One of my younger kids enjoys drawing his own pictures and another likes coloring a picture which has already been provided for her. I do have a primary copywork packet available on my website.

Over the years I've done different things to get the kids 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. Although, like I mentioned before, some selections take more then one day.

I bought the book on inventors and the notebook pages from you, but what do I do with them? How do we study the subject? What is my part and what is my son's part?

Much of notebooking is having your kids narrate back what is read that day. The pages you purchased will be nice to have him copy his narration onto. Use the fact sheet to fill in the facts as you come to them or have him research the answers over the next few days. Once that is completed he could use it to write a report on the subject.

If you have the inventors book you could just read through one or two sections a day and have him write about what you read. You can also do further study by checking out books from the library and utilizing the internet.

The empty boxes provided on some pages are for illustrations, such as diagrams. The boxes could also be used to add quotes, maps of where the invention was introduced or the inventors birthplace. You might find a picture of a monument in his honor. If your son enjoys making models he could put something together that relates to what you are studying and add a picture of it to his page.

One other thing about narration . . . I have an 8 year old who narrates to me as I write it on a separate piece of paper. I still have him use primary lines (he's a bit messy) and often use a highlighter, writing in the narration for him to trace over. If his narration is long, we decide together what the most important part of the narration was, and he writes it on the paper. I still add his whole narration to his notebook, but because writing is a struggle for him I don't push it too much. I usually type it out for him. Although, he really enjoys typing and will sometimes type part of them out himself.

Ye Are My Disciples

The Savior said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). This principle is something I have strived to teach my children both at home and out in the world. I believe that the one true key to happiness is to labor for the happiness of those around us.

In our family prayers, some often used phrases are "help us to find ways of serving others" or "give us opportunities to serve those around us." Do we really want to have to go out of our way to serve others? Are we really looking for opportunities to serve? For myself, I have to say, yes (at least the majority of the time, I do have my bad days and fall short more than I'd like to admit). I always hope my children are doing the same and of course I do see them go out of there way to help others. I know they don't do this for the approval of others, but because they truly want to live to be Disciples of Christ.

A few weeks ago my 16 year old son had the opportunity to go to a 5 day youth conference (EFY) put on by our church. This is something he looks forward to every year. We didn't check to see what time registration was and he was a few hours early, so to kill a little time he went to Wal-mart to wander around. As he was walking in, he saw an older woman who was struggling to get out of her car. He ran up to her and asked if there was anything he could do to help. She asked him if he would get her a motorized shopping cart and he ran inside to get one for her. After he reached her car again he helped her into the cart and bent down to give her a hug. He stayed with her during her shopping to help her reach high things on the shelves. Once she was finished, he put her groceries in her car and he helped her back into the car. She gave him another hug and teary-eyed thanked him for being such a good boy.

Now, I don't want you to think that my boy shouts from the roof tops when he does a good deed, in fact, I didn't hear about this from my son at all. About a week later, I was talking to my younger daughter who also attended the conference and I asked if she had had any experiences that she wanted to share with me. She said that during their first devotional the counselors were talking about serving others and how some people do it for the glory of men and others do it to glorify God. Then out of the blue, they called my son to come up front. Apparently, some of the counselors where also at Wal-mart early that morning and were paying close attention to my son's actions. They were thrilled again when they saw him register at the conference. They called him up front (about 500 kids attended) and shared with the attendees what they observed my son do. After which, one of the counselors read some scriptures relating to service where the Lord speaks to one of his servants and whenever the Lord spoke the name of the servant, the counselor replaced the name in the scripture and used my sons name (I wish my son had taken down the scripture but I'll try to figure out what it was!). My boy was overcome and wept.

The Savior is our perfect example of service. Even though He came to earth as the Son of God, he humbly served everyone. Jesus used a parable to teach the importance of service. In the parable, he speaks of his return to the earth and of separating the righteous from the wicked. To the righteous He says: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye game me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." (Matthew 25:34-36)

The righteous didn't understand and asked: "Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or wen saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?" (Matthew 25:37-39)

The Lord answers, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethen, ye have done it unto me." (Matthew 25:40)

I love that! We are here to serve one another - to be the Lords hands.... to say kind words, do good deeds and to gladden the hearts of our brothers and sisters. There is no one here on this beautiful planet that isn't a VIP to God and His Son! They love each and every one of us the same and we are obligated to serve others as Christ served. He gave ALL He had for us and if He wants us to love each other, isn't it the very least we can do!

Lastly, in Galatians 5:14 it says: ... "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." And, John 13:34: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."