Creating a continuous keepsake journal of my child's complete education appeals to me, so I was happy to get a chance to review Notebooking Pages Lifetime Membership from NotebookingPages.com, created by homeschooling mom of 10, Debra Reed.
For the past few years, our school year has ended and I go through the children's work that they completed only to discover that a great deal of it was merely a closed book, perhaps some worksheets, a test or an essay here or there, but I wanted more to show what they actually learned. More importantly, I never want my children to just check off an academic box of requirements, but rather, I want them to actually remember what they have learned and have something to show for their efforts. The more I learned about NotebookingPages.com, the more I got excited about the plethora of information I could present to my children to enhance their education.
What is NotebookingPages.com?
The creator of NotebookingPages.com explains it from her point of view, in her own words:
The creator of NotebookingPages.com explains it from her point of view, in her own words:
Notebooking is essentially a scrapbook record of your child's learning. Everything is delivered in a PDF download, ready-to-print, format. It is their own handwriting, and their own work of art. Things to include in a notebooking binder include, but are not limited to:
Adding narration to notebooking helps to make the learning stick. The actual Notebooking process can be used with any child from K-12 and has two main components:
- drawings
- quotes
- songs
- maps
- statistics
- notes
- copywork
- timelines
- book reviews
- reports
- poems
- post cards
- mini books
- lists
- field trip notes
- personal reflections
Adding narration to notebooking helps to make the learning stick. The actual Notebooking process can be used with any child from K-12 and has two main components:
- Written
- Visual
- Thousands of downloads of themed notebooking pages
- Unlimited printing rights
- All current and all future notebooking pages on every subject for as long as the site exists
- search bar, table of contents, tutorials and videos
- 3D Pages
- A-Z Pages
- Lined Pages
- Bible Pages
- Character Study Pages
- Copywork Pages
- Historical People Pages and Timelines
- Ancient and Modern Times Pages
- Holiday Pages
- Science and Nature Pages
- Latin and Greek Word Study Pages
- Geography and Map Pages
- a variety of layouts with regular and dotted-line pages
- Open-ended printable download pages that are free of distracting, trendy graphics and are not fill-in-the-blank worksheets
- Freedom to allow your children to express what they have truly learned
- 12 Months free Web Notebook Publisher App
How Did We Use It?
I was asked to use at least 15 different notebooking pages from the site and explore the range of resources that NotebookingPages.com offers. I began by reading the 3 tutorials, which is recommended to view one per day to get started. Each tutorial ends with a homework assignment for the teacher to become familiar and comfortable with the concepts. I also downloaded the free packet that contains loads of templates.
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The first tutorial addressed busy work, which struck a chord with me. I don't feel like my daughter's education contains a whole lot of busy work, but my son has really challenged me to do away with anything that even remotely looks like busy work. Everything he learns is learned on purpose and only if he has a reason to learn it. Sometimes, I find myself stretching to find a legitimate reason other than, I have to log your hours for the state. So, I really enjoyed reading the Notebooking Pages thoughts about busy work, plus I always like freebies and the mini books templates will probably be used the most.
Here's a sample of what I received as a free download just for reading through the first Tutorial:
The second tutorial addressed the concept of Narration, which is essentially having the child read back, or tell you orally, what he or she has learned.
The third tutorial addressed the concept of Notebooking!
And, then I got to explore the site.
I found that there is information from a vast range of age and grade levels, from coloring sheets for the very young to detailed pages for higher level learning.
There is an entire section on human anatomy, which actually seemed to be almost college level information outlined.
My elephant-loving 4th grade absolutely loved the pages on elephants in the A-Z animal section:
There is a section on Arts and Music. My daughter is a guitar player and loves to sing. She has written her own music. I thought the pages provided would make a great way to record songs.
Of course, the homeschooling mom in me got excited when I saw the newly added States section. Since we have a North Carolina beach vacation planned soon, I was so happy to print off the pages of North Carolina which corresponds with our summer plans.
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The first tutorial addressed busy work, which struck a chord with me. I don't feel like my daughter's education contains a whole lot of busy work, but my son has really challenged me to do away with anything that even remotely looks like busy work. Everything he learns is learned on purpose and only if he has a reason to learn it. Sometimes, I find myself stretching to find a legitimate reason other than, I have to log your hours for the state. So, I really enjoyed reading the Notebooking Pages thoughts about busy work, plus I always like freebies and the mini books templates will probably be used the most.
Here's a sample of what I received as a free download just for reading through the first Tutorial:
The second tutorial addressed the concept of Narration, which is essentially having the child read back, or tell you orally, what he or she has learned.
The third tutorial addressed the concept of Notebooking!
And, then I got to explore the site.
I found that there is information from a vast range of age and grade levels, from coloring sheets for the very young to detailed pages for higher level learning.
There is an entire section on human anatomy, which actually seemed to be almost college level information outlined.
My elephant-loving 4th grade absolutely loved the pages on elephants in the A-Z animal section:
The holidays section is separated by month and the holidays contained within each month. I selected July since that was the next major holiday approaching.
There is a section on Arts and Music. My daughter is a guitar player and loves to sing. She has written her own music. I thought the pages provided would make a great way to record songs.
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What Did We Think?
While I have not yet convinced my children to come fully over to putting all of their curriculum under the bed and turn entirely to notebooking, I do like the idea. And, when I need the pretty borders or detailed pages to prompt learning in a particular subject, NotebookingPages.com has definitely become my first go-to stop. I also like the idea of adding narration to the notebooking process, because I really think it's important for the student to explain in their own words what they learned. The idea behind this site is super encouraging and inspiring addressing the idea that any and every subject can be learned by notebooking. I loved being inspired by these videos and homework assignments, and I think the site offers such a variety of notebooking pages that you probably could teach any and every subject of interest, from the core to more. It really allows you to create a nice record keepsake of your child's learning.
FIND NOTEBOOKINGPAGES.COM ON SOCIAL MEDIA @:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debrareed.notebookingpages/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NotebookingPgs @NotebookingPgs
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NotebookingPgs @NotebookingPgs
Read what other members of the TOS Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:
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