When it comes to notebooking, FREE is a beautiful word! However, free quality notebooking pages are few and far between!
Recently, I took a look at the notebooking pages I created for our children and realized they are sort of ugly.
It all began as the little girls and I were doing a mini study on Abraham Lincoln. Daddy watched the movie Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda (have you ever seen that one? I love old movies that leave you feeling good about life, and this is one of those. If you have any way to view it you should) and it captured our attention.
So…after we watched the movie we kept talking about it, and before you knew it I was looking into our books for a story about Lincoln’s life, and then we were reading it and then…I knew just a tittle in a composition book was not going to cut it. We needed something more thorough to express our interest.
However, when I flipped through our catalog of notebooking pages I was quite dissatisfied. That’s when I decided to revamp the whole lot, and then I thought I could share them with you, my dear readers!
A few more notes on notebooking.
Lately people on Facebook have been asking me for details on using notebooking pages, so I thought this would be a nice place to post more details.
Prepared pages is actually only one of two ways we notebook. The other one is to use composition books and fill them up with visual and written elements (I have an extensive post about that here). Sometimes the composition book way is easier, other times something we are studying just begs for an actual printed out page that has neat spaces for everything. This also allows us to fill our huge binder (which is sort of like creating our own encyclopedia).
Note: When it comes to notebooking pages, I don’t like to use the ones with most of the work done already, with graphics or specific questions for each space. To me this is too much like workbook work. Personally, I like my children to have to think and exert some effort. They need to decide what they found interesting or important, and they need to come up with visual ideas from their own minds, even if that means they print something out from the Internet to paste in, at least they have had to make the extra effort to research and find it. In the end they have the satisfaction of exerting effort to create something interesting and pleasant to the eye.
Did you know that you really only need two elements for a good notebooking page? Here they are:
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Written
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Visual
That’s it! The written helps them solidify ideas and gives them a venue to practice their language skills. The visual gives them an emotional anchor or connection so the information “sticks.”
You say you have loads of kids at different ages? No sweat!
Let’s say you have kids the ages of four, six, ten, and twelve and you have been studying Abraham Lincoln. Conventional learning says you need a separate history curriculum for each age, but homeschooling says, “Oh yeah? Just watch this…”
Have the four-year-old copy the name Abraham or Lincoln (or even a simple “Abe”). Then he can cut out a printed picture of President Lincoln, or a log cabin and paste it into the notebooking page (or you could cut it out for him and let him paste it). If he’s in good spirits, he could try his hand at scribbling something that sort of approximates Lincoln’s visage (face) in a little square on his notebooking page. Of course, by then he will have moved on to force feeding kibble to the dog or seeing how high he can jump off of the couch, but that’s just fine since you’ve just touched on some critical components of his education (namely, phonemic awareness, spacial understanding, fine motor exercise). If he’s showing more interest he could dictate a few sentences to you and you could write them in for him.
The six-year-old can practice some of the same, but maybe you could require a few more words or pictures. The ten-year-old will need to write complete sentences, maybe at least one for each visual element, and you should require more of them.
To save time and keep frustration at bay, it’s a good idea to have a white board (or old-fashioned chalk board) handy to jot down a list of words they will all need to write into the page, in this case it might be: president, log cabin, splitting rails, slavery, civil war, etc. You could even write down whole sentences they dictate to you so they could copy them onto their pages.
I try to be available to help jog their memory or to help them spell words or find resources.
The twelve-year-old should be able to write at least one short paragraph and do some more intricate drawings, including perhaps a map or other graphic. He should be required to so some reading beyond what you are sharing with the little ones and then pull out some interesting facts to include on his pages.
If you are like me, you have a few children who like to go as fast as possible and do the least work necessary. This is why you need to announce that sub-par pages will be done over, from scratch. Don’t worry, this will not hamper their creativity, it will keep them focused, especially if you also announce you will be snapping photos and sharing them on social media :).
Older children should write at least a page, and their drawings and maps should have added information included. Host a discussion to unearth their honest opinions and then have them dig deeper to find the lesser known facts about Lincoln and the Civil War.
The entire endeavor should take no more than 15 minutes for the youngest, up to an hour for young teens, and up to two hours for the oldest.
Afterwards, make sure and make a commotion over the excellent, clever results. Show them off and read aloud the best parts. When you place them in your binder (or wherever you archive them), do it with ceremony and watch them beam with pride. (We have ours in a set of 2″ binders we keep on a shelf in the dining room. I often find these open and lying on the table where children have been leafing through them. They also like to show them to guests and relatives.)
Now for the notebooking pages…
I formulated these pages to be used at different stages of interest and ability. Some are lined for primary grades, others are for high school. Scroll through the entire set when choosing what will be the perfect fit for your child and what he is studying.
Included are pages with maps for when you are short or when you want to cover a large swath of territory, such as the westward expansion of the U.S. You can use marker or colored pencil to color portions of the country or continent.
There is a page with a grid which can be used to reproduce a map or exact picture of an individual (you start by taken a printed out original and creating a grid with light pencil on it, then using ratios–practical math–to reproduce it in perfect proportion on the notebooking page).
Note: The pages print lighter than they appear on the screen, meaning your child will find it easier to color over them than it looks.
If you have a few moments, please leave me some honest feedback so I can improve them and make them better for everyone!
Thank you so much! We usually just use our composition books, but this week I had my 9 and 8-year-old do a note booking page using one of your older forms for their art presentation. They are boys and prefer to do the least amount of writing/drawing as possible, so I think I had more fun with it than they did. I like the guides these new pages give.
I’m so glad–I was hoping they would be a great help!
These were awesome! I used them today to have the kids notebook on Roman gladiators. I’m planning to make a bunch of copies and use them from now on as we study Rome. Thanks so much!
You made me smile, Kristi! They would be perfect for studying Rome 🙂
I love how little is done for them in the ones you made, as well as the useful grid – I did that a lot as a child but had since forgotten about it!
Notebooking pages have been a struggle for us in the past, but mainly because I don’t know what to do with them after the fact. I love how you mentioned making your own encyclopedia of sorts. I have struggled with the various topics not having a semblance of order to them, as a lot of their work is done in composition notebooks, so the printed note booking pages seem kind of random. Do you put everyone’s work in the same one? Any helpful tips on how to order them?
Thank you for, yet again, a very helpful post.
Thanks for the thoughtful questions, Cindy. I’ve heard some families have one binder for each child, but that would never work for us. We have a 2″ binder for each year and place everyone’s in there, not in any certain order, and all in protector pages so we don’t have to damage them with hole punching.
Do you have forms with maps of Asia and Africa? I only noticed map pages of the Americas and Europe.
No maps of Asia and Africa so far, but I can create some soon.
I am so excited to download and implement these! I see them mostly referred to use for history and the like. I will use them for that as well, however, I am hopeful to see if I can use them for our Bible study and Science units. We have enjoyed your McGuffey’s printables and have really helped us make more use of our readers.
Thank you for your valuable feedback! If you have a quick moment, are there any changes I could make to either the McGuffey sheets or these that would make them more helpful?
This is beautiful! Thank you for your wonderful resources and insight. I gain so much from your wisdom.
Thank you and you are very welcome :).
Very nice! I really like the look of them and they will be great for all of my children in school. 16 down to prek!
That’s wonderful, Christina. Always happy to see someone blessed. 🙂
Thank you! where are the McGuffey sheets? I have watched some of your youtube info. about the McGuffey readers. I just don’t remember any sheets.
I can help with that! Here is the link: https://momdelights.com/index.php/2016/08/30/free-lesson-sheets-printables/
Wonderful printables with lot of variety. Thanks for providing them for free. Kids will surely love these.
You are so welcome, Mary. I love free things, too 🙂
Thank you so much!!! The only feedback I have is that these are brilliant! We started using these this year, and they have been so helpful. I have 6 kids with another on the way, and these save me so much time. My girls (7,9,11) love going to the library, and picking animals to research. They all pick something different, and they are all at different stages, so it was stressful for me trying to help and keep them all on track. These make it SO MUCH easier!! They will dive deep, use a few different pages, and make a whole presentation that they share with everyone so we can learn with them. My 9 year old used the maps to color in where different species of wolves are found, and used the blank areas to print a map where cobras are found. My eldest used the grid to draw Africa, and map where the species of gorillas are found. Their research is so neat and it makes giving their presentations so easy. I can still allow them to be wild about animals, and not lose my mind 🙂 so thank you again. My eldest has even used them to do a research report about Rosa Parks recently. We are now using them as we learn about electricity together, and they are perfect. I could go on and on about the versatility these allow. They love that they can draw, and I love that they can gain some computer and motor skills with the print and paste idea. My 5 year old son is now starting to want to be more involved and learning to write, and I am so happy that he will be able to use these to share his artwork and new skills. As a fairly new homeschool mom trying to get good at and find more time for more than just the 3 R’s, these have been a huge blessing and absolute game changer for me.
Thank you for taking the time to write such a sweet note, Stephanie 🙂 It tickles me to hear of the many ways you have used these notebooking pages. This is exactly why I create resources–to bless precious mamas like yourself.
Dear Sherry,
It has been a while, but could you please make one with Asia too? I really love these note booking pages and can’t wait to use them! Thanks so much!
That sounds like a good idea. I’ll keep that in mind–thanks for that important input 🙂
These are literally the BEST notetaking pages I have ever seen !!! I can’t thank you enough for them!! I have scoured the Internet, thinking that it would be much easier than it has been. I am going to use these for my planner, too!
That is so wonderful to hear! Make sure and share with your friends–we hope to bless as many as we can 🙂
Hello. Could you tell me which sheets are used for what age? I am new this style of homeschooling as we did mainly boring box curriculum last school year. I have ages almost 17,13,11,6. My 13 year is about two years behind in reading and writing. I love the gentle grammar and lesson books for the Mc Guffey’s. Thank you for those. We are currently using the Ray’s for math and Homeschool in the woods for history but the seem to already be loosing interest. Thank you. Your blog and hard work is a blessing for me.
That’s a good question, Jessica. I think it’s a matter of trying the different sheets with each child and seeing where they are slightly challenged but with some comfortability. In other words, you don’t want the child to be frustrated, but just a bit challenged. You see, the McGuffey’s move ahead so subtly that the increase is almost imperceptible unless you continue for a number of months and then look back and see how much has changed for the better. Hope this is more clear than mud, lol! There really isn’t any better way to go about it.
I sure hope these are free. I’m starting a class up and these would sure help me get started, thank you.
Absolutely free, no sign-up or anything required.
love these! Thank you!
You are very welcome!
Oh my Sherry !
This will save our whole school year and beyond! What a gift to other homeschool Moms
May GOD BLESS YOU and your family.
Lots of love
Eve
It is my great pleasure to serve you, Eve. Thank you for your sweet words of grattitude 🙂
Thanks. We are just about to start using notebooks. These pages will be a big help into getting started.
God bless.
So glad they are a blessing to you!
It has been like pulling teeth to get my boys to do writing projects, even if it is about a story or subject they love. These pages have been wonderful for us this past school year. I ended up buying your Lesson books from Amazon and will be purchasing them again in the fall.
At church a few weeks ago my son drafted a page similar to your notebooking pages with a “keywords” section and a drawing box etc. His page was nicely done and after seeing it I would like to make up a page based on his for taking notes at church for both older and younger kids. Would you mind sharing what software you use?
Thank you for your purchases! I think the ones you are referring to were done with Microsoft Publisher, which I don’t think you can find anymore. An alternative would be Canva, which you can access for free.
Thank you so much for the templates, I’m gonna use it in my class
Glad to be of help!