What is homeschool notebooking?

Many folk who homeschool realize that they cannot import a school system into the home. Homes and schools function differently. In the homeschool there are many different ages, but one teacher. There are also different personalities that are being accommodated, as well as different giftings, struggles and bents.

Much of the learning in the school system is accomplished by a teacher presenting information through a textbook medium and children answering specific questions relating to that information. The answers can be in the form of multiple choice questions, true/false questions or short paragraphs.

While this may work for some families, Footprints on Our Land makes use of Charlotte Mason’s principle of narration. Narration is the “telling back” by the child to the parent about what has just been read or taught. The art of narration develops as the child grows in maturity and mental skill. The child’s narrative should be as close to the original content as possible, but this is an ability that children learn as they begin to pay full attention to the reading.

This is where homeschool notebooking method can be used. A young child can draw a picture related to what has been read. An older child could even draw a cartoon strip to narrate what she has learnt! Early writers may prefer to dictate their narration to a parent. More mature students can write longer narration using homeschool notebooking pages.

Often children like a combination of drawn and written narrations. Some children like to import clipart or use magazine pictures when notebooking. Our children love using glitter pens to add a little “zing” to their pages.

Notebooking pages from our children's files

Notebooking can be used for all social study subjects – history, geography, science – as well as for Bible copywork. Homeschool notebooking also works for nature study.

All your child’s notebooking pages can be filed in plastic sleeves with dividers per subject. These folders can become part of your children’s end of year portfolios from which you can choose some of the best pages across the disciplines to display.

We have added some notebooking pages to our website for you to use specific to South African studies. You can also sign up for our FREE monthly homeschooling E-zine where we notify you of new pages that have been uploaded as well as giving you tips, advice, useful website and other homeschool-friendly information!

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