Sticky Note(booking)

with
Carrie Fernandez

An Easy-To-Use Homeschooling Tool typography on a scrap of blue paper

Carrie Fernandez, the owner and publisher at Daily Skill Building, brings you this featured column—Sticky Note(booking).

She shares how this easy-to-use, flexible tool breathes creativity and life into the way your kids do school.

Frequently Asked Questions About Notebooking

f you are new to the concept of notebooking as a way to homeschool, you probably have questions. Let’s look at some common questions about notebooking. I think you’ll agree, it’s an easy, flexible tool your children will love!

a young girl smiles while sitting at a table writing in a notebook

What is Notebooking?

If you’re familiar with journaling, you’re familiar with notebooking. Notebooking usually includes opportunities for your students to write about what they are learning and draw or sketch about it, combining written elements and visual components.

What Makes the Notebooking Approach Different?

Notebooking is unique in many ways:

Works for students in all grades, even high school
Can be used with one child or several
Adaptable. If your children don’t like to draw, for example, they can print pictures to cut out and paste in their notebooks.
Flexible, fun, and the opposite of busy work

It’s often the answer for students who are bored with textbooks and worksheets.

How Do I Get Started with Notebooking?

A great way to transition from worksheets to notebooks is to start with one of the Notebook Companions™ at dailyskillbuilding.com. They include question prompts, places to draw maps or label diagrams, and room to sketch.

How Do I Introduce Notebooking to My Student?

The easiest way to introduce notebooking to your students is to read a book, or a section of a textbook, and ask them to tell you what they learned. Using oral narration in this way lets you see if your children have comprehended what they read. Then, give them a notebook page so they can write about the most interesting part of what they learned. Once your children are comfortable with notebooking, you can have them record more information, but it’s best to start small and not overwhelm them.

The options for what kind of notebook page you can give them are almost endless. You can give them a blank sheet of notebook paper, a blank template, a printable notebook page, or a page from a Notebook Companion™ they can use.

How Does Notebooking Work with Unit Studies?

Unit studies and notebooking are a great match! You can read some wonderful books together as a family and then let your children’s creativity soar as they document what they learned. You will be amazed at how their notebooks give you precious glimpses into your children’s imagination.

What Supplies Do I Need to Put a Notebooking Journal Together?

The types of supplies you need to create a notebooking journal are completely up to you. For my daughter, we printed the pages, three-hole punched them, and kept them in a ringed binder. This way, we could add things such as essays, maps, and more as she got older.

When we use resources such as Notebook Companions™, we generally get them spiral-bound because we don’t usually need to add additional pages. All the templates are provided for you.

“Because one of the benefits of notebooking is allowing your children to pour their personalities and creativity into creating the journal, there’s no right or wrong way.”

a young girl sits on a window bench using crayons in a notebook

What Types of Things Do I Add to a Notebooking Journal?

If you’re wondering what sorts of ways you can customize your children’s notebooking journal, the possibilities are endless. If you’re using a ringed binder, here are some of the types of pages you may want to insert:

written narration
artwork: drawings, paintings, collages, etc.
maps: Bible maps, historical maps, geographical maps, etc.
timelines
field trip notes, pictures, and brochures
creative writing assignments and poetry
graphic organizers
magazine clippings
paper crafts
book reports or essays; research papers (as they get older)
copywork
vocabulary journal pages
charts and diagrams
photographs
and more!

Envision a completely customizable and uniquely creative scrapbook, and you’re on your way! You can add whatever types of pages you’d like, and you can add as many pages as you like. There are no limits!

How Do I Grade a Notebook Page?

If you’re wondering about grading or correcting a notebook page, my suggestion is don’t do it. It’s not a formal essay or research paper, and marking it up with a red pen will discourage your students. You want to encourage them to learn as much as possible, record what they discover, and HAVE FUN! There are more than enough papers and writing assignments to be graded when you work on composition and grammar lessons.

Remember, There’s No Right or Wrong Way to Notebook

Because one of the benefits of notebooking is allowing your children to pour their personalities and creativity into creating the journal, there’s no right or wrong way. Two children in the same family will notebook differently, draw different pictures, and record different facts that stood out to them, even when you are working on the same book as a family.

If you’d like to use question prompts and spaces to draw specific items from the book you are working on, consider our Notebook Companions™ at dailyskillbuilding.com, which makes the change from worksheets to notebooking easy and painless.

arrie Fernandez has been homeschooling for more than seventeen years. She has two daughters and is the wife to a talented artist husband. Along her homeschooling journey she embraced the notebooking method of learning, which allowed her children to thrive. She’s the owner and publisher at Daily Skill Building, which provides easy-to-use, open-and-go homeschooling resources, including Notebook Companions for popular books.

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