Notebooking

I am getting hooked on a new method for homeschooling. Notebooking. It's kind of like scrapbooking, but not. Each boy has a 3 ring binder full of plastic page protectors. We do different activities and then put the pages that are made in the binders. Ummm...this is harder to describe than I thought. Okay...examples. We just finished reading a Magic Treehouse book about the Titanic. We studied some glaciers. The boys drew a picture of a glacier and described what they drew. That went into the notebook. Then, they wrote/drew a page of one thing they learned from the Titanic book. That went in. We are watching the show, "America, the Story of Us". After they watch each hour, they have to draw and write about what impressed them the most. Also, they painted terra cotta pots and then planted seeds to grow things. I took pictures of each child and their pot and they used that picture to make a page to go into the notebook. They do their copy work and in it goes. (yesterday their copywork was the poem, "Try, Try Again". They wrote it and are now memorizing it.

Anyway...I here are a couple of pictures from Josephs notebook to show what the heck I'm talking about. It has been very successful so far because my boys loooove to draw and color. Doing it this way has made it fun and interesting for them. Every day they love showing their book to their dad and telling him about the newest pages.




This is the cover to Joseph's notebook. Each boy decorated their notebooks according to what they love. This is a picture of Joseph being a famous monster truck driver. Notice the spotlights shining on him? (o:

Here is our home garden page...page 1. We will be taking another picture soon to document the middle stage and then the final stage. Again.. I love that the kids are free to add in their own personality. He did the assignment...which was to glue the picture down and write what he planted. The rest was just his creativity flowing.

Here is Joseph's page after we finished Hour of the Olympics.

I LOVE this page. He drew the minuteman shooting the redcoat. I didn't notice he spelled 'fighting' wrong until I scanned it.

Can you imagine 20 years from now...the boys showing their kids these notebooks? I love the idea that they will be able to see how much they improve in writing, drawing, describing etc.

So, I'm thinking that I might have finally found the method that my kids don't hate. We are still doing Saxon math, which they love and some additional grammar worksheets, which are in a different binder.

So...what do you think?

Here is a website that I am using for some inspiration.... www.notebookingpages.com.