Top Ten Reasons My Daughter Loves Notebooking (see disclaimers)

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why my daughter loves notebooking

For this week’s top ten topic, I had to enlist the help of my daughter, Sprite, who is now thirteen years old and finishing up seventh grade. When I told her the topic was Ten Reasons You Love Notebooking, she questioned the word “love.”

I modified it to like. She still was not satisfied.

She claims this post should be title Ten Reasons I Tolerate Notebooking. So that is her first disclaimer — tolerate, not love. (Another one is at the end of the post.)

What can I say? She’s a teen. She doesn’t get too excited about homeschool any more. It’s not cool to love notebooking. But deep down, I know she enjoys it. At least I know she enjoys it more than more traditional methods. Here are her reasons. I hope you enjoy them.

1. I Can Draw Pictures

Top of the list was the opportunity to draw. Sprite has always loved adding simple figures to her notebooking pages, and it is her most favorite thing about this teaching method.

2. I Can Create Pages on the Computer

A close second to drawing is using the computer to design her own pages. I normally set her loose with Publisher and let her fashion her own very unique pages.

3. Notebooking Helps me Remember

What a relief to hear this reason! Yes, notebooking helps children remember what they learn, and Sprite admitted that it’s true in her case.

4. Notebooking Gives me a Sense of Accomplishment

By reason #4 I was prompting reasons from Sprite. She claims the best part of notebooking is when it’s done. Hmmmm… I reworded that to sound a bit nicer. And she agreed that there is a sense of accomplishment from looking back on a year’s worth of notebooking pages here at the end of a school year.

5. I Can Document Field Trips

Of course, the field trip itself is more fun than the documenting, but Sprite cited this as a reason that she likes tolerates notebooking.

6. Notebooking is Easier Than a Test

For a creative child like my daughter, notebooking is an open ended assignment that she thrives on, unlike the rigidity of a test where each question has one correct answer.

7. I Improve My Note taking Skills

Here was a great reason that I hadn’t considered at all. (I’m glad I asked her!) She said that when she knows she has to make a notebooking page about something before hand, she pays attention to taking detailed notes. So in that way, notebooking helps her take notes.

8. I Can Use Lots of Crafty Supplies

Our home is full of markers, crayons, scissors, adhesives, and paper. Sprite can never seem to have enough art supplies. With notebooking, she has a chance to color code words, illustrate narratives, and diagram facts.

9. I Can Look Up Facts When I Forget

This was a reason that I offered Sprite, and she agreed that looking up something in her notebook is easier than looking through a book we read. And even though notebooking helps her remember, she does forget things. So the written record is handy to refer to.

10. Notebooking Gives My Mom Something to Blog

And there you have it. The honesty of a teenager. Yes, I do blog about notebooking, and Sprite normally obliges me with plenty of great pages to photograph and discuss.

And Sprite’s final disclosure: My mom made me do this. I am sorry to all the other children whose mothers print out my mom’s notebooking pages to have you fill out.

Thank you, Sprite for giving me so many good ideas for this blog post of 10 reasons you tolerate notebooking. I feel sure that moms of children who complain over their homeschool now feel relieved to know that you, too, are not always happy about your school work.

 

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Jimmie Quick

Jimmie is now a veteran homeschool mom. Her daughter Emma is a student of the sciences at a large university in Illinois. Her guide to notebooking—Notebooking Success—guides you through notebooking: what it is; how to use it; how it fits a Charlotte Mason, classical, and textbook curriculum; tips for getting the most educational value from it; and much more. It comes bundled with several bonuses, including a small set of generic notebooking pages that can be used with any topic.

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Lula B Reply

Oh Jimmie, Sprite … of all the wonderful things I’ve read on your blogs, this is my favourite! I LOVE your honesty, and your humour! You’re such an inspiring homeschooling team! I’ll be sharing this post with my daughter, too 🙂

Sandra Reply

Thank you for the belly laugh Sprite. And thank you Jimmie for being honest enough to post. Sometimes it is all too easy to think everyone else’s kids love everything about homeschooling all the time.

Kerry Beck Reply

Missed you at the chat today. I didn’t even tell my kids the title was “love”. I asked why they liked homeschooling. It was fun to see that the 3 of them had similar answers. I enjoyed Sprite’s answers

Mary Reply

How funny is this? It give me comfort to see that someone else with a child my child’s age is going through this, too. My once enthusiastic (about everything) child is now lukewarm about most things.

I am so thankful for notebooking, for all of the reasons Sprite stated in the post. It helps my preteen stay engaged and focused and I can assess her knowledge very easily.

Corrie Reply

LOL! I guess with teens you’ve got to keep your sense of humor.

Stef Layton Reply

If I had something in my mouth I would have spit it out at the screen. THIS is a great post!

Eddie - The Usual Mayhem Reply

I love it! We have that sort of ‘enthusiasm’ here at the moment too.

Angela Reply

We haven’t done any notebooking, I have always been a little overwhelmed at the thought of it- but your post made excited about trying it out.

Jasmine Reply

Ha! Very nice. I love her apology at the end. You can tell her we’re very grateful to her mama for helping those of us who are new to this or don’t have time to make our own printables! =D

Debra Reed Reply

This is hilariously encouraging! 🙂 Mom to three notebooking teens (currently) and they would provide many of these same answers. I’ve let the teens do some different things over the past couple years (just so they could experiment for themselves) and they always come back to notebooking. They do not like the rigidity of other methods or curricula and they ALWAYS retain the information to a much deeper level with notebooking. Their bottom line … they don’t want to do anything that’s a waste of their time. If they’re going to invest the time, they want to gain something from it. They know that notebooking has never been a waste. When they start to moan and groan (& yes they all do from time to time esp. as they get older LOL), I ask if they’d rather return to textbooks, worksheets, tests, etc. … and frowns turn to smiles in an instant. 🙂 Thanks Jimmie & Sprite for a great post!!!

Claire Reply

He he!! I wonder what my guys would say….. I’ve been visiting your website for years. I love, love, love your posts! You’ve influenced the way I homeschool more than anyone. I also started a blog due to your very simple instructions. We LOVE your notepages! ( and Sprites, of course!)

Melissa Telling Reply

Ha, ha! Yes, I feel better now. As long as we are all confessing here, my kids aren’t really excited about notebooking either. (In fact, my daughter has in the past issued a similar “apology” to the children whose mothers force them to use the pages I make.) But in their free time, I catch them creating their own notebooks for subjects of their choosing. Whether they realize it or not, notebooking has become an integral part of the way they learn and process information. And I feel good about that, because one of my main goals in education has been to teach my children HOW to learn, not just to fill them with facts. Someday I hope that they will appreciate the education they have been give. But in the meantime, I’ll keep creating “fun” notebook pages with the hope that, even though they only tolerate them now, they will one day LOVE using them with THEIR children.

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