Math Notebooking Example: Decimals

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Here is another example from Rebecca’s 10 year old son. What amazing math notebooking we see in this example about Adding and Subtracting Decimals. Enjoy this humorous and detailed page and then look at my observations below.

decimals notebooking page

My Observations

1. Plain Notebooking Paper

Notice that this notebooking page uses nothing fancy — just lined filler paper and a pen (or pencil). This narration was done without any printable pages and even without any color, but this page is far from boring.

Normal, inexpensive notebook paper is adequate for notebooking. This page proves it.

2. Cute Cartoon Style

Of course, the child’s written explanations demonstrate that he fully grasps the addition and subtraction of decimals, but the little illustrations give this page character and humor. An otherwise dull topic is suddenly engaging with the help of little stick people and charts.

If your child enjoys this style of drawing, by all means let him use it in his school work. It will increase motivation and retention. And you get to laugh more as well. It is okay to be silly sometimes.

3. Minor Errors

I see some misspelled words and several punctuation and capitalization errors. But none of them detract from the meaning of the notebooking page. This mom did not obsess over small issues but instead focused on the quality of the explanation. Bonus points for Rebecca!

I want to thank Rebecca and her son once again for contributing images of his notebooking pages for our instruction. They are fantastic examples and really illustrate what you are aiming for in notebooking — a student-created presentation of the ideas in the lesson.

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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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Bon Crowder Reply

I didn’t even see any minor errors! This is brilliant.

Another observation – he intuitively shows that addition and subtraction are inverses by writing subtraction upside down in the title!

There’s a mathematician in the making!

    Jimmie Quick Reply

    Good point, Bon! I didn’t even realize a significance of that.

Sharon Ankerich Reply

Wondering how many note booking entries a child does per school day. Great example!!!

Twisted Cinderella Reply

Great example! I have just started including some notebooking pages in our homeschooling.

Stepahnie Reply

Wow, you really are the Notebook Fairy. We are schooling my son at home for now, just started actually, and I was looking for something new. I was a homeschooler, and the only complaint I had was gawking at books for weeks at a time. I love how my son could put himself in there and make the lesson his own. He had issues just sitting all day and reading a book and doing worksheets. So yeah….Thank You for being the Notebooking Fairy. LOVE IT!!

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