Thirty minutes before bedtime my husband and oldest climb into two chairs in our office. My husband opens a book and reads one chapter to our 9 yr old.
The latest book my husband and son read together is Spirit Fighter (Son of Angels, Jonah Stone)
Recently Jimmie at The Notebooking Fairy offered a few Character Notebooking Pages I printed out and we discussed protagonist, antagonist, flat, round, static, dynamic, major, and minor characteristics after watching Star Wars II.
I figured it would be fun to use the Character Notebooking Pages for Spirit Fighter since I didn’t know what happened in the book and my son could take on the “teacher” role. (something he enjoys doing – a little too often)
When we started discussing the plot and characters I realized we can do this for every book hubs and the boy read together! We can create a mini notebook for each book and store all pages in a binder together.
It’s a great idea – but I’m a “notebooking” novice, words like “Charlotte Mason”, and “living books” scare me down to my public school roots.
Thankfully I purchased The Notebooking Fairy’s ebook Notebooking Success ($5.50) and already appreciate the Bonus (lined) Pages, and 50 Things to Put Into a Notebook not to mention the hand holding tips for notebooking each grade level! This ebook is perfect for home educators who haven’t tried notebooking yet and also full of tips for notebooking lovers!
I think “notebooking” will be a nice break for the summer, fill my son’s “quality time” love language, as well as spark his creativity! Surprisingly after filling out three notebook pages he asked if he could create a written “movie preview” for the book. He couldn’t wait to read it to me!
He then created a poster for the book (an alternate cover) and we worked on two mapping worksheets since two characters read maps and rode the NYC subway. Later he built the Brooklyn Bridge out of legos!
You can imagine my new google search is “notebooking” – so tell me,
Hmm….I think the girls could get on board with this! Thanks for the idea and the resource!
We HEART notebooking. Any tips? Yes, read Jimmie;s book…follow both of her blogs and join Notebooking Pages…and take it slow…remember, each page, each opportunity is a great way for a child to learn…and grow. I have two great articles by Jeannie Fulbright that are fantastic….she lives it…truly with her children!
I got Jimmie’s book forever ago and just never read thru it until recently. We’re loving notebooking. I knew Jeannie did – since we get the Apologia notebooks to go along with the texts (but I’ve never done anything from “scratch”).
Have a great weekend!
We’ve dabbled with notebooking for several years. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I fully “jumped on board” and have the same ideas as you for the Summer…and for the Fall. The video from Debra on Notebooking Pages was very compelling and had me saying, “yes! That’s more my speed and path that I desire.”
Looking forward to hearing more about your findings. Maybe I’ll actually be more active in photographing our education experiences to share.
We kept notebooks on lots of subjects / topics when we homeschooled–history, science, Advent–to name a few. Both of mine like to draw so I would have them draw pictures for Bible verses, characteristics of God, leaves / plants that were picked up around our neighborhood and identified. Notebooks are cheap, handy and all you need is a pencil and a little imagination. Can’t have enough of them.
I am very excited to dip our toes into notebooking. Also because the boy is becoming well educated on a subject not just answering a question! Thanks for stopping by!!