Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: notebooking, written narration

This topic has 10 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 9 months ago by albanyaloe.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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July 10, 2015 at 11:02 am
MrsB
Participant
Does anyone use this? You can be a ‘lifetime member’ for $100, and I’m wondering if it will be something that will work for me. With multiple ages, I think I need something like this to streamline and collect us all together.
How do you do your notebook pages? Print everything you’ll need for the year in the beginning or print as you need? I don’ want to waste 5-10 minutes each day printing, because I know that I’ll get distracted or won’t do it. But I don’t want to fret and worry about choosing the perfect page for each topic NOW. That will leave me making history and science notebooks for each kid ahead of time. And I’m a bit overwhelmed by it all right now.
July 10, 2015 at 11:33 am
missceegee
Participant
I own it but we don’t use it. It’s too much of a time waster for us. Plain paper, composition books, or 1/2 blank and 1/2 composition books work better for us. I also own history scribe and geo scribe notebooking pages. We don’t use those either. Just my 2 cents.
July 10, 2015 at 3:47 pm
MelissaB
Participant
I’m in the same camp as MissCeeGee. I bought it a long time ago for less than $100 for a lifetime membership (and it came with the “create your own pages” software for life too). Honestly, it’s just a pain for me to make pages for the kids (or print them out depending on if there are ones I like that are already in the library of pages). I’d rather them write out written narrations on plain paper and then make their own drawings if they’d like. I will say I’ve used the create your own pages for some composer and artist study so they can have the picture of the composer or artist and also for our homeschool co-op, but that is only because I already have access too it.
I also got the “mom’s tool belt” planner from the same lady and never use that either. It’s a shame I wasted money on things I haven’t used, but that is the problem with digital, no way to sell it off, so you best be sure when you buy it you will *really* use it. However, maybe other people would really like this way to make notebooking pages. I think it’s a good idea in theory, I’m just too lazy to implement it and find it easier to use regular old paper. And now you have my 2 cents and then some. 😉
July 10, 2015 at 4:00 pm
Tristan
Participant
I got it several years ago and some of my kids like it and others don’t. Here is my secret – I print out a whole folder full of pages at the beginning of the year so the kids can just grab one and go. If I know we’ll cover a specific person/time period/topic I can print those and stick in a file for when we reach it, but often I print generic ones and my kids illustrate.

July 10, 2015 at 5:42 pm
MrsB
Participant
I’d want to preprint, because that’s the only way it would get done. I’d really like to duplex print on both side of cardstick and have it spiral bound. This would love me with no flexibility, but would keep me somewhat structured and accountable. Of course, If I don’t use all those pretty notebooks, it would be a serious waste of time and moneyz
July 10, 2015 at 5:55 pm
Melanie32
Participant
We tried using notebooking pages when my daughter was younger. It turned out to create a lot of busy work-I mean there are all these boxes that need to be filled! And lines that need to be written on! It made us feel like we hadn’t done enough if we didn’t use up at least most of the space.
July 10, 2015 at 6:52 pm
Tristan
Participant
Melanie – it can turn to busywork. For my kids, when they are doing them, they can add more to the page over time as they learn more about the topic, or they can simply choose a page with fewer lines. They do like looking back through ‘their books’.
July 10, 2015 at 8:01 pm
Melanie32
Participant
Tristan-Yes, sometimes, my daughter enjoyed her notebooking pages as well. We did have one year where she really enjoyed lap booking too but only when the study was interest led. Other wise it all became busy work and empty page screaming to be filled for us. I know that many kids enjoy notebook pages so I don’t mean to be negative about them. I was just sharing our overall experience.
I guess, if it were me, I might use notebooking pages here and there, when my children were really into something but I certainly wouldn’t spend $100 for notebooking pages! Even if they are endless! Most of the ones we used were free online or very inexpensive. Imagine how many lovely, living books you could buy for $100! 🙂
July 10, 2015 at 8:03 pm
Melanie32
Participant
Melissa-You sound like me! I bought the Mom’s Tool Belt planner as well and have never used it. 🙂
July 10, 2015 at 8:45 pm
MrsB
Participant
Melanie, that’s the best argument yet. How many books could I buy for $100!
Ha! That clinches it. I’m not doing it. I’ve always felt the HOD notebooks were busywork, to some degree. I like the copywork, and in the higher guides, there is a lot neat info and chance for interaction. But, I totally don’t have time to put that together.
Blank paper and comp books it is!
July 11, 2015 at 3:49 pm
albanyaloe
Participant
I have a sort of different experience. I have benefited from notebookingpages.com, and use it at least once a week.
I do agree that the hassle of having to pre-print and find the right notebook page is not great. Unless you’re using store bought blank notebooks, this will always be the case.
But what notebookingpages.com has helped me with, is to realize that notebooking is something I can do with my children, that it is not difficult, and that the pages other people make are not “magical”. You don’t even need “pages”.
Mostly, I have found the free one year software really worth it. You see, I often do not find pages which cover what we are doing, or I dislike the ones in the subscriber area. (we live in South Africa)
I do not own Microsoft Publisher or a similar program and I am not very adept with pc’s. I find that I can manage this program really well and have designed many pages, which my children actually like. They prefer to write lots, their own narrations, with their own headings and such. They do not like “fill in /worksheet” type of notebooking pages.
I know we could use a plain notebook, but here in SA we do not get the variety of notebooks. I like that I can put these in a binder and put a cover on it. The children are proud of their work, which has made big change. We will probably become more creative eventually and just do our own thing like Cindy Rushton suggests. I am on the look out everywhere we go!
With the software, the children have each designed their own notebook pages, cover sheets, greeting cards and such and enjoyed the occasional “typing” out of their notebook page on the template for variation. I like that this offers them something else to do with the computer, something creative.
What I do not like is the number of images you can upload in the image area…. it is too limited. In the notebook subscriber area, I have to admit that the “search” function is not very accurate at finding what is available, and sometimes after we covered a topic, and I made a page, I discovered there was a pre-made one, which is annoying.
Is it worth the price? Well, I wouldn’t get it again, if it was renewable, but I am glad that I have got it. Will I renew the software? Not if I find something free online that can do the same or more 😉
A tip, you can search for and find many free notebooking pages on the internet. So many kind people make them and offer them.
If notebooking is something you want to try, I would try the “free” search first. You could sample and download from notebookingpages.com, as that will give you a pretty good idea of what they offer.
Notebooking pages.com is handy, but not perfect. It’s given us “wings” and confidence to try notebooking on our own.
I hope this helps you decide.
Thanks,
Lindy