LESS BUSYWORK & MORE LEARNING

Eliminate busywork, boring texts, & homeschool burnout ...with notebooking!

Get started today with our FREE notebooking pages and Homeschool with Notebooking Quick Start Guide!

It’s time to…

Kick busywork, boredom, & burnout
out of your homeschool... for good!

There's a better way, Mom.

It’s simple.
It’s effective.
It’s even enjoyable.

Watch our video to learn how.

Hey There, I'm Debra... I'm so happy you're here!

After the first 6 years of homeschooling, I hit my rock bottom. The days were long and I was a enslaved to the curriculum. I checked off lots of boxes, but something was missing. There was no spark or joy in our homeschool.

Everything changed when a friend introduced me to living books, narration, and notebooking! Learning suddenly became engaging, personalized, and enjoyable. And homeschooling didn’t take all day.

It was THE PERFECT CURRICULUM!

In the 20+ years of homeschooling our 10 children, I’ve tried dozens of curricula and most of the various homeschool methods. I’ve homeschooled through years of unexpected family crises and schooling arrangements because of it. Through it all, notebooking remains my most loyal and trusted tool in my homeschooling toolbox.

Over the past 15+ years, I’ve written step-by-step notebooking tutorials, created thousands of notebooking pages as well as two notebooking apps to make this tool even simpler to implement in our homeschools.

My mission is to help moms break free from busywork, burnout, and overwhelm to find the success they desire for their children’s education and to homeschool with freedom.

Notebooking is the most simple, engaging, and effective way to create lifelong learners without fancy, complicated curriculum or dry, stuffy textbooks.

What is Notebooking?

Notebooking is a creative learning method where your child writes, draws, and compiles information about a subject or topic they are studying, all within a personalized notebook that showcases what they have learned.

Instead of filling in the blanks of a worksheet to test what your child knows, notebooking frees your child to SHOW and TELL what he’s learned, what he found interesting, and to do so using his own choice of words and imagery without fear of giving the wrong answers.

More than a grade on a piece of paper, notebooking provides him with a deeper connection and wider appreciation for the things he’s studied.

Through notebooking, your child becomes a storyteller, a teacher, and in some cases an expert after spending so much quality time with his studies. It’s an enriching experience unlike the former busywork.

Notebooking Pages & Lifetime Membership

Check Out Our Giant Library Of Ready-To-Go Notebooking Pages

We offer 1000s of notebooking pages covering 100s of specific topics and 100s of all-purpose designs. Our computer-based apps were created especially for moms of young students who need mom to scribe for them and older students who prefer to type their narrations. The apps also provide mom and students the ability to design their own copywork pages, notebooking pages, and other printable projects.

Homeschool Tips & Stories

3 Homeschooling MythS

What Do We Write and How Much?

Our Language Arts Notebook

Doom & Gloom of Homeschooling

Victory over Busywork

Testimonials

Notebooking has become an integral part of our schooling this year; we use them with our Sonlight history (to capture narration and related artwork), for our copywork/handwriting, and for science.

We first came across notebooking via an online homeschool newsletter that led us to YOU! We used a variety of your free pages to try out this new idea. In past years, we have primarily used oral narration to reinforce learning, but I wanted to capture some of that on paper this year, for record keeping. Enter your site. I took you up on your offer of the lifetime membership. When I opened up the file, I couldn’t believe how many great options there were, always something available to tie in with what we are learning, and new great pages coming along throughout the year. Notebooking has become an integral part of our schooling this year; we use them with our Sonlight history (to capture narration and related artwork), for our copywork/handwriting, and for science. The kids are always excited to see what page is coming next, and we look forward to binding the pages at the end of the year into books! My kids have normally been rather averse to having to WRITE, much preferring the oral narration, but the wonderful pages, and the knowledge they are creating a book, make it more fun for them. And I feel more confident in my homeschooling than ever, because I have wonderful records of all we have accomplished- wonderful peace of mind! I have never been to any other notebooking-pages site, because I have always found everything and exactly what I needed HERE! Thanks for such a fabulous resource!

Spring G.

What a blessing it is to have all of these resources at my fingertips…

I have loved having access to all of your notebooking pages as a Lifetime Member. Paying for access to that was really a no-brainer for me. What a blessing it is to have all of these resources at my fingertips to print whenever I need….versus spending hours attempting to either create what I need or search for it on the internet. Your hard work has paid off to serve at least one family (although I know there are many more than just us!). THANK YOU doesn’t seem like an adequate way to express our gratitude!

Angie in Minnesota

…he LOVED doing it!!! It made the whole experience SO MUCH more of a learning experience…

I just started homeschooling my 5-year old son for kindergarten this year. I’m new to homeschooling, and we are going through a charter school – so we are given a curriculum and assignments. But I have been frustrated with the curriculum and textbooks, and my son has been less than enthusiastic with the number of worksheets and “busy-work” and I was beginning to feel like I was killing his natural love for learning. Here I had this incredible child who is already reading on a 5th grade level, doing end-of-1st grade math, and yet he was starting to hate “school.” I felt like I was failing. I started researching online for other homeschooling ideas, and came across the whole notion of notebooking, and it immediately appealed to me. It seemed so much more flexible than the curriculum we were assigned now, and it seemed like my son would be actually learning more than when he’s just filling in blanks or drawing lines from pictures to words on worksheets.

My first trial was with one of the science notebooking pages. I printed the one with space for 3 pictures and then primary-lined writing area. We did a science experiment, and rather than just DO it, like we normally would have, after the experiment, I had my son draw pictures of the stages of the experiment and asked him to write a sentence about what he learned – and he LOVED doing it!!! It made the whole experience SO MUCH more of a learning experience, and even though it’s been a couple weeks, he’s STILL talking about it! Even though he generally dislikes writing, he truly enjoyed that experience, and I hope to have many more like it!! Thank you for opening a whole new world to us!!

Jen Clark in California

Busywork was destroying our homeschool.

Notebooking has been a true Godsend for our family. Busywork was destroying our homeschool. My daughter is so excited. She woke up and did all her chores and completed her notebooking all by herself. She was hovering around the family table as we were preparing the notebooks asking,”When do we get to start this?” She could hardly wait. They have eleven notebooks a piece so far. They are all nearly crammed full. Listen to this please, when we went to Wal-Mart last for supplies, she got herself a new notebook and things to go in it and came right home and made herself a new notebook, not candy, not Barbie, but a beautiful notebook that she designed on her own. Thank you, thank you, thank you…

Stephanie M. in Oklahoma

Even my 15 yo, who isn’t required with the younger few, sat down and did notes!! Lots of notes.

I had heard about notebooking for years, but I just KNEW my kids weren’t that into taking notes. As we read history, for instance, I would mention things they needed to write down, and the response was moaning, groaning, and slow motion, then messy, if any notes. Last week, for science, I needed a skeleton page to label, and we had been studying the Explorers. I prayed, talked to my husband, and took the plunge. We purchased the notebooking membership to save my time. I immediately printed off an Explorers page, a map, and 2 explorers pages each. The pages were met with colored pencils, immediate attention, and almost excitement. Even my 15 yo, who isn’t required with the younger few, sat down and did notes!! Lots of notes. They were engaged, asked spelling, dates, and listened. The 6yo kept up with the others, and had the cutest notes ever!! I’m surprised, and SOLD on notebooking 😉

Chris

The possibilities are endless.

The possibilities are endless. When I purchased my membership last year I was at the end of my rope. I was burnt out with homeschool. The kids were burnt out with the daily hassle of worksheets. Then I found the notebooking pages and I was hooked. We are using them with our current studies with Classical Conversations. We love this product. This saved my sanity in homeschooling my children. And now with the publisher, my girls and I are going to have a blast creating pages to go in our notebooks. And after watching the videos on the Book of Centuries and trying the template, I am super excited for this school year.

Dawn Kilgore

It allows for their creativity to flow … Notebooking has been such a success for our homeschool!

I recently bought a membership and the way I homeschool has changed for the BEST! I am a four year homeschool mom who struggled trying to find a way to make learning come alive for my children (ages 4, 14, 17, 18). They are enjoying putting together notebooks. It allows for their creativity to flow and they can write down what they find interesting about a subject instead of someone forcing an interest on them. They also get to draw if they want or find pictures to place in the notebook. A lot of kids love to doodle! The membership saves me time by providing such nice pages. Notebooking has been such a success for our homeschool!

Susan in Ohio

…my children LOVE looking through their notebooks frequently and I LOVE to see concrete evidence that they are learning.

I cannot even begin to say how much your site has changed my life! Sound melodramatic? Perhaps, if anything, it is an understatement! After homeschooling our 2 older children through middle and high school and then starting from the beginning with the three younger ones (9, 6, 3) I was feeling overwhelmed and stagnant. I saw my children getting bored and frankly, so was I. How was I going to keep this up? I began praying for God to inspire me with a way to teach my children that would bring fun back into learning and would, at the same time, give me confidence that they were learning what they needed to. It was within a week that I stumbled upon (through God’s grace and love for his struggling children like me) Debra’s website. Of course, I did my own homework and looked into several other sites offering similar services, but NONE of them offered what Debra does; and to be honest, I don’t know HOW she manages to do it! If I tried to make my own templates I’d be so frustrated! (and I have tried in the past) This site allows me to have access to everything I need for school and print it off quickly without feeling like I wasted my time at my computer…time that could be spent delving into books with my children and having fun. I LOVE the new publisher feature that will allow my children freedom to create their own unique pages as they get older. I have to be honest, when we first started notebooking it was intimidating and scary for me…I wanted to DO it RIGHT…but that’s the magic in this kind of learning: there is no RIGHT way! I just think of it now like a journal of all the things we like to talk about. Pictures, drawing, writing, etc…my children LOVE looking through their notebooks frequently and I LOVE to see concrete evidence that they are learning. THANK YOU, THANK YOU Debra Reed for all your hard work (so we don’t have to!) and your excellent product!

Rene Gilbertson

She is retaining more information than ever, and is even working above grade level.

This is our go to site for all our notebooking needs. My daughter especially loves the Publisher. This site motivates her to want to create and learn. She is retaining more information than ever, and is even working above grade level. We discovered Notebooking within months of beginning our homeschool journey, I couldn’t imagine educating any other way. My daughter wouldn’t want to learn in any other way.

Though my daughter has always been a good student, she wasn’t an independent thinker when it came to learning, unlike her older siblings. She just read what she was told, answered questions at the end of a chapter, and took a test. Then we began homeschooling in 6th grade, now approaching the end of 7th grade, my daughter actually makes out her own schedule of what she wants to read and Notebook on, she has taken initiative in her own education. She now has an interest in History, Classical Music, Art, Literature, and chooses topics most kids wouldn’t.

Like you, I had preconceived notions of the “perfect” homeschool education. I spent a great deal of money our first year on material she never even used. Then when I discovered notebooking, we invested in paper, art supplies, a comb binder, laminator and a library card. She is a happier student, I am a happier mom.

I think Notebooking should be an educational law. I apologize for my lengthy reply, but I have become not only passionate about Notebooking, but a huge advocate. Your site is easy to navigate, and offers a wide variety of subjects and topics. Though we follow a Charlotte Mason style curriculum, Notebooking truly will work with any style or methods of teaching.

Kimberly Hogan

These pages make our school day fun exciting and different every day!!!

I am a new homeschooling mom and I wanted to make our homeschool different than anything my kids had ever seen. In school they had busy work and nonsense questions that didn’t challenge them at all. Now, after a year of creating wonderful, engaging notebooks on many subjects, they now create their own pages and ask me to notebook everything from a recent family vacation (complete with pictures and drawings) to a great recipe we created (they are writing their own cookbook). These pages make our school day fun exciting and different every day!!! Thank you Debra!!!

Lisa