If you’ve ever thought about getting rid of multiple choice tests and textbooks, you should try homeschool notebooking
With the Principle Approach to Christian Homeschooling, your students will keep notebooks on a variety of subjects. As you are homeschool notebooking, be sure to offer a Christian perspective of the studied topic. I like to use the four R’s to incorporate a Biblical worldview in your notebook.
Research in Your Homeschool Notebooking
Start with researching God’s word. Go to Scripture and see what God has to say about your studied topic or the book you are reading. Let’s look at a few examples.
If you are reading a book about evolution, go to the creation stories in Genesis 1 & 2. Look at what God says about that topic. Research evolution & creation from the Bible first.
Or, maybe you are studying Ancient Egypt. Read the story of the Exodus and relate it to Ancient Egypt history
Reasoning in Your Homeschool Notebooking
Next, reason from the research truth. Draw and apply principles as you reason through the studied subject & the Bible research. This encourages your kids to really think. Kids move from researching a subject area to reasoning and drawing a conclusions. This is a higher level thinking process.
Younger children may simply draw their conclusions. Older kids can write out their reasoning – cause and effect, conclusions, opinions and so forth.
Relate in Your Homeschool Notebooking
Relate these truths and principles that are discovered in the subject area, as well as the student’s character.
We may be the best Christian parents ever to teach our children Bible lessons. Build that relationship and cultivate excellent readers and writers for the Lord. We must also teach them the history of God’s hands in developing a nation where the church and the individual has experienced the greatest liberty to achieve God’s best. Otherwise, we have failed. – Lori Harris
We can teach all the Bible concepts in the world. But if we’re not relating it to real life, to your children, to life that’s going on around them, we are not doing our job as homeschool parents.
This may be a difficult task at first. Model how you would relate the research & reasoned truths. As you model this process, your children can imitate you and begin to relate truths & principles on their own.
Record in Your Homeschool Notebooking
Record your findings. It’s okay if each child has a bit different record of what they’re learning. That’s the beauty of research-reason-relate.
If you are notebooking about Swiss Family Robinson, you may have one child who relates the story to work ethic in the family. Another child might be impressed with the wildlife and the way God created nature. Let them have different records of their findings. It’s OK… I promise!
In the end, teachers & students should record individual application of the Biblical principles to each subject area.
Recording makes a big impact on your kids. It imprints deeply on their minds and their memory, so they remember the concepts they learned. Record in your notebook as a final part of notebooking.
In summary, we’re simply identifying the Biblical worldview of each subject. We need to remember that each subject area was created by God and will reveal His story of cause and effect in the events of man and nations throughout time.
For more information about notebooking, read these blog posts:
How Do You Begin Notebooking with Your Family? {Part 1}
How Do You Begin Notebooking & Notebooking Page Templates {Part 2}
Grab your free notebooking pages to test drive it.
Question: Do you use notebooking in your homeschool? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
