Transform Your Homeschool with Charlotte Mason Notebooking
With just a simple composition notebook you can completely transform your child’s homeschool education.
Notebooking has become an important part of many Charlotte Mason inspired homeschools, and for good reason. In this post, we’ll explore the philosophy behind notebooking, discuss its numerous benefits, and dive into the various types of notebooks I use in my own Charlotte Mason homeschool. From nature notebooks to language arts journals, you’ll discover how these simple tools can enhance your child’s learning experience. I’ll also share practical tips to help you implement notebooking in your own homeschool journey.
In my homeschool, notebooking has been a huge life saver. My children love using their notebooks, whether they are sketching a newly discovered insect in their nature notebooks, recording their written narrations from the day’s literature, or completing their daily math lessons. The pride my children now take in their school work is evident, and it’s clear that notebooking has become an enjoyable way for them to further their learning. Seeing their growth and progress through the pages of their notebooks has been a rewarding experience for both them as well as myself.
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Philosophy of Notebooking in a Charlotte Mason Homeschool
Charlotte Mason strongly advocated for the use of notebooks in her educational approach. She believed that notebooking was an essential tool for fostering a child’s intellectual growth, creativity, and personal connection to the subjects they studied. The act of notebooking itself embodies the principles of observation, reflection, and a personal connection to knowledge—a practice that resonates with Charlotte Mason’s principles. Unlike typical notebooks, Charlotte Mason emphasized the importance of the blank page in notebooking.
In a Charlotte Mason education, children are encouraged to engage with books independently, make their own connections, and record their thoughts and impressions in their notebooks. This process allows children to take control of their learning, develop critical thinking skills, and develop a deep appreciation for the subjects they explore.
The Blank Page
At the heart of Charlotte Mason’s notebooking philosophy is the concept of the blank page. Blank pages are such a powerful tool and encourage children to fill them with their observations, thoughts, and reflections, encouraging deeper thinking as they process their studies and express them in their own unique voice. Unlike pre-printed worksheets or fill-in-the-blank lessons, the blank page offers children the freedom to express their understanding and creativity without restrictions. It also allows them to organize their thoughts, sketch their observations, and record their questions and insights in a manner that is most meaningful to them.
By deciding what to include and how to present their work, my children have developed a sense of autonomy and responsibility for their education. This ownership has created a genuine love for learning and helped my children establish a personal connection with the subjects they are learning.
Moreover, notebooking fosters the habit of self-education, giving children the tools to learn independently—a skill that will serve them well beyond their school years. By embracing the philosophy of notebooking in a Charlotte Mason homeschool, families can nurture their children’s natural curiosity, creativity, and love for learning.
The Benefits of Notebooking
Types of Notebooks
In my homeschool, we use a variety of different notebooks across all of our different subjects. Each type of notebook serves a unique purpose and helps to foster specific skills and knowledge. These are the ones that I currently use with my children.
Nature Notebook
The nature notebook is a key tool in our outdoor learning and nature journaling practice. The main goal of the nature notebook (or nature diary) is to create a deep connection with nature through careful observation and documentation. It’s not about creating perfect artwork or writing lengthy essays, but rather about developing a habit of noticing and appreciating the details of nature around us.
During our weekly nature walks my kids bring their notebooks and colored pencils. They sketch plants, animals, or interesting natural objects we come across, and then my older children will sometimes write down a few sentences about what they have observed.
When we first started nature journaling, the drawings were pretty basic – stick-figure-style animals and very simplistic drawings of trees and plants. But over time, I’ve seen real improvement in their observation skills and artistic abilities. The pride they take in their nature journals is evident and so fun to see.
Some of my family’s favorite nature study resources that pair well with our nature notebooks are:
These resources have been invaluable in guiding our nature journaling efforts and enhancing our day’s walk.
A tip from our experience: good quality colored pencils (we love these ones*, they are pretty affordable and very high quality as well) make a big difference in nature journaling. They’re worth the investment if you can swing it.
Word Book
The word book is essentially a personalized dictionary for younger children. Whenever they encounter a new word in their reading or daily life, we add it to their word book.
I am sure different homeschooling families use their wordbooks slightly differently. In my homeschool, we keep it simple: my kids write the word, and then I have my child draw a small picture to help them remember the meaning. This type of notebook has been effective in expanding my children’s vocabulary and getting them excited about adding new words.
This year, I’ve started using the word book in a new way with my second grader who needs extra practice with his spelling. Each week, he chooses one word to focus on. He writes it in his word book once a day, for the whole week, saying it aloud as he writes it. After a few weeks of this practice, we’ve already seen real improvement in his spelling. It’s such a simple technique, but it has been surprisingly effective.
Book of Centuries
The Book of Centuries is like our family timeline of history. Each two-page spread represents a century, and as we go through our various studies – history, science, art, music, literature, and more – we add important events, people, and inventions to the appropriate pages.
In our homeschool, our Book of Centuries is a simple notebook with blank pages for both sides of the spread. This gives us flexibility to record written entries and add drawings or printed images as we see fit. We have just one book for our whole family, and everyone contributes to it as they learn new things.
At first, creating a Book of Centuries seemed like a daunting project. But as the pages have filled up over time, it’s become clear how valuable this tool is. The kids have started making connections between different periods and events on their own, across various subjects, which is, after all, the beauty of the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling
Book of Mottoes/Commonplace Notebook
For my older students, we use a Book of Mottoes, also known as a Commonplace Book. This is essentially a collection of quotes, ideas, and passages that resonate with them from their reading or studies across all subjects.
The process is straightforward: when they come across something meaningful or thought-provoking in their reading, they jot it down in their notebook. It could be a line from a novel, a quote from a historical figure, or even a concept from their science lesson that they found particularly insightful.
One rule we have for these notebooks is that everything must be written in cursive. I encourage (okay, I insist on) this for a couple of reasons. First, it gives them extra practice with their cursive handwriting. Second, I find it makes the notebooks look neater and more cohesive. There’s something so satisfying about flipping through pages of carefully written quotes and ideas.
I find it to be very interesting to see what resonates with them and how their interests and thoughts evolve. Sometimes, we will look back at earlier entries together and they will make new connections that they didn’t realize before.
The Book of Mottoes serves multiple purposes in our homeschool:
While it might seem old-fashioned, we’ve found the Commonplace Notebook to be a valuable part of our homeschool, especially for my older children developing their own thoughts and perspectives.
Science Notebook
In my Charlotte Mason-inspired homeschool, we use both a science notebook and a nature notebook. While they might seem similar at first glance, each serves a unique purpose in our children’s education.
Our science notebook is where we dive deeper into scientific inquiry. We use it to record experiments, observations, and key concepts we’re learning from our living science books and hands-on activities. It’s become an essential tool for developing reasoning skills and understanding scientific principles.
Here’s how we use our science notebook:
We use a notebook with both lined and blank pages, plus some graph paper for data tables or charts. The lined pages are great for writing, while the blank pages work well for diagrams and sketches.
In contrast, our nature notebook is more about fostering a love of nature through personal observation and artistic expression. It’s where we sketch plants, animals, and landscapes we encounter on our nature walks, often adding labels, dates, and brief observations.
Both notebooks align with Charlotte Mason’s emphasis on wonder, curiosity, and careful observation. The science notebook helps develop scientific understanding, while the nature notebook cultivates appreciation for the natural world. Together, they provide a well-rounded approach to studying the world around us.
Math Notebook
For our math lessons, we use a gridded math notebook, which has been very helpful for keeping calculations neat and organized. The grid in these notebooks is especially helpful for aligning place values in larger numbers and for working on geometry. We’ve found that a medium grid size works well for most of our needs, but you might want to experiment to see what works best for your children.
We use the gridded notebook for a variety of purposes in our math lessons:
Charlotte Mason Style Language Arts Notebook (copy work/transcription, dictation, narration)
Our language arts notebook is a cornerstone of our Charlotte Mason-inspired homeschool. It includes several activities: copywork, transcription, dictation, and narration. We use a notebook that I created myself to accommodate the different Charlotte Mason language arts components: copywork, transcription, dictation, and narration. It is essentially a series of notebooking pages that are used over and over throughout the weeks.
Copywork and transcription involve choosing passages from the week’s literature or poetry for the children to copy directly into their notebooks. This practice helps with handwriting, spelling, and punctuation. As they progress, we gradually increase the length and complexity of the passages.
Dictation is simply where I read a passage aloud, usually the same one that was selected for their copywork/transcription the day before, and my children write it down. It’s great for developing listening skills, memory, and spelling.
Narration is perhaps the most important part of our language arts practice. The form of narration you choose for your children may vary depending on age and skill level. I start my children with oral narration, where the children tell back what they’ve heard or read. This helps develop their listening comprehension and speaking skills. I will also have them create a narrative drawing in their notebook to make further connections. As they get older, they are then expected to write weekly written narrations. After reading the story, they will write down their retelling in their own words.
It’s worth noting that approaches to narration can vary among Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. Some families use a dedicated narration notebook for each child, where they record narrations for all readings and lessons throughout the week. In my homeschool, though, we’ve found a different method that works for us. Instead of a separate narration notebook, we incorporate one written narration a week into our regular language arts notebook. This approach gives my children the benefits of narration practice without overwhelming them.
It’s a good reminder that you can adapt Miss Mason’s methods to fit your family’s needs while still embracing her core principles.
Morning Notebook
For my younger children, typically from kindergarten to 2nd grade, I use a Morning Notebook as part of our daily routine. This simple notebook has become an essential part of our morning basket time, helping to teach and reinforce basic concepts like days of the week, months of the year, dates, time, seasons, and the morning’s weather.
The Morning Notebook is pretty straightforward: we do it daily, usually as the first activity in our homeschool day. It’s a great way to ease into learning and helps establish a consistent routine for my little ones.
I’ve created a simple daily notebook for this purpose. Some families prefer to put their daily calendars in a 3-ring binder with sheet protectors to make them reusable, which is also a great option. I found that a dedicated notebook works best for my homeschool. It allows me to easily flip through all the pages with my children, which I enjoy, and it provides a more organized and streamlined approach for my big family.
Here’s what we typically include in our Morning Notebook:
This daily practice helps reinforce these concepts naturally and gives the kids a sense of time and the changing world around them. It’s amazing how quickly they pick up on patterns and start anticipating what to write each day.
A Note on Mother’s Notebooks
While we’ve focused on notebooks for our children, it’s worth mentioning that some Charlotte Mason homeschoolers keep what’s called a “mother’s notebook” as part of their “mother culture.” This type of notebooking involves mothers keeping their own notebook for personal growth and reflection. In these notebooks, mothers might jot down inspiring quotes, make notes from their own reading, plan out homeschool ideas, or reflect on their parenting journey. The idea is to nurture the mother’s own intellectual and spiritual growth alongside her children’s education.
While I just personally started to keep my own Mother’s Notebook, and am certainly no expert on it, I can already see how it could be a valuable tool for self-reflection and continuous learning. If you’re feeling inspired by all this notebooking, you might consider starting one for yourself. Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to do it – the key is to make it work for you and your homeschool journey.
Tips for Notebooking in Your Homeschool
If you are ready to add notebooking in your homeschool here are some of my favorite tips to help you get started:
Remember, the goal of notebooking isn’t perfection – it’s engagement, retention, and a love of learning.