Many famous people who kept journals were trained to think critically through writing in a notebook. Is notebooking right for your child? Find out!
The Reason We Notebook
When I was in school, I hated worksheets. Hated them. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy learning, or that I had a terrible work habit. No, I just found them mind-numbingly boring, repetitious and lacking in creativity.
I can remember — at the age of 7 — telling my mom, “These are busy-work. There is no other function for these. I should be reading a book!” (I’ve always been opinionated.)
When we decided to homeschool, I knew I wanted to avoid worksheets. After all, why subject my kids to something I resented so much?
But… writing about a subject increases retention. It helps us think through what we’ve read and process our thoughts.
That’s one of the reasons I included a notebooking section in the Bible Road Trip™ program.
I decided we would try keeping notebooks on each subject. There were no mindless fill-in-the-blank spaces, and there was plenty of room for sketching, note-taking, brainstorming, and dreaming. Blank notebooks created some tension for the boys, and I found that lined pages formatted for their age level were helpful.
At first, I would read aloud for a few paragraphs, then stop and help the boys decipher what information was important enough to write about.
As they’ve aged, the boys have learned to keep their own notebooks without much input from me on what to record. One thing they still enjoy is having structured pages. That’s why I created the Bible Road Trip™ Notebooking Journals to go along with the curriculum.
How to Notebook (and What is Notebooking?)
Notebooking Resources for Your Kids!
Bible Road Trip™ Year One Notebooking JournalsBuy HereBible Road Trip™ Year Two Notebooking JournalsBuy HereBible Road Trip™ Year Three Notebooking JournalsBuy HereMy Timeline NotebookBuy HereMy Book LogBuy HereMy Field Trip and Travel JournalBuy HereMy Sermon NotebookBuy HereCobblestone Path™ Church History Research JournalsBuy Here
Famous People Who Kept Journals
There are a lot of fads in education. However, notebooking has existed for a long time and been used by many successful, creative adults.
There are dozens and dozens of famous “notebookers”, but I picked just a few for your consideration:
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Journal
(Illustration: Anatomy of the Neck, Da Vinci, Public Domain)
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Da Vinci was a incredible artist, mathematician, scientist, and writer. He is perhaps best known for his painting The Last Supper, as well as his journal entry displaying The Vitruvian Man. Da Vinci’s notebooks are full of findings in the fields of anatomy, optics, engineering, and hydrodynamics. In fact, he diagrammed machines akin to modern-day items such as: helicopters, airplanes, an adding machine, and a tank.
Beatrix Potter’s Journals
(Photograph: by Jack1956, CC 1.0 by Public Domain)
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)
Potter is famous for her wonderful children’s books, like The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Her notebooking began early in life with watercolor sketches of animals and drawings of nature and archeological finds. Because she explored the reproduction of fungal spores through illustrations and research, Potter was know not just as an author and illustrator, but as a natural scientist as well.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
Edison invented so many items (with 1,093 patents), that it’s difficult to chose just a few. However, among his best known inventions are the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. An inventor’s notebook can be vital not only to keep track of thoughts and ideas, and failed or successful processes, but also to create a establish a patent claim. (Pages should be dated and signed by a witness.)
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)
Dostoyevsky was a writer. His books, including Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, have been translated into more than 170 languages.
Dostoyevsky’s Journals
(Illustration: Notes for Chapter 5 of The Brothers Karamozov, Public Domain)
More Famous People Who Kept Journals
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Primary image: Beethoven, Joseph Carl Stieler, 1819/20, Public Domain
- Thomas Jefferson
- Nikola Tesla
- John Adams
- John Quincy Adams
- Louisa May Alcott
- Lewis Carroll
- Madeline L’Engle
Notebooking is a great way for children to learn! Not only that, it’s an important creative tool that will serve them a lifetime once they learn the discipline.
Books Make Great Gifts!
Teach Your Kids the Bible with Bible Road Trip™
Bible Road Trip™ is a three-year Bible survey curriculum. Take your family through the Bible five times from preschool to high school.
To help you get the most out of your studies, Bible Road Trip™ has an array of coordinating weekly activities:
- Researching the section of the Bible you’re studying
- Reading and discussing the Bible
- Memorizing Scripture
- Notebooking about your studies
- Praying for the nations
- Suggestions for further study
- Crafting about what you’ve learned
- For your older students: A project to share what they’ve learned
- Bible Road Trip™ also has some great tools you can use along with it, such as:
- Notebooking Journals for grades 1-9. Want a structured notebooking journal for high school? Don’t hesitate to use the Dialectic journal (grades 7-9).
- Bible Memory Card Sets for all five levels of study, preschool to high school. These are available in both ESV and KJV.
Grab your Bible Road Trip™ Year One Sample Pack. You’ll get:
- The Bible Road Trip™ Parent / Teacher Guide.
- The first three weeks of the curriculum for all five learning levels. Week Three is where we really dive into the Bible and begin to our systematic study. Week Three will give you a good feel for the rest of the curriculum.
- The first three weeks of the Bible Memory Card sets for all five levels, in ESV and KJV.
- The first three weeks of each of the three leveled Notebooking Journals.
Grab the Sample Pack for FREE:
Disciple your kids by taking your family through the Bible together in a meaningful way!
The 2024 Practical Homeschooling® Reader Awards™ were announced in the Fall 2024 issue of Practical Homeschooling® magazine.
The Reader Awards have been a regular feature in the magazine since 1998.
Thousands of homeschoolers rank the curriculum they have used, and the products with the highest satisfaction ratings win.
Bible Road Trip™ Curriculum
Take a look inside the Bible Road Trip™ curriculum! Let me show you around:
Bible Resources for Your Kids
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