Have you ever handed your middle school or high school student a nonfiction writing assignment, only to have them stare blankly at the page?
Nonfiction writing feels can feel like an overwhelming task because it has so many steps leading up to the final assignment. Before we expect our teens to know how to write, we need to help them learn how to research, think critically, and record notes on what they’ve learned. Forming sentences and paragraphs is so much easier when students are gathering information and recording it.
Notebooking journals are a wonderful way for teens to learn, consider the information they’ve gathered, and record notes on their research.
At Thinking Kids, there are a number of Bible and Christian history related notebooking journals available. Check them out!
Looking for notebooking journals for elementary students? Find those here.
How to Notebook (and What is Notebooking?)
Notebooking develops a number of vital skills. Take a look at a few of them:
- Handwriting ~ Notebooking isn’t terribly structured, but the process of writing long-hand naturally helps develop handwriting.
- Reading and Listening Comprehension ~ Notebooking requires attention and understanding of the information being processed and narrated in written or visual form.
- Pre-writing ~ Notebooking helps students learn to take notes, to identify important information, and to organize their thoughts. It helps them make note of what they’d like to research later.
- Research ~ Notebooking can be an excellent way to inspire further topical research and to record the results of that research. Topical exploration is one of the skills emphasized in the Cobblestone Path™ Church History Research Journals.
- Long-term Memory ~ Notebooking helps cement what students have studied into their long-term memory.
- Cognitive Skills ~ Notebooking requires a higher thought process. At first, you will need to help children process and narrate what they’ve learned, but cognitive skills will soon become second-hand.
Read more about what notebooking is here.
Homeschool Bible Notebooks
Thinking Kids Press notebooking journals are a wonderful tool to help your kids learn. Check out the journals available for middle and high school students!
The Bible Road Trip™ Bible Notebooking Journals will enable your students to record what they are learning in Scripture.
- Each structured Notebooking Journal has room for:
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- Copying the weekly memory verse
- Taking notes about each book of the Bible studied
- Several pages of notes about the weekly lessons
- A page to list prayer concerns for the country or people group studied that week.
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- Each Notebooking Journal has line widths and writing space appropriate for your students in the leveled grades.
- The Notebooking Journal contains many beautiful full-color artworks from artistic masters of eras past — such as Van Gogh, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt, as well as photographs of the weekly country shared by photographers around the world via the Creative Commons license.
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- Out of respect for varying beliefs regarding iconography, every effort was made to select artwork that was not only modest, but also did not include representations of Christ, the Father, the Holy Spirit, angels, demons, Christophanies or Theophanies.
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- The journals are available printed or digital.
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- Each digital download comes with a family/household use copyright license. So, if you have three children who will go through the Dialectic level, you may purchase the Dialectic Notebooking Journal once, store the file on your computer, and hit print each time you need a new journal.
- There is a Classroom License available for church and school classes, and co-ops. Please purchase a new class license each year.
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Purchase Year One (Genesis to Esther) Bible Notebooking Journal at:
Digital Year One Journal | Printed Year One Journal
- Grades 7-9 | The Year One Dialectic Notebooking Journal is a 403-page spiral bound journal of structured notebooking pages for grades 7-9 that coordinate with the Bible Road Trip™ Year One Curriculum.
- This can also be used for the Rhetoric (grades 10-12) level.
Purchase Year Two (Job to Malachi) Bible Notebooking Journal at:
- Grades 7-9 | The Year Two Dialectic Notebooking Journal is a 410-page spiral bound journal of structured notebooking pages for grades 7-9 that coordinate with the Bible Road Trip™ Year Two Curriculum.
- This can also be used for the Rhetoric (grades 10-12) level.
Purchase Year Three (Matthew to Revelation) Bible Notebooking Journal at:
- Grades 7-9 | The Year Three Dialectic Notebooking Journal is a 376-page spiral bound journal of structured notebooking pages for grades 7-9 that coordinate with the Bible Road Trip™ Year Three Curriculum.
- This can also be used for the Rhetoric (grades 10-12) level.
Features of the My Timeline Notebooking Journal:
- The My Timeline Notebooking Journal is 132-pages, filled with beautiful artwork and plenty of room to record events.
- The timeline expands as time progresses since there’s just more to record as the centuries progress. The timeline begins in 4000 BC to give you room to record from Creation forward.
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- From 4000 BC to 0 AD, pages cover a century. Each timeline is broken into 5 year increments.
- From 0 AD to 1000 AD, pages cover 50 years. Each timeline is broken into 2.5 year increments.
- From 1000 AD to 2050 AD (for your littlest littles to use later), pages cover 25 years. Each timeline is broken into 1 year increments.
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- 29 full-color paintings from artists such as Rembrandt, Monet, and Renoir, and from ancient artists. The art is carefully chosen to avoid depictions of: extreme immodesty, angels, demons, mythical gods, Christophanies, or Theophanies (for those who feel those violate the second commandment).
- A quote at the top of each timeline page, including:
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- ESV Bible quotations about time, seasons, and plans.
- Quotes from historic Christians such as Charles Spurgeon, Samuel Rutherford, and Hannah More.
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- Available as a digital download with a household license, or in a printed edition.
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- Choose your edition in the dropdown menu.
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Bible Investigators: Creation is an activity book bursting with brain-teasing puzzles, which helps tweens investigate the Bible for themselves.
With 90 brain-teasing puzzles, 40 Bible passages, and 30 concepts regarding God’s creation, this 272-page lesson, puzzle, and activity book gives kids aged 8-12 skills to investigate the Bible for themselves―just like a real investigator!
As kids apply logic and solve challenging puzzles, they will dive deeply into Scripture and examine the Bible’s account of creation, picking up lots of skills for reading and interpreting the Bible.
Your kids will also find lots of journaling boxes for notebooking, which allow them to reflect on, interpret, and apply what they have learned about God’s Word.
Creation is perfect as a six-week unit study for your homeschool, and it’s a great tool for churches to use with kids. It’s fun for road trips and rainy days too!
Bible Investigators: Creation contains six sections:
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- Introduction: You Are a Bible Investigator!
- Section One: God Created Everything in the Beginning
- God Created All Things Out of Nothing Genesis 1:1-2a; Jeremiah 4:23
- Every House Has a Builder Hebrews 3:4
- God Created the World for His Creatures Isaiah 45:18
- It Was All Good Genesis 1:31a; 1 Timothy 4:4
- God’s Works are Wondrous Psalm 145:1-13
- Section Two: The Story of Creation
- Let There Be Light! (Day 1) Genesis 1:3-5; 2 Corinthians 4:6
- The Sky Above (Day 2) Genesis 1:6-8; Jeremiah 10:12
- Soil and Potatoes (Day 3) Genesis 1:9-13; Psalm 104:14
- Time for the Universe (Day 4) Genesis 1:14-19; Psalm 104:19-23
- Creatures That Swim and Fly (Day 5) Genesis 1:20-23; Psalm 104:16-17, 24-25
- Beasts of the Earth and People (Day 6) Genesis 1:24-27
- Section Three: God Made Me
- God Gave Me Life Job 33:4
- God Formed Me Wonderfully Psalm 139:13-16
- God Gives Everyone Life and Breath Acts 17:24-28
- God Created Me for His Glory Isaiah 43:6b-7
- Section Four: Our Creator God
- God Is Eternal Psalm 90:2
- God Is All-Powerful Psalm 33:8-9
- God Is Uncreated Psalm 102:25-27; Revelation 1:8
- God the Father Created Genesis 1:26a; Jeremiah 32:17
- God the Son Created John 1:1-3
- God the Holy Spirit Created Psalm 104:24, 30; Genesis 1:2
- Section Five: God’s Good Creation Gifts
- Every Good Gift Is from God James 1:17; John 3:27b
- God Blesses Us Genesis 1:28-29
- God Gives Us the Sabbath Genesis 2:1-13; Exodus 20:8-20a, 11
- God Gives Us Work Genesis 2:15; Proverbs 28:19; Colossians 3:23-24
- God Gives Us Marriage Genesis 2:18-24
- Section Six: God’s Great Salvation Plan
- To Disobey God Is to Sin Genesis 2:16-17; John 14:15
- Adam and Eve Sinned–And So Have I Genesis 3:1-7; Romans 3:23
- Jesus Paid for Our Sin Ephesians 2:4-9
- Believe in Jesus and Confess Belief Romans 10:9-10
Each section, or unit, has four to six lessons, each with a teaching, notebooking spaces, and three Bible verse puzzles. The book makes a great six-week unit study on the doctrine of Creation!
Teach your teens about Martin Luther and his times with the Cobblestone Path: Martin Luther Unit Study.
The study is based on historic fiction When Lightning Struck! The Story of Martin Luther (Fortress Press, 2015). Published on November 1, the day after the 498th anniversary of Reformation Day–when Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, When Lightning Struck! will bring your teens face to face with the man who insisted on Sola Scriptura and became the Father of the Reformation.
The Martin Luther Unit Study will give your middle and high school students a firm grasp on the life and times of Martin Luther, Father of the Reformation.
Subjects covered by the unit study include:
- Martin Luther’s life
- Timeline dates
- Biographies of important people
- Relevant Scripture
- History
- Science
- Art history
- Writing
- Copywork
- Vocabulary
- Geography
The 12-week, 244-page, full-color study includes:
- Discussion questions on the biography chapters
- Timeline dates
- A timeline
- Related Scripture to study with discussion questions
- Short biographies on important figures
- A weekly assignment schedule page which tells students what to study or write in each subject
- Vocabulary worksheets and maps at the back of the unit study
- Book suggestions
- Notebooking pages for history and science
- Both subject-related notebooking pages and biographical pages
- Weekly art history biography pages
- Three notebooking pages with five art pieces by that artist
- Students will be able to write about how each piece impacts them, how they feel about the work, and why
- Weekly writing assignments with two journal pages for each assignment
- Weekly copywork pages
- Either from Scripture (both ESV and KJV are cited so you may choose the version you prefer), or a quote from Martin Luther
At the end of the 12-week Martin Luther Unit Study, your students will intimately understand a vital period in Christian history, and the figure who stood at the helm.
Each of the eight Cobblestone Path™ Church History Research Journals is a chronological series of structured notebooking pages. Each journal (or “age”) is divided into three eras to help students orient the events in time.
The pages included cover the following material:
- Timelines
- Important vocabulary
- A division of each age into three eras
- Major figures
- Minor figures
- Important events
- People groups (usually sects or heretical groups)
- Important documents
- Minor documents (or those for which there is little surviving evidence).
Students will use the structured pages to guide their research and to help determine what portions of their reading are important for future information. The journals will give students a visual and written history of the Christian Church, pulled from a variety of resources.
The Early Church and Apostolic Age journal covers c.30-325 AD.
The Nicene Age journal covers c.325-600 AD.
The Reformation Age journal covers 1350-1648 AD.
Check out a few free Cobblestone Path™ notebooking pages with these journal pages on Patrick of Ireland.
Do you want to try journaling through the Bible, mom?
Try these neat Bible study resources for you!
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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