Yes, I get one word in the English Language that is just MINE! Binderized! On the Charlotte Mason Internet Loop, I have acquired the loving name of "The Binder Queen." Cute huh? Well, you can become a Binder Queen too! As a matter of fact, when you see all that you can do with one of those three-ring binders, I guarantee that you will be sold!

Each year, our family spends more money on three-ring notebooks and page protectors than we spend on curriculum! I doubt we will ever have enough...much less too many binders in our homeschool! If you are not Binderized, you are missing a key learning tool in the home! BUT, I will not let you miss this bug biting at your heels...let’s look at this teaching tool!

Binders are priceless! When using Notebooking, all of life can be used fully for curriculum. Actually, we consider all of the treasures in our binders to be our curriculum. Any subject or any topic can be used as the subject of the notebook! This instills a love of learning because the child is able to develop a personal relationship with the material at hand. They can have their own distinct, one of a kind notebook. All of their life is fair game for use in a binder, because the material is not dictated to the child. The child learns that all of life is a classroom. All of their life contains the "subjects" that exercise skills practically as they preserve thoughts and information collected along the way! The child can develop a passion for the topic from their personal life and use the notebook to keep the overflow!

Notebooking is for everyone! Notebooks are adaptable for every style of learning. Any child can be captured by their interests! Even the busiest child will love using their skills to collect information on their favorite topic! Every learner flourishes when studying areas of delight regardless of their learning style!

Notebooking reflects the interests, individuality and strengths of each child. The child may be more artistic...using natural inclinations in their notebook. The child may be more literary...using skills in a fun way. The child may be more interested in collecting things such as memorabilia, pictures, and nature specimens, but need a place to keep their collections! These interests and strengths can be nurtured (instead of allowed to lay dormant!) with the use of notebooks!

Notebooking develops a habit of writing and recording from childhood! They learn how to draw out of themselves thoughts, ideas, and information. They learn how to record that information into a valuable product. This habit does more to instill a love of learning and a love of writing than mounds of information poured into the child could ever do! Notebooking prepares the child for more serious study and research that is necessary in the latter years of life regardless of calling or profession. Notebooking encourages self-government. The child learns to govern himself. He learns the value of setting his own standards for his work...excellence, neatness, volume, and so on. In turn, the child develops more than a Notebook, he develops his own character! He develops initiative, attentiveness, perseverance, excellence, diligence, and patience. The child learns that the standard is determined by his own improvement...by his own obedience...by his own excellence of quality!

Begin with one notebook for each child. We buy 3-ring binders for our notebooks. We use plastic sleeve protectors, which nicely protect each page whether the children are using notebook paper or sketch paper or acid-free cardstock paper for their pages. This allows versatility in what goes into our notebooks...ALL goes into ours whether sketches, copywork, samples of nature specimens, keepsakes, or photos...we find that our notebooks can include whatever we want to add for that subject! For things needing mounting, we use mounting tape or archival safe glues for mounting.

When beginning to use binders for Notebooking, just keep one general notebook containing all of the various work projects. As you see a subject developing into it’s own notebook of interest, take it from the general notebook and make a notebook of its own. Matthew (my son) divided his binders this year into many different topics: Poetry, General History, Military History, Civil War History, Bible Verses, Book of Centuries (timeline), Science, Scouts, God’s World Papers...so on! This is as a result of many years of Copywork and study on these areas of interest...child-led not teacher-directed. He does not work in each notebook each day...just one passage of Copywork per day and it adds up! The focus is not on the volume of notebooks or on trying to have any (or lots of) specific topics for the notebooks. The focus is on learning to use skills and learning tools to encourage a lifestyle of delight-directed learning! The purpose is to learn skills so that the writing delight will grow naturally!

Allow your children to work back and forth on different notebooks. "Real" writers need this change of pace and so will your children. If they seem to get frustrated with one topic and a breather does not bring back the passion, encourage them to bring the notebook to a quick completion. The children need to develop delight but not at the expense of their character. The habit of boredom and dawdling results when the child is forced over and over to do work that is not from the heart. Teach them to complete all that they start in an excellent way while doing their work from the heart! This habit will run over in all areas of learning therefore encouraging a love of learning!

Let Notebooking become a natural part of life. Recording may be encouraged at the beginning, but let it become their personal journal and scrapbook! They may work in a notebook every day or just a few times a month depending on their interest on that topic! Just remember to use Notebooking as a tool for encouraging your young writers. Make up Notebooks just for your own family and their needs. There is no certain way to do the "right" notebook/sketchbook except your own way for your family!

The above article was used with permission and taken from Language Arts... the Easy Way!, by Cindy Rushton. It is available for $20 PPD. Cindy’s 11 year old son, Matthew, recently published his first book, after years of compiling information in his notebook on a favorite subject - the Marines Corps. It is called Fearless Warriors. These are available from Rushton Family Ministries, 1225 Christy Lane, Tuscumbia, AL 35674. E-mail: haroldr@gateway.net