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For ds's sake as well as mine, I need to keep notebooking SIMPLE. Can I just use a 3-ring binder with dividers and page protectors or cardstock or something? We both have ADD, so for simplicity's sake, I would like everything in one place. Science is really confusing me; does he need lined paper to answer questions and unlined for drawing and lab sheets for experiments and do we need sub-dividers for science?

I really need someone to just say "Get a ____ inch binder, this many dividers, this many page protectors, divide the notebook into this many sections, this is how each divider should be labeled, etc".

OK, deep breath. We have lots of ADD over here (and some H and some dyslexia and a little SPD and Autism thrown in for good measure ). I'll tell you what we did, and maybe that will help.

We bought several packages of notebook paper, a box of 225 page protectors (I page protect everything--you don't need that many ), paint, white index cards, scissors, glue, a package of paintbrushes, plain white paper--notebook sized, art paper, and a composition book. We got a 1 1/2 inch binder and had 4 sections: science, history, Bible, language arts.

Everything history went in the history section.

Everything from the Bible study section went in Bible, including the Bible verses he copied from the Bible Quiet time box. We did not do a separate Common Place Book for that.

For science, we just put each week's assignments under our science section. We did not subdivide it. He answered the questions on lined paper, did the notebooking on plain paper, and I copied the experiment page from the back for experiments.

For language arts, we put everything language arts in that section, except the dictation passages. He did those in a composition book, but you could do them on lined paper and just put it in your LA section if that's easier for you. Grammar work, writing assignments, spelling tests (we added these) and his reading assignments all went into this section. Just add each thing as you do it. Even without the subdivisions, the sections still have organization because they go in the notebook in order. Your sections still run in chronological order.

The poetry paintings were too big to fit in the notebook, so I bought one of those flat plastic under the bed storage boxes from Walmart to store those in.

Hope that helps some!

mamas4bugs wrote:OK, deep breath. We have lots of ADD over here (and some H and some dyslexia and a little SPD and Autism thrown in for good measure ). I'll tell you what we did, and maybe that will help.

We bought several packages of notebook paper, a box of 225 page protectors (I page protect everything--you don't need that many ), paint, white index cards, scissors, glue, a package of paintbrushes, plain white paper--notebook sized, art paper, and a composition book. We got a 1 1/2 inch binder and had 4 sections: science, history, Bible, language arts.

Everything history went in the history section.

Everything from the Bible study section went in Bible, including the Bible verses he copied from the Bible Quiet time box. We did not do a separate Common Place Book for that.

For science, we just put each week's assignments under our science section. We did not subdivide it. He answered the questions on lined paper, did the notebooking on plain paper, and I copied the experiment page from the back for experiments.

For language arts, we put everything language arts in that section, except the dictation passages. He did those in a composition book, but you could do them on lined paper and just put it in your LA section if that's easier for you. Grammar work, writing assignments, spelling tests (we added these) and his reading assignments all went into this section. Just add each thing as you do it. Even without the subdivisions, the sections still have organization because they go in the notebook in order. Your sections still run in chronological order.

The poetry paintings were too big to fit in the notebook, so I bought one of those flat plastic under the bed storage boxes from Walmart to store those in.

Hope that helps some!

THANK YOU!! That was very helpful! Can you come over to my house, too?

You're welcome! Glad I could help.

I know you didn't ask, but I noticed from another thread that y'all are also doing Preparing (our very favorite guide ). I was going to say that we set our notebook for Preparing up almost the exact same way. The science section is the same. The history section for Preparing doesn't come with notebooking pages, but you just use lined paper for the written narrations. We also included the Independent History assignments in the history section. We included the vocabulary box in the Language Arts section.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. Hope you have a great year!

mamas4bugs wrote:You're welcome! Glad I could help.

I know you didn't ask, but I noticed from another thread that y'all are also doing Preparing (our very favorite guide ). I was going to say that we set our notebook for Preparing up almost the exact same way. The science section is the same. The history section for Preparing doesn't come with notebooking pages, but you just use lined paper for the written narrations. We also included the Independent History assignments in the history section. We included the vocabulary box in the Language Arts section.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. Hope you have a great year!

Thank you, that will make things easier! My dd is really enjoying Preparing!