Review of NotebookingPages.com

To aid in our summer studies of focusing on God's Word, we have been taking advantage of the Lifetime Membership from NotebookingPages.com.

If you are unfamiliar with what notebooking actually is, think scrapbooking for school subjects. It's a fun way for students to make subjects come to life. Students journal and draw about what they have learned and every page shows each student's own unique personality. There is no right or wrong way to notebook which is the beauty of this system. They offer pages that cater to students who may prefer to draw and students who prefer to write. There are also options available for a mix of the two.

NotebookingPages.com offers 1000's of pages to download and print in Bible/Character, Alphabet, Famous People, Fine Arts, Geography, History, Holidays, Language Arts, and Science/Nature. They also offer basic lined notebooking pages that can be used with any subject.

So far we have have just touched the surface on the pages available with this membership. The most fantastic part is your membership never expires so you can take all the time you need to complete your projects! You also gain free access to any future updates that may occur with your lifetime membership.

For our homeschool, we focused on the Bible notebooking pages. This set takes you through the Old Testament and New Testament from Creation to John's Vision on the island of Patmos. It comes in a zip file and once unzipped it contains 54 files of PDF printables. This set alone has over 500 different pages to choose from!

I used this set with my daughter, Sarah, who is 12. We used the Bible notebooking categories as our devotion point each day. We began by researching the Bible verse or verses then added our own drawings or timeline and journaling information. Some days, we added a paraphrase with our thoughts and some days we simple copied the verse from the Bible but it has been a great time to spend with each other and growing in God's Word.

One of the files included an overview of every page in the set which made it so much simpler to pick and choose which pages we wanted to work with. Below is just a small sample of what is available.

We hole punched the pages and inserted them inside this small 3 ring flexible binder.  You could also add them to the binder with a clear front and decorate with your own binder cover. 

The Table of Contents page included was great to keep us on track.  You could also number your pages to correspond with the Table of Contents if you wish to make pages easier to look back on.

Here are just a few of the Bible notebooking pages that we completed.

Sarah enjoyed this way of working through the Bible. She is very creative and loves to draw so this was a perfect fit for her. There are also pages available with illustrations for those who would rather just narrate what they have learned as well as a combination of both.

I love to do special activities on holidays so I know the holiday section will come in handy for us too. There are pages for most of the traditional holidays. Here is a sample of just one of the pages offered for the fourth of July.

Next school year, we will be focusing a lot of other countries and geography so I have already begun to explore and print some of the pages in that section for next year too. The geography notebooking pages include maps, country pages, and more.

NotebookingPages.com offers lots of free pages too. You can sign up for a free sampler to see if this unique system will work for your family. I love that there are so many options in so many subjects so I don't have to take the time to search the internet for each individual page. When you are finished with your pages, you will have a real treasure on your hands written and designed by your student.

Find out more about NotebookingPages.com on Facebook and Twitter.

Review of IXL

IXL is an online comprehensive practice site offering over 4,000 skills in IXL Math and IXL Language Arts. IXL aligns with state standards giving your child unlimited access to practicing math and language arts skills. 

IXL Language Arts covers grades 2-8 and IXL Math covers grades Pre-K-12. They are constantly adding new skills to IXL so if you haven't checked out their website lately, you may be surprised to see all the new skills offered.

The cost of a membership can be paid monthly or yearly. The monthly cost is $9.95 and the yearly cost is $79 - this membership is for 1 child and 1 subject area (math or language arts). You can also choose a membership for both subject areas (math and language arts) and 1 child for $15.95 per month or $129 per year. Additional students can be added for $2 per month or $20 for the year.

Here is a sample price subscription for 3 children for a year. You can go here and put in the number of children that you wish to purchase for to find your correct membership price.

Some of the perks included in your membership price are...

• Questions that adapt to your child's ability and continue to increase in difficulty as they improve
• Weekly email reports on your child's progress
• Email notifications of your child's accomplishments
• Children unlock awards as their practice time and skills improve
• Reports showing you your child's strengths and trouble spots

IXL works on most computer platforms - see here for more on technical requirements. 

In Our Homeschool

We used IXL with Stephen and Sarah.  Stephen practiced 8th grade and Sarah practiced 6th grade.  They both used IXL Math and IXL Language Arts. I chose to start them with their current grade level but you also have the option of practicing by topic.  The parent can hide the grade level so your student can practice any topic in any grade level and not feel like they are behind.

Stephen and Sarah completed 10 minutes of practice each day.  

When you look at this screenshot of a IXL Math, you will see...

• The number of problems that you have attempted
• A handy timer that counts the time you have spent working (you also have the option of turning this off if it bothers your student)
• Your SmartScore - If your student answers correctly their SmartScore increases but if they answer incorrectly their SmartScore will go down, they will be give the correct answer with and explanation on how to solve it.
• The problem to be answered is on the left with the choices of answers

As your child increases their practice time and masters skills, they will unlock awards. Here is a sample of the award screen.  This simple action really motivated my children to keep going to see what virtual prize they could unlock next!

The Language Arts screen works the same way as the Math.

One of my favorite parts of using IXL was the simplicity.  I didn't have to go and find out how Stephen and Sarah were doing.  They sent me an email to let me know.  If I wanted to check their progress, I could at any time.  We began with their current grade level and in the beginning both of them struggled but it wasn't long before they seemed to really improve and start mastering a few skill levels.  This curriculum offers a tremendous amount of practice to keep students study skills sharp and focused.  I have seen great improvements in my children in as little as 10 minutes a day!

Other places to find IXL

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/IXL
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Exiling
Google+:  https://plus.google.com/+IXL