If your kids are at the primary level and are just learning to read, make a word notebook to help them understand the rules of phonetics as they sound their way through their lessons. For beginners, start by listing simple three-sound CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words, such as "pin," "hat," "bun," etc. Help your child with sounding out each word as you write it down. As your child's reading abilities improve, a video from the website Teach Our Children recommends writing reading rules at the top of notebook pages and listing words below that follow that rule. For example, once your child learns that the letters "ph" make an "f" sound, create a notebook page together to list words that follow that pattern. Not only will looking at multiple examples help solidify reading rules, but your child can also use her notebook as a reference to figure out how to sound out new, unfamiliar words she sees while reading.
Visual outlines can help children grasp difficult language-based tasks, such as finding important information in a paragraph, writing their own paragraph or describing what happened in a story. Graphic organizers are effective teaching tools for any subject that involves producing or comprehending written information. If your child is learning how to write a paragraph, traffic light pages are easy to make and useful for organizing thoughts. Beside the "green light" at the top of the notebook page (drawn with marker or cut from green construction paper), the child writes his opening sentence---the "go" sentence. The next light down is yellow, with space for three supporting sentences next to it. Next to the red light at the bottom of the page, the child writes one sentence to close, or "stop," the paragraph. Use thought webs with the name of the story in the middle and the words "who, what, when, where, why and how" to help kids draw out the important aspects of a story. Timelines work well when understanding the order of events is important, as when you're teaching American history.
Keeping a vocabulary section at the back of your kids' notebooks can help them in all of their subjects. For example, if your child just learned what a parabola is in your most recent math lesson, have him explain the term in his own words in the vocabulary list at the back of his math notebook. The exercise of defining the concept will deepen his understanding while practicing math problems. Vocabulary lists are also useful in subjects like science or geography, where your child might learn what mitosis is or have to understand where moraines come from. If the child forgets what a term means when it comes up in later lessons, he has his own homemade glossary to consult.
A little color adds pizazz to your child's notebook, and craft and color time can indeed be educational. For example, having children color in and label maps will help them to remember the names for the different places they're studying. Younger children enjoy printing practice sheets with a block letter that they can color. If you teach a subject with different units, giving your kids time to create title pages can help ramp up their excitement while encouraging their independent research skills. For example, if one of your American history units is about the Civil War, your child could search the Internet for pictures of important people, battle scenes, uniforms and dates to print out and paste collage-style on his title page.