Notebooks & Pens for your Grammar Notebook

In my classes we create a grammar notebook, mostly to keep track of verb conjugations. This actually helps us not worry about conjugations too much, because the students know they can always look it up (in a consistent place) if they forget. So, yes, even in a classroom that's not centered around grammar, we keep a grammar notebook!

This year I'll have my students use the back half of their grammar notebook for journaling! I'm giving prompts so they can write simple sentences at first, and over time they can write more and more. The grammar notebooks carry forward from year to year (as they add additional verb tenses to each page), so I thought, why not let them carry a journal forward from year to year, so they can see how much they've learned?

I'll post soon with a how-to guide about our grammar notebooks, and there will be a video about it in our upcoming Parents' Guide series on YouTube.

Meanwhile, here are some suggestions for what you can use to make your own grammar notebook.

The list below contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

You will need something with at least 100 pages (that's at least 50 sheets of paper.) Almost 40 sheets will be used for the grammar notebook part, so this only leaves a little more than 10 sheets (20 pages) for the journal part. So you might want to find something with more pages. However, in the beginning stages their entries are 3-4 sentences so they can easily fit multiple journal entries on one page.

Let the student choose the style of their notebook! Remember you want to give autonomy and opportunities to personalize whenever you can, to maximize their motivation!

Some kids (my kids) will be perfectly happy with a simple composition notebook, which can be found for less than a $1 during back to school sales.

(Sidenote, while I appreciate that my kids are happy with basic folders, it makes back to school shopping for them way less fun for me. Luckily, my family knows school supplies are my love language so they get me some at every birthday!)

If your learner appreciates a special notebook, here are three that meet the needs for this specific purpose.

This notebook caught my eye because it is a dotted notebook, 8.5 x 11, and it comes in lots of different colors. A lot of journals and notebooks seem kind of geared toward girls (and girly girls at that!) so I was looking for something that more students would enjoy.

https://amzn.to/3UPmXYv

What I like:

✔️110 pages

✔️lies flat

✔️comes with little stickers they can use as dividers (Verbs / Journal)

✔️thick paper so no bleed-through (this is important because we color code our notes and some pens and highlighters might bleed through thin paper. We're using a very specific format so they need to be able to write on the back of each page)

I like this one, too, for mostly the same reasons! https://amzn.to/4omM829

2 of the 5 cover designs are less "girly girl". This one is line rather than dotted, and is more compact, but it has more pages. (More room for the journal section!) We don't need as much of the width or height that we get with the 8.5 by 11, so this is a perfect size.

What I like:

✔️160 pages

✔️lies flat

✔️thick paper

✔️has an inner pocket

And now for this girly-girl one that is my favorite. I mean, it's French-themed! And it's beautiful and it's a notebook, so of course I had to have it! This one is 8.5 x 11, with dotted pages.

https://amzn.to/3IFSsBs

What I like:

✔️gorgeous cover

✔️110 pages

✔️thick paper

Once you have the notebook, you'll also need something for our color-coding system. We use red, orange, blue, green, pink, and purple.

This set has all of those colors: https://amzn.to/3GYF3Ee

I hope this was helpful! I look forward to sharing my Grammar Notebook plans, and I hope it helps you support foreign language learning in your homeschool!