Talk to me about lapbooks

[Osmosis Mom]

I am LISTENING this time! I *know* this is what we need to do. Several of my kids are crafty incl. the one who has to do crafts every day... I am so un-crafty it is scary, but I realise I need to take the next step.

Please talk to me slowly and encourage me to get started on lapbooks. Please give me specific suggestions and clear explanations....:p

My kids thank you in advance.

[WTMindy]

There are a couple of ways to go with this. One, you can purchase pre-made ones that all you have to do is print them and the kids cut/fold/write on them. I have been doing those along with our TOG curriculum. The problem with these is that the thing they chose to focus on is not always what I would choose to focus on. But, I'm not very creative so I'm afraid to try it totally on my own. The second way is to learn the different folds and make a different book for each topic you cover. I'm sure others can give more specifics, but I have only gone the pre-made route so far. In my opinion, this doesn't encourage too much creativity although it makes for a nice review book.

[Chris in VA]

We tried a lapbook about the Moon from Hands of a Child. It was free to download, so I didn't worry about using it exactly as it came. My dd didn't get the thrill out of it that I did! lol
Here are some links to lapbooks to inspire you. I'm sorry, I'm not sure how to title them; these are the actual links.

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks.htm
http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/country.htm

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/237998/ (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/237998/) (This is a Christmas lapbook)

My basic technique for lapbooking is to look for information that you want to reinforce, and then see how many parts it has--think, "visual outline." For instance, with the Moon book, we made our own mini-book with two parts--what did the Astronauts leave behind on the Moon, and what did they take with them (this was about first Apollo moon landing). I just folded a piece of paper in half, then cut one side in half up the middle. Then I had two flaps and one solid. Dd wrote one question on each flap, and the answers underneath.
You can get Dinah Zike's books on folds. They are very good.
It's easier than you think. Don't get too complicated at first.

[Heather in OK]

Thanks for those links Chris!

Keep 'em coming! I'm also needing some fresh ideas for our lapbooks.

[Ferdie]

The owner of Tobin's Lab taught a lapbook session at our hs conference. It was so much fun. Her tips were to pick a topic and have the kids do one thing each day you study the topic. Save the papercut outs and paper list in a zip loc bag. Then you set aside one day to assemble the lapbooks.

Here is a link to a hand out from her that has more details:

http://www.tobinslab.com/downloads/Lap%20Book%20Info%20Sheet.pdf

We have never made one as a family but my dd is taking a lab book science class at co-op and her first lapbook came out really nice.

[Anne/Ankara]

When our kids were younger, our "lap books" were a lot of cut-and-paste work, usually on a large manilla folder, by topic, with various cut-out pages that lifted up for information, or whatever. They were fun to create, since often the children would draw the process or topic and then have fun decorating and pasting it on a wheel, or mini-book, or lift-the-flap, or whatever, in the manila folder. Of course the front and back of the manilla folder was also decorated with additional information, sliding paper views, and things like that. We went for the large 11 by 17 inch folders, so each lap book could hold quite a bit of kid-created information.

[Kate in Arabia]

The only lapbook I've ever tried is one I designed during Ramadan on dates. I felt like *I* learned a lot, but I don't know if my kids did, lol. It was tiring, and in the end I thought the kids got more "craft" than knowledge, kwim? Maybe I went about it wrong, maybe if I hadn't tried to do it all in one day? Or spread it out longer time-wise? In the end I felt like the kids were just focusing on the craft part of putting together little books and cutting and pasting, etc., without really paying attention to the meat of it, if you get what I mean. Maybe I should have devised more of a study around it, using the lapbook like a scrapbook, but I didn't and in the end it didn't really work well for us.

Well, this is a real downer of a post, lol. Maybe you can use it as how not to do a lapbook, lol.

Kate

(Hope you're enjoying your new baby, btw! Mabruk!)

[Kristiana]

Homeschoolshare.com (http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php) has a whole page of lapbooking resources including templates to make your own folds and mini-books if you go the do-it-yourself route.

We made up our own lapbooks for FIAR last year with my kindergartner. He's not particularly crafty and didn't like all the cutting and folding so I ended up doing a lot of the work prior to, then we'd fill them in together. He likes to look at them now though, and it's a good visual reminder of what he learned, even when it's in my handwriting. We didn't do lapbooks just to do lapbooks, they were a by-product of our studies.

[Osmosis Mom]

What a downer you are, LOL!! As one other poster mentioned then it was recommended to study the topic over several days, collect info, cut-outs etc. and then spend one day actually assembling the book. I know when we began homeschooling 8 years ago I did a couple of rude things with my oldest. However, now with my younger kids I can see they need a bit more direction, but since they thrive on cutting and pasting (quite skillfully actually) it might be useful to have them do it academically as well...

Thanks for the well-wishes. Baby is fine, adjusting to mommy-dear being on the laptom while he desperately tries to latch on, haha!

[Closeacademy]

There is a bunch of lapbook and making books for within the lapbook links on my blog.