Too much work for K?

[bradandmeplus2]

I am starting K with my DS this fall after a successful completion of SL P4/5. (Which Btw, he did not enjoy. Found most all of the books boring) We are going to try FIAR vol. 1 with GTG. I spent hours printing out additional activites for FIAR most of which were lap book activities. Then I found GTG through suggestions made to other on the WTM forums and I am excited to buy it.

My question is, am I going overboard to think that he will want to complete a LB for every FIAR/GTG unit? Should I even attempt the LB? I think I just get so excited by all of the great unit study ideas out there that I think I need to do them all. Any advice? Do boys even enjoy LBing? :confused:

[NanceXToo]

Well, why don't you just attempt it and see if he enjoys it? If he does, you can continue with it. If he doesn't, I wouldn't force the issue. Just play it by ear! :)

[8filltheheart]

This is really child dependent. My boys would have run away screaming if I had suggested a lapbook activity. They wanted to play, move, and have fun. Their idea of coloring was a single line swiped across the page. My dds on the other hand would all have loved doing lapbooks if I had the time.

 

FWIW.....I never use the words work and K in the same sentence. If that is the way you think he will see it, that is an indication of the correct answer. K should be the time to light the enthusiasm for school.......definitely not a time to quench the flame in any way.

[Colleen in NS]

I am starting K with my DS this fall after a successful completion of SL P4/5. (Which Btw, he did not enjoy. Found most all of the books boring) We are going to try FIAR vol. 1 with GTG. I spent hours printing out additional activites for FIAR most of which were lap book activities. Then I found GTG through suggestions made to other on the WTM forums and I am excited to buy it.

My question is, am I going overboard to think that he will want to complete a LB for every FIAR/GTG unit? Should I even attempt the LB? I think I just get so excited by all of the great unit study ideas out there that I think I need to do them all. Any advice? Do boys even enjoy LBing? :confused:

 

Those kinds of activities can be fun for K, but are not necessary. Learning to read and being read to are more important. Doing some fun math activities, too, but a formal math program is not needed, either. Living life, playing, baking, dressing up, playing with Lego, sword battles, etc.. I tried to do a few unit-study type activities with my boy, and he did not enjoy them. I think they appealed to *me* more, because they appealed to my crafty-self :lol:. But everyone should learn to read, IMO, even if they don't craft their way into learning content material.

[ALB]

I'm kind of in the same boat now (but with a girl) and we've had to cut back our lapbooks to the occasional one. However, we do still keep a notebook of all the work, which I find more freeing. For example, if we do a lb, I really want to finish the components and make it nice (otherwise it looks funny, right:001_smile:), but with a nb, I can make some mini books and staple them onto cardstock and put them in the nb, without worrying if we only got to 2-3 of them. I also find it fun to make our country flag (GTG) from construction paper, which fits nicely into a notebook. We glue the country's coloring page from Around the World coloring book onto the back. I just write the FIAR title on the page, too, to jog our memory of what book that country was from.

My dd was super excited about lapbooks in the beginning, just kind of waned eventually and it became "one more" handwriting type thing. So, just doing a mini book or two a week works better for us.

[Devotional Soul]

From what I'm experiencing with my 5 year old, I have come to realize that the most important thing right now is to make school a fun experience...something to look forward to. Ask him what he wants to learn about and do a unit study on that. Help him love learning by going with his interests. My ds started to willingly cooperate with school when his needs and feelings were acknowledged. It also helps when I just start doing something and he will join in, instead of telling him what he has to do. If he sees you loving to do lapbooks, he will probably start to copy you.

 

We are using GTG and FIAR. I suggest starting the introduction to geography with Katie and The Big Snow, How To Make An Apple Pie and See The World, Henry's World Tour and Miss Rumphius. My son loved all of these stories, although some other FIAR stories didn't pass the test of his interest. Also, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is a very well loved story.

 

My ds loves Magic School Bus and Magic Tree House. There's usually a story from one of these for every country studied.

 

We make it more fun by pretending to travel by boat, train, hot air balloon, or magic carpet. We pretend to see the mountains or the river or animals we are going by. Then we land and they hand me their passports and I stamp them with a flag sticker for the new country and say "Wow, you've been to India! Did you see any monkeys?" and things like that to review. Then I give a welcome intro to the new country with some books.

 

I tried lapbooks for How To Make An Apple Pie, and we didn't go any further with it. This was mostly because ink is expensive, and I have Waldorf inspiration, so we like trying to draw ourselves. So, we draw or paint a picture of an animal or plant from the country or from a story. We also color a map and flag of the country and add it to a notebook.

 

One more thing I just have to recommend for boys this age is Alphabet Island Phonics. I just got this, and my ds loves it and so do I. It is so much fun and makes phonics rules another fun story to read.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Devotional Soul

[Rivka]

FIAR is great, but I'm not sure I would do lapbooking with a kindergartener. Unless your child has much better fine motor skills than mine (which is certainly possible), you will probably wind up doing all the cutting, gluing, and writing for him.

 

We don't do mini books with FIAR at all. I do use some full-sheet-size supplemental materials with my daughter, like maps and coloring pages, and we three-hole-punch them and put them in a binder along with the art lessons, etc.

 

Remember that although here in WTM-land it seems like people mostly use FIAR just for K-1st, the program is designed to go until age 8 and many people use it even further. So our kids are at the young end for FIAR and expectations need to be adjusted accordingly.

[Susie in MS]

The only thing that I do lapbook wise for my 4 yo (will be 5 in July) is portions of what is at HSS. For example the little flip book thing for the plagues of Egypt. I let dd cut and paste them. She loves this. She also likes those wheels. But there is no way we could do entire lapbooks. Too many negatives for this family: dd hates to color, lbs are expensive (ink, paper, folders), they are messy, and they take up precious needed space we don't have. But you know your family and situation. It may be just the thing for you.

 

I have thought about added GTG to FIAR, and if it were not for money I would have done it. I think it looks like a great combo. I just think that you may need to take longer per row. Spread things out so your child will not be overwhelmed.

[Hedgehogs4]

I am starting K with my DS this fall after a successful completion of SL P4/5. (Which Btw, he did not enjoy. Found most all of the books boring) We are going to try FIAR vol. 1 with GTG. I spent hours printing out additional activites for FIAR most of which were lap book activities. Then I found GTG through suggestions made to other on the WTM forums and I am excited to buy it.

My question is, am I going overboard to think that he will want to complete a LB for every FIAR/GTG unit? Should I even attempt the LB? I think I just get so excited by all of the great unit study ideas out there that I think I need to do them all. Any advice? Do boys even enjoy LBing? :confused:

 

My ds 8 adores lapbooking, but i don't know that he would have at 5. my ds at 5 mostly wanted to play. at 6 1/2 reading kicked in with steady improvement to fluency through age 7. let me add that this kid is very smart, but his learning curve is so different from mine and yet we are very similar in personality traits. i really believe it is due to the testosterone. he needs to be MOVING, buliding legos, playing with his hands...he is focused and intense, but does not learn like a girl. If I were you, I'd focus on reading and math and forming letters and numbers and an occasional craft if he's into them. FIAR is a great program...you can do or not do whatever you want without feeling like you've failed.

[Tracy]

My question is, am I going overboard to think that he will want to complete a LB for every FIAR/GTG unit? Should I even attempt the LB? I think I just get so excited by all of the great unit study ideas out there that I think I need to do them all. Any advice? Do boys even enjoy LBing? :confused:

 

We are just finishing FIAR. I think that lapbooking is usually not appropriate for K, because it requires a lot of fine motor skills that the child will need help with. If your child loves to cut and paste a lot, and you love to put these sorts of things together, then I would say go for it. If either of you is not completely into it, though, then I would suggest that you do something more like a journal or notebook. You can take one binder/notebook, and your child can draw or cut and paste things into it that relates to what he does during FIAR. For mine, I copy the cover of the book and then print our vocab words on the back. I insert any artwork, poetry, etc. that we do behind that. DD loves to get it out and review all of the things that she did for each book.

[bradandmeplus2]

Thanks so much ladies! I feel much more focuse after reading your posts. Lots to consider, maybe the point is to wait and see what he enjoys and go that direction. I feel much better!

[Terabith]

I think Lap books are one of those things you either love or hate. Personally, I would rather gnaw off my arm than make a lap book.

[Tracy]

I think Lap books are one of those things you either love or hate. Personally, I would rather gnaw off my arm than make a lap book.

:iagree::lol::lol:

[hsmom23]

I realized last week that a lapbook per book wasnt realistic. We just did our second one and whew for a 3 and 4 year old it was a lot of work. Instead I think I will do one like every fifth book or something or maybe one lapbook for five books and just two activities per book. Thanks for all the ideas!!

Tara

[Guest]

Been thinking about lapbooks here, too.

 

My 5yo and I did our first lapbook a few weeks ago. It was fun. That's about it. I can't imagine doing a lapbook for every book, though. That would not be fun, IMO. We did our lapbook for frogs and next my son wants to study birds. I originally had planned to do a lapbook for birds, but I don't really want to do another one yet. I have instead decided to do some hands-on type crafts - we're going to make a bird house and bird cupcakes (for the birds, not us) and then a bird paper craft.

 

I was thinking it might be fun to do 1 lapbook activity, (not the whole lapbook) per topic studied and accumulate them in a steno-pad type thing. That way, we're still cutting, pasting, coloring, etc. but we're not doing the whole she-bang. Maybe do one little book and then a narration per topic studied.

 

We also are awaiting Galloping the Globe, yay!