Unit Studies/Lapbook - what's your favorite?

[pwlu]

Hi,

I have been looking into unit study/lapbook approach. There are many vendors out there. To name a few...

Unit study by A. Bennett, In the Hands of A Child, Knowledge Central

 

I've try Konos and wasn't able to follow through. So I'm going to try these

unit study/lapbook approach.

 

Would you share what you like & dislike about the unit study/lapbook that you have used?

 

Thank you!

[ErinD]

I'm a HUGE fan of Intellego's unit studies. They are mostly notebooking but we have, on occasion, made lapbooks on individual subjects within the study....ie if you were studying natural disasters you might make a free homeschoolshare lapbook about volcanos to go along with it.

[janie_ranae]

Wondering too if someone would share some of the pros and cons for the different companies who sell lapbooks or an experience you've had with a certain company's lapbook. :bigear: Thanks.

[DianeW88]

www.homeschoolinthewoods.com The best lapbooks out there. Hands down.

[teeniebeenie6]

I love Amanda Bennett units, Curiosity Files (through TOS) and NaturExplorer units. Amanda Bennett has specials often. I've gotten the majority of her units 40% off and got many free with her Terrific Tuesday giveaways on her Facebook page. Her units are interactive and full of content. They can be stretched much longer then a week or you can pick and choose and make them shorter then a week. I find the key with her units is picking and choosing, not doing everything at once. They are very dependent on online links, that bothers some people.

 

NaturExplorer has a quarterly discounted unit and right now Currclick has some on special through the 20th. We haven't started on ours yet. We've been waiting for this lovely weather and for our newborn to grow a bit more. I've printed the units and have them ready to go. We keep an eye out at thrift stores for suggested books. The units are so full. They are not your typical units, they are filled with many ideas, from composer and art studies to experiments but you have to schedule your days, they are not set up for you. You can use the guides sporadically or turn them into a huge study, going down many different rabbit trails.

 

The Curiosity Files are unique and can be had cheap. The Old Schoolhouse has some in their dollar store section. If you google them you can find a ton of reviews, thanks to TOS's reviewing crew.

 

Signing up on Currclick.com is a good idea. They give away lots of stuff. I have gotten many Hands of a Child lapbooks free through them, usually around holidays or on black Friday. I really like the HOAC lapbooks I've tried and looked at. Currclick has lots of specials on them. On HOAC's website they have a freebie you can try out, they also offer a $5 lapbook per week.

[Sharilynn29]

I LOVE HOAC lapbooks. Right now my 8yo and 13yo are working through Ancient Egypt. I haven't used other lapbooks, but I like that all of the teaching is included with a schedule. My oldest can do these completely on his own, but we usually enjoy doing them as a family.

 

My favorite part of the lapbooks is that while we are studying the same thing, each child is working on a different skill. My son may be writing a research paper on Julius Ceasar while my daughter is doing copywork on the same topic.

[Chelli]

I've used HOAC lapbooks and we use A Journey Through Learning's lapbook for Zoology 1.

 

They are both very well done, IMO. My dd loves anything crafty like that though.

 

We don't use them as "lapbooks" technically, but use them to make notebooks. Works well either way :)

[cschnee]

The HOAC lapbooks I've used were full (and I mean full) of grammar and spelling mistakes. This was a long time ago, when they first started up, so maybe they've gotten better.