What do or don't you like about lapbooks?

[pitterpatter]

Just wondering. :tongue_smilie: Been thinking about lapbooks lately. Thanks!

[lwiesman]

I think they are neat but my kids don't really care so I am not going to waste my time on them.

[Farrar]

I've never really understood the point of them in terms of learning. Well... let me restate. I've seen them two ways. First, there's the kind that you print out and put together. Those I really don't get. It's a lot of work cutting and pasting and so forth for a preset project. And why should cutting and pasting lead to learning about the topic in the lapbook. It's disconnected. At the end you have a little reference... but you could have used a book or a website instead as a reference.

 

The other way I've seen them makes more sense. When you take a folder or whatever and make your own, then there's a chance to choose which facts to use and synthesize knowledge and research. That has a purpose. But it still doesn't really speak to me. I'd rather have my kids practice narrations for that skill and save the project time for things that are actually connected to the learning, like doing art, doing hands on science experiments, etc.

 

I generally think of lapbooks as the old-fashioned homeschool answer to a Powerpoint presentation... which is an assignment I was often pressured to give when I taught middle school and always refused to do.

[2_girls_mommy]

We have done a couple of the 2nd type listed above over the years. I liked the finished product and a break from regular curriculum. I like the finished product and so do the kids. It is a cutesy thing to show grandparents.

 

What I don't like: they are expensive even for the homemade ones: folders, lots of printing using color ink. I wouldn't do more than 1 a year, and I haven't even done that many. Plus it is a lot of show for the same amount of work and learning that can be done in less time (all that cutting/pasting/arranging/printing..) and w/less expense.

[violamama]

Pros: I like them for making a topic feel fun/special, for helping my 7 AND 5 year old enjoy a project (my younger is actually way more into crafty things), and for helping me take time to bring in lots of depth on a topic. It's amazing how a couple of those scrapbooking stickers will make them feel like it's a fancy school day. My plan is always to leave space for them to choose additional images from the internet or copied/colored from books, but we tend to fall off the wagon before we get there... which leads to:

 

Cons: I dislike them because we almost never finish them and then I feel guilty about slacking and about wasting all that paper. I'm usually too lazy to make a sample one ahead of time (more guilt). I think I ought to do that because it would result in a much better outcome for the boys, especially if I personalized mine with drawn decorations/ favorite images like I ask them to do.

[angelmama1209]

i don't like them because *I* end up doing ALL the cutting and writing. the only thing my dc do is paste it on. given that i hate cutting- it's a no go for us.

[Koerarmoca]

We use lap booking mostly for poetry and book reports. Dd7 really likes having something pretty and cute to show Daddy what she has accomplished. I blogged a little bit a few days ago about how we use them related to poetry.

 

Con I'm a neat freak and have to cut so it looks neat lol. Totally worth it when I see how excited she is to show Daddy her project.

[Lucy the Valiant]

These are my thoughts: (take them with a grain of salt)

 

A. They are LOVELY. Very impressive. And one of the best ways out there to tie together a multi-faceted unit study.

 

B. There are some pre-designed ones that are pretty cheap, readily available, on a wide variety of appropriate topics - animals, money, you name it.

 

C. A lot of the ones available for little kiddos are actually too hard for them to do neatly (cutting / gluing / tacking brads / stapling ), so YOU will end up doing them, because if you do let your kid do it, the whole thing will be crooked and not actually work. But if you wait until Said Kid is old enough to cut them himself, he will be too old for the adorable little pictures and word games.

 

D. Then you will realize about 3/4 of the way through it that YOU already learned this stuff ages ago, your kid is playing Legos in the basement, and you aren't making dinner because you're cutting out 16 shapes of Africa to staple into a cute little book.

 

E. At this point, you may throw up your hands in failure. "Lap Book Fail" as it is known in the streets.

 

F. You might THEN discover a co-op class, centered on beautiful, classic children's literature, with accompanying activities and . . . [drum-roll, please] . . . LAPBOOKS! **PUT TOGETHER BY SOMEONE ELSE!!!**** At this point, the heavens will break into spontaneous music. The sun will shine a little brighter. Your child will bring home drop-dead-awesome lapbooks on all kinds of cleverly-designed and thought-provoking topics gleaned from the wonderful materials and discussions held in the co-op class. The teacher will share funny little things your kid did. And at the end of the year, you can put all the wonderful lapbooks into a special file, and walk away knowing how much he loved it, how much he learned, and how very (very) little you actually had to cut out yourself.

 

 

 

 

G. Or you could be an elementary teacher. My sister is one, and - beyond belief, she actually ENJOYS cutting out 16 shapes of Africa to make into a little book. :D For 30 kids.

[T'smom]

My Ker loves them and while they are not the most efficient way to process information......he enjoys it. Which makes him have a better attitude and that helps me have a better attitude. I also find that they are a great way to review info. He loves to look back at things we've done. They are also impressive things to show off to grandparents!

 

(I can see why people would start them and not finish......we actually do the whole shebang at one time. Usually, I am cutting something out as he is filling out or glueing something else. And no, I do not force him to do this all at one time.....if I tried to put it away and finish it the next day, he would drive me crazy with the begging. But he is kinda weird. We color a picture to go along with our daily bible story and he can take 20+ min to color it. )

[Georgiana Daniels]

I started lapbooking with ToG with the kids about a year ago. Thought for sure I'd LOVE them. As it turns out, I don't, but the kids do. So on we trudge. It IS a good way for them to pick out the 2 or 3 most important points about XYZ topic. They look forward to doing the cutting/pasting/gluing as a reward for all the reading that comes before it.

 

AND ((big surprise to me)) they enjoy picking out their own bits of information.

 

Today I tried to tell them what to write for the Crusades and I got a scowly face from my youngest, who then proceeded to draw hearts next to the written bits because she said at least the hearts were HERS.

[Ariston]

I agree with Farrar...they remind me of all those poster boards I had to do as a child just to have something for the teacher to hang in the hallway. I'm sure the kids would enjoy it and like to look at it when they're done, but I don't have the time or energy to devote to something that doesn't have much educational value (as I see it).

[Lily_Grace]

I think they're great for the kid who loves them. Mine would have...if we could have made it like the Ology books. But having limited resources led me to the idea that there has to be something else on the market for those of us who want it to be a real, outstanding project. I want them preprinted - on different textured/colored paper, additional embellishments included, and THEN be able to use it as a project to reinforce learning and have a keepsake. That would make them definitely fun for my knowledgeable, but not very artsy child. (He ended up devising a way to do interactive powerpoint presentations instead)

[NASDAQ]

I don't like printing, cutting, or gluing.

 

I think lapbooks are out for us, at least until one of the kids figures out how to use a printer.

[skeeterbug]

It's interesting seeing all these responses. We like them to make a project more special, to have something to look back at, an alternative to notebooking. For science we use Apologia with their notebooking journal, but then add additional lapbook pieces to it. We are doing some of the lit units from COAH, right now we are doing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I've been surprised at how much my younger two want to do the lapbook pieces with it. We'll probably do her composer and artist series too. We complete the pieces as we go and then will assemble them all into a folder at the end. For history we have added lapbook elements right on to our notebooking pages. The biggest one we've done was for the Olympics.

 

I tend to print as we go rather than all at once, i usually cut them out also but it's only a couple of pieces at a time so it doesn't bother me. This really makes a difference for me, i've tried preparing them all in advance and hated it. But one or two pieces a day I can do. I also don't like the format of traditional lapbooks so we make ours look more like books. We don't do a lot of them, just slowly work our way through one and then start another when we feel ready. My kids love having them to look back on.

[MrsBasil]

My son is 4 so grain of salt and all that. He likes to make his "books", so we do a book from BFIAR and I find a few printables or ideas and he helps me cut out things or I cut them out and he glues. For Goodnight Moon, I found a sheet with the phases of the moon on it, he painted them, we cut them out, and he glued them in order with a little help from me. Then I wrote the phases down on cards and he matches the card to the picture. We also glued in a picture he colored of a bedroom, a 'G' and an 'M' he traced, and something else...

 

I just did two pages in a scrabbook I picked up years ago when I thought I was going to scrapbook. So far, he enjoys looking at his book and showing daddy what he made. I pick out things that require minimal skilled cutting and not a ton of work. Ours look like a 4 year olds project. ;

[Elfknitter.#]

I can't see using them alone but to break up tedium in a topic or for some unique current event (e.g. last year's summer olympics) they are a nice change. The child for whom I thought they'd never work actually does look back at his from time to time.

[Eyesoflyte]

My 4 year old loves making them. She does all the cutting, gluing etc. She likes to show off the "book she made". She goes and reads through ones she has already made every other week or so ... I figure its a good review.

 

[sewingmama]

We do a lot of them....my kids love them..even the 3 yo.

 

I do all the cutting but I don't mind...it's too tedious for my kids at their age.

 

My DD is very visual and it really helps cement the information in her head.

 

They pull them out and look at them often.

 

They other day they pulled out the one we just did for Easter and did a newscast from it. (Impromptu) It was so funny to hear them saying...

 

" our major headline tonight is that Jesus is missing. Last seen being taken by Roman soldiers...and now for the weather...at noon today the sun went dark for three hours..."

 

I counted that as synthesised and learnt LOL.

 

 

 

 

[mama27]

They seem like fancy workbooks to me. But I am still use them because some of my kids like them and they feel less schoolish than real workbooks so...

[Um_2_4]

Well, I thought my DS and DD would like them (instead of copywork or workbook etc ). So I got a bunch for country studies (thankfully free online) and had plans to do 1 per week (they fill in the facts they want about each country, so really research based and a good way to sneak in extra writing ;) !)

But on lapbook #2, DC looked at me and said..."Mom, we don't like these"...so no more....I wish they liked them ;(

I have discovered my kiddos are not artsy, though they love to play with play dough or glitter or paint, but it is the process for them, not the product. kwim?

[pitterpatter]

Thanks for all of the wonderful responses!! I feel a lot the same way. I'm in the process of designing one now for my DD who is nearly six. Wanted to see if the things I've been thinking about and trying to remedy are consistent thoughts across the board.

[Moniksca]

We love love love them here. I seem to be alone here. My 6th grader uses them and has used thems since we discovered them in 2nd grade. I initially did all the cutting but since I was only schooling one child, it wasn't a big deal.

Lapbooks are another way of having your child record their narration just like notebooking (which we also love).

DS always has one history and one science lapbook going at the same time. He works on 2 or 3 minibooks each session. Once they are complete, he glues them into a notebook.

I don't have space to store large file folders so we use spiral notebooks. this way I can also print out pictures to notebook about as well if there isn't a mini book on a specific topic.

No fancy paper or ink, we have a black and white printer. He can color them if he wishes but he usually doesn't.

Easy peasy

 

My 5 year old has started working on preschool ones as well and he cuts them until he gets tired and then I take over.

We love the free ones from homeschoolshare and the ones from hands of a child

[lillybell]

My youngest dd loves them. They are great study guides to look back at. I keep the ones she has completed in the bookshelf for her to use as reference. She used to have a difficult time with history so that is when we first began using them. They helped her see topics and subtopics in a more organized manner. She can section off bits of information by main topics and list subtopics in the mini books. They do help her retain more of the information we study because she doesn't have to process the entire chapter of reading in her head. Instead we take the main points and organize them in the lap books. Right now we are using one for literature. As she reads the assigned book, we add small minibooks, vocabulary, setting information, and character descriptions. She also works on one for History. The prep work can be time consuming but usually a few hours during a weekend, she will cut the lapbooks and paste everything with glue dots and have it ready to go so during the lessons, she just has to add the writing. The literature lapbook study is usually a months long so she just makes one at the start of a new book. For History, we make a new one every few months. So making them isn't that bad in the prep time. The only thing I dislike is the cost of printing them. The card stock and ink prices are the only downside for us. Each child is different though because my other daughters never liked them.

[Hedgehogs4]

We have used them with tremendous success for my older ds11. We didn't do one this year, but when we did them, he WROTE without realizing he was writing, he did RESEARCH without realizing it, he managed details, made decisions, and practiced visual design all in one project. We did one on ancient Greece, one on the middle ages,and one on Lewis and Clark, and he loves looking back at them.

 

we used file folders, a little card stock, and pictures that we printed off of the internet. I honestly never felt a pinch financially because of them. These are things I keep on hand anyway, so it really didn't make a difference. YMMV.

 

I think it's partly in the attitude, and partly in the learning style of the people involved. We are kind of whole-to-parts kind of people. We'll look at the big picture, then break down what parts of that we want to learn about. Then we lay out a design, do the research, then fill it in, tweaking along the way. It has been extremely rewarding for my son and I, who work well with that system. I can imagine, though, that it could be incredibly frustrating for others who don't think that way. If you go to my blog (accidental homeschooler) and search lap books, I have photos of the ones we have done and some reviews of the process.

[Mom2TheTeam]

It's interesting seeing all these responses. We like them to make a project more special, to have something to look back at, an alternative to notebooking. For science we use Apologia with their notebooking journal, but then add additional lapbook pieces to it. We are doing some of the lit units from COAH, right now we are doing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I've been surprised at how much my younger two want to do the lapbook pieces with it. We'll probably do her composer and artist series too. We complete the pieces as we go and then will assemble them all into a folder at the end. For history we have added lapbook elements right on to our notebooking pages. The biggest one we've done was for the Olympics.

 

I tend to print as we go rather than all at once, i usually cut them out also but it's only a couple of pieces at a time so it doesn't bother me. This really makes a difference for me, i've tried preparing them all in advance and hated it. But one or two pieces a day I can do. I also don't like the format of traditional lapbooks so we make ours look more like books. We don't do a lot of them, just slowly work our way through one and then start another when we feel ready. My kids love having them to look back on.

 

We are doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from COAH. :)

 

We have done a couple of lapbooks. I don't really like them, but my kids do. I use them for variety and fun...but not often.

[Ruthie in MS]

We really like the free units at Homeschool Share. My dd8 loves them and my dd6 doesn't really care for them. I have two different learners so I don't use them with EVERY unit and I like variety. I also have some Hands of a Child lapbooks but I really like HSS units.

[Alice]

They didn’t fit my oldest’s personality or learning style and mine is pretty much the same as his so we never got into the habit of doing them. I think I tried one because it seemed like one of those things you just had to do as a homeschooler. Ds hates crafty stuff and I didn’t like it either. We both would just rather read a book and talk about it.

 

Also, I don’t like to keep a lot of stuff. I’m terribly unsentimental and throw out most of their drawings and crafts and a lot of schoolwork. Not only do I not want to create lapbooks, I don’t want to have to figure out what to do with them once we’ve made them.

 

The one way I’ve seen them work well for us is in a co-op setting. Both boys have taken a FIAR class at co-op and over the course of the semester they make a lapbook. It’s a good way then for them to compactly show us what they’ve learned all semester and to have as something they did from the class. (And yes, I’ve kept them. :))

[happymomofboys]

I'm a lapbook drop-out. I'm just not a hands-on crafty mom. My kids enjoy making them for about 10 minutes and then I end up doing all the work. I prefer notebooking, but my oldest son is a reluctant writer, so our notebooks aren't as lush as I would like.

[Kyr]

We used them more when my kids were younger. The little books were a good way to ease my kids into taking notes, writing down their narrations, doing research etc. Somehow the little books make the writing seem more manageable or less intimidating to them. They are a lot of work. I cut most of them out (greatly prefered straight sided that I could do with my papercutter!). Eventually we switched to notebooking with pretty pages broken up with picture blocks etc and now they do well with plain paper.

[HS Mom in NC]

I rarely do ones other people design. Mine are SOTW based (by region: Ancient Middle East, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, etc.) and heavily supplemented by library books. I'm very Charlotte Mason/Living Books oriented in the early years.They are full of hands on activities, narrations, and maps. They're basically a portfolio.

 

I like having a neat package to hand to relatives who ask my kids, "What have you been doing in school?"

 

I also like that I have a record of everything we did because I put a list of all the assignments that are in it and a list of read alouds somewhere in each one. When people ask, "What did you do for_______________?" I can easily reference it.

[HS Mom in NC]

I would suggest to people using pre-designed ones:

 

1. Try (if it's possible and I know it isn't always) to print out one component at a time or a few at a time. Prioritize which you think are the most useful and then, if you get all of them done, you can print out more. Never ever ever feel obligated to do everything included in the pre-designed lapbook. Select only components that contribute directly to you studies. Leave the fluff or download it for busywork for the kid who's a lapbook junkie and needs time fillers during cabin fever season, when they're sick, or other down time. It's like your math book- if your child gets it and is able to move on, don't insist they do every problem on the page. Like your LA program, not every single assignment is necessary every time. Remember these things are designed for the masses, not for each individual.

 

2. Print out ones that match the child's abilities. If it's too hard to cut then don't use that one. If you child can't paste, lapbooking probably isn't a good fit right now. Beware the temptation to make everything look like an adult did it too. If you're insisting on everything being lined up straight, edges being perfectly smooth, and that there never be a lump of paste, then you might be demanding too much of your time and energy when young children are involved.

 

The other option is to buy a papercutter and only use things that have straight sides. Since I use mine for all sorts of things, it makes sense for me to own and use one. Not every single thing has to be cut by the child, but if mom is doing it, it has to be done in a way that doesn't have mom spending much of her precious time and energy on cutting stuff out.

 

3. Photographing your child doing a relevant activity saves time and energy. All you have to do is print out the photos (no need for cutting) and glue them in.

 

Example: We did a tangram art project in our Ancient China study. It was fussy cut paper tangrams pieces with decorative Asian paper backgrounds in the forms of the characters from a story we read. It was one of the few components that we divided labor on. She placed the tangram pieces ( I cut with the papercutter ) where they belong and wrote the lables (dog, fox, goose, hawk, etc.) I glued everything in place. If you're only doing the labor on one or two (and you only have a kid or two doing them) it's not a big hassle. If you're doing most of the labor, you're demanding too much of yourself.

 

Example: A simpler version would be to place a plastic or wooden tangram set on a piece of contrasting solid paper in the forms of those characters and then taking a photo of each. Print them out, label them each with one word for each animal character they represent and glue them in. No cutting. No using up paper other than the photopaper for the photos. You could simply use black tangrams on white paper and print it out on regular white printer paper. Glue it into a red folder and it looks striking.

 

4. Only do low maintenance cutting and folding components unless your child is highly motivated to do high maintenance ones on his or her own. There are more complex ones and simpler ones. If your child is unenthusiastic about cutting, folding, and gluing, don't even consider doing the complex ones. If the information in that complex component is important, find different ways to include important information. It could go into a simple narration, a photo of your child demonstrating it in an activity, or a simpler type of lapbook component. Maybe a high quality read aloud and a little discussion are all your child needs, so you can just add it to your list of read alouds and put the list in your lapbook.

[jkl]

My 7 year old loves them! We have 1 going almost all the time on a variety of topics. (Ants is the current one--we are loving our ant farm!) I find it's a wonderful way to get us talking about what he's learning, and he actually writes without complaint. Homeschool share is the best!!!

[ScoutTN]

The ones I've seen look mostly like busywork. Likely there are some good ones, but my kids aren't much into cut and paste.

 

If I'm going to do a project, I'd rather it not be made of paper. (We loved the chx mummy! ;) )

[Mrs Twain]

Lapbooks are one of my most valuable tools for educating my children. I use them for history, state study, science, and civics/government. My kids don't find them fun to make, but they are extremely proud of the finished products. I don't do any of the cutting or pasting. I consider this necessary for my kids to do to improve their fine motor control. For the history lapbooks, I also assign a research paper on the subject, in which they must choose a topic from library books I have checked out, takes notes, write an outline, write a rough draft report, and then type the final draft. They include the final draft in the lapbook. Here is a list of some of the skills my kids learn through lapbooks: learning lists of facts, writing summaries, writing research reports, fine motor skills, organizing information for a presentation (when they decide how to assemble all of the pieces in the folder), doing oral presentations (twice per year they do presentations of the lapbooks to their grandparents, dh, and me), and reviewing past material (when they reread lapbooks). Mostly I use lapbooks from HOAC. Sometimes I add one or more activities to these, or devise of combination of two similar lapbooks. For example, I am combining Jamestown and Pilgrims lapbooks into one project. The kids will do a compare/contrast research paper on Jamestown and the Pilgrims in Plymouth which they will include in their lapbooks. Last year the kids made an extensive lapbook on new world explorers. They often pull those out to review (for fun!) whenever we come across an explorer in our history reading. I first learned about lapbooks at a homeschool convention, and I have found them to be one of my most useful tools.

[Mrs Twain]

One more thought--Lapbooks are projects that I can actually keep. Do you remember some of the projects we used to do in school? A fourth grade teacher I met was having her class make a model of Jamestown out of popsicle sticks. I did many projects like that in school. It may be fun while the kids are making it, but what do you do with it after they are done? I don't have any space (or I don't want to make any space) in my house for those kinds of projects. Those kinds of projects go quietly into the recycling can. However, lapbooks are projects that I can actually keep because they fold up into nice, compact file folders. I have a whole bunch of them lined up neatly on part of a shelf in my office. The kids can pull them out and look at them any time they like.

[a82allison]

I'm 100% positive that my kids would love to make lapbooks. They are constantly cutting, glueing, making their own versions of scrapbooks, folding paper, making cootie catchers, tearing apart magazines...etc. Lapbooks have to be right up that alley, right? But I haven't gone anywhere near finding/printing/buying a lapbook because I am deathly afraid of having to participate in it with them. ha

[mom2scouts]

When I started homeschooling, I though lapbooks looked so fun and I wanted to do them. My son hated them and we never finished one. My dd came along and she loves making lapbooks. She's very crafty and artistic and all that writing, cutting, gluing, and coloring is really fun for her. I did a couple small lapbooks with her this year and she keeps asking to do more. She wants to show them to everybody and get her picture taken with them. If she's that excited about doing something in school, I'm going to use that excitement. She will be doing lapbooks next year and her brother will be doing something else.

[pitterpatter]

LOL! Fourth grade was Missouri history for us. So, we made log cabins out of Popsicle sticks.

 

One more thought--Lapbooks are projects that I can actually keep. Do you remember some of the projects we used to do in school? A fourth grade teacher I met was having her class make a model of Jamestown out of popsicle sticks. I did many projects like that in school. It may be fun while the kids are making it, but what do you do with it after they are done? I don't have any space (or I don't want to make any space) in my house for those kinds of projects. Those kinds of projects go quietly into the recycling can. However, lapbooks are projects that I can actually keep because they fold up into nice, compact file folders. I have a whole bunch of them lined up neatly on part of a shelf in my office. The kids can pull them out and look at them any time they like.

[pitterpatter]

Thanks again, everyone! I'm just about finished.

[RootAnn]

I'm using Elemental Science's Lapbooking Through Biology this year for my dd#2 & dd#3. Both are highly crafty & love color-cut-and-pasting.

 

I use them for the same reason I use the coloring pages in SOTW. They keep the kids fingers busy while they are listening to me read material to them. Then, when they pick things to narrate back to me, they (or I) write it down in the lapbook. Voila!

 

FedEx/Kinkos printed all the pages out ahead of time & they went into a folder for each kid. They bring each page out as needed & the Lapbook goes into the older pocket of the folder. It is like Craft Time for the olders. I'm hoping to use ES's Lapbooking through Astronomy with Apologia's Astronomy book to make Apologia more palatable next year. (It'll be dd#2's second time around. She liked the projects, but not the content of the book.)