Clarita Posted December 24, 2021 Share Posted December 24, 2021 I just discovered lapbooking. We have tried it for 3 weeks now with science (the science curriculum comes wih something) and history (I wing this one). My kids (3 and 5) really enjoy it and of course it looks nothing like the ones I see on Google. For us it's a piece of folded construction paper (I didn't want to invest too much) and my kids glue and doodle things that I plan out. Anyways just looking for thoughts, experiences, resources on this whole notebooking/lapbooking thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree Frog Posted December 24, 2021 Share Posted December 24, 2021 We did lapbooking a long time ago. I used to buy some sort of something that geared the lapbooks to our topic at hand. Eventually, I just started creating my own smaller books for the kids to fill out and put together however they wanted. There's a lot of info online. The lapbooks were something my kids enjoyed putting together and looking at years later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted December 25, 2021 Author Share Posted December 25, 2021 5 hours ago, wilrunner said: Eventually, I just started creating my own smaller books for the kids to fill out and put together however they wanted. There's a lot of info online. Hopefully in a few years they'll create their own. I've seen the info online, but I jsut want some real experience because some of the stuff online is a bit elaborate or those people and their kids are more artistic than my family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
historically accurate Posted December 26, 2021 Share Posted December 26, 2021 My kids always liked lapbooks. They often did their own folded papers (we used cardstock which worked well for lapbooking) with some bits and pieces of different lapbooks I found free online or invested some money in. I often found free worksheets on the topic and taped those over the top so it would stay with the lapbook. Their lapbooks ended up with a sometimes interesting combination of pre-printed & "creative" use of paper. We used Five in a Row when they were little and often did lapbooks for the books we rowed. Hands of a Child, Knowledge Box, Journey through Learning, and Homeschool Share are the "brands" of lapbooks I remember that I used. We've also done book reports/narrations in this style for years: https://teacherthrive.com/matchbook-chapter-summaries-for-novel/ 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted December 26, 2021 Share Posted December 26, 2021 We did a couple over the years. The best part, as a mom/teacher, was when grandma would visit and they would pull them out and explain everything to her - pain free review! My favorites were the ones that somebody posted online to accompany SotW 1 and 2. We still have those. We did another one when they got to the Periodic Table in science. It was a nice way to promote a little more hands-on work with the topic. I put that together using bits and pieces from other labooks and games I found around the internet, and we used it with the Pop, Bang, Fizz book asking with some of the experiments from there. That said, we didn't *love* them. I generally cut out all the pieces while being available for help during math time. They did the assembly and filling in of data. I always tweaked them, adding things I liked, removing bits I didn't think we're worth it. They were also useful for giving my younger dd something to do that satisfied all dc that it was close enough to school work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dianthus Posted December 26, 2021 Share Posted December 26, 2021 My kids like doing crafts, and lapbooking is crafty. I don't like doing crafts, and lapbooking is crafty. We made ours with file folders like this. We would make 2 and glue the backs together so it was a double book. We also did some of the free SOTW lapbooks, which are on this site. It's not horrible especially if it occupies them during history reading. I don't like having an extra cutting project. I don't think it helps them learn much. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted December 27, 2021 Share Posted December 27, 2021 We did one every now and then when my older kids were little, using free resources. I used Homeschoolshare back then. I just checked and the website is still around. It looks very different from the primitive one they had back then, lol. And I have no experience with it in over a decade, but it might be worth looking at. I remember finding topics for the holidays or topics we were studying and specific ones to go with books we were reading. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted December 27, 2021 Share Posted December 27, 2021 Homeschoolshare is still a pretty good resource. Our favorite "lapbooks' ended up not being lapbooks at all, but interactive notebooks. They're like lapbooks on steroids. Ds did one two years ago on the human body in a spiral sketchbook. We used a lot of pieces from Getting Nerdy With Mel & Gerdy, layered tracings, diagrams, lab results that folded out and up....an entire year's journey tucked away in one book. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted December 28, 2021 Author Share Posted December 28, 2021 Interesting feedback. I was giving it a try and for us it is something that provides real life or interesting application of reading, writing and math. My books are not very crafty most things I put in are squares, my fancy is squares with rectangular flaps. I think it's nice because I can shrink my son's writing (my scribing) and drawing area down to post-it note size (which is less overwhelming for him). I haven't invested in file folders so far it's just been combination of construction paper, paper and index cards. Thanks for the resources for ideas. My kids have shown the grandparents their work and talked to them about what they did which is a nice perk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted December 28, 2021 Author Share Posted December 28, 2021 2 hours ago, HomeAgain said: We used a lot of pieces from Getting Nerdy With Mel & Gerdy, layered tracings, diagrams, lab results that folded out and up....an entire year's journey tucked away in one book. Wow! The 3D dissections look really cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted December 28, 2021 Share Posted December 28, 2021 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Clarita said: Wow! The 3D dissections look really cool. Aren't they? Ds wants a set of their augmented reality cards, another really cool offering. One of the best things about their INB pages were that the same exercise was nearly always presented at 2-3 different difficulty levels and both in color and b&w. It makes for a huge file, but I could tailor it exactly to ds's level of interest and motor skills. I want to say that if you poke around HomeschoolShare, there's a blank lapbook file with different styles of interactive pages to cut out: accordion, fan, matchbox, etc. so you're not stuck using just what they have. ETA: I found it! https://www.homeschoolshare.com/category/lapbook-templates/ Edited December 28, 2021 by HomeAgain 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Bean Posted December 28, 2021 Share Posted December 28, 2021 We did lap notebooks for a few things when my daughter was younger. I used cardstock to glue the parts on then hole punched. We used FIAR, who has a Notebook Builder option and Fold&Learn options. https://fiveinarow.com/shop/notebook-builder/ https://fiveinarow.com/free-fold-learn-access/ Confessions of a Homeschooler has a bunch for literature, music, and art. https://store.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/ Ultimately, we decided the books were fun to put together, but then we were burnt out and didn't want to fill them in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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