Please talk me through lapbooking.

[KatharineClifton]

I've looked at a couple of sites but don't really understand what it is? Is it something that my 9yo's would love?

My DD loves lapbooking. Basically, you link a load of cardboard folders together and fill them with little books of info about a topic.

When DD did a volcano one she had mini books on things like famous eruptions, volcano related dictionary work, different kinds of volcanoes, parts of volcanoes, maps, types of rock, pictures of things like pyroclastic flows, life stages of volcanoes puzzles matching dates to eruptions, she stuck in a word search, some art work and the like and decorated the front cover.

It's a way of practising lots of skills based around a topic in which the children are interested. Lapbooking allows them to be creative but also gives something concrete to show for their time.

We have done tons of them over the years ranging from Miss Muffet (spiders) to Monster Trucks and from Telling the Time to Ancient Rome and everything in between. Lapbooks can be adapted to suit a range of ages from young kids who need a lot of help and input to much older kids who can guide their own learning and make their own books.

Thanks stressedHEmum.

Have a look on Currclick at the lapbooks available there.
The prices are all listed in $ but if you sign up with an email account and say you are in the UK it will show prices in £.
You pay to download - permanently saved onto your computer. Then you print print print and then cut out cut out cut out.
DD loves lapbooks but they do tend to involve a lot of printing and a lot of cutting out! (and potentially a lot of cardstock)

The "hands of a child" and "journey through learning" are imho the nicest - but also very costly especially when you factor in all printing involved.

They do look lovely when finished though

Sign up to currclick and have a look - they also have a load of free stuff (often there are free sample sized lapbooks so you could have a go at one of those) They also have "sale" times when you can get stuff a lot cheaper. (they send you emails to notify you of a sale)

HTH

Have you seen the Speedy Science and Speedy Geography ones, LauraIngallsWilder? They are just great. We've done the Five Continents, Oceans, Human Body, and we've just bought the one on Muscles. At 50 cents they are excellent value and can be done in a day or two.

Thanks. I did look at Currclick and it doesn't look very creative to me, and is a very expensive with all the printing.

I've got some of the Evan Moor pocket project books so I think I'll stick with those.

Ooh, have you got a link for those? They sound interesting.

Link to the history ones www.evan-moor.com/Class.aspx?ClassID=286 They also do English and other ones - we're working on a mythology one atm. They are US focused. I can't remember where I got them but they are definitely available in the UK.

Just bumping up the old thread, as I found it useful when searching for further information. I've just purchased and downloaded a solar system set from the Hands of a Child shop.

We're looking forward to trying this, it looks like a interesting way to present projects.

Any other site recommendations would be appreciated, or UK sites, especially for younger children.

evan moor teacher file box

I have an annual subscription to Evan moors teacher file box (got it on discount from Homeschool Coop) It was $70 - £45.
I have printed easily $700 worth of their books, all filed away ready for when we want to use them. - far cheaper than buying their books individually!

Evan moors teacher file box is easily the best online resource I have ever found for home education (even including the fact that it cost me money!).
The best free online resource for me is Activity Village.

Almost all the rest are no where near as good as those two - but Im willing to be proved wrong!

Im not a great fan of lapbooks tbh - we now prefer a more 'file folder' style that evan moor favours - very similar but not the same (which probably makes no sense at all, sorry!)

HomeSchoolShare lapbooks are all free. A Journey Through Learning has all their lapbooks priced at $5 which works out at between £3-£4.

We did our first "lapbook" this week (although I don't know if it counts!). DS (6 1/2) wanted to lean about Rhinos, so we read everything we could in his animal books (he has loads). I suggested he picks his favourite bits about them and we put them into a lapbook. I cut up a file folder, and printed out a world map, and that was it from me. DS coloured in where Rhinos lived (not exact! The whole of Africa and Asia ), and then what he really wanted was to put in what predators ate rhinos - it turns out tigers, lions, Nile crocodiles, so he drew pictures of all of those, cut and stuck and labelled, and drew a big picture of a rhino to go on the front.

I had loads of ideas about what could be included (googling rhino lapbooks brought up lots of free resources) but I thought what was most important was that it was DS's work, things that he wanted to learn about and remember. So next to none of it went in!

Anyway - that was our intro to lapbooking. We both really enjoyed it, and he wants to do tigers next :)

I've found this to be a helpful site about lapbooking (I like her blog as well). And if you google it and click on images then all kinds come up (some are a bit intimidating, lol!).

Why on earth is it called a lapbook? In the good old days these were scrap books or topic folders or subject books. Why call it something mysterious? The examples I've seen seem to be a parents showcase rather than a child's efforts. Where are the wonky, badly cut out efforts that we can truly be proud of?

yy maggi, I think that too.

I think lapbook because it folds out quite big, so you have to put it down on a table (or lap) to look at it. I like the concept because they can be tiny, just a few pictures stuck in that you want to preserve, and then it's complete. A whole scrapbook would be way too intimidating for us both! (My perfectionism and worry at not finishing it, and DS horror at the amount of work.)