Lapbooking – A Few of Your Questions Answered
I’ve had several people (real life and this here life!) ask about our lapbooks. What are they? What do they look like? Where do I come up with ideas? Do the kids like them or are they just a Mama-thing? How much do you they cost? How do you fold them? Are they just for little people or do older kids do them too? What do you need to get started? And these are just a few. So I thought I would answer some of those questions. And start showing off my kids’ work a little along the way.
What are they?
A method of homeschooling. Or supplementing any other learning (public, private, or just free time fun stuff). The are basically scrapbooks that kids make. You can print off little “components” (see, I’m even gonna give you some lingo, so you feel “in the know”!), have the kids fill in the information, and glue them in file folders. Yeah, just those plain boring manila kind that you can buy a whole bunch for very little money at your local get-it-all store. Typically you refold the folders to where they open up like shutters in the front, but that depends on the lapbook and your preference. It’s a great place to keep their work (I’ve suggested them to my public schooling friends who don’t want to trash all that paperwork their children bring home from school).
What do they look like?
They look like little booklets that unfold and hold lots of cutesy pictures and fun folded paperwork.
Where do I come up with my ideas? And how much do they cost?
You can buy very cool preprinted packages from some very trustworthy and amazing places. A Journey Through Learning and In The Hands of a Child are great examples. I’m cheap and prefer free. That means a little more work on my part, but not much. My favorite site of all and great place to get started is HomeschoolShare. Wow. Free, constantly updated, exhaustive, and organized. Really, for homeschooling what more could you ask for?! You can go explore their site, but if you’re looking for the shortcut straight to the list of lapbooks they offer go here. Their lapbooks are then either listed exhaustively or broken down by age. They have lapbooks by topic (for instance lizards, the human body, and honey bees) and literature-based lapbooks (we’ve done Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees, The Mitten, and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie just to name a few). I love both, but am probably partial to the literature-based just because I can cover so many subjects in one place.
How do the kids feel about them?
Mine love them. And I have 2 boys and a girl ranging in ages from 7 down to 4 who currently participate in them. They like picking them out or seeing what surprise one I’ve picked out for them. They enjoy doing each component, and since mine are still so small I usually put them all together at the end for them, and they love that completed surprise when it’s all over. And here’s the amazing part, after about a year of doing them, they’ve started asking to go back through them. At bedtime it’s the number one asked for item over books or toys. When they see a show about a book or topic we’ve covered before they run to get that lapbook to look through it again.
Are they just for little learners or for older kids too?
As I said my kids are all under the age of 8, but they have some pretty advanced and very cool chapter book lapbooks, as well. And I look forward to turning over the entire putting-togetherness of it when they get just a bit older. I think you’ll be surprised what all’s out there for both genders and all ages once you start looking into them.
How do you fold them or the oft-heard “That’s very cool, and you make great ones, but I would never be able to figure out all that folding” ?
There are such great resources out there that take you step by step in the process. Remember, it’s one little fold and one little component at a time that eventually adds up to one whole complex cool lapbook. Don’t get overwhelmed by the finished products. At HomeschoolShare they have a whole section on blank resources if you care to do them yourself or expand on the lapbooks they have available for you. When you click on an already prepared lapbook each component is listed seperately so that you may pick and choose the items you want to include in your lapbook. With those items you print are instructions of how to fold them. They also include pictures at the end of each section to show you what their completed lapbook looks like. But it’s always just a suggestion. And I’ll always take comments or emails and talk you through any place that you’re stuck.
How do you know just how much to include or when you’re through with one lapbook?
This is a good question. You can play by the rules and print off the whole list and when you work through it, well, then you’re done. I’m not a good rule follower. I go by my kids’ levels of concentration. I pick components I think they would like (or let them pick), print them off, and have them on hand. I’m not a great planner or stick to it-er once I have a plan, so maybe I’m not a great one to ask. Or maybe I’m the perfect one to ask. You pick! Either way, this is how I do it. I print off the things I want, we jump in one morning and get started, when my kids start losing interest for the day, we quit. Then we do some more the next day. And we keep going as long as they show interest and aren’t fighting me on it. When they seem through, I quit, put it all together, and give it to them like a present. If they show more interest than I have printed items for, then I go get creative. I go to sites like Enchanted Learning (a paying site for the premium stuff – $20 a year last I checked, but very trustworthy, legitimate, and a WEALTH of resources), an awesome site full of free stuff is Jan Brett’s site, I do a search for the topic we’re working on, and/or there are usually related extra resource sites at the end of each lapbook on HomeschoolShare with lots of free printables to add to your finished project. This is yours and ultimately you’re in control of all of it!
How much do they learn, does it cover enough, and do you use it a your sole curriculum?
Hmm… Depends on who you ask, but since you asked me, I’ll answer! My kids have learned a ton and have retained nearly all of it. Really. When they see something in real like that reminds them of a once-covered lapbook they get excited and start reminding me about what they learned. It can be your sole curriculum and cover enough if you’re dedicated. They are great as a companion to Five In A Row. I have one friend who uses Abeka and plans to use these to kick off or wrap up each 6 week series they start. I have another friend who wants to use these mostly during the summer and do their “regular curriculum” during the “regular school year”. It’s up to you. Homeschool Share even has a scope and sequence checklist for the things you might want to cover with your child according to grade. Print that off, make a plan, work through it. And you have an entire school year ahead of you, if you’re that organized and so inclined. If you are, I envy you and dream of being you some day. For me, I’m kinda lazy. Or kinda busy (at least that’s what I tell myself, though I have a sneaking suspicion it’s more the former). So we do lapbooks according to their desires and fill in the blanks with workbooks and textbooks when I get tired of lapbooking (yes, it can happen, even for an enthusiast such as myself), or run out of one of the necessary items to lapbook.
Which brings us to another question I get..
What do you need to get in order to lapbook?
This is a running joke amongst my lapbooking friends and myself. Just go buy stock in glue sticks, printer paper, ink, and file folders now. I’m kidding. Kind of! Depending on how many lapbooks you do, how often you do them, how many children you have and how many of those children either contribute to one large combined lapbook or each have their own you may very well find yourself at one of the super mega supply stores buying in bulk. But when you consider the price you pay for curriculum or other fun learning projects then the price is nominal. If you’re a beginner I suggest you buy a pack of file folders (I buy the manila ones because I’m cheap – we have painted and decorated them before, but mostly just leave them plain, however, they do have colored file folders if you desire); several glue sticks (I like the sticks over the liquid, because when you’re doing that much gluing – your paper will tend to wrinkle – and well, that just drives me crazy); a pack of printer paper; a pencil; and some colors, markers, or paints; those brass brad things are handy, but not always necessary; a stapler; and sometimes you may want some clear contact paper for the things you want to keep “just so”. As with most things, they can be as simple or as elaborate you want.
An example of a simple literature-based lapbook my 3 year old daughter did is What Will You Wear Jesse Bear?
And an example of a more elaborate exhaustive topical lapbook is the Volcanoes lapbook my 5 year old son did kindergarten year.
Have questions I haven’t covered? Sites I haven’t mentioned? Or want to show off your own awesome lapbooks? Please do! We’d love to hear from you.
Suzanne is wife to one and mama to four and a half. The little ones are 2 boys ages 7 and 6, a girl who’s 4, a wild toddler boy who’s 2 and new baby boy expected this October. She eclecticly unschools with lapbooks the Charlotte Mason way. In other words, she doesn’t have the slightest clue what she’s doing, but does it anyway. She lives in a world where there are few absolutes. The dishes don’t stay cleaned, the laundry doesn’t stay put away, the children don’t remember what she told them yesterday. But in their chaotic lives they have found joy. And they’d love to share that with you. So, come on over, kick a path through the toys, have a seat on the couch and grab a cup of strong coffee. Just be ready to hone your skills of “interrupted conversation”! And be sure to stop by her personal blog at TheJoyfulChaos.
Creative Homeschooling: Lapbooking/Notebooking
June 30, 2009 by Amy Bayliss
Our family has become quite accustomed to building our own books. We do a loose combination of all of the popular forms of booking: lapbooking, scrapbooking, notebooking, altered booking, etc. We have actually simply started calling it “heartbooking©” since our style fits none of these exclusively and because we base the foundation of our education on God’s word which teaches us that we must examine the condition of our hearts. Studying history, science, and the especially the bible can give us the opportunity to examine our hearts and motives in certain situations.
Recently while studying about the Vietnam war my son became appalled by the fact that some soldiers were spat at upon their return from overseas. This gave me the opportunity to dig deeper into their hearts and question them as to whether or not if they were in a situation with one of their neighborhood friends and they believed that friend had done something wrong, how would they react to them? That is what heartbooking© is about; using our current studies to build Godly character through self examination.
One of our favorite heartbooking © techniques is done by altering old books. We find old hardback books at thrift stores or library sales and we take them home and refurbish them with new content from whatever we are studying. We build new content on the already existing pages by simply gluing cardstock down and then adding all of our elements. We have absolutely enjoyed adding elements of a personal nature when we can. For example, when we studied the Vietnam war we were able to use some of my grandfather’s photos, paraphernalia, and documents that he had kept from the two tours he did there. We made lots of secret hiding places within the book to hold special things that belonged to my grandfather during the war.
We started the refurbishing with the cover of the book. We used sandpaper to buff off the smooth surface so that the glue would adhere properly. After that we kids filled in each page after a weeks worth of studying we were also careful to chronicle our heart lessons into the documentation. This has served us well and given our boys an amazing piece of history that is very close to their heart!
You can find basic instructions for altering books here: Amy Bayliss’ post and here: Amy Stults’ post.
Here are some photos of our Vietnam War book:
What kinds of creative ideas does your family use when it comes to “booking” of all types? Be sure to leave links to your “booking” posts so we can check them out!
Married to her best friend and “main squeeze”, Amy Bayliss is a 4th year home/co-schooling mom to three boys. She enjoys writing about the eclectic teachings that bring a glimmer of curiosity to the eyes of her sons. In addition to being the co-owner of Heart of the Matter, she writes for Internet Cafe Devotions. Be sure to visit her blog, AmyBayliss.com and her family’s homeschool blog: Integrity Academy.
In Loving Memory – giveaway
April 3, 2009 by AmyS
The winner is Lorraine of Where Learning begins.
I am so excited to offer this amazing giveaway…my friend and scrapbook author Tania Willis is offering one lucky scrapbooker a free spot in her online “Get It Scrapped” class. The title of her class is In Loving Memory.
This 5-week course takes place once per week from April 9 to May 7.
Words from Tania:
I will help spur you on to create an album dedicated to a loved one you have lost, all the while encouraging you to be gentle on yourself through the process. I will provide prompts and challenges to help you get your thoughts in order and onto the page, as well as suggestions for selecting photos and how to overcome the dilema of not having many photos at all. In addition, page sketches will be offered and a variety of embellishment techniques will be taught along the way.
There’s not a better way to complete a treasured project than in the company of a supportive teacher who is on her own journey of remembrance after losing her mom very suddenly and unexpectedly the summer of 2007. “It’s scrapbooking as a healing therapy, not just art.”
To enter our giveaway, simply leave a comment before Monday April 6 at 10pm EST. The winner will be notified by email.
8 Fun Ways To Teach Spelling
March 24, 2009 by Amy Bayliss
We all know that teaching spelling can be tedious at times so I’ve collected a few ways to make the experience more than bearable… fun even, perhaps? You be the judge.
1. Scrabble To Spell. I found an old Scrabble game at a thrift store and we use it to practice spelling. The kids spell out their spelling words on the rail and if they get it right then we add it to the board. Bonus plan: we add up the points on the tiles from the words to find out what the most “valuable” spelling word of the week is.
2. Practice with Disappearing Chalk. Using a cotton swab and small container of water, have the child wet the tip of the cotton swab and use it to write on the chalkboard. The “writing” will disappear like magic. Bonus plan: easy clean up and you can give a brief lesson about evaporation!
3. Cake Pan Boogie. Fill a square or rectangular cake pan with enough magnetic letters to spell the words. You can get the magnetic letters for the dollar store for only a buck. Start timing after the spelling word is called out. Have the child spell the word, using the letters, on the side of the cake pan. As soon as they are done spelling it they must turn the cake pan around and show it. Record all of the times and do it again. If the child beats their time for the majority of the words then they get to have the first piece of cake once it is baked!
4. Type It Out. Have your child practice spelling their words on the computer. We usually go for ten times. Bonus plan: typing practice too!
5. Pudding Paint Practice. This is a really fun one. I make about three batches of pudding in different flavors then I lay out waterproof tablecloth over the table. Then I have the kids finger paint their spelling words using the pudding. They love it because they can lick their fingers clean. I get the tablecloths from the dollar store. You get two for a buck.
6. Personal Whiteboard. I use sheet protectors with a blank piece of paper inside as a personal whiteboard for the kids. You simply use dry erase markers and wipe clean when done.
7. Cereal Speller. I purposely purchase alphabet shaped cereals so that while the kids are eating breakfast I can call out a few words to them and have the search for the letters to spell it. The kids that gets the most words right doesn’t have to clean the table!
8. Surplus Spelling. I let the kids use all of the leftover letters from scrapbooking projects to practice their words. They get a break from the everyday way of learning them and I get the advantage of knowing they didn’t go to waste and were used for a good purpose!
You can find a couple more ways here: Paint Cans, Loose Leaf Binders, and Index Cards.
Married to her best friend and “main squeeze”, Amy Bayliss is a 4th year homeschooling mom to three boys. She enjoys writing about the eclectic teachings that bring a glimmer of curiosity to the eyes of her sons. In addition to being the co-owner of Heart of the Matter, she writes for Internet Cafe Devotions. Be sure to visit her blog, AmyBayliss.com and her family’s homeschool blog: Integrity Academy.
The Modern Mom: What We’re Missing Out On
March 14, 2009 by Belinda
I’ve started with the annual start of school fever. I’m finished buying curriculum, minus a book or two. Planning gives me the same energy that shopping gives some women. Even the kids got excited this year about getting new planners. I guess I can say that this was one idea for ordering our day that was tremendously successful. As for my own planner, I definitely fell for packaging in buying my new Mom’s Plan It. This planner has tear-out grocery lists, a huge plus for me. However, as a scrapbooker at heart, I think what I really fell for was the opportunity to use these stickers:
As I got home and started to play with my new toy, I couldn’t help but look in more detail at the stickers, and about the larger implication of what is deemed important to today’s Mom:
- Parties, birthday and otherwise (27 stickers)
- Lunch dates (18 stickers)
- Dinner dates (an additional 18 stickers)
- Haircuts (18 stickers)
- Games (school-related—18 stickers)
- Phone calls (9 stickers)
- Play dates (9 stickers)
- Weekend getaways (9 stickers)
There were 54 total school-related, non-game stickers, including school events, class parties, no school and half-day stickers, open house and field trips. However, I couldn’t help but think, what does this allocation say about the new millennium mom? I don’t begrudge anybody a hair cut, but sadly, the message seems to be that a “busy mom” might be busy because she’s far more consumed with self interests/indulgences than with any higher callings of wife and motherhood. This is echoed in current feminist agendas that look upon the stay-at-home mom with disdain.
I know personally I’d be a lot wealthier if I had a dollar each time someone looked at me and asked something along the lines of, “Do you work at all?” Translation: Is staying at home with your kids all day all you do? What’s even sadder to me is my own emotions as I answer the question. As I continue to grow more comfortable in this relatively new skin, I find that I, somewhat proudly, respond with a detailed list regarding my work history and current income-bearing pursuits (I always state first that we homeschool—hooray for some level of redemption).
I am convinced that as a community of women, we’ve bought—hook, line, and sinker—into a lie that says that something is wrong with a woman whose primary goal in life is to minister to her family. There is even a television show—the 1,000,000th reality show—featuring stay-at-home moms who decide that they want to “see what they’ve missed out on” for a time. I’ve never watched it; having worked “a real job” and then coming home to the “real-est” job I ever had, even the commercial preview bothered me. I would love to ask them, what do you think you missed? Your interests and passions being sucked right out of you with all kinds of organizational policies and politics that have nothing to do with why you’re there in the first place?
I’m thankful that most of these stickers will land in the notebook of a soon-to-be 5-year-old. However, the stickers I used were the ones that are most important—to me and to God. They deal with the uplifting of family, of ministry to them and to others. Every drop of water I pour, every nutritious meal I prepare, matters to Him. May He bless my efforts to serve Him in my own small way.
Belinda Bullard is a wife and homeschooling mother of three, Belinda is an author and the owner of A Blessed Heritage Educational Resources, a literature-based history curriculum featuring African-American presence in history, as well as the contributions of other races to American history. A chemical engineer by formal education, she also serves as adjunct faculty for college distance learning programs.
Pretty Clothespin Magnets
February 12, 2009 by Angela
Looking for a way to update your plastic refrigerator magnets? Why not gather your clothespins–or spend $1 on a package of 20 at the dollar store and revamp them! Tis’ the season for pink…and here’s how I did it:
What You’ll Need:
- Clothespins
- Cardstock
- Tacky Glue
- Ribbon
- Roll of Magnetic Stripping
1. Trace the clothespin on the wrong side of the cardstock and cut strip.
2. Glue strip to clothespin and add bow or any other embellishment you can think of. Stick magnet to the back of the clothespin.
This is Potter, my brother-in-law’s dog:
Me and my Valentine:
I cannot wait to use the new magnets to hang the kid’s Valentine Cards and then after this Saturday they will make great appointment card holders!
Angela DeRossett is military wife, homeschooling mother, and an advocate for autism research. Angela can be found blogging at Homeschooling the Chaotic Family and Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy.
Making Your Own Valentine Bags
February 11, 2009 by Angela
Do you have tons of cardstock and ribbon laying around your home? Put it to good use during the candy-giving holidays. With just a few steps you can turn a Ziploc baggie into a personalized gift.
What You Will Need:
Cardstock
Ziploc Bags
Candy
Ribbon
Scissors
Stapler
Craft Scissors
1. Fill baggie with candy of choice.
Fold piece of Cardstock in half and use the baggie to measure your side cuts and overlap. Use the craft scissors to make a nice edge.
Before stapling the cover shut, feed ribbon through like the picture below. Make sure the baggie is positioned correctly in the fold and staple just above the bottom of the cardstock flap.
Bring ribbon low and tie in place.
Variations on this craft: Use raffia instead of ribbon, use craft foam instead of cardstock. Print labels to stick on the back flap with your holiday message.
Angela DeRossett is military wife, homeschooling mother, and an advocate for autism research. Angela can be found blogging at Homeschooling the Chaotic Family and Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy.
Win a spot in an amazing online scrapbooking class!
December 8, 2008 by AmyS
I am so excited to offer this amazing giveaway…my friend and scrapbook author Tania Willis is offering one lucky scrapbooker a free spot in her new online “Get It Scrapped” class. The title of her class is Embellishments: Beautifully Handmade.
- Class will be posted on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 5 weeks beginning January 13, 2009.
- ALL registered participants will receive a coupon code for 20% their entire purchase, good for 3 uses, at www.scrapsupply.com from the time they register until the last day of class.
- Includes 10 lessons over 5 weeks. In each lesson you’ll see examples and learn techniques for making home-made embellishments.
- Work with textiles, dollar-store finds, chipboard, buttons, brads, inks, papers, diamond glaze, watercolors, and more.
- Use techniques that include: masking, hand-sewing, texturing, painting, glazing, stamping, and imagining your own original embellishments.
- Access to a private forum and gallery for chatting with and sharing your work with Tania and other participants.
After you enter this giveaway, head on over to Tania’s blog, she is hosting a giveaway EVERY DAY until Christmas!
This week’s HOTM giveaway winner is Lin!
To enter our giveaway, simply leave a comment and tell us a little about your scrapbooking life…how long have you scrapped, how often do you get to work on scrapbooking, etc?
Comments will be closed Friday, December 12th at 10pm EST and the winner will be announced on Sunday in our weekly newsletter. You can sign up by entering your email address over in the right sidebar.
