Lapbooks

As soon as I graduated high school and could afford my first reliable car, I drove the 10 hour drive each summer to my Granny’s house in the woods of Mississippi.  My fondest memories are waking up early at her home each morning and watching her tend her beautiful garden and beloved chickens.

What little I knew about chickens, I knew enough to know that they always made their way back to her after they took their time free-range feeding and my Granny made sure her chickens had plenty of space to roam.

Lapbooking reminds me of my Granny’s much loved chickens.  The freedom to roam cage-free without restrictions on what we want to learn and with plenty of time to explore topics we like no matter how random drew us to lapbooks.

The freedom to peck unhindered at various topics and to demonstrate it through lapbooks has still not lost its appeal even though my boys are older.  If anything, I think I have been more undeterred to use our lapbooks as enrichment because of the appeal to visual learners.

My boys did not change their learning style because they got to middle school and high school.  So what I am saying is that I never have hailed to the thinking that lapbooks are for the crafty young sort of type of kid.  You can certainly use it that way, but again the allure for us has always been the choice to study and display what we want to remember about a topic.

Another unexpected advantage was that leaping into lapbooks was the first step in switching my homeschool approach.

At the time, it seemed less daunting to try a lapbook or two than it did to say I was officially adopting a more unit study approach after leaving a strictly classical approach to homeschooling.

Like a lot of new lapbookers though, I made the same newbie mistakes of making my sons cut all the minibooks and coloring every single picture.

Stepping back from lapbooks for a while after I almost hit burnout, it took me time to re-evaluate what we liked the most about lapbooks.  After many years, here are 4 things that make lapbooks keepers in our homeschool journey.

All ages of my children can work on lapbooks.

Part of my foundational homeschool goals when I took Mr. Senior 2013 out of kindergarten was to foster sibling relationships.

It was not only important that he and I have a strong bond, but that he interact with his siblings as we schooled together.  Working on the same theme and sharing tidbits of knowledge to add to each of their lapbooks encourages sharing learning time together.

Importance of family projects and learning.

Another sanity saver change I made was determining ahead of time the number of lapbooks we were going to do.

Because the boys were younger when we started lapbooking, each one still needed my help in putting final touches on their lapbooks.  When we spent more time gluing than learning, I felt some of our actual learning time lagged.

I learned that one jointly shared lapbook did mean less satisfying time for each child.

A joint family project is just as fulfilling, if not more so because each child contributes a meaningful share.  Did I mention the younger child is learning from the information that the older child is contributing and the older child is reviewing basic facts he may have forgotten? Priceless!

Look at my American Civil War lapbook where all my sons contributed different parts.

Mr. Senior 2013 at that time was interested in Morse code and war technology.  Mr. Awesome was interested in war money and then my littlest sweetie was only interested in games.

I added a board game to the lapbook for him also.  As the teacher, part of my goals were to be sure my sons knew who the key players were in the American Civil War.  We added the section Famous Leaders of the Civil War to satisfy my goals.

We were able to add tidbits of information that sparked the love of learning for each son and satisfy my teacher requirements and compile it into a timeless family treasure.

It doesn’t mean we haven’t prepared a lapbook for each child, we do many times.  The rainforest was one unit study and lapbook that my sons absolutely were not going to share.

It does mean that lapbooks are a tool to wield in your family for the way your children need them.

When you have limits on your time or even feel you are lack luster in energy, then unknowingly a joint family project can be just as a satisfying.

Captivating hands-on tool.

Because I never felt like the bomb-mom when it came to hands-on activities, I knew that lapboooks could always make up the spine of our hands-on learning.

No matter the age of a learner, the lure of minibooks and folds still draws in any age learner.

Freedom to roam caged-free.

I just couldn’t help but share this main reason again with you about what we are passionate about lapbooks because it is so utterly inspiring for me and my boys.

From a deep down place of no holes barred learning is where I try to draw from each time we prepare a new lapbook.  I am real too.  So no, not every time do I feel as inspired, but then again, I remind myself of how learning is unbridled and I get giddy all over again to try another one.

The freedom to choose not only what we want to learn but for your child to relive that information as he comes back time and time again through the years to interact with his timepiece is a satisfaction that is hard for me to explain with mere words.
It may sound a bit dramatic (yes I have an edgy dramatic side) but I can’t imagine homeschooling without lapbooking.

Though my grandmother has been passed for a while now, I have never looked at the humble chicken quite the same each time we lapbook.

What about you? Do you lapbook? What are you favorite topics to lapbook about?

Hugs and love ya,

Beware of the 3 C’s of Lapbooking

What is a Lapbook? Video

Lapbooking Resources

Easy Hands on Homeschooling Ideas When You’re Not the Bomb Mom

5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach

Check out my chapter on lapbooking in the Big Book of Homeschool Ideas!

It is 562 pages of sweet homeschool goodness!!

Do you want some other creative ways to homeschool? Grab this Big Book of Homeschool Ideas. You’ll Love It!!