LAP BOOK MAVENS - HELP
OK I need a very practical question answered. When you do these lapbooks...do you simply read and then check and see if you can make any of the booklets? Or do you look at the booklet and go search for that answer? It seems a bit "fill in the blank" and I'm not sure that is my style....but we are enjoying making the books...just not sure how best to approach "gaining knowledge".
How do you all do this?
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We haven't done any "kit" or premade ones so I'm not sure I can really answer your questions. However, the ones we have done for our TOG studies were a compilation of facts, people, drawings, etc of ds's chosing so it was meaningful, memorable, and educational to him in that regard. We are going to try a premade bee one pretty soon and we'll see if that goes as well.
We've done it both ways. With the Thanksgiving one,which we completed today, the kids chose a graphic out of a box (about 3 each, each day so we could finish in 4 days) and they had to try and answer/find the answer, draw the picture, play the game, color the picture etc... for the one they chose each time it was their turn. I guess we made it a game in a way. This has not been my favorite one (The Thanksgiving lapbook). So far, except for the Time Travelers unit/lapbook, my fave has been the Spiders lapbook. There were more fun things to do with that one it seemed. This Thanksgiving one reminds me a bit of the Antarctica lapbook which we didn't like that much. It was ok but not wonderful.
Bessie (14yo) said she is getting a lot out of this study, but she is doing lots of research and being quite thorough with her answers.
Gabe and I are working on his together and he does some of the writing, but it is a lot of him, so I do most.
I think it is worth it for us, even though it is sort of "fill in the blank" type work.
So Debbie....with your fill in the blank type...do you go find the answers you need...or do you read the books and fill them in as you can....
C - it isn't really "fill in the blank" but it's like "map the voyage" "fact about pilgrims"....
Jodi - you finished the live and learn one?
Yes we just finished the Live'nLearn one today.I divided it up so that it would take 4 days. Had the kids pick a certain number of graphics each day and we worked on them together. It was a bit much on top of the Pilgrims one last week from hands of a child but they were both free and free is good, LOL. I told the kids the first one was the lesson and the second one was the quiz. We almost sound school-at-home-ish that way, LOLOL. I even learned some things from these. I guess even a parochial education, as I had, isn't all that good compared to homeschooling!
There is an answer key which you probably already noticed but just in case you're having trouble finding answers for some or don't have the time to look them all up.
Bessie is doing more research on her own. We have been reading easier books and picture books together, that have good info, but not too terribly detailed. Bess has been using the Encyclopedia and other historical sources and digging much deeper.
How this is translating into our lapbooks is that Gabe will write maybe a few words or a sentence, while Bessie will write a paragraph or more.
Gabe is getting a good overview of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, the Littles are listening in and getting a few things out of it, while Bess is getting a more indepth study.
We sort of do it both ways depending on the topic, how much time we want to spend on it, etc. I made up a sample lapbook a few years ago that has all of the various folds in it. I used the instructions as the text on each fold so C can find what she likes and read how to make it. It has been really nice having it for when she wants to pick something to use. Of course, if we have the predesigned lapbooks from Hands of a Child, etc we just do the activities that come with it so it feels more like fill in the blank.
STEPH - have you considered selling something like this???? Or do you know of someone who does?
This is what would be very helpful to us and I think make it more our style..... I'm so visual....I have a book that explains how to do folds etc but actually having a lap book with various folds in it would be awesome for the kids and I. THAT'S what I've been looking for without even knowing I was looking for it.
I sat down with the directions to assemble my three folders - Arielle sat with me...we re-read those instructions about 30 times and finally figured it out by accident.....still not sure why I had to roll the one folder to slide it into slots on the other two. LOL
OK - thanks all for the insight. I have found this schedule to take 4 weeks to do this...and I'm seeing from Jodi that it could be much simpler. LOL
I'm going to read the books we have....grab the little books we want to make after reading and go for it.
I DID find the answers but it feels like teaching to the test to say "Define a pilgrim - o.k. lets write this in the booklet".....
This has been good for me to think through what I want. I want the lapbooks to be a Charlotte Mason type tool. A way of narrating what THEY'VE learned....not a "go find the answer" type thing....but I do like having the graphics already there to use on the topic....
A whole new world.....
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