Lapbooks

Lapbooking has been something that has added a lot of fun to our Homeschooling. This is a copy of our first lapbook. (We are now working on our second :) ) I found some basic information about it on the Internet, and we just took information from the books we were studying, and put these together. It is something we love to do, but I still feel like I am just a beginner. For the cover, I let the kids do whatever they want. For these lapbooks, we just created pictures with the plethora of construction paper we acquired through the years. For the Egypt lapbooks we are working on now, we googled images and made collages. We also pulled up some fun fonts for our titles. We usually use the cover as an art lesson. Most of the lapbook is pretty planned out, so this is one section where I really let my kids do their own thing.

Here is a copy of the inside of our finished lapbook with all the books closed.

And one with some of them opened. :)

I love the vocabulary booklet!! We just took vocabulary words from the books we were reading, and then you open the flap, and write the definition. We are working on geography vocabulary booklets right now, and my kids challenge themselves to write small enough to fit a picture of the vocab word at the bottom of the little flap. My kiddos struggle with fine motor skills, and so the challenge of writing small enough to fit the definition on the little flap has helped them to have more control in their writing.

Here is our little wheel.

Here is our graduated booklet. The template website below has several different versions, and different numbers of pages.

Here are our T books, showing off all the flaps. We just found all our images on Google images again. I would recommend the parent finds the images, or at least sits with the student as they find the images. There is some not-too-nice stuff out there!!








My kids still love to look at these lapbooks!! We had put them away for a while, and when we pulled them back out again, my kids took tons of time looking through them. I have even found them tucked away in my youngest's room from time to time.

When I told my son, Michael, that I was going to blog about lapbooks today, he ran and grabbed his Egypt lapbook and had me photo it so I could put it on here. Obviously, it is not even close to finished yet. I love the fact that it is something he is proud of. Some of my kids kind of threw together their Archaeology lapbooks, but now that the see how much they like looking back at them, they are taking more time with their Egypt lapbooks. Right now most of our writing practice comes from filling out our lapbooks.

I love the fact that with homeschooling, I can teach my kids the things I want to teach them in the way they want to be taught. And I love spending all day with my kids. I am not the best homemaker in the world, and homeschooling has made keeping up with the house even more challenging, but I have not regretted my decision to homeschool for a minute. I feel like I am dedicating my time to my very most important job, and I really love it.

Lapbooking Resources

Lapbooking Templates- Scroll Down for tons of different templates for lapbooking booklets.

Yahoo e-Notebooking Group- Lots of smart homeschoolers who share tons of ideas and resources. Links and Files sections are full of great stuff.

Free Egypt Lapbook Download- This is the Egypt lapbook we are doing to go with our unit.

CurrClick- Sign up for an account, and you can download one free item (often lapbooks) each week.

Our Spelling Program

I don't know if I just never paid attention in school, or if my teachers really sucked. Much of what I learned about Elementary Education came in college. I remember my professors presenting concepts that I should have learned, and it was such a novel idea for me. I remember when one of my professors told us that when a word starts with the 'k' sound, it can start with a C or a K. I always knew that, but then he actually taught us the rule. When a c is followed by an e, i or y, it has the 's' sound, so words like kit, and kept have to start with a k. It made so much sense to me. I remember bringing home a spelling list every week in elementary school, and memorizing all the words and then going to school and passing the test. I am sure somewhere along the line, some of the basic rules began to make sense to me because of the repetition, but it would have been so much easier to learn the rule, and then practice it again and again and connect the whole concept together. That is what I love about this spelling program. It teaches spelling by teaching the rules of spelling. It seems like a very logical place to start.

Anyway I am getting ahead of myself. I found the All About Spelling program when I was searching for some file folder games. They had a free download (and who doesn't love a good free download) and I started reading up on the program. It was exactly what I was looking for. It taught spelling starting at the rules. My kids also are "out of the box" learners, and they need a multi-sensory approach, and that is exactly what this spelling program offers. I didn't even have a clue it existed, or how great it would be for my family, until I tried All About Spelling.

One of my favorite things about the program is the price. Levels 1 and 2 are just under $30 each, and Levels 3 and 4 are just under $40. They also include everything (except the spelling tiles) in the packet. It is easy to keep organized, and review is built right into the lesson plans, so the kids really retain the things they have learned. (These are just a couple of the hundreds of cards that come with level 1.- The letter tiles need to be bought separately, but one set of tiles takes you through all the levels.)

Here is my son- The ultimate out of the box learner- learning to spell. When we first started the program, he would not write at all!! Once I started teaching him how to spell, I realized one of the reasons why he would not write was because he didn't have a clue how to sound out words. He knew a few words because he had memorized them, but he didn't even know how to start figuring it all out. Writing is still not his favorite thing to do, but he is now writing and reading. He will label things in his pictures, and write notes to us. He tries, which is something he never did before. I do love the fact that he gets lots of practice in spelling, and he is able to really get the concept down before he gets sick of writing.

This picture is totally staged, but I think it is adorable! Allen has always been great at reading and spelling. I had him start at level 1 just to fill in any gaps he might have. He has learned quite a bit.

My little writer!! I also love the fact that although writing is not the focus of the program, they do incorporate it. Every lesson ends with writing out the spelling words, and dictation, which reviews previous concepts.

He was worried that everyone would cheat off his paper. LOL!

At the end of each lesson, the kids get to put a sticker on their progress chart. I introduced several of my co-op friends to this program (One has even taught spelling and reading programs for years) and they all loved it. They had kids on many different levels and each family really enjoyed the spelling program. It has been exactly what we were looking for. We love it

All About Spelling

Here is my daughter spelling with tiles.

Tuesday Science Class

Do you know what happens when you burn a candle at both ends? Well we do now.

Dad has taken over teaching science to the kids, and Tuesday night has now become science night. The kids love it. Makenzie has been begging him to teach her science for months. She is definitely her Daddy's girl on that one. I liked science a lot in high school, but with Dad, it is more of an obsession. We bought a new microscope as one of our homeschooling supplies, and she loves looking at it.

We usually put the little guy down before science class, so we can have a little peace, but I made the mistake of telling everyone to get their pajamas on so we could start, and he began giggling like mad. He was so excited that he was going to be involved in the "big kid" activities.

I studied Elementary Education in college, and we use some great books that teach through experimentation. You can only get them used now, but the prices are great. They each have 170 experiments in them, and they are grouped into units. They work really well for our little homeschool.

Life Science Activities for Grades 2-8, by Marvin N. Tolman and James O. Morton

Physical Science Activities for Grades 2-8, by Marvin N. Tolman and James O. Morton

Earth Science Activities for Grades 2-8, by Marvin N. Tolman and James O. Morton