Lap Books

[HappyFox05]

Pardon my obtuseness, but what is the big deal about lap books? I understand that they're a project that a kid does that puts what they've learned in their own words & can be used as a quick reference later. At least, that's what they seem to be. But why are there so many websites dedicated to the construction of them? It seems like every other homeschool site I visit has a section about lap books. Am I missing the point because our kids aren't "school-age' yet, so I don't understand the significance? Or is this something that's become just a little overblown?

[linclane]

I'm not sure this will answer your question ... But I kind of thought the same thing. I didn't get why it was everywhere and a big deal.

Then I let ds1 do one, and he LOVED it. He was so proud that he made his own little book. And now he wants to do one on EVERY topic. LOL

I haven't looked at much about them, and we're sort of doing our own thing with it - but we're learning and ds1 thinks it's cool.

[MissRubyandKen]

Well, imo, they're just one more crafting option. If your crafty, your kids are crafty, and/or you enjoy scrapbooking, you and the kids might enjoy a lapbook or two. I think loads of people use them more extensively. My dd thought it was cool, my ds didn't feel strongly about it either way. I'd probably do more, but 1. I don't feel like I have time to plan my own. 2. No way I'm printing out all those pieces all the time. My ink is pricey! I might do it again sometime though. I did buy History Pockets, which is similar, but less intensive and more like notebooking. With those you don't have to print, but you do need to make copies. My opinion is as long as the kid is having fun AND learning it is just one more tool in the bag.

[kgianforti]

My crafty preschooler didn't care for lapbooking. She loved the Peter Rabbit book but not the lap book! So it's a rave with some and others, not so much!

[elizawill]

lapbooking is simply a learning tool. not everyone will enjoy it, but for some families they're wonderful. i really love them personally, but we don't incorporate them a lot. IME, they can be too labor intensive for the adult (with the cutting & such), and it requires more dedication than i have. we usually do 1 or 2 a year though. instead of lapbooking, we really like notebooking (which is kind of a very sloppy form of lapbooking & much easier for us to accomplish). with lapbooks though, my daughter did learn a lot & she still enjoys looking through them. they also are fabulous if you have to keep a portfolio. i love that there are so many moms dedicated to sharing their free resources. some sites sell lapbooks, but with so many free options - you really have nothing to lose but the paper & ink to try it out. when my children were preschool aged, in lieu of lapbooks, we enjoyed file folder games. but again, those are a love or hate thing too.

[zjande]

Funny coincidence, I was just cruising around some lap book sites last night & contemplating them. We've never done one in 10 yrs hschooling & I'd never really seen one til last night! But I got kind of excited to try one. I thought it just seemed like another fun way to learn about a subject. It's not just writing a paper, or just drawing a picture, or just writing a timeline or whatever. It's all of the above plus more all on display in one place. Also, I happen to be one of the crafty sorts that would love to create something like that. I saw some that were just so cute & colorful! Some of my favorite ideas were HERE. But I also typed "lapbooks" into Google image search & saw way cute things!

Is basing a homeschool project off of how cute it is to mom wise?? LOL I think so!

But on the minus side, I did think about the time consumption on my part in planning the thing. It's not something I think I'd want to do regularly. Also, I don't own a printer. And lastly, I wondered where I'd store such a thing when it's finished. I usually tuck all my kids finished work in binders.

[Aeress]

Sometimes lap books concisely put the information i would have collected on my own into one simple project, so for that, I love them.
We don't necessarily make the exact book as described in the lap book but use it as a reference.

Some of the lap books are more for me, and not really for the kids. hehe

[Marimami]

Honestly, I don't get them. I'll preface this by saying that I'm a researcher and writer by profession and nature. I also am a photographer and scrapbooker. We do loads of crafts.

They don't seem particularly creative to me...it's just a matter of cutting up and organizing someone else's creativity. I could appreciate it if DD wanted to research something and make her own creative display of learning. I'm totally on board with helping her do that. But, just manipulating someone else's research is missing a fabulous opportunity for developing skills and knowledge.

DD also really does not like any craft kits or anything that prescribes how she should express herself creatively. So, although she is very crafty and does crafts daily, these are not something that would appeal to her.

Holli

[cappuccinosmom]

It's a bit of a fad IMO.

But it can be a good learning too. Good way to have the info in one place, good way to cement info in the kid's minds, opens opportunity for art/projects related to the subject, kind of like a unit study but more.

I like them, they really seem to fit for me. But I grew up in a church school that did "lapbook" type projects all the time, before the word was even invented. We often used folders or binders to collect, organize, and expand on whatever subject we were studying at a given time. When my dad taught ancient history, he'd assign his students a sub-subject within what they were studying, have them make huge lapbook style folders (like 3x4 ft) with all their information, make a 3D model related to their subject, and dress up in era costume for the day they were to display their work for their parents. It was so cool and I was sorry I didn't get to his history classes before we left that church and he went back into medicine.

[HappyFox05]

Originally Posted by Marimami

I could appreciate it if DD wanted to research something and make her own creative display of learning.

This is what I thought they were! That would make a whole lot more sense to me. But, whatever. Some things work for some ppl and some things for other. Thanks for all your great input!

[tankgirl73]

They're not meant to be "creative" in the sense of the kid inventing the whole thing, doing all the research themselves, etc. You can think of it as another alternative to the fill-in-the-blank quiz-and-answer worksheets, it's another way of expressing what you've learned in a concrete manner.

Another benefit of them is that if you're living somewhere where the homeschooling laws require you to keep some samples of your child's work for an end-of-year review, or whatever, they are a very impressive-looking project.

For some people, they're just needless busywork and notebooking or other methods work just as well or even better for them. For many people, they're a fun project to do once in a while. And for some people, they are the best approach for their family and they use them all the time.

I used to think they were just silly and time-wasting, but now I do understand the value of them. I don't think they're just a fad, I think they're a legitimate educational tool. My son likes them fairly well. For many kids, writing their answers onto a shaped piece of coloured paper which they then get to cut, fold, and paste into a folder is just more interesting than writing the very same things in a notebook or workbook, so they're more motivated to do it well. Also, plain old notebooks (as opposed to "notebooking" -- I'm just talking here about a basic lined paper book) are usually stuck in a closet somewhere once the particular course is done, never to be seen again. A lapbook is a keepsake, so it will be reviewed once in awhile - refreshing and reinforcing what was learned in the making of it, and also providing motivation for the child to do really well, since they know it's "permanent", and giving them a real source of pride in their work. Some kids don't come by that naturally, my son being one of them!

EDIT TO ADD: Oh, and even though most of the time most of us use ready-made lapbooks, or parents put them together for the kids -- sometimes they can indeed also be used as an independent creative project for the kids. My son hasn't done this yet, but he has talked about wanting to make up a lapbook all by himself on guitars (his biggest passion).

[Fairy4tmama]

Ok I can relate to much of what ppl are saying in this threads from bothsides of the equation. I did NOT GET lapbooking, didn't get. I couldn't see the value of all that apparent busy work. Then we blundered into making one. My DS (7) LOVES it. and it turns out it *can* really fit with my educational philosophy (constructivism). We were doing an end of unit project that was like a mini research project and we just kept expanding it and it kept evolving. I had no idea what to do with all of these pieces of research and how we would "put them all together", ds is not ready to write a paper .

Then I remembered lapbooks and it clicked! Our lapbook was ours it could be what ever we needed it to be it didn't have to follow a particular format, we didn't have to print anything. DS did 95% of the work by himself, I glued the folders together, stapled a book together, made a pocket for his sticker book, and cut letters out to label the front of the lapbook. I have to say that while I was cutting out the letters I wondered a bit about how important they were if I had to cut them(ds wanted me to do this as opposed to him writing wild cats with a marker) but even that turned into a great learning opportunity because as an emergent reader/writer he had to sort the letters into the right order to spell the words.

We will be doing more lapbooks. I was very surprised by how much we liked making it and how well it fit with our style when I really thought it didn't!