Lap Books

What is a lap book, you may ask? Well it is a popular learning tool that homeschoolers use, to make learning fun for kids. You can pretty much make a lap book out of any topic that you want your child to learn. I get most of my idea's from free websites like: homeschoolshare.com
I thought I'd include an example of a very basic one here. You take a file folder, and fold the edges into the middle seam.

Front

Inside

So you can put little books inside like this apple tree one; where each page shows what an apple tree looks like in all the different seasons.

 This next one is called a "match book" and you can put little tidbits of info. in each one.

We had read a book from the library that talked about what kind of weather each season brings, so we made little matchbooks for each season.

Next we printed off this dial, it shows what months fall into each season.

Another fun book we did was this clothes for each season. I just printed off images from the internet, and let the kids cut and paste them into the appropriate season.

 Lastly, we did a section on what holidays fall into each season.

So there you have it. An introduction to lap books. They can be a lot of work upfront especially if your kids are young, and you are anal. I try and let the kids do as much of the work as possible. We usually plan them out together, by talking about what things we want to include. The kids really enjoy doing it, and are so proud of their work when they are finished. I am learning, that it is also important to encourage the children to share their work with as many people as possible. As they show others (siblings, parents, aunts and uncles etc) their work, they are also solidifying their learning! Some other topics that we have lap booked so far are: All About Me, and St. Patrick's. I think we may do one on a novel soon -as a sort of book report. The options are endless! What lap books have you done? Where do you find most of your lap book ideas?