In the hands of a child – Lapbooks

I LOVE Hands of a Child and lapbooking. I don’t have this one but I have the one they did for Africa and we love it. Well worth the investment especially if you are planning a long ‘stay’ in Mesopotamia 😉 My kids liked it better when I cut out or made the mini books for them and then they filled them out. The great advantage to buying in PDF format is you can print on heavier cardstock ( I use scrapbooking cardstock) and little fingers can be a bit bolder with them.

Love Hands of A Child ( did I say that already?)

I didn’t discover them til my dd was older, in grade 4 but I would say yes, with some adaptation. I think the hardest thing is making the mini books because there is cutting and folding involved, but like I said, even when she was older my dd enjoyed the whole thing more when I did that beforehand and she got to cut out images, color, print, etc to finish the books. I loved it! In fact I am trying to talk her into doing one on weather but apparently she thinks she is too old ;(  If the information in the little lesson is too much above your dd you can always read from the SCM spines and then do the lapbook with that information. It is basically just an awesome narration tool – another way to show what they have learned and be crafty at the same time. Love it! Anyone wanna loan me a 7/8 year old? just for a lil bit? good thing every age and stage has its own joys 😉

I should say too, that the project pages, or models for the mini books are bound right in the main book- ours were plastic spiral bound. You can copy them freely on heavier card stock or buy the project packs that HOC provides with all the main graphics done and preprinted on cardstock..not sure if they have that for every level but it is a good investment if you are just making one lapbook..not so much if you have to copy for more kiddos though..

They also offer tons of diffrent purchasing options, pdf, printed, CD, CD+book, notebook pages( for older kids ) and combos, plus printed packs as I mentioned before. I was just at the HOC site and it looks like the prices are cheaper there than on currclick – they are having a big back to school sale. I also noticed they have added way more choices for older students…hehehehe, I may get to do another one yet!

We’ve done a lot of lapbooks in the last 6 years, including some from HOAC.  Right now my 5th grader is doing their Veterinary Science one.  Here is how we do it with her (as she’s independent):

I print the lapbook pieces and research guide, order library books to go along, and then hand it all to her.  She reads a portion of the research guide and does 2-3 related lapbook pieces about 3 days a week.  She also reads from some of the library books each science day.  At the end of the study is when she’ll put it all together into a folder (gluing in the minibooks).  Until them things just stay in a hanging folder in her workbox crate. 

Some lapbooks take her a month, others less time if she decides to work on it outside of the scheduled science days/times. 

With my younger ones we do it similiarly except I cut pieces out in advance, read the library books with them, and they only do 2 lapbook pieces a day. 

@Sue, I just plan to use them do on a “lighter” subject day – like the day we have nature study and have planned less “structure’.  My kids enjoy these very much and like to show them off (reinforcing the narrations) and looking at them through out the year.  I like it because they are ACTIVELY involved in the lessons.  There are some really fun (free) ones at homeschoolshare.com for the Laura Ingalls Wilder, Narnis, other series.  I had to adapt them slightly – I decided that I need to keep clutter under control, so I printed them on regular paper and hole punched cardstock and used that in a three-ring binder instead of having stacks of file folders to keep track of for 4 kiddos.  =)

Heidi  – you might be interested in this site as you transition:  http://notebookingpages.com/  She has a huge variety, both free and with membership.  =)