Michelle,
So sorry that I have not been on the forum. I have much going on. I visited the web site. It is a lot. I think that it could be intimidating to some–motivating to others. One thing that I would like to emphasize–please remember that the purpose of a lap book is so that the child will have short, but intensive assignments–maneageable chunks of “brain-work.” The purpose is not to have a picture-perfect end project. Sometimes lap-booking can quickly become a scrapbook-type project where the energy is put into what the final project is going to look like. (Sometimes our egos can get in the mix! We all love the praise that comes after a finished project.) Remember that the process is what is important. I recommend doing your own lap-book versus a pre-packaged one. Concerning your question: there is no template or list of information. You decide what you want your child to know. While you are contemplating your topic simply ask yourself,” what do I want my child to know?” What you want your child to know is probably different from what I want my child to know. This is part of the beauty of homeschooling. After you have selected a topic and have a rough estimate of a time table that you are devoting to the topic, make sure that you have supplies. Different colors of cardstock, tracing paper, scissors, blue gel glue (don’t use white glue),–keep all of these in a rubbermaid devoted just to lap-booking. This will prevent much frustration. Purchase a 2 gallon zip-loc bag for each child working on a lap book. Put their name on it with a fat Sharpie. Finished and unfinished booklets or folds go in this bag. When you are finished working on a project TAKE THE BAG AWAY. Do not let your child carry it around.
There are 2 ways to do a lap-book: One is the Pre-Plan method. You decide what you want your child to know, then take that information and decide which folds to do. When you are thinking about this, think about the different skills the kids can be working on: drawing, diagraming, labeling, listing, defining, sequencing, comparing and contrasting and perhaps mapping. Once you do this, you can make the folds together to start with. Put the folds in sandwich baggies and then in the 2 gallon bag. With this way, you know what the end product is going to look like.
The other way is the existing booklet method: This is simply where you are making booklets as you go and then assemble at the end. Use the assembly process as a review/testing/narration technique. You may worry that you have too many booklets to fit in the lap book. Most of my books have extensions. Getting everything in has never been an issue.
Sometimes we set aside one day a week to work on a lap book and other times we work on one everyday.
If you like, we can go through the process together here on the forum. Share your topic and then we can all share ideas as to how to go about it. We can work on one together–so to speak.
Really hope this helped….
l
