Be sure to check out the other posts in the How To Homeschool For Free series too!
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Have you heard of Lapbooking? How about Notebooking? If you have experience with these, you probably know how much kids love having a final product to show their learning progress to family and friends.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you might consider looking into it, at least once. You might think Lapbooks are mostly for younger kids, while Notebooking is for the older kids. However, each one can be used for any age group. You might have already done a version of one already, a poster board display for a science project is really a large lapbook! And, for those who scrapbook, your scrapbook is a detailed lapbook of sorts, as well! Each of these is a fun way of putting the information you’ve gathered into one place and making it easy to use as a reference later.
A lap book can also be called a layer book, flap book, or shutter book. Basically, it is made of at least 2 manila folders with sections of mini-books, pictures, facts, poems, or anything related to the lesson at hand. It can be about anything you choose. Some companies sell pre-made kits or they might charge you for downloading the sheets for cutting & coloring. I’m going to show you where to get these resources for free. Many of the sites I’ve visited had lists of old links that were no longer valid. All of these links here will give you valid links for FREE lapbooking downloads and examples.
Ignite the Fire
Terri Camp helps you see the many different ways you can use notebooking in your homeschool. She has a wealth of other resources as well to encourage you to find your child’s strengths to make homeschooling a blessing and not a chore. I put this link first because I love the way Terri Camp lights a fire under our desire for homeschooling! There is no set formula for each child. Find what works for you. It might not necessarily be what she does, but she is full of encouragement and ideas.
Highland Heritage Homeschool
The mom behind Highland Heritage Homeschool will explain a little more about lapbooking and will show you what will work for organizing a lapbook that isn’t finished in a day. She will also give you some links at the bottom, but most of them are outdated, as I found out. One of the links, though, is of an example lapbook, made by her daughter. She also has a page for getting ideas about other kinds of books students can make.
Now that you have an idea what Lapbooking and Notebooking are all about, I’ll share some resources for making your own without paying for downloads. Some of the links are for places that sell lapbooks, but I will tell you where to look for the freebies.
CurrClick
CurrClick is one of my favorite websites for getting good-quality freebies for downloading. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before. If you search for “Lapbook” in their search bar, you will find some very reasonably priced items. If you then select the results to be sorted by price, the free ones should be at the top. I’ve done that HERE for you. There are many, many resources on this site to download for lapbooking and notebooking as well.
Homeschool Helper Online
Homeschool Helper Online has several links for resources for Lapbooks, Notebooks, Unit Studies, and other homeschool help links. I found quite a few I’d like to try soon. They have a good variety of topics from preschool up to high school.
Homeschool Share
Homeschool Share provides several free lapbooks, along with a plethora of resources for making your own to suit your needs for whatever project you have. There is also a well-maintained blog where the author welcomes us to look into their homeschool and share the progress of using lapbooks and notebooks in a fun way.
Homeschooling on a Shoestring
Homeschooling on a Shoestring will give you three videos with details on how to assemble lapbooks in various ways. This bottom of the page is full of links, and many of them are still valid.
Hands of a Child
Hands of a Child almost always has a free download. It changes often, though, so don’t wait to get the freebie. They also have a yahoo group to help parents and teachers learn how to use lapbooks and Hands of a Child resources effectively. There are actually several lapbooking yahoo and google groups. Just do a search if you are interested in joining one.
Dynamic 2 Moms
The Dynamic 2 Moms are Tina and Kelley and they have a passion for sharing what they know. They were homeschooled as children and now homeschool their own children. The resources for lapbooks, notebooks, and unit studies are well-organized. They also offer support resources for New-to-Homeschool parents.
I hope you will have some fun with this! I would really enjoy seeing you all post links to your lapbooks, too!
About Jody
