January Giveaway!: Organizing Lapbooks?

[Valerie]

January Contest: Organizing Lapbooks
and the winner is.......MacLibrarian!

MacLibrarian's post was drawn at random, and she will receive a $15 Gift Card to www.CurrClick.com!



Original Post Below




Okay so I had so much fun reading all the responses to Decembers Giveway that I thought with the New Year we'd take a NEW DIRECTION with our Monthly Givaways! Instead of having our giveaways during our monthly LapChat, we're going to host them right here in our Forum! Not only does this give every member a chance at participating, but it's a great way to see how other homeschoolers are using lapbooks in their house! We all love to glean ideas from one another!

Okay, so for our January Giveaway, one winner will receive a $15 gift card to www.currclick.com! All you have to do is respond to the post below with one of the following.....

How to you organize and store your lapbooks and materials?

BONUS ENTRY: If you upload a photo of how you do it, you'll get an extra entry. (If this is the case, just attach the photo in a second comment...that will be your second entry!)

I'll leave this post open for entries till the end of January, and then I'll announce the random winner of the giftcard then!

Okay, I can't wait to hear what methods ya'll use! We're you're typical Filing Cabinet type of family, but boy are we open to a better idea!

[Laurie D.]

We use paper stackers for cardstock, file folders (plain, color, and pressboard) with a basket of assorted adhesives on top (packing tape, rubber cement, zots...). We have a few standing magazine holders for our Dina Zikes books, work in progress, and finished lapbooks. I also keep one those handy crafters totes that sits next to me on our table while we work with the stapler, brads, assorted stickers, hole punch, extra adhesives, paper blocks....

As the kids are working on their lapbook, they each keep a file (in one of the magazine holders) with their 'in progress' and 'completed work' for that topic. We also have a file folder (pocket style) that holds all the things that we have printed up on that topic that may used in the lapbook that is also in that magazine holder.

[Laurie D.]

[motherofonesm]

I store my sons completed lapbooks in a show off box ( it is a sterilite or rumbermaid container that is clear and has a colored lid with a handle that holds file folders.) about 5 dollars at Walmart. Not yet but we plan on decorating it with stickers to individulaize it for him. He knows this is his box and it i is down where he can reach it at anytime. As far as my supplies now good method on that yet looking forward to gleanind some ideas from this contest.

[Faith (and my other half, Hugh)]

We have a shelf in Oscar's room which keeps all his made lapbooks on. He brings them out often to share with anyone who comes over. All the supplies are in a big box on a shelf in my room. We sometimes go through it and use some of the leftovers for freestyle crafting.

[Holly]

Well...I just started the lapbooking thing...but my plan is the following:
1. One file box for future ideas to study that I come across...with info printed off...and filed in manila folders.
2. One file box for my planned curriculum for the next two years....I have the Bible mapped out from Creation to Revelation...with lots of topics my kids are interested in between...like when we study Daniel...we are going to take sometime out to study lions and other cats....etc. Each topic I am working on some sort of memorable subject that will be a focus during study. I got some of them from My Father's World kindergarten curriculum that I am using....for example for when we study horses ...the phrase is "I obey ALL the way...right away without delay..." So, I am writing the memorable phrase at the top with the subject of the file folder. For these topics... since I know I am for sure doing them...I am trying to work at least a month ahead where I go ahead and plan out a schedule for teaching...prepare all my lapbook stuff...locate it print it...do any part that I am doing myself that my kids can't do....so it is all ready...Then after I have completed that topic...I am evaluating everything I did...to see if I liked it...how well it worked...if I liked the layout of the lapbook and what I included. For the things that I liked...I am regathering them...printing off etc...and putting them in the file folder for the next child. I am planning on having a lot of kids...so I figure...why do the work of locating stuff 6 or 7 times...I can do a huge chunk of it now...and then just add to it when the next kid comes along or if I find something that would have been good along the way.
3. Then, I have another file drawer for each kid where I am putting his lapbooks.

An idea would be if you have one of those face out bookshelves to rotate some of their finished lapbooks in it so they could all look through them....I don't do that bc I have boys that would definitely destroy them if I let them in their hands unsupervised...but if I could trust my boys not to rip up books and stuff...that is what I would do!

[Bobbi Hayes]

Wow! Organizing superstar is what you are! Friends tell me I am organized. I have nothing on you. That is a fab. plan that I would like to rip off. However, I don't have the time. How old are your kids? I have a 5 year old and 19 mth old twins so not only is our time limited to work on anything. Their skill level is so drastically different. My 5 yr is a girl and we love to work on our lapbooks during the twin (boys) nap time. I just isn't enough. Daughter will be going to public school in the fall. I really am okay with that, I was just using this method to make sure that she is prepared. Grandparents are concerned that she will be bored from being overly prepared. So, I know we will always use lapbooks in some way. I really like the doing the work now idea so that we can enjoy the benefit later aspect. I also do that. Anyway, we have a small corner of my sewing room dedicated to supplies for lapbooks. Honestly it is all mixed in with my scrapbooking supplies.

[kay]

Lapbooks are all stored in a g-sale find file cabinet in ABC order by title of book/subject. We have a lazy susan for supplies $3.00 wal-mart, with clear containers holding pencils, crayons, paint brushes ect. The lazy susan is put in the center of the table during classtime. Over stock is stored away. All notebooks and books are on bookshelves (Classroom library). Art papers are in horizontal plastic stackers on the bookshelves. Magazines are in cardboard holders. Stamps in a over sized clear shoe box. Flash cards are in one of those over the door shoe holder things. Have a Scrap-tote with cardstock and scraping supplies very portable. Each kid has a three ring binder that zips shut. I keep current lapbooks in the binders (Via clear plastic pockets), math worksheets, lang. arts ect that they will need per week or so. Hope this is helpfull.

[Rodna James]

We use a small crate type box. We will soon though have to upgrade to a full size crate. It works perfectly. I put each finished lapbook in a file folder and write the name of the lapbook on the tab of the folder so that I can easily locate a lapbook.
As for lapbooks in progress, it is pretty much the same thing. I put all of the mini-books in a plastic baggie!
I put all of the paperwork and what ever is necessary in the folder. Then we can just get it out and finish it!
When it is done it just goes back into that same file folder and Viola!
I will try to remember to upload a picture of how we store ours lapbooks tomorrow!
As for all of the supplies that it takes to lapbook...They are stored in my kitchen along with all of the other school and scrapbook supplies. I have several different shelf types in my kitchen.
I have a plastic shoebox with all of the tapes and glue sticks, brads, scissors, etc...
I have the paper cutters and scrapbook staplers, etc... in a drawer in a wire organization shelving unit that I got at Target. I will upload pics of how we store everything tomorrow!!
Rodna James

[Bobbi Hayes]

Start real cheap like on a visit to Sam's Club, snag and extra one of those small upright type boxes to store some folders in. You can check out videos of lapbooks being made on utube. That is how I finally caught onto the idea. Good Luck

[Cariann]

Cameron's finished lapbooks are in a magazine box next to his desk. As for supplies, they are in all over the place. File folders and print outs that I find and print are on top of the dryer in our Office Apprentice Box. Craft supplies are in boxes and what not in the classroom... My Hands of a CHild Lapbooks and Guides are in a Binder in the Homeschool Closet (I keep them seperate in preparation for Convention season when I will rep for HOAC in the local area.)... I have a photo of our Apprentice Box on my blog I'll post it later..

Cariann

[Maclibrarian]

* Storing Lapbooks - I do not have a ton of Lapbooks, but those I do have, along with little homemade picture books are stored in a box that is like a magazine file that I covered with a gift bag.
* Current Projects - I love those clear plastic fileholders that zip or close with string. I put 'research' papers and templates that can be punched in a binder and then finished work or items that are ready for kids to do their work go in a three hole punched clear case.
* Supplies - paper in a a file drawer, sorted by thickness (cardstock/paper) and color, other items in their respective homes.
I want to start a binder with samples of the different types of lapbook inserts that I have used and like so I can show it to others who are just learning about lapbooking.

[Kimberly]

We use the plastic filing boxes, with sliding out drawers that stack on top of each other, for different color papers, one color per box. We also have the plastic filing boxes that are narrower and a little taller, again with the slide out drawers that stack on top of each other, that holds the various other supplies, such as glues, glitters, pens, pencils, markers, crayons, etc. Every drawer gets labled for what it holds. There are also file drawers for the sheet protectors and construction papers as well. These are stacked neatly and within easy reach of our son, as well as for me, in the corner of the dining room. This is where most of the projects are done, at the "kitchen/dining room" table. These can be purachased at any office supply store, Walmart, Target, Kmart, etc. We watch for the sales and purchase them then.

Completed projects are filed on a bookshelf according to their topics in alphabetical order, when possible. We "display" different ones across the top of the bookshelf, changing them out every 3 or 4 weeks. We use a book stand to hold each one and there is room to display 3 or 4 across the top. As we have people enter into our house and see these, they want to look at them. They have become great conversation pieces and it is wonderful to hear our son explain the lapbooks and notebooks to others. Of course I am listening to him explain to make certain he gets the information correct, which he most often does! This bookshelf is in our living room.