Our first attempts

[Rosabella]

Hi ladies..Hope you are all well and happy. My dd started her lapbooking/notebooking schoolwork this past week. She really likes it. Honestly though, she seems more drawn to the notebooking than the lapbooking. We are having a little bit of a hard time making the lapbook look decent! I need to look at more photos of other's, I suppose.

As far as leaving the text books behind, that is getting great reviews! She loves not reading a boring, dry chapter in science, and then memorizing flashcards for a test. She tells me everything she has learned throughout the day.

We are using "Learning Through History" magazine. I ordered some back issues. They are wonderful..No advertisements, pictures to color in, related web links, suggested readings...great stuff. DD is really enjoying her first issue. She will complete it for the month of January.

So, how is everyone else doing this coooold month?

Blessings....Rosa

[Pamela]

Rosa,

I'm so glad your daughter is enjoying it! She'll come up with her own style as she does them.

Yes, it is cold. Forecasters were predicting tons of snow for us over the weekend, the kids were very excited. But, it fizzled and turned into sleet and rain! Oh well!

[Rose King]

Rosa,
I am glad she likes notebooking and lapbooking. My daughter is 11 and she seems to love it. I love HOAC. They have awesome material. She also likes to be able to put one together on her own (with a little help from me). She is trying to put together a sewing lapbook. Seems to be going great. We just started it last week, but she is being very vocal about what she wants and doesn't want. We put our notebooking pages in our lapbook. We just taped a gallon ziplock bag on the back of our lapbook. I hope you have a great day!
Rose

[Kim]

Let me display my ignorance, or forgetfulness, but what is HOAC?
Kim

[Melanie]

Hands of a Child ;-)

Here's a link: http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/

[tassie mum]

Rosa I am new to this site and from Australia. Lapbboking isn't well known here I only just heard about it a couple of weeks ago and from what I have found we just love it ,
You mentioned that you are doing a sewing lapbook with your daughter would you please tell me what kind of things you are putting in it [if you don't mind]
thanks

[Melanie]

Make sure to check this out:
http://www.squidoo.com/sewinglapbook

[Paula]

Well, I have been preparing a lesson plan for American Girls-Addy. We are going to study that series (character) for the next few months. I like that, in the book, there is a complete history lesson about that time period. Each of the 6 books under this particular character looks at a different aspect of the time period. I have a bunch of activities and things typed up including a lapbook (final product) or notebooking. I'll be sure to share when it's done! Has anyone done any other American Girl? I saw the Kit Kittredge movie lapbook. Let me know! Am. Girls is a great source of history and a great way to mix lang. arts, history, and grammer.

[Rosabella]

my dd read some of the american girl books. they are great for living history. so are the Princess Diaries...they are books featuring different princesses from around the world, throughout different time periods. my dd especially loved the one on Marie Antoinette.

[Judy Alkema]

I'm so glad to hear that you and your daughter are getting more out of your learning now!

Homeschooling does NOT have to mean 'schooling at home'. It should mean learning, adventure, discovery, fun, metacognition, exploring, acquiring wisdom, play, stretching limits, building boundaries.... but for heaven's sakes, not
simply importing the artificial constraints of a 'school' into the wonderful reality of a 'home'.

I see I don't have to preach this though - you are discovering that for yourself, and interest-driven learning is true learning. So if she'd rather write than decorate, celebrate that and see what she can truly do when you let her loose on writing! Buy her stickers and scrapbooking supplies, or print off some of the millions of great graphics available online, if she'd rather not create the art for herself... perhaps she just likes a cleaner, more 'mature' style. As many people have pointed out, a lot of lapbooks here are for younger kids, who both need and enjoy the graphic-heavy look - but a preteen or teen may want something more sophisticated.

Newspapers, magazines, storefront windows, websites, and most products designed for teens will give you an idea of how she might prefer her lapbooks to look - peel-n-stick vinyl, decals, grunge fonts and Photoshop brushes, letter graphics and computer avatars, stylization and modernization....instead of clip art, cute animals, alphabet block fonts, cut-out flowers, etc.

(Again, I'm not trying to sound patronizing about the younger lapbooks - we work with the child's interests and what attracts them, while probably catering to our own tastes to some degree as well. I know my love of medievalia, vintage and retro stylings has definitely influenced my six-year old, who looks dismissively at cartoon characters on backpacks and notebooks with a sigh, 'Too cutesy, Mom!')

Anyhow, enjoyment is something that SHOULD be present in your 'homeschool', so I'm glad that has now become part of your experience.

Hugs to you and yours,
Judy