Fun Learning with Lapbooks
The first time I ever heard of a lapbook was when a dear friend, who was homeschooling her two older children then, shared with me about it – that was about more than 2 years ago. Being a new parent and an art & craft buff, I did a quick google search and found some very interesting ideas on lapbook that I could apply to the literature based method I had plan to use to teach my son.
In the journey of creating lapbooks I had the most wonderful experience of learning everything about a certain topic that I had wanted to present to my child. Hence I believe that lapbook is a great vehicle to nurture a child's love for learning. As the content of the lapbook could come from topics that interest the child (thereby being delight-driven) – this brings about more internal-based motivation and therefore greater learning from and ownership of work. The process of research and application will help the child through life as he/she learns how to research, plan, exercise creativity, present and evaluate each piece of information.
So what is a lapbook and how can the children learn from working on a lapbook?
A lapbook is a project book or file folder, laid out in a creative manner, that fits in the child's lap. It is a wonderful hands-on home learning tool.
Lapbook is a paper manipulative using file folders in which the child stores creative summaries of his/her work. It is a fancy yet inexpensive way of putting a collection of mini-books that include, diagrams, graphics, drawings, stories and written work specially created to emphasize the theme of the lapbook. It is a good way to consolidate and put the fun of doing unit studies/thematic base learning together.
Lapbook can be done by any learner – from preschoolers to even adults. The completed lapbook serve as a review tool as your child refer to the material they have learned in that unit or topic; something they could also share with family and friends what they have been taught.
