Doesn’t it just make you feel good when you find something that your children can’t wait to do for school every morning? That is how both of my children feel about A Journey Through Learning lapbooks!
This is our first year studying history, and I’m not following a ‘box’ curriculum, so I’m mostly piecing things together from a few sources. I read out loud to my children a lot and then we do projects, notebooking pages, copywork, timelines, etc. to reinforce what we have been reading about. As we finished up studying ancient Egypt (to go along with the end of Genesis and beginning of Exodus), I was feeling like I needed to do something to review what we had learned. I had confidence that my son learned many things about Egypt, but thought it would be nice for him to have something to reference, that would have much of the information in one place.
A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks
In absolute perfect timing, I was contacted by A Journey Through Learning, asking if I would review their lapbooks. I took a look at their website and saw that they have many different topics for lapbooks, including ancient Egypt! I expressed my interest in a few of their books, and they ended up sending me Exploring Ancient Egypt and The Earth.
We jumped right in and got to creating our lapbooks! We started with the Egypt one, and I loved that it covered all the main topics that we studied, plus more! Each lapbook piece was preceded by a page teaching about that topic (Egyptian dress, mummies, etc.) This was a nice feature because it allows you to use this product as a complete study if you would like, or just as a supplement to what you are studying.
Creating Lapbooks In Your Homeschool
My children’s most favorite part about these lapbooks was all the cutting. If you have a child who loves to cut, this is definitely a product for you! If your child despises cutting, you could always cut out each day’s piece before hand, and they would put the information on the piece and put it in the lapbook. I really think that all this cutting is great practice for any young hands and I was completely amazed at how good both my four and two-year-old became at cutting out the different shapes!
This was a great project to include my two-year-old in, even though she didn’t learn much =) She loved practicing her cutting, then I just let her draw as she pleased on each piece and then glue it wherever she wanted in her book. The most important thing was that it kept her productively busy for the whole time we worked on these each day.
The Value Of Learning With Lapbooks
Lapbooks are great because your child can enjoy looking through all the pieces, remembering what they learned and reciting the information they put on their different pieces. These would also work for a good range of ages. These were a perfect activity for my four-year-old, but I did not require him to remember or understand all of the information. The information is deep enough that it can work for older elementary aged children, but can be scaled back for younger children. There is even information at the back of the lapbooks to enhance your studies by suggesting extra books to read, recipes to make, activities to do, etc. These are the kind of extras that set A Journey Through Learning apart from other people who make lapbooks and make the few dollars spent well worth it!
I love that these lapbooks can be as simple or beautiful as your child wants. My son was completely content to slap down his pieces onto a plain colored folder and call it a day. He didn’t even care if they were straight or if they would get folded when the lapbook was shut (I had to do a little instructing on taking our time and making things look our best=) When my daughter gets older, I’m sure that she will take great pleasure in using nicely colored folders, framing the pieces with scrapbook paper, and decorating the lapbook to make it look beautiful! However your child is, these lapbooks are a great way to organize information and enhance learning.
When we finished our second lapbook, the first thing my son said was, “What lapbook are we going to do next?” and he continued to ask it every day for the next few weeks! I told him to be patient, because after Easter we would start learning about ancient Greece and so we would get the Exploring Ancient Greece lapbook. I’ll even go all out and get some nicely colored folders for this one =)
Using A Journey Through Learning With Other Homeschool Programs
No matter what you are studying, or what your child is interested in, A Journey Through Learning has something for you. They even have lapbooks to supplement other programs:
- Apologia
- Classical Conversations
- Answers in Genesis
- Geography Matters
- TruthQuest History
- Maestro Classics
- A History of US
Make sure you take a minute to follow A Journey Through Learning on Facebook, or sign up for their newsletter because they often have monthly sales, express lapbooks, or new products that you are not going to want to miss out on!
~ Originally published April 2013, written by Amy
Yes we have done a few lapbooks this year.
I love their lapbooks, the first one I ever bought from them was the Zoology 1. I am patiently waiting for my Zoology 1 book from Apologia to arrive in the post so we can start with our study and lapbook.
Only a few. I’m not a big fan of printing huge amounts of very inky projects, and I want my kids to be involved in it academically – I want more than just a cutting project. These sound pretty neat. I’d like to check them out.
I usually print everything on ‘fast draft’ to save some ink! It’s helps a bit for sure. Also, many of the pieces for these lapbooks are not sure ‘inky,’ instead letting your child draw the pictues (obviously some pieces do have color pictures on them.
Also, I really enjoyed that these were more than just a cutting project since they included all of the info on the subject, plus other project/resource ideas at the end. I viewed these are more of a ‘gathering of information’ instead of the sole resource for learning (though you could use it that way too!) Thanks for entering the giveaway!
Yes, we’ve done some.
I haven’t tried lapbooking yet (my oldest is 5), but this seems like something she would love making!
Yes, I’m sure she would! If you are concerned about her age (though you can always tailor any of them to her abilities), they do offer lapbooks geared towards the younger set of children. You can check out the options here: Early Learner Lapbooks
I just started learning about lap books. My daughter loves dolphins, so she is going to create one about dolphins. It will be a nice way to put all her information in one place. I am new to the lap book idea and I think it is wonderful.
Yes I have used lapbooks in our homeschool. Love the CC supplements from Wisdom & Righteousness.
A Journey Through Learning also creates products that follow along with Classical Conversations. Please check them out!
I LOVE A Journey Through Learning. I have bought several of their lapbooks! What a great giveaway!
We used lap books w/ my older two & it’s time to start them w/ my two youngest.
I just stumbled upon these the other day. Love them. They are so engaging unlike some of the older brands. Oh, keep everything in a ziplock for each child. Tammy D. who penned the name “lapbook” suggested that to me! Would love one to do this summer with the kids!
Great idea!
I have never used lapbooks. It always looked so confusing, but this looks like something my kids would love and easy to follow
My kids love lapbooks. A Journey Through Learning has a great selection. Great giveaway!
We have just started lapbooking/ notebooking and my daughter loves it! We use them as supplements to what we are studying. Right now we are working through ancient Greece to be followed by Rome.:)
That is exactly what we are doing and exactly where we are in history =) Thanks for entering!
I have been a working home school mom for the most part but thankfully that is fixing to change. I am looking forward to doing these lap books with my kids for deeper involvement.
We’ve used lapbooks for science and orchestra (Classical Conversations), history and for Five in a Row.
I love using lapbooks! My daughter is 13. I have been able to adapt many of the books to fit her age. I just purchased the space lapbooks yesterday. We’ll use them next year for 8th grade. Awesome way to keep our creative juices flowing while learning!!
We love lapbooks and use them everyday!! My 7 year old loves filling, cutting and pasting ll the pieces together. They have made a huge difference in our day.
Our entire History and Science curriculum has been focused on Lapbooks this year!
We started this past year using lap books, and love them!!!
Even though my daughter is young (not yet 2), I am seriously looking at starting lapbooks soon. I know she would love them.
My daughter loves lapbooks! What a great giveaway!
These look great! I’ve never used lap books before and am excited to start.
we have done an apologia lapbook. It was great for review after we finished each chapter.
We have used lapbooks mainly for science topics, volcanoes, various animals and ancient egypt.