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in Hands On· Language Arts· Lapbooks· Mathematics· Phonics

Using Build-a-Skill Instant Books in Your Homeschool

A little over a year ago, I was in eastern Washington at a teacher store and I came across a few books called Build-a-Skill Instant Books. I thumbed through them and thought these would be great for both of my boys to use. What I loved about them at first glance was it reminded me a lot of lapbooking.

If you’ve done lapbooking before you might be familiar with the concept of cutting out templates or booklets and filling them in with information and pasting them into a folder, binder or scrapbook.

Build-a-Skill Instant Books are a lapbook style, hands-on way to teach elementary language arts and math concepts.

Build-a-Skill Instant Books

I decided to purchase all of them since I live in Montana and have never seen them locally. They come in two sets of grade levels. K-1 and 2-3. The ones we are working on are all pertaining to Language Arts and are very hands on in approach. They do have Math books to use but we have not used those.

Grades K-1 come in several different areas of study for Language Arts including:

Grades K-1 Series of Books
Grades K-1 Series of Books
  • Word Families-short vowels
  • Word Families-long vowels
  • Consonant Blends and Digraphs
  • Color, Shape and Number Words
  • Short and Long Vowels
  • R-Controlled Vowels-Vowel Digraphs
  • Sight Words, Part 1
  • Sight Words, Part 2
  • Beginning-Ending Consonant Sounds
  • Synonyms and Antonyms

Math includes:

  • Time and Money
  • Math Facts to 20

Grades 2-3 areas of study include:

Grades 2-3 Language Arts Books
Grades 2-3 Language Arts Books

Language Arts:

  • Synonyms-Antonyms
  • Homophones
  • Contractions
  • Irregular Vowels
  • Compound Words
  • Prefixes-Suffixes
  • Plurals
  • Parts of Speech
  • Verb Forms

Math includes:

  • Multiplication and Division
  • Time-Money
  • Fractions
Short Vowel Word Family Booklets
Short Vowel Word Family Booklets

Inside Build-a-Skill Instant Books

We’ve worked on several of these books in both grade levels and my boys have learned a lot.  Each book has several styled books to cut and fill out. Some to color if you choose or copy them onto colored paper. We have taken the books they’ve done and placed them like lapbooking or added them to existing lapbooks they were working on that related to the Build-a-Skill books.

Learning Sight Words Booklets
Learning Sight Words Booklets

They include different booklets to cut out to learn different concepts. For an example on the sight words that you can see to the left here there is many ways to teach the sight words through these books that will help reinforce the spelling of each word. Such as writing them out with your “I Can Read” and “I Can Write” flip books and then taking those same words and seeing them in sentences while filling out different booklets and coloring pictures.

Even though these come in the grade levels specified I noticed some concepts were a bit advanced for the grade they recommended so we waited to introduce the concepts. They are easy to use and fun to put together.

Once you purchase the books you will need to photocopy the pages for your child to cut out and put together so there will be an additional cost for that. The books are inexpensive to purchase at around $5.99-$7.99 each and can be copied over again for more than one child.

You can find these books by visiting their website: CreativeTeaching.com

If you are looking for a hands on way of teaching Language Arts and Math that is fun and engaging then these might be something to explore. We love all of the books this series has to offer and will continue to use them until all of these concepts are mastered with all of our children.

More Hands-On Homeschool Resources

Home School in the Woods Hands-On History Materials include timeline resources, lap books, state studies, mini unit studies and more! From The Curriculum Choice

The Ultimate Guide to Home School in the Woods Hands-On History – Have you seen any of the Home School In The Woods Hands-On History materials? If you have a child who likes to work with their hands, cutting, pasting, coloring, etc. then you definitely want to see what Home School in the Woods has to offer!

Motion and Force Activities for Kids: Hands-On Physical Science for Homeschool – Science is a perfect subject to add hands-on learning to! Children comprehend and retain more from the learning when it is hands-on, plus it’s more fun! This is a collection of hands-on physical science experiments you can do in your homeschool with your kids for exploring motion and force.

Hands-On History Homeschool Book: Letters for Freedom – Are you looking for an engaging way to introduce the Civil War to your kids? How about a hands-on book that includes flaps, pull tabs, removable letters and more? Letters for Freedom is an engaging way to get your kids excited about history!

Hands-On Unit Study Guides for Homeschool – I have some super fun hands-on unit study guides for homeschool to share with you! They make great spines for unit studies with lots of background information, hands-on project ideas and more!

Using Draw Write Now Books for Homeschooling – Draw Write Now Books are a series of books that combine drawing and writing using specific topics such as The United States, Animal Habitats, Farm Life, and more!

Art, Fine Arts and Nature Study for Homeschool – Are you a Classical or Charlotte Mason homeschooler? Are you looking for an affordable, flexible, easy to use solution for art, fine arts or nature study? If you answered yes to either of these then you will want to check out this all access art, fine arts and nature study membership.

~ Originally posted November 2009, Written by Lynn Pitts, mom of 3, from Big Sky Country Montana.

Filed Under: Hands On, Language Arts, Lapbooks, Mathematics, Phonics Tagged With: updated by Heidi C, Written by Lynn

Previous Post: « The St. Patrick’s Day Homeschool
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Comments

  1. Jimmie says

    November 14, 2009 at 2:51 am

    Nice review, Lynn. You are so conscientious in all you do. It really shines in your online work. Thanks for going above and beyond. These look like great resources for getting those foundational skills in the little ones. I only wish they had some for older kids. I’m going to check out the website. (Just what I need — more books for the wishlist! LOL)
    .-= Jimmie´s last blog ..Sex Ed Book Reviews =-.

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