Lapbooking with MFW

[705emily]

Ok, I know that MFW really doesn't need any add-ons but lapbooks have been working great for us to cement what my dc are learning in ECC with both the geography and science this year. We have mostly used lapbook components from homeschoolshare dot com for free.

Now I'm looking for similar info to add to CTG next school year. I can find Ancient Egypt and Greece info to add but I was kind of wanting something that ties in the Bible a little more. I found an Old Testament activity pack from Homeschool in the Woods and it looks really good but I was hoping to find something a little cheaper or maybe even free. I don't mind investing in this pack if I'll get my money's worth out of it and if it ties in well with CTG. I don't want to have to piece together the information from different sources on the web if I don't have to so if I invest a little and it works well I don't mind but if there is something else out there that would be better, I would love to check into it.

So has anyone used this pack? Has anyone else successfully added to their CTG studies with similar resources?

Hi Tammie--

I used the OT lapbook material from Homeschool in the Woods when we did OT in First Grade and I needed some extras to supplement a little bit. We are just finishing up CTG this year. I didn't use it in CTG--but it would go great with CTG. I have found all HS in the Woods materials to be SUPERB! The artwork and the content are wonderfu! I totally agree with the multi-sensory approach to cement learning! I don't think you will not be disappointed in this product!

[momtogc]

Mystery of History offers "folderbooks" which I think are the same as lapbooks. They might coordinate somewhat with CtG studies. http://www.themysteryofhistory.com Look in their Online Store.

Also, you might look at http://www.homeschoolshare.com There are a lot of lapbooks there for free. Search their site using key words like Ancient or Passover, etc.

HTH

[jasntas]

I have been busy busy behind the scenes trying to get things in order for our 1st year of homeschooling this fall! I will have a 2nd grader in Adventures and then a 23 month old tagging along. I have been reading through the TM for Adv. and sorting it all out with my math and LA choices in weekly hanging folders (I got the idea from a blog, but I can't remember which one!).

I am excited about this idea of lapbooking. I was showing my daughter some online the other day and she is excited to make some! I was wondering if anyone has composed a list of lapbooks that would go alongside the Adv. curriculum (along with where I could find the components to make them?) This could be a silly question if it is a really simple answer! Go easy on me, I am a newbie! : D

Also, I am blown away by the support and TIME that other homeschool mommas (and daddys) show here on these boards! Thank you so much for taking time out of your already busy day to answer questions from this newbie! What a wonderful resource and blessing!

As far as lapbooks, for us it is a supplemental thing that we use. Notebooking, for instance, is difficult for my ds (due to dyslexia) so we usually replace that with lapbook components. I would advise you not to use them or use them sparingly for your first year. We did ADV last year without any adding and it was just right. I would occasionally add or substitute a craft but, other than reading books out of the book basket to add to our knowledge, I did not add.

BUT if you still want to find some good lapbooking resources homeschoolshare.com does have some that would go well with ADV but I don't know of a list that follows ADV. But again I would not add them on a regular basis unless you were leaving something else out or your dc really wanted to do them.

...OK, I found sooo much that could be used with ADV but you would so totally be in overload if I posted them all. I will give a couple of suggestions I found on the free website homeschoolshare.com.

Pocahontas
Benjamin Franklin
Presidents Day (Includes Washington and Lincoln)
They have one called 'Backyard Birds' that looks like it would go well with the bird study for the year.
There are also some lapbooks for a few of the read alouds from the deluxe package. For instance 'Farmer Boy' and 'On the Banks of Plum Creek'.

I would highly suggest that if you use any of these resources that you use them sparingly. If you do one and it's just too much or your child doesn't enjoy them, please don't continue with them. I also suggest that you would just pick and choose the activities that you think would be the most interesting or fun.

...And don't forget to check the MFW archives for additional ADV ideas:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewforum.php?f=24

Thanks for the lapbooking ideas! My daughter would love to make them! I am doing some fun things on Fridays this fall, and thought lapbooking would be a fun activity to do and would be a review all at the same time! : ) I don't want to overwhelm her, but I really think she would love them. She is ALWAYS wanting stuff to do!

I kind of like the idea of occasionally adding lapbooks on Fridays. But doing an entire lapbook in one day might be a bit overwhelming. Your dd might do fine or you may find you only want to do one page worth at a time. Usually 4 or so components.

We usually do 1 or 2 components each day depending on the length of each activity, other activities going on and/or time. That seems to work well with my kids but each family (and child) is different.

Keep us posted on your progress and/or ask more questions as they arrive. Enjoy your year.

[gratitude]

It looks like Tammie had a workable idea for lap books!

The main thing I learned in my first 1 & 2/3 years of home schooling is that it is too easy to push my first child, and that I can do far more than my children. However, I can see in my dd4 a far higher potential & desire for school work than my active boys show at these ages. The main thing is to pay attention. It is really difficult though because the signs of my pushing too much and doing too much didn't show up for months. It showed up in the form of "I don't like school, and I don't want to do it." The minute I backed down to ONE curriculum we restored harmony, and within a week he loved to learn again. So just a little FYI, from my own experience, which of course is different for everyone, and from my over enthusiastic 'let's do everything' start to home schooling.

[Fly2Peace]

The topic on another thread about doing an ADV mini study got me wondering about what we will study this summer. On currclick.com I found the 'Christian Missionaries to Know Lapbook' by Hands of a Child. It includes a Missionaries Project Pack on Gladys Aylward, Amy Carmichael, David Livingstone, and George Müller. If I don't go with the fourth of July study I mentioned on the other thread I thought this missionary study might be a good review of some of the missionaries we studied this past year but I didn't know if it would be too advanced for my two. There are no samples that I can view so I can't really get a feel for it. Has anyone ever used this resource? Thoughts?

We did that during ECC, dd was a 3rd grader. I think she did less notebooking, and did the lapbook, but it has been 4 years, so can't remember details. She did a great job with it. It was our one and only success with a lapbook (so far). She actually requested to do it again, as we are going to be doing ECC again, with her as an 8th grader, and little as 4th. It fit well with ECC and missionary read alouds.

[Melissa]

Currclick.com doesn't have any sample pages available to view and I was just wondering if it was a good, easy to use lapbook. I think I've decided to wait and possibly use it our next go around with my dd and ECC in a few years. Thanks for the replies ladies.

You can see a sample on the Hands of a Child website ~ http://www.handsofachild.com/hands-prod ... etails/467.

Looks like it would be fun, thanks for pointing it out.

Melissa

[cbollin]

Hello MFW families!
We are in our 2nd year homeschooling, as well as with MFW and are beginning CTG this coming week. We are very excited! I hope it is okay to ask this question, since it has to do with our curriculum, but has anyone here used lapbooking with MFW? I ask because our 8 year old son (3rd grader) would like me to try that with him since he learned of lapbooks at a friend's house last year. I thought it might help him retain more of his learning, since he becomes quite easily distracted during our learning time. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much and God bless!

There's a co-op in kansas somewhere they is very "into lapbooking" while using MFW. The owner of the co-op keeps a blog of how she used lapbooks and thinks the best of them. Here's a link to her ctg page.
http://homeschoolblogger.com/mfwexplore ... he-greeks/

and hopefully others will let you know about different ways to use ctg with 8 y.o active child with the various crafts and such in the program, or other ideas.. just in case the child gets tired of lapbooking and you need fresh ideas to draw from.

-crystal

[jasntas]

We enjoy lapbooks. Last year for CTG we mainly used The Old Testament Activity Pak by Homeschool in the Woods. (Pak is spelled correctly. I think it's the creator's last name )

We also used portions of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Civilizations History Pockets. Those are available from Amazon and other sources.

I started blogging about CTG last school year. Then we moved in the middle of the year and I just posted about some of our highlights at the end of our school year. You can take a look at what I did post about if you'd like but I didn't post much of the lapbook elements except our science lapbooks that were from a different science than the scheduled CTG science. My link is in my signature line below.

HTH

[Julie in MN]

Here are some more lapbook ideas folks have posted:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2287

And as far as what Crystal mentioned about teaching an active child, I have one of those. I've posted about things we did over the years. Here's one thread: http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1196

The first thing, though, is to realize that kids *can* learn while they wiggle. Not all kids. I can't. But some really can. Eventually I started checking this on my son. I'd let him roll around on a giant exercise ball while I read, and then I'd ask him randomly to repeat back what I'd just said. He did it perfectly. Then I'd have him sit still next to me while I read, and then ask him what I'd just said. He'd say, "I don't know, mom, I was concentrating on not moving."

MFW has a ton of very active ways to learn. Moms like me just need to learn to use them, and if time is crunched then it's the seatwork that can go, not the activities. Some kids will retain more that way.

Oh, and a final thought -- no kid will remember everything they learn. In a classroom full of kids, there might be only one who is attentive enough to know the answers to questions. Hopefully they'll learn "how to learn" more than anything. But I do agree that we need to gradually build those retention muscles.
Julie

[Cyndi (AZ)]

The first thing, though, is to realize that kids *can* learn while they wiggle. Not all kids. I can't. But some really can. Eventually I started checking this on my son. I'd let him roll around on a giant exercise ball while I read, and then I'd ask him randomly to repeat back what I'd just said. He did it perfectly. Then I'd have him sit still next to me while I read, and then ask him what I'd just said. He'd say, "I don't know, mom, I was concentrating on not moving."

You think I'd have learned by now, but just last week I lost it and practically hollered, "Would you just *pretend* like you're paying attention to me?!" My poor dd gave me that look and then gave me a perfect narration of what I'd been reading. She doesn't have ants-in-her-pants, she has 'em crawling all over her! She's just like her Daddy, who asked me once why speakers and pastors always know who I am. I told him it was because I sit still and look at them while they're talking! He thought that was very, very odd.

Seriously, though, if you're just looking for something to occupy little hands and super-glue little bottoms, printing off free coloring pages might do the trick. The student sheet coloring pages in CTG are a little advanced, but you can find similiar "more fun" pages online. Just an idea. I've never done lap-booking.

[Mallorie]

When I started hs'ing my dd a couple years ago, those exercise balls to sit and bounce on, as well as a mini-trampoline in the living room were awesome. She could bounce while I read. It drove me bonkers, but worked for her.

[betancourt6]

Thank you so much for your wonderful ideas, everyone! I don't post on here very often but when I do, I KNOW that I'll receive heart-felt truth and encouragement! I didn't even think about the exercise ball idea, that sounds right up our alley! I did actually just order the CD on Old Testament Lapbooking activities from Amy Pak, so hopefully we'll be getting that this week. It was too funny, because today was our first full day with CTG (which we just love), and we did lesson #1 from God and the History of Art. My active 8-year old was in tears when we did the lesson about drawing/coloring with only our mouths holding the pencil. He asked me why they would ask him to draw a copy of that butterfly without his hands and expect it to look the same? I then realized that GHA is meant for 10 years and older, and my 6th and 8th grade daughters giggled and encouraged him. Looks like I may have to take that advice on free printable coloring pages for him! Thanks again, and God bless each and every one of you and your precious families!

[jasntas]

When we did that lesson in GHA I took the kids to joniandfriends.com web site, explained her disability and showed them some of her work. We also discussed the movie Soul Surfer which we had recently seen. My then 7 year old dd and then 10 year old ds enjoyed the lesson and looked at it as a challenge to see what it was like to have a disability and have to learn to do things differently.

But if coloring pages work for your little guy, then use them.