Entering the World of Lapbooks

I'm not really sure why they call them "lapbooks"; they are basically a file folder (or 2 or 3) that hold projects and information on a particular subject or "unit".  I think most homeschoolers use them for Unit Studies in which they use a broad subject to encompass all aspects of their schooling.  For example The Solar System could be your unit, while you were studying The Solar System , which is obviously science related, your child could write a Bible verse about space or creation for Bible and for handwriting practice, maybe a creative writing project about the planets, adding the 9 family since there are 9 planets etc.
When I started on my homeschooling adventure I was teaching my eager 4 year old to read.  He had played with the Fridge Phonics game endlessly, and after he learned all 26 Uppercase letters, their sounds and the alphabet song basically on his own, I purchased him the set of lowercase letters which came with a comparison chart to put on the fridge.  He literally learned them all in a week.  I knew then that it was time to teach him to read.  I'm not one to pass up an opportunity like that.  At 18 or 20 months this same child was potty trained.  Not because I pushed him to be, but because I was willing to go along with it when he tinkled on the potty on his own.  After that he ran around naked for 3 days and the deed was done.  I'm not saying every child is like that.  Heaven knows my others have not been!  I'm trying to give you perspective on my oldest son.
So, anyway, with an oldest child like that I was very driven and had high goals for my homeschool.  I still do, but my perspective is changing just a bit.  To this point I have been all about books.  I'm still all about books, but I'm excited about adding in some new stuff, particularly for the benefit of my younger "students" who don't read....yet.
When I look at preschool and early elementary curriculums I'm usually a little discouraged.  I feel like they are so general that it's almost not worth it for my kids.  I want to delve in deep! Let them catch what they can, and what they don't will be caught next time around when we cover the material again in another venue, as I'm sure we will.  So far this has worked for me.  But Apologia Science was a little bit much for us this year.  So was The Story of the Thirteen Colonies, our history book for this year (at least).  This is because we mostly just read aloud, there were few "experiments" and we found ourselves getting bogged down.
At Christmas I wanted to do a Christmas Unit.  I went to the Library each week and got countless books about Christmas around the world and the origins of Santa Claus but I had no way to document what we did other than a book list.  The kids got confused and bored with all the facts and timelines.  We didn't really do any projects so the whole thing really felt like a flop.
Several weeks ago I met for coffee with a homeschooling friend.  We've sort of been working through Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day together but separately.  We were trying to come up with a plan as we leave birds and delve into flying insects.  In the process she introduced me to lapbooks.  She's a much more hands on homeschooler.  She has a special needs child and really does a fantastic job; she's so creative.  Here is her blog in case you're interested.
I sure do wish I'd known about Lapbooks at Christmas time.  Anyway, for two weeks in March we did some projects and learned about Ireland, St. Patrick's Day and Rainbows.  It wasn't exhaustive, and I felt entirely disorganized in the process, but it was a good start and I'm pretty excited about how it turned out.


This is the front cover of the Lapbook.  My 3 yr old decided to color on it while I was getting the camera.




Inside the right flap is our Bible verse about Rainbows.



 While I do feel like some of the things we did were just so we could put something in the lapbook, some of what we did really pushed us--like our timeline of St. Patrick's life.  Counting by three's was relevant.  Something green was more for fun, since Silas has known his colors for many years now.

 



We added a flap to the center section so that we could fit more stuff in.  I will do this a little differently in the future, but for now this works.






 

 We created a pocket for his creative writing story to go in.  The pocket also served as a place for our Irish Reading List.  Here is an example of how this lapbook pushed us to another level.  This was Silas' first creative writing assignment.  Until now everything has been copy work for him.  He did a great job!  We did have some tears about rewriting for a perfect final draft, but overall I'm very pleased with his work.

 We talked about how rainbows are formed, and made a rainbow with a mirror, a glass of water and a flashlight.  The pictures of that didn't come out very well.  We also talked about primary and secondary colors and formed a "rainbow" in a glass.  Then we documented our work.  We put this in our lapbook too.  I just realized the picture of our color wheel isn't here.  If you look closely you can see it in the first picture at the top of this post.



Lastly we talked about Geography.  This is the back of the
lapbook, and a picture of Silas building the Europe GeoPuzzle
to the left.



I don't think I will do a complete Unit Study  again, I felt like I was doing things not because they were relevant to us, but because they fit with the study, which isn't really how I want our school to function, but I am loving this new venue and I am definitely going to use this to document our work as we study butterflies next month!

I'm a Home School Mama

I'll admit it!  I definitely have days that I ask myself  "Why, oh, why do I home school?"  OK, I have a lot of those days.  And I've looked into private schools in the area.  But for all that, I'm still a home school mama. Why? Well, that's what I'm about to iterate.
I'm not embarrassed to tell you that guilt plays a big roll.  I know every mother has angst when they send their children off on the bus, or drop them off at the main entrance on the first day, but those are mothers who believe they are doing the best thing for their offspring by sending them to school.  I don't.  So, guilt is a big motivator for me. 
I have always been a stay-at-home mom.  Before we got married, my husband and I talked and decided that we would give up anything necessary to allow me to stay home with our kids at least for the first 4-5 years of their lives.  I don't like daycare centers.  Not that I'm condemning you if you send your kids to one.  If that's OK between you and God, good!  It's a personal matter.  But it's not OK between me and God or my husband and God, so it was very important to keep our kids at home.  But the thing is that I did keep them for those first years.  I poured myself into them constantly.  We stressed obedience and God was a daily, hourly presence because I made myself very aware of "teachable moments" with my little ones.  So when it came time to think about school, to be perfectly honest I couldn't even consider it.  To do all that work, and then just hand him over to someone I don't know for 8 hours of the day, 5 days out of 7 was an unbearable thought.  What if our values don't line up with the teacher?  Classrooms are prime settings for indoctrination, and I don't want to spend what precious little time I have with my children correcting the education I'm exposing them to! 
Then think of their peers.  I know many parents argue that they send their kids to public schools to be salt and light.  Frankly I don't think my 7 year old is ready to be salt and light.  He's more likely to absorb the bad habits of kids who are allowed to do and watch things that I would never allow for my kids.  Then I can watch, in a matter of hours, all that hard work and time and soul of 5 or 6 years go right down the drain.  No thanks!  I want his values firmly established before I send him out to be salt and light in a dying world.
Now, we send our children to school for education.  We want them to be bright, intelligent, informed adults, right?  OK, then why would I send my child to a public school?  Listen, I know there are kids who come through just fine.  I went to a public school and I like to think I'm fine, but look at the statistics.  Public education is broken!  We keep throwing more money at it in hopes that it will change, but what it needs is a complete overhaul!  Outcome based education?  Whole language instead of phonics?  Why take the chance?  Besides that, I want my kids educated on the facts.  Text books leave out so much, particularly in the area of history.  Not to mention the secular view of science without even a mention that there are other beliefs or ways of interpreting science.  Then we wonder why our country is going to hell in a hand basket.  I want my kids to know what really happened.
And Christian education isn't really all that different.  Yes, they teach science from a christian perspective, but they base their educational style on public schools, so it's still basically broken.
But lay all of that aside.  Even if none of those were factors, I would still probably be homeschooling because I want my children to learn how to learn, and to love doing it.  My main goal early on is to give them a strong foundation in a phonics based reading program. I'm using a different program with my second than I used with my first, but it's still phonics, not sight words and whole language, and I'm confident that when he's done he will be as good a reader as his older brother.  The reason for this is that, as Art Robinson says "knowledge is in books".  Or on the Internet, but either way you have to read to get at it!  Yeah, there are different "learning styles" but ultimately you need to read in order to learn.  And I'm not overly worried about missing something as I teach my kids.  I hope I don't, but if I do so what! If they come to a point where they particularly need that bit of information, they will know how to find it.  I think that is infinitely better than covering everything required in a classroom and then forgetting it, never to be learned again.
We are about to start a bug unit in our schooling.  On Wednesday we went to the Library for our normal "Library day" ever week, and checked out bunches of books about caterpillars and butterflies.  They have been poured over and devoured by all, and we haven't even started our unit.  To me, that alone is worth all the trouble.