Whilst homeschooling is an adventure in itself, keeping the learning opportunities engaging and as interactive as possible can often be a struggle to maintain for most homeschooling parents.
However, often when little hands are busy and little brains are actively engaged the learning becomes exciting. This is when things really begin to stick. This is when their eyes light up and learning becomes an anticipated way to spend time rather than something to be endured.
This is all well to say but in the reality of the day-to-day of busy home-educating parent it is near impossible to achieve without a little help along the way.
One way to is to bring a simple tool that has been tried and tested by countless home-educating families over the years and that is what is colloquially known as lapbooking or ‘creating a lapbook’.
What Even Is A Lapbook?
In a nutshell a lapbook is file folder (manila folder) that is filled with mini booklets, foldables, pockets and other interactive elements. Each of these elements holds information and research notes taken by the child about the topic at hand.
Lapbooks are an interactive, creative way to learn about a particular topic and to show that learning in a fun and inspirational format. Thus helping you to bring more interactive homeschooling into your days and weeks.
Think of taking a book from the shelves all focused on the topic of sharks – a lapbook is the child’s way to show their unique journey whilst learning all about sharks. Making lapbooks and the experience of learning with them vastly different to that of using traditional workbooks and worksheets.
The Benefits of Lapbooking
Due to the simple nature of a lapbook they encourage hands-on, interactive, engaged learning at all levels. Learning in this fashion is far from passive, it ensures involvement and full participation from the child. Thus increasing attention spans and better absorption of the topic at hand.
Each section or mini-book component requires focus and engagement on that particular subtopic which can lead to better:
- Comprehension
- Recall
- Organisational Skills
- Research Skills
- Express Understanding
Given the hands on requirement to actually completing a lapbook there are many opportunities to improve motor skills, such as:
- Cutting
- Gluing
- Folding
- Drawing
- Pasting
- Colouring
Grab your free interactive lapbook unit by clicking here.
