Review: Journey Through Learning Lapbooks

The Greatest Inventors has been a delight to us to use over the past few weeks. We've laughed, we've talked, and we've discovered so much thanks to A Journey through Learning Lapbooks.  Let me tell you all about it!

Carnations and more

Over the past two weeks we took some time to study Mother's Day. This Mother's day unit study was done by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.. Here is day one/two and day three/four.

I have to admit...I was feeling somewhat reticent about studying Mother's Day but chose to do so because I'm often surprised at what details are pulled out of studies that I never expected. This study, though not a favourite of either me or my son, was no different than studies I've undertaken in the past. To my surprise, I actually learned something, and at times was able to take an unappreciated study and turn elements of it into something my son appreciated. :)

For instance I learned why on Mother's Day a carnation is given to each lady in our church. The carnation is actually the flower of Mother's day. Bet YOU didn't know that either.

My son had fun learning abit about different countries and seeing where they are on the map. He particularly seemed to enjoy figuring out what different countries looked like (aka Italy looks like a boot) and then looking for them. Scotland had us fooled for a while since it wasn't colour-coded or labelled very well on our world map.

We had fun finding countries, we found it interesting that it's not hosted on the same day all over the world, we found it boring that it's basically done the same where-ever you go.

Each day has a theme.

Day 1: What Is Mother’s Day?

Day 2: The History of Mother’s Day

Day 3: Celebrating Mother’s Day

Day 4: Preparing for Mother’s Day

Day 5: Goodies for Mother’s Day

My son had fun drawing cards for me and for his gramma. I liked that I was able to forego looking up some words in the dictionary and through questions help my lad figure out what words meant.

I had a firm appreciation for how scripture was brought into play with this lesson. Helping my son sehttp://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gife how God used women in the lives of the men he did great works through was interesting.

All in all, this study was well-done and I would encourage anyone interested in learning more of why this Mother's Day holiday was started to check it out.

I received a copy of this lapbook/unit study in exchange for my fair and honest review.

more reviews can be found here.

Up in the air...with the greatest of ease..I saw a Kite

Kite Capers was our main unit study of the past two weeks, day one and Days 2 and 4. Kite Capers has been developed by Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. Kite Capers captured my son's imagination. To learn more about Kite Capers click here to view more details. It is an excellent study.


One of the fun moments I have as a homeschooling mom is seeing how my son puts to use the information that he learns. Part of the history aspect of kite capers was learning what one of the first uses of kites was. A man name Han Hsing (or something like that..just going from memory here) was attacking a city and he wanted to know how far to dig a tunnel. So we drew pictures of him flying his kite over the city. We acted out the digging of the tunnel and just had a blast learning about this part of kite history. Then he went to my mom and dad's for a couple of days. When we got there the VERY FIRST thing he did was set up a city and then had an enemy attack that city using a kite.

"How big a tunnel does he have to dig buddy?" I asked
The very excited response was "10 miles mommy! He has to dig 10 miles!"

I LOVE seeing him excited. I LOVE knowing what he remembers.

It's winter where we live so flying a kite isn't on our immediate agenda but we stopped at a store to see what treat/toy the lad could buy with his rabbit money and we spotted a couple kits (packed together, inexpensive) and I heard "MOMMY!!! Diamond kites!" So well...of COURSE we had to get them. So now Daddy has a big kite to fly (from last year) and I have a delta and the lad has a diamond kite. I think we'll have fun this year. :)

Each DownloadN'Go unit is a complete unit study designed for grades K-4, not saying you can't revamp a bit if you have older children. There are 5 days of lessons - which can be done as separate days, or combined two into one, or extending a day as you take small rabbit trails. In Kite Capers you will find the following plan of action:

Day 1: What Is a Kite?
Day 2: The History of Kites
Day 3: Kite People and Places
Day 4: Science Secrets of Kites
Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Kites

We didn't do the entire study, after all...it's March Break up this way and little boys need to play and get to know their grandparents. :)

I particularly enjoyed going through the section on Wind. Learning what my boy knew, helping him to expand his knowledge and use new words. It always interesting to learn just what your child knows. :)

If you want to know more Click here to visit Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. You can read more blog reviews by going here.

As part of the the Download N Go review team, I have been provided with a copy of this unit to use, review, and post about on my blog.

Letter D Lapbook

Things I printed off for doing the Letter D Lapbook.

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

Dog Poem - might not use this though, might only take the pictures for letter D words.

D fan book -- I like the idea of this but I"m not crazy on the words/pictures. So will probably do something similar, but different.

D Files. Took the trifold hand, and the d is for drawing page.

Kidzone letter D poem. plus this one from the same site. Discover the picture.

Found this neat maze of the letter D.

My lad was quite intrigued by this different type of maze.

LapBooking

did you know there is a host of information out there on lapbooking?

what is lapbooking you might ask?

Lapbooking can be done by any learner-- from preschoolers to adults. With this educational method, you make mini-books covering details that you've studied. After making a variety of mini-books about a larger topic, all the books are put together in a large folder. The finished product is called a lapbook because it's large and covers your lap.

The completed lapbook will serve as a review tool as your children refer to it over and over again. And if you have to keep a homeschool portfolio to document learning each year, lapbooks can be a very impressive addition.

it's utterly astounding to this new to homeschooling mom.

Wow! It's just like scrapbooking what you are learning!!! NEAT!!!

Check out this one : Lapbooking 101

if you go to yahoo groups and look for lapbooking, you'll come up with this list.

or do a google search for this.

here's a page with all sorts of templates for designing your own lap book.

Homeschool Resources has a page on Lapbooking.

anyways, I"ll add more perhaps another day. now I"m tired and must go to bed.

Should you use a math dictionary? This is the blog post at Homeschool Math Blog that suggested making a dictionary (or a lap book) of math terms.

I liked the idea. Having a little book that Justin, when he is old enough, can write in different math terms that he learns.

Let your child/student make their own math dictionary! Just make a new page in it every time there is a new concept or term to study. The student can write the term, write an explanation, an example calculation, or draw a picture of it − or all of those.

Making such a math vocabulary book shouldn't take lots of time, because you don't usually encounter new words every single lesson in a typical math curriculum. The rest of the time the book can act as a reference or as a review medium.

There is one exception though, and that is GEOMETRY. In geometry, just about all the time you have new terms to learn. In fact, a big part of the geometry in elementary grades is simply learning the meaning of words such as parallel, perpendicular, trapezoid, vertical angles, symmetry, diameter, radius, circumference, and so on.

Anyways, go there to read the rest of the post. Thought it interesting, and worth remembering. :)