This post is all about why lapbooks are a great addition to your homeschool journey. Lapbooks are a creative way for children to show what they are learning. They are fun interactive books that kids love to flip through many times after they complete them. If you want to know what a lapbook is and how to make one visit my post here!

My Introduction to Lapbooks

Many years ago when I first started reading homeschool blogs, I read so many post about children having a hard time grasping what they were being taught. Moms all over were searching for new ways to make learning fun. That was when I first heard of lapbooks. At the time, I had started helping my mom a lot more with my younger siblings’ education, so we decided to throw in some lapbook making just for fun.

Our First Lapbooks

We started by making these mini lapbooks for the American Girl series my sister was reading through. For each of the original eight girls, we made a lapbook that showed their family, friends, the books about them, and information on them. We had stickers from pictures in the books and on the back we added a pocket. We used the pocket for the test we had made for each girl – using the questions from the trading cards sets we were fortunate to have!

We also added an envelope for my sisters’ report that she had written on that girl. This report was just a simple summary of the girls’ life, why she liked this girl, and what her favorite parts of the stories were. It really made the books come alive as my sister answered questions about that time period in American history and wrote facts about each girl.

This was a very exciting and rewarding project so we started to do some other similar lapbook projects.
But those first ones have always stood out to me. Since that time, I have always wanted to dive deeper into the world of lapbooking.

Diving Deeper into Lapbooking

Over the last year, I started talking about lapbooking with a few of my nanny kiddos. I was so excited to be able to make a special time to create a Samantha lapbook with a special little girl after she had read the book set. We got to watch the movie together, have special snacks, and make a lapbook! It was the best!

After that, we talked about doing more lapbooks and her brother told me some things he’d love to explore. I started making plans and writing down ideas.

Recently, I brought supplies and we threw together a basic lapbook about Thomas Edison. I made a few elements and we added to the front cover. The next day, I had some extra copies of some elements, so I set the kids up during our afternoon story time and I had them make a lapbook all about themselves!

We had a timeline, characters, spinners for favorite things, and more. Plus they wrote a report about themselves which was really cool! It was so cool to see them make a lapbook talking all about themselves and the things that make them so special. I loved seeing how it touched their parents and how proud the kids were in their work.

Using lapbooking for learning

Over the last month I have created and completed these lapbook kits, and been inspired with all the ideas I have. Lapbooking has no limitations! Children of all ages can create lapbooks about any subject they find interesting.

They can make it about a book they found exciting and it becomes in interactive book report. Students of any grade can make one about a famous person in history, any subject in school, and just about anything they can think of. Basically it becomes a unit study but with all these cool elements that make it interactive and exciting!

Lapbooks can also be used as chart notebooks! Imagine your child being able to remember all the chemical formulas in a fun way because they remembered it in their lapbook. Also one can make one with with a timeline for the history they are reading, a spelling list they are learning, or a place they want to explore from their geography studies or even somewhere they have been! The ideas are truly endless!

So many children are visual and sensory learners. They need to see and touch more to really grasp what they are learning. They can’t just hear and memorize. Making a lapbook awakens the creative parts of their mind where they can see it and feel it. They can flip a book open, check off an activity list, open a pocket, or spin a spinner. These interactive elements are so helpful for the ways they need to learn.

As children make these lapbooks, they are already learning. Each time they put down information into an element, they are retaining a bit more knowledge. As they show it off to friends and family, they are reading it again and memorizing more without even knowing it. Soon, they know their lapbook by heart! They will remember all the places they had learned those facts and recall them when they need them. It really makes learning come alive and it helps it stick!

Lapbooking kit ideas

Lapbooking is a very fun way to bring children along into the world of crafting and creativity. Having templates already made can be very helpful. To spark your children’s creativity and help make lapbooking easier for you, here are some lapbook kits that will be sure to help you and your children as you start crafting.

I like simple and easy to make elements so this kit is perfect. It is designed for children of all ages to use to create a lapbook about a novel they have read and found exciting! Stay tuned as I will soon have many more add-on kits about specific children’s books that are more detailed and exciting!

I hope this has inspired you and helped you see the benefits of using lapbooking in your homeschool. Feel free to comment below any ideas or questions you have about lapbooking!

Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request,
your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.
Ephesians 3:20 TPT