How much time do you spend on a lapbooking lesson per day? I am just trying to figure out how to put it all together. My DD is k/1st level. She does Starfall and ReadingEggs each day. Starfall takes about 5-10 mins. ReadingEggs is about 30 mins. She does about 4 worksheets per day, +/- 1 page depending on the difficulty/speed/boredom level with which it takes her to do them. We do one to two projects per week (kept from the Oak Meadow curriculum), depending on difficulty level and time (more based on her brother's stuff then hers). The OM curriculum we dropped out was additional readings, drawings and games. The lapbook is replacing this part of the OM curriculum. Our first one is "Autumn is Awesome" by AJourneyThroughLearning.com. It looks as if we could do it rather quickly or spread it out over October and November. So my questions are: How much time do YOU spend on lapbook lessons? Do you use them as main curriculum and have the lessons very expanded? Or do you use them as supplements or fun learning mixed in with other curriculum? I really am a list maker and check off type person. So I really struggle with just winging it, KWIM? Thanks for any input!
For us... we ended up only making Lapbook stuff AFTER a lesson... Such as.... HEY! This would make a great mini book, or what have you....! And the kids will agree and we make one real quick.. Instead of making full lapbooks, (Because we tend to get bored of them before they are done...) We have chosen to ... Cut the file folders in half. Three hole punch them. And they are ready to be placed into a three ring binder. I call them Folder sheets. We put whatever items on said folder sheet we want to... and put them in our hard back three ring binder... Makes everything short and sweet and yet stacked so sweetly! So we may spend ten minutes on something real quick... or a whole weekend, depending n the passion of the subject matter... Sometimes, after completing a history topic, we might grab some construction paper and do flip books on the subject matter and glue them onto a file folder sheet.. then pop it into the three ring binder... Sometimes we'll grab some random images about whatever our subject is... using the internet Google image search... and paste them on the folder sheet for fun... Less stress than a FULL Lapbook...
We probably spend 30-45 mins per day. Half the time is on actual learning...reading, researching, practical activities, maybe something like a computer interactive. The rest of the time is making the mini book. We put them together at the end of the unit, which might take 1-3 sessions. They are really proud of the results. My kids are much older than yours....I reckon 10 mins reading, 5-10 mins making minibook etc, would be heaps.
Oh And by the way, we use them as main curric for most things, but at times as supplement mixed in with other things. For example dd did a lapbook of Egyptian mummies as part of her study of Egypt, which has turned out to be enormous.
I admit, I am not a typical lapbooking mom - that is, so far, I only used the pre-designed ones. they will ahve to do for us until my kids are older and can come up with more designs themselves. That said, I usually use them to supplement something we're already studying or to fill a spot (e.g., we're doing a Noah lapbook now - it's part of Bible studies, and once it's completed, it will also HOPEFULLY keep them busy in church for a couple weeks). Also, right now, we all do the same lapbook (my almost first grader and my preKer) to keep everyone busy for mom's sake. I have even started to print out a third set of everything because my toddler likes to take part as well (although his finished products are uniquely his). At this time, it's worth the paper to me to be able to have everyone on the same "page." Generally, I try to hold activities until after "main" lessons, but I fit them in wherever it works. Like, if we're doing a lot of reading and they need a short break, we cut/fold/color something. If they need, um, direction in the hour when I'm trying to fix dinner, they get plopped at the table with the next activity. I have also found them very handy when my husband wants to stop at his office while we're out for "only 15 minutes." LOL. Assembly is a big production, though. I set aside time, clear the whole table, and we take whatever time is needed.
We try to make it them part of our lesson and put in the information as we go. Sometimes it is an everyday deal and other times it is only a couple of times a week. It can be for a subject or a couple of subjects. So as far as time, I am not sure exactly how much time is spent on them.
I don't have a set time for lapbooking. We do it for science. I have done both putting them together myself and putting together ones from "Hands of a Child". We save science for last so however long it takes doesn't matter (it's up to the kids and how ever long they take). We typically do 1-2 minibooks per day (2 days per week) so it averages between 30 minutes- 1 hour depending on how in depth the mini book is and how long they take to cut it, etc.
