Using Lap Books for Home Schooling

OK, so two years ago I started to see Lap Books popping up all over the internet and home schooling resource websites. I had heard 1 or 2 moms mention how fun they were to do, and then post links to Lap Book titles they had completed with their children. I was curious, but I never really took the time to investigate them.

At the end of the last school year, we took a few online courses that included Lap Books. I was hooked! First of all, anytime I can group any of my 10 my kids together for a lesson is can be a huge help. For this particular class, my 1st, 3rd, 4th and 10th grade children were constructing Lap Books for a basic Spanish course.

We downloaded the Lap Book, read the research sections and proceeded to construct our Lap Books with delight. Each of us did our very best making sure we added just the right touches to create something unique. Yes, I did one too!

I was really impressed at the level of retention the kids had of the material. See, 3 of my school aged children struggle with different levels of attention disorders, but all were quit eager to wake up the next morning to work on their Lap Books.

With in 3 weeks we completed 3 Lap Books!

One other great benefit from using Lap Books is that I now have samples of my children's work all gathered into a neatly modified file folder.

In the next few weeks I will conduct review of some Lap Books from Hands of A Child and Lap Books for Catholics. Stay tuned because there will also be a contest coming up to win your very own Lap Book from www.lapbooksforcatholics.com .

For more information about Lap Books visit some of these websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lap_book

http://www.lapbooksforcatholics.com/index.html

http://www.tobinslab.com/

http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/Default.aspx

K12...How Was It?

First let me tell you why we decided that a K-12 online school was the way to go. We just had twins, funds were tight, and I thought that having everything set up for me was going to be easier. K-12 online school is a great secular program, yes a great option rather than a brick and mortar school for some families.

Some families choose online K-12 schools for various reasons including, children who suffer from frequent illness or disabilities can benefit from the flexibility of the program, parents are dissatisfied with their local public schools, kids and families who are sometimes victims of bullying may feel unsupported by school officials, the K-12 programs are academically rigorous, it is free, and often includes a very supportive staff.

I am certain that with some time we would have found a way to make it work, but there were other factors that contributed to my decision to pull the kids out. That said, yes, I liked it. Yes it could work with some families. There is a place in this world for K-12 online schools. Just not my family, just not now.

Hands of a Child Product Review

I am participating in a product review of Mayans, Aztecs & Incas Project Pack, by Hands of a Child curriculum. There are 34 hands on activities included!

I wanted to give a full reveiw of this project pack by offering a co-op class to 7 other students in grades 4-10th. This project pack is sold for $24.00.

So if you have never tried lapbooks, this is a nice opportunity to check them out and at a great savings for you too. If you are interested in you and or your child/ren to participate please respond by email.

This class will include 5 weekly classes on Mondays at 10am, in my home.

Here is a list of the following class dates:

Our first class begins Monday, Oct. 19th

October 26th

November 2nd

November 9th

November 16th

I only have 7 spots open. The material fee for this class is only $10 per student and includes the following:

2 file folders

tape

glue

colored paper(#24 cardstock)

1 copy of Past Empires of the Americas Mayans, Aztecs, & Incas per student

I will also have plenty of scissors on hand for the kids to use.

You can preview this product at:

http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/Mayans-Aztecs-Incas-Project-Pack-P1483.aspx

Online Lesson Planning and Scheduling for Home Schoolers

After our stint with K12, I decided, with lots of prayer to return to traditional home schooling. I love planning ahead. It makes my home schooling efforts so much easier, although I am a self admitted non-coherent. That's probably why I like to plan so much.

So in my quest to get it together I searched for an online planner that would not cost more than $20, meet all our family's activities, and our schooling all into one program. I found www.cozi.com , which I really do like using. It keeps our activities and events maticulasly organized but it's so easy to use. I can also keep family and friends posted on our recent photos and doings because I can share as much or as little as I want on Facebook. I think that it Cozi can also be used to schedule school lessons and other school related stuff, but yes, it is limited to mostly schedule and event planning.

I really needed to find something that was portable and effective for not only scheduling, but school record keeping. I have tried one other program that I liked, but it was not online which killed the portability factor that I needed. So I kept searching and I found it:

https://www.homeschoolskedtrack.com/ . With HomeSchool Skedtrack, I can plan lessons, schedule events, group courses, generate report cards and transcripts. There are so many other features that I think are so useful. Someone finally read my mind and actually captured everything I need into one online program! Oh, did I mention its FREE?

There are other online planning tools that maybe worthwhile to try each one to find the one that works for your family. Here is another very good one that I found during my search:

This is a good online planner for home schoolers just starting out. It also has colorful images and easy step by step instructions that are very user/beginner friendly.

http://www.home-school-inc.com/

Happy planning!