One trend in homeschooling is having students create "lapbooks." I first heard of this about five years ago at a conference. I liked the idea but lacked the creativity to actually put one together. I'm sure other homeschool moms felt the same way. Homeschool parents are usually very creative and industrious. So I knew it was only a matter of time until somebody would be to my rescue.
We are doing Apologia Ministries Astronomy course this year with Maddie and Marcus. I wanted to do some sort of notebooking/lapbooking so I was sure they got the main ideas and understood the content, without just doing a worksheet or something. To meet my needs: Live and Learn Press.
http://liveandlearnpress.com/
This is a great little company. They have taken all the hard work out of planning a great notebook with great graphics. I bought the CD-Rom and just print out great little books, that the children fill in with all kinds of information that they have learned. They have samples on their site. Check them out!!
Now other companies are springing up around us. I found Knowledge Box through another web site that my friend Keri sent me. They look to have some interesting products also. I'm very interested in ordering their Election studies for my kids during this Election year.
http://www.knowledgeboxcentral.com/index.html
Knowledge Box is in the process of updating their site, so they don't have all their samples up and running yet. The great thing about Knowledge Box is that you can download the books once you've paid for them and have them immediately as an e book. I've ordered several of these e books from other companies and one from KB already and they have worked out very well.
Another great company with incredible lapbooks for History is Amy Pak's "Homeschool in the Woods." http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/
Amy Pak has designed some incredible timeline figures, but has recently expanded into the lapbooking market with her new Time Travelers Series. This is a fabulous History study. I highly recommend it! Lots of fun activities and projects as well as creating a nifty lapbook to show off all the work you accomplished during one's studies.
Check out Time Travelers: http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/
She has also added a line of "Hands-On History Activity Packs": http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/HTTA/AP/
These kinds of things enhance a homeschool and give you something to show for the effort put into a study and also to review after you have completed a study.
Another new site that is not about lapbooking but is very intriguing to me is Trigger Memory Systems: http://www.triggermemorysystem.com/index.html
I am interested in three different products: The Times Tales (for Marcus), Zone Cleaning and Bedroom Cleaning (for all of my children), and also Grocery Cart Math- for all of my kids...even though the ages are labeled for younger than my children. You can never have enough Math practice in the store!
If you want something to do on a snowy or stormy day, check out these sites on the web and see if you will not be intrigued by some of these great products.
