Fridays with Jimmie....creative expression

Over the past few Fridays, Jimmie Lanley from Jimmie's Collage has been
sharing with us her passion for lapbooking.  She has been a tremendous resource
to me as I've been homeschooling, and I hope that she will
encourage you today, as well!


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In part one and two of Why Make Lapbooks? I gave a very brief overview of

lapbooking and gave what I believe to be the most important reason you should lapbook. 


You can also go back and read about organizing information with

minibooks.

Besides that foundational benefit of lapbooking, there are even more reasons to make lapbooks!

Lapbooking Benefit #2: Creative Expression

I know that not all children (and moms) love cutting, pasting, drawing, and getting crafty. But many children, especially young ones, really do. 

Lapbooking is a perfect avenue for creative expression because it is so flexible. The

same information can be represented many different ways in a minibook including text,

drawings, pasted graphics, puppets, flashcards, and so on.

You will get the maximum benefit from lapbooking if you allow your child to make

choices about how to organize and how to represent that information in his minibooks and lapbooks. 

Let him be creative in layout, artwork, and minibook folds. Creative children

usually enjoy the open ended nature of lapbooks and find them far more motivating than a

fill in the blank worksheet.

If your child loves crafty expression, make your own blank minibooks instead of

using a preprinted lapbook kit. This way you get the maximum creative expression and

ownership as well as the benefit of the organizational skills.

I admit that I first started using lapbooking with a digital kit purchased from

a major lapbook retailer. But after that initial experience, I had a good grasp of what a

lapbook could be and didn’t need to purchase kits. Instead, I offered my daughter blank

minibooks that she could choose from and fill in on her own. The educational value is

magnified when the child is choosing the book layout and dividing

the information herself. So although there is nothing wrong with premade kits, they are

somewhat akin to worksheets and have limited value.

After you feel confident with lapbooking, try going DIY. Making the books from

scratch gives the students more ownership and boosts their educational return.

 

Jimmie Lanley is the mother of one creative twelve year old daughter. 

Jimmie's Collage is where she blogs about her Charlotte Mason styled homeschool.

 The Notebooking Fairy features free notebooking printables and how-tos plus the affordable eBook guide Notebooking Success.