What is a Lapbook?

A lapbook is a fun hands-on way to learn about a certain topic. You can use these for any subject or topic your children would like to learn about. Inside the lapbooks there are minibooks that ask certain questions on the topic your child is learning about. For example, in my Surat Al-Qaari’ah Lapbook there a re minibooks asking specific questions about this surah. There are minibooks about the Day of Judgement, our scale of deeds, and about Jannah and Jahannam plus many more. This helps to foster independence in your student to help them engage in their own research. I have lapbooks available in my shop or you can use lapbooks available online or make your own.

When my children were younger I would cut out the minibooks and paste them in the lapbook so it was ready for them and all they had to do was glue in the answer or they could color or draw a picture. I wanted them to enjoy what they were doing. As they got older they began to cut out their own minibooks and write in their own answers.

I love lapbooks because I think it helps to keep the kids engaged! They are not just reading and doing worksheets, they are cutting, pasting and gluing and I think it makes it more fun for them. It’s more hands on and there are a variety of ways to make them. Some lapbooks we have done actually use producst like rice and cotton. We did this for our history unit from Homeschool In the Woods.

In this lapbook we did a unit study on Colonial Life. How life was like back them, how they harvested, used plants as medicine, etc. She has a variety of history unit studies for your students if they enjoy history.

Lapbooks aren’t meant to be boring. It is supposed to be a time of enjoyment from the regular grind of school work. Be flexible. If they want to draw or add a painting, let them do so and you can add it to the back pocket of the lapbook. (I show you how to do this in my video.)

Most lapbooks are to be completed in a week or two depending on the age of your student. And depending on the unit study it could take up to a month, this is mostly for the older students. We work on our lapbooks for about 10-20 minutes a day depending on my child’s mood.

To find information on the topic of study, since my child is young, we mainly use the library or if I find something online I would like him to see I will show him that. For example, if we are doing a study on whales, I may look up information and videos on whales so we can study their behavior, seeing the animal in action. If your kids are a little older, it is a good opportunity for them to learn how to use the library and how to find and research information on their particular topic.

I also like to use lapbooks as a supplement to the subject we are discussing. So for example, if we are studying a topic in science like adding food coloring to a glass of water then placing a flower in the water and slowly watching the color go up the stem. If he is really interested I will find a lapbook on the subject, in this case on the parts of the flower. If I cannot find one I will try to make one.

Depending on the subject you are studying, you can find them in my shop or there are many places online. One of favorite places when my boys were younger was homeschoolshare.com They have many lapbooks on different topics. For American History, homeshoolinthewoods.com is a great resource.

I have a lapbook tutorial on YouTube to show you how I make these lapbooks. Check out my YouTube channel here.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Peace & Blessings,