What are lapbooks?

Raahub yasar,

I first discovered lapbooks about 3 years ago and since then, we've probably made close to 50 of them on different topics.

In short, they are a folder which contains mini books, worksheets and other fun activities, all teaching different parts of one topic.

You can either buy lapbook packs where all the piece are laid out for you or you can make them yourself.

I like Hands of a child's lapbook packs and Homeschool share's. Here are their sites:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/
http://www.handsofachild.com/

Here are some videos of other mothers showing the lapbooks they have made and a few videos showing how to make your own.  Soon I'll share some we've made.

A Plant lapbook: I have never made such an big lapbook, I was so impressed



A little boys train Lapbook - very cute


How to make a lapbook



One example of how to make mini books to put into a lapbook, there are lots of these minibooks you can use



If you decide to make one, enjoy!

Hatap yasar

Mut Bastat En Rayay

How to make a mini book

Raahub yasar

Here's a really quick video I found on how to make and little book that your kharadu can use to write a short story in or use to write out points on a particular topic you're learning about.

If you make lapbooks, you can easily stick this into your lapbook.

Enjoy



Hatap Yasar

Mut Bastat En Rayay

My Top 5 Free Educational Websites

Raahub Yasar

If you've ever been concerned that the cost of educational materials will be too much for you to teach your child at home, then fear not, as long as you can afford a printer and some ink, or a trip to the local library to print some things off once in a while then you're set. 

Quite a few homeschooling families fuel the majority of their curriculum with free resources and I'd say at least half 1/3 of the material we use are free too. 

These are the sites I've used most to get free lapbooks, lesson plans, ideas, activities, worksheets, coloring sheets etc over the years. Some of these have a free section and paid products, but the ones below are only recommended for their free resources, if the paid section is any good, I'll be listing them in another post I do on paid websites. 


1. Homeschool Share - http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Lapbooks_at_HSS.php
This site has lots of lapbook packs and book studies that make it very easy for you to teach a whole topic, they are straightforward to work out, but I'll blog about a lapbook is for those who don't soon.

2. First School - Mainly for preschoolers or those learning to read  http://www.first-school.ws/  
The layout and navigation of this site can be a little tricky, but once you find your way around, you'll find lots of printables to learn the alphabet and numbers mainly. 

3. Enchanted Learning  - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
This site is full of activities based on different themes, it's easy to use and search for different topics, which include free online puzzles.

4. Currclick - http://www.currclick.com/index.php?keywords=+&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=0&pto=0
This is the online hub of homeschool resources, most good homeschool product companies sell their products on this site and give away free versions of their products too.


5. Donna Young - http://donnayoung.org/index.htm
I used this site alot when I very first started homeschooling, I found a lot of tracing sheets and planners that were simple and effective.


By doing a quick google search, here are some others I've found


* Homeschool Freebie Of The Day - http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com - I'm on their mailing list where they send you a message on Sunday's telling you what free resources will be given out each day of the following week. I've used a few in our Mir. 

* Dads Worksheets - http://www.dadsworksheets.com - A very impressive site with over 7,000 free maths worksheets 

* Free Homeschool Resources - http://freehomeschoolresources.webs.com/ - This site also lists many other free resources


If you can recommend any other good free resources, please let me know by adding them to the comments section below

Remember to put your email address in the box in the top right of the page to get updated of new posts on the blog

Hatep yasar

Mut

Our Homeschool Supplies Lists & Cost

Raahub Yasar!

Even though the cost of homeschooling can be high, you can absolutely get by very well on a tight shoe string  budget. 

Today I wanted to share my homeschool supply list so you can work out what it will cost in terms of resources and costs to get started or to restock if you're already started. It's broken up into 

1) Learning materials 

2) Basic materials for everyday use

3) Equipment that's really useful 

4) fancy extra stuff.

These list are by no means exhaustive, just what comes to mind right now:

1) Learning Materials (some free, some paid for that I find useful, but just opitional)

A few work books on the subjects you want your children to learn (you can start with maths, spelling, reading, writing, phonics and a language or science

A good supply of reading books for the child's age and a few years above and preferably a library card to go and read different books ever so often

Links to a few free websites with learning activities

A subscription to an online learning system or a computer learning program to make learning a bit more interesting (and to get them familiar with using computers at the same time)

2) Basic materials for everyday use

Plain white paper 

Lined white paper 

Pencils

Colouring pens or pencils

Crayons

Sharpeners

Rubbers/Erasers

Rulers - 6inch, 12inch and 

Sticky tape

Glue sticks

Scissors

Coloured paper

Folders

3) Really Useful Equipment (some of which you may have in your home anyway)
Colour or black and white printer

Black  and Coloured printer ink

Laminator and pouches

Digital camera 

4) Fancy Extra Stuff

Glitter

Fancy art bits and bobs - Spangles, those shiny sparkly decoration that come in different colours, googly eyes, feathers, craft sticks etc

Paints and brushes

Tissue paper

Crepe paper

Playdough, plastercine (or ingredients to make your own)

Playdough cutters and tools (you can get set of playdough shape cutters, little rolling pins, rolling blades for cutting etc) 

String

Elastic bands

Cd player and cd's 

Musical instruments (preferably mainly wooden and cultural i.e. drums)

As far as costs are concerned, you can get started with 3 children for as little as £30 a month or spend up to £100 a month on 1 child if you include educational magazine subscriptions, private tutors and drama, dance and music classes. 

We probably spent £30 to get started (mainly on printer ink to print of lots of free worksheets, tracing sheets and coloring sheets, then paints, craft materials, pencils, colours etc), then maybe £40 a month thereafter, made up of £10 a week picking things up as we went along. 

Now I use an online learning program for the older 2 children now called Time 4 Learning which is about £25 a month and covers a lot of maths, science, language arts and language art extension which I like so in total we spend an average of £40 a month on all 4 children, not include the occassional trips and restocking workbooks 2-3 times a year. 

There are some months when we actually don't spend anything but the £25 online program fee and other months when I might go crazy and spend £60 or really fancy art supplies, brand new books gadgets and more. 

I'd love to hear what other homeschooling families are using and spending on their homeschool supplies, so please comment below. 

Remember to subscribe to the blog by adding your email address in the box above and share this with anyone you think would find it useful

Hatep yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re