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

Where we get our books from

Raahub Yasar!!!

It's no secret that we love books!!!

Paa Naabab Yaanun instilled the importance of reading and learning in us before we had children and for many years so when we decided to teach our kharadu at home, it was a goal of mine to fill the house with books,

Even before the children came, I had always dreamed of having a room in my home which was just a study / library/ temple , which was full of books that I could go to to read uninterrupted for hours.

That dream hasn't transpired yet, but we do have a whole heap of books. This is a picture of one of the 4 book shelves in our home and we were talking about need another one soon.

Now I'm sure you already know that books can cost quite a bit, and I even heard a homeschooling mother advise AGAINST buying lots of books because of the cost.

Here are my 3 main thoughts on buying books


1)"If you think education (in the form of buying books in this case) is expensive, try ignorance"

2) 1 book, read in the right way, can teach your child about possible every subject you want to teach them and spark discussion on countless other subject too, entertaining, educating and stimulating your child for hours, which to me is priceless

3) If you see the value in books but simply don't have the finance to buy lots of brand new books, find other ways of getting them.

We have roughly 200 books ( at the last count), of them I've probably bought 30 at their full retail price.

Here are the main places  I get books for our Mir from (all books including fiction, educational, workbooks, dictionaries & encyclopedias)

1) Second hand shops - normally costing 25p - £1.99 tops for big encyclopedias, we always wipe them down before giving the children

2) Pound Shops /Dollar stores - Every few months, the pound shops or low cost stores like Poundstretcher or Wilkinson will have loads of story and educational books for £1 - £2 so we'll normally stock up on every title they have.

2) Requested as gifts - Whenever their birthday's are coming up and family ask us what they children want or need, we'll normally ask for books or clothes

3) Ebay - I discovered job lots on ebay a few years ago and bought a box of 40 books for £15. When they came, about 15 were unsuitable so we gave them away but 25 books for £15 is pretty good. I'm sure craiglist.com and gumtree.com would have these too

4) Library sales - our library has little sales where they'll sell their old books for 30-50p and we'll pick up lots of good at these

5)  Ask the ancestors - There has been the odd occasion when I've randomly asked the ancestors to help me with new ideas or resources to bulk up or add a boost to the Mir and we'll get a call from someone saying they've got a load of books etc to get rid of, so do we want to take them, or we'll go to a relative's home and they'll have a box of books and teaching stuff waiting for us. So even the ancestors can hook you up.

You can also get them in markets and car boot sales too, but I've never bought them from there personally

Our oldest will now read the Paa Taraq to us during discussion time and we'll read it to them too, so they get plenty of variety and have really grown to love books and reading.

So if you want to stock up on books but funds are tight, now you can do it for less.

I hope this helps, hatep yasar

Mut Bast.tet En Re
(Leah Salmon)

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