Hi! I bought the preassembled lapbooks for Yr1 Unit 1 and 2, thinking if I didn't buy it preassembled I would never do it!! But, my daughter has not been that excited about doing them, and I think that may be because it doesn't feel like it is her own, because she is a very creative child and does enjoy cutting, gluing, drawing pictures, etc. I also didn't realize when I bought it that she really wasn't ready for that much writing. So, I'm probably going to sell my Unit 2 one since we haven't used it yet.

A friend of mine who has 3 LG kiddos bought the CD, and she just printed out the ones that were appropriate for her girls to do, and glued them onto a lapbook. That looked like a smart idea.
But I have heard some people say they are having trouble with some of the folds, etc., and I am not very patient (nor have the time) for that kind of thing. It has to be something I can just print off quickly and she can pretty much do herself with out a lot of help. Do you think it would be a good idea to buy the CD and are there enough booklets for her to do that don't require much writing?

Also, after searching online, I found Hands of a Child and Knowledge Box both had more "generic" lapbooks about Ancient History (we are coming up on the Greeks pretty soon here). Does anyone recommend these instead of TOG, or are they too general? They also looked too advanced for her, but I thought maybe there would be some I could tweak to work for her age group. Since we aren't doing Writing Aids this year, I'd really like to do the lapbooking thing, and I need to choose quickly so we don't get so far ahead in weeks that we can't catch up with our lapbook. Any help appreciated!!

Shaina Seville

Dear Shaina,

Lampstand Press purchased Knowledge Box lapbooks and has totally redone and updated them. A sample is now up on our Go To Egypt mini-site. (Click HERE) to see it, print it, and try before you try elsewhere! TOG lapbooks are designed to go perfectly with our year-plans, and they are offered in three formats: pre-printed kits, pre-assembled lapbooks, or CDs that you print and assemble yourself. The folds are simplified and the graphics are updated.

Here's the purchasing link: It's your choice!

Shaina,
I have three kids doing lapbooks: 2 UG ages 8 and 9, and 1 LG age 6. My older children are much more capable of the necessary writing (2nd and 3rd graders) than my LG child. My LG child likes to dictate and have me write down what he says, and then he will draw or color pictures on the books. I do have the CDs for all of Year 1, but I have used only portions of what is available. Instead of 3 file folders full for each unit, for unit one, we had two, and for unit two, we only had one. (sometimes I didn't like what was available, and other times we just didn't have time)

I had very little trouble with the folds. Once in a while the lines weren't printed in exactly the right places, but maybe Lampstand Press has fixed that now. I was always able to figure out what it should look like with little difficulty. I did purchase Dinah Zike's Big Book of Books awhile back, so I knew what most of the folds were supposed to look like already.

It looks like your Faith is about the same age as my LG little guy. If you are going to buy something that you are going to have to tweak anyway, I would buy the CDs that TOG puts out, because they are already lined up with your year plan. You know which booklets go with which week, and you don't have to figure out how to make it all fit. Either allow her to dictate to you, allow her to draw a picture, or skip that particular booklet. Plus, you'll be able to reuse it later with your other children.

Hope that helps!
Michelle