We’ve begun our first lapbook, on Ancient Egypt. I really WANT to incorporate them into our study units because they are more my kids’ and my learning style. That said, I also dread big messy projects that take over our lives. I see the potential for a lapbook to do just that, so I decided a little advanced planning was in order. I do NOT wish to be cutting things out for the duration of our units. (I did it all in one sitting, the day before we started it.) I do NOT wish to try to come up with ideas for them, at least not at this stage of the game. I do NOT know 90% of the booklets or folds and am not creative enough to figure out “Oh hey this info would work well in a such and such book.” Yeah right. Just give me the pieces and maybe some directions and we’ll be fine.

I printed out an Ancient Egypt Lapbook, taped two folders together, and we’ve been working on it a little each day. Today, the boys and I wrote our names in hieroglyphics using a set of stamps from The Ancient Egypt Treasure Chest, which I have had for years. They had a lot of fun with that! I also made a copy of an information sheet about The Rosetta Stone, which we folded up and included in the little pocket we put our name sheets in. The first folder is Egypt, and the attached second folder is the Israelites. I am lacking some things for that, but I found a lot of great graphics and things in What the Bible is All About for Young Explorers, and plan to use a map and timeline from that for our Hebrews.

I will post pictures when we get it finished! We’re all excited about how it is turning out. One thing I have noticed, which really pleases me, is that because my sons have a visual that they can go back to, they DO like to go back and look at it, and they are REMEMBERING what they are learning! Bonus!! I know that notebooking will come in a bit later, as their ability to write improves, but for now I am so thankful for some to encourage me to try lapbooking again.

The Mother Lode of free, printable lapbooks and unit studies is at Homeschool Share. I am simply amazed at the sheer number and VARIETY of the stuff they have posted up there!