A Return to Lapbooking

Our family really enjoys lapbooking. Somehow, I got away from it for most of this year. I didn't intend to ignore this really meaningful way of learning for us. Recently, with the crisis of learning a new diet and with a puppy in the house, I was forced to look for a simpler way of doing school and remembered lapbooking. Thank goodness for Homeschoolshare.com. I love this site. They have so many wonderful books with lesson plans and lapbooks already to go. For the last month, I have picked a different FIAR (Five in a Row series) book each week, and we have rowed through and lapbooked it. The kids also have had a blast looking through all of the lapbooks they have made over the years.

We did a unit study on Japan using FIAR books for three weeks. We rowed through Grass Sandals, Grandfather's Journey, and A Pair of Red Clogs.

You can see in the picture above one of the origami cups (green) that the kids made. They even ate their snacks in them.

Below are the children's Haikus.

Tom Sawyer's ~

rocks at the bottom
water falling off a cliff
hot dinosaurs drink

Goldilocks' ~

two dogs play in grass
the day is warm and sunny
to dogs play with toys

Little Red Ridinghood's ~

Lincoln Logs are fun
she plays with them everyday
she loves Lincoln Logs

We also finished a great lapbook on Johnny Appleseed. I am glad that we are enjoying lapbooking and that my children are still learning so much in this very busy season. We only have three more weeks of school.

The wonderful news is that Tom Sawyer is showing noticeable improvement with his special diet.  His face is free of strange color changes and his mood is much improved. He is being very cooperative with the diet. I am really proud of him. It is so hard for him to give up his favorite foods. I am keeping him out of all grocery stores, since it is painful for him to see all of the foods (even gluten-free ones) that he no longer can eat.  The diet is easier for all of us to handle with such marked improvement so quickly.

Blessings,
Dawn