I wrote quite some time ago about how I would include you all in our process of creating lapbooks for our co-op science class. Then our co-op changed gears a little due to a variety of reasons, and I stopped lapbooking with them. Then I started to study the Arctic circle with my children. We decided to lapbook it. I had visions of beautifully scrapbooked blue, and silvery lined pages teeming with information.
Ahem. . .we are finished with studying the Arctic circle. . .and there is no lapbook. Yep, our lapbook project failed. At first, I didn’t really see the merit in talking about a failed project–one that didn’t get completed. One that is in a few pieces. . .and not very pretty ones at that.
But the chilly blast of freezing air we got this week served to change my mind. As a group of young boys (almost all a few years older than my son) stood outside commenting on the warmth of their coats (boys must compete over everything mustn’t they?) my son began waxing eloquent on. . .well. . .insulators.
“You see,” he explains, “what you need if you’re cold is a coat with a good insulator. Take polar bears for example. They have mega insulation. They got their fur, and then their other fur and a big fat thick layer of blubber.” And then he began pondering the possibilities of a blubber filled coat and why it might, or might not make a good insulator. . .if they were really looking for a good coat. All this verbosity to the bemusement of middle school boys staring. . .somewhat dumbfounded. . .and my son’s sense of. . .um. . .invention?
What I heard in that grand explanation was the following: “I totally understand what we just studied in science. I got it, it stuck and now I’m thinking about how to apply the information I’ve learned. . .albeit creatively. . .I’m analyzing and synthesizing.”
So I share this to encourage all of you who have tried lapbooking and think that you hate it. Perhaps you forced your child to produce picture perfect works of penmanship in your little booklets. Perhaps, like me, it became to drawn out and you simply had to cut it off. But chances are good, that your child learned. Sometimes, it really is about the process and not the end.
With all that said, our failed lapbook was not really a failure. Not only did my kids learn, but I also learned a few things. Will I try a lapbook again? Probably. Will I finish a produced lapbook? Maybe. But I can guarantee you that my kids will learn.
By the way, a side benefit is that soon I will publish our Arctic Circle unit study starter so you too can study the arctic circle and frozen tundra with your kids. It was, to say the least, truly fascinating.