A Journey Through Learning is the result of two homeschool moms who weren’t finding what they were looking for so made it themselves. What started as two moms creating their own unit study has now grown (not without growing pains – read their full story) to be a successful, well-known company with numerous employees. They create and write not just beautiful lap books but the study guides that are part of them.
We used both the Letters, Numbers and Shapes Preschool Lapbook ($13 instant download) and the Knights and Castles ($13 instant download). These products are also available on CD or printed for various prices. When you make your instant download purchase, you will be downloading a pdf file with all you need. You will want to download your item at the time of purchase, it is not available indefinitely. Your purchase history is not saved, though you do have the option to have a receipt e-mailed. None of these things are a problem, but something to be aware of. If you are like me and get all giddy about finding just the perfect thing “for later” don’t plan to buy now and download it when you need it.
Letters, Numbers and Shapes is designed for your littlest learners (ages 3-5). My littlest learners, 3 year old son and 5 year old daughter, really enjoyed having their own lapbook that their siblings didn’t get to use. Just as the title implies, the mini-books are all about shapes, numbers and letters. The alphabet is broken up into segments that are spread throughout the lapbook. Each shape is introduced individually at the beginning. The latter part of the lapbook has elements that your child interacts with, coloring a shape within a picture, matching upper to lower case letters. Counting cards for a matching game are an element that will played with over and over. Unlike some lapbooks we have made with the older children, this is more than a keepsake of a study. The elements invite your child to continue exploring and playing — learning and reinforcing.
Some of the pages were beyond my son’s desire or ability (draw a certain # of creature, etc.) so I modified things a bit when he was resistant. He loved my addition of stickers to show one dog or three birds. Both really enjoyed the cutting and pasting of things for each letter. They were so excited at using scissors, you would think it didn’t happen often, ahem. I assembled and glued-in the mini-books prior to introducing the lapbook to my children (well, mostly — my 5 year old daughter wanted to color some things as I was putting it together). With my older children, they complete the information prior to affixing the element (mini-book, etc.) to the lapbook base (folder). This pre-assembled method was part of the instructions and worked well for my littler ones.
The Knights and Castles lapbook is designed for use by 2nd through 7th graders. I also included my first grade son (a knight and castle-crazy boy). He loves lapbooks, too, so I couldn’t have excluded him if I wanted to. One of my favorite features of this lapbook is that the study guide is written by Michelle Miller of TruthQuest History. I love her way of making the reader think and that it is all told from a Christian worldview. The study guide pages are interspersed with the pages of lapbook elements. In addition to the instructions for each element (how to fold, what information to write, etc.) is a key for its placement within the lapbook. Now, of course this is your (or rather your child’s) lapbook, so you can put each element where you wish. The suggested location keeps things chronological and makes the best use of the space. On occasion, one of my children would accidentally or simply prefer to put an element in another location. I tried to control my perfection tendencies and praised their individuality.
The Knights and Castles lapbook gives an overview of the Middle Ages while focusing on the lives of knights, and others of the time. Beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire, we learn what it takes to become a knight. We learn about their weapons and armor and dressing for battle. The evolution of the castle is covered next. My son thought this was a perfect excuse to build some castles – of course, I agreed. The day to day life of those in the middle ages and the Church at the time are covered as well. This lapbook also includes some optional pages that your child may be interested in (tracking books read, narration pages, etc.)
I read the study guide pages aloud and each child completed their own mini-books. Some of the readings had only one lapbook element to complete and others had more. We would typically work through one reading and the accompanying elements each time. To keep track of what goes where, I kept the graphic showing placement paper-clipped to each element until we glued them in place. I set aside time at the end of the week for this. It seems to keep our studies moving along (and the mess to a minimum). The mini-books asked for information in a way that reluctant writers could answer with little writing or even drawing. Some of the mini-books were drawing and no writing was required at all. My older girls would generally give longer answers while their brother chose to draw. I love how we used one lapbook study and it fit for all of their ages and abilities from 7 to 12.
We used this study as something fun to do during a break from our regular history curriculum. It would also be a great fit with your curricula covering the Middle Ages, but that is not all it is limited to. You could add it with the Middle Ages lapbook, read some living books covering that time and of course re-enactments and castle models for a full, rich study of this period of history. With lapbooks, it is easy to customize things for your family.
With products for a wide range of ages – early learners (3-5 years old) to high schoolers, you could use something from A Journey Through Learning for everyone. In addition to the lapbooks you will find file folder games and binder builders. Binder builders take the mini books of lapbooking and expand the layout to fill a binder. They are made to be used with many popular, full-year curricula (Apologia, Geography Matters, TruthQuest and New Leaf Publishers). We are using the TruthQuest American History for Young Students Binder Builder. We love the structure and hands-on aspect it brings to our studies.
A Journey Through Learning makes lapbooks for other homeschool products as well (Founders Academy, A History of Us and Maestro Classics). You can also find lapbooks for literature series (Circle C Adventures, Little House series) and various subjects. One folder lap books, called Express Lapbooks are only $1 and a great way to get a taste of lapbooking.
Other Schoolhouse Review Crew families used these and/or other lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning. Don’t miss the code in my sidebar to save $5 off a $25 purchase!
