Last week we finished a unit on US Government and Civics using The United States Government 7th-12th grade lapbooking unit from Knowledge Box Central. It was a great refresher for me and a super way to teach my children everything from the history of the Constitution to the design and procedures of our government to the rights and responsibilities we have as citizens. We should all be teaching US Government and Civics anyway, but in light of so many political issues in our country right now, it’s extremely important to teach our children the fundamentals of how our government is supposed to work and what we can and should do about it when it isn’t working like it should. (Sorry for the run-on sentence and the soap box.)
Our Lapbooks
Final Exam
To be sure they understood the wealth of information learned during the unit, I gave the kiddos a US Government test. Mahayla scored 100% without help. Caleb was allowed to use his lapbook when he came across a tough question. With the help of his lapbook, he scored 100%, too!
Be sure to take a peek at our unit study and culminating projects on the Presidents of the United States, too!
What a wonderful grammar resource Mahayla now has! At the beginning of the school year, I decided Operation: English Grammar from In the Hands of a Child would be a weekly addition to Mahayla’s grammar studies. She completed one-two lapbook activities per week, and now that it’s finished, has a super resource full of grammar helps and reminders.
We just finished a wonderful lapbooking unit on horses! Back when Eli was only a month old, we did our very first lapbook on snow. Although it was fun and a great learning experience, I didn’t put much effort or planning into it. This time, I took time to plan and – wow, what a great unit it’s been. The kids have learned SO MUCH and have a beautiful keepsake of their work to remind them of our time spent.
I used the lapbooking unit from Hands of a Child and added some of my own assignments as well, especially for Mahayla. Her added work included a circle story about a horse, a horse report, taking/saving/printing pictures of horses, a checklist of horse care skills learned, a log of horse books read and songs learned, a map of horses around the world, drawing horses, a visit to a tack shop and horse farm, completing a crossword of breeds, and creating a horse comic strip. Caleb did some of these things, too. There were some of the activities we didn’t do from the Hands of a Child unit because I preferred to have the kids learn a few of the things in different ways. The lapbook books can get a little tedious, so I spiced things up a bit.
Here are the covers. Mahayla’s is a picture she drew. Caleb’s is a dot-to-dot he colored.
Here are the back covers – a world map.
Here is Caleb’s – two folders put together. In the first. I’m holding up a story he narrated that we stapled at the top. In the second, I’m holding up a Draw Write Now horse picture he drew.
Here is Mahayla’s. Hers is three folders put together. The second picture shows an animal report and a drawing stapled at the top. There are lapbook activities underneath. The fourth picture is the third back of a folder.
