We love lapbooks! When A Journey Through Learning gave us a lapbook kit for the purpose of review, we jumped at it opportunity, totally happy to review the Knights and Castles set since we're studying the Middle Ages this year.

First of all, if you're not familiar with what a lapbook is, you might want to stop and go read this great lapbook explanation from The Happy Housewife. You don't really need to know what you're doing when you start a Journey Through Learning lapbook, however, because there are great step-by-step instructions on how to put the lapbook together, right down to where exactly each mini-book gets glued.

There is a supply list, but it's totally unintimidating; there's nothing expensive or difficult to find. If you've got a printer, a glue stick, a pencil, a manila file folder, and a pair of scissors, you're in business.

Each mini book comes with its own mini lesson. Just enough info is given in the succinct background that the student's interest is piqued but not bogged down in details. You simply read the section about the topic and they do the little mini book. This pic is from the day we covered medieval weaponry. I thought my six-year-old son would love it and my nine-year-old daughter would be bored, but she liked the lesson just as much as he did.

It's just my opinion, but the Journey Through Learning lapbooks aren't the most graphically pleasing I've seen. If you're looking for something more artistic, you might want to keep looking. If, however, you want a lapbook project that is ready-to-go, easy to print out and execute, filled with meaty enough information to be worth your student's (and your) time, and a fun study to help your kids retain a lot of information, then these are a good bet.

They're also a great project for a co-op, or for doing one part per day.That's how we've tackled the Knights and Castles book: one little section and minibook per day. I think going at a slower pace keeps them fun and unintimidating for beginning cutters and pasters like my six-year-old.

Know what else is nice about the Journey Through Learning lapbooks? There are numerous references to the gospel, pointing us back to the presence of God in all things, including the past. I appreciate that.

More to know:

The Knights and Castles lapbook kit is available as a direct download for 13.00
Additionally, A Journey Through Learning offers a $5 lapbook of the month, as well as express lapbook kits for just $1. These would be terrific for a short project and way to keep a kiddo busy while something else is going on.
I'm not the only one who reviewed these books. If you'd like to read more reviews about A Journey Through Learning lapbooks, click over to theSchoolhouse Review Crew site.

A Journey Through Learning Review

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