I decided we would start with doing a unit study on Foxton, the town we have just moved to. A great way to get to know your local area, and a great excuse to explore some of the local attractions!

A number of times over the years, I've heard about lapbooking, but always decided it was something I just couldn't be bothered with - especially as I couldn't think of a good way to store all those things! Since starting reading Cindy Rushton's material, though, I've gotten real excited about Notebooking, and then doing the Homeschool Summer Series, suddenly I'm all fired up about Lapbooking!! It really IS a fun and easy idea - we downloaded some free lapbook kits, which were TERRIFIC, as my kids could do their own whole unit study and lapbook with minimal input from me (great when I was packing to move!) and they loved them.

I spent Sunday evening putting together "Lappacks" for the children to use for our study on Foxton - these are a bit more involved than a simple lapbook, but are going to be great! Mine are made from two manilla folders and a manilla envelope. The envelope is placed face down on the table, one manilla folder is folded shutter book fashion and glued to the back of it, and the second manilla folder is glued to the side of the first one, so you have a double lapbook. I got a bit more complicated - I cut out the middle of the first folder, and glued the sides onto the manilla envelope, then the middle is taped at the top so it become a lift-up flap in the first shutter folder, and the back of the envelope becomes the back of the manilla folder - this is to allow extra room for putting in booklets and other material. The envelope is great for full-size worksheets and other extras. The person I got this idea from, their family use one of these every four weeks, and keep ALL their main school work together - the envelope on the back holds math worksheets, writing drafts etc, and the folder part has booklets and display articles from their theme work. I also solved the storage problem - these lapbooks and lappacks fit perfectly in a simple storage box from the local books shop - $1.95. Fits on the shelf, no bigger than a large binder, and holds lots of lapbooks! Here's some photos of the made up but unused lappacks for you visual types

Knowledge Box Central have a wonderful lapbook kit that you can use for a study of ANY country (click here) - it's one that you will use over and over again. I have downloaded it, and decided to use parts of it for our local unit. So, that has given us a number of booklets we can use, and I have a list of the other topics I want to cover/create booklets for.

I've raided the local library for books on local history, and have picked up some brochures of local places of interest.

Now, to start!