I have just discovered an untapped wonderful tool! It is based on a basic lapbook layout with a manila file folder. They were created by public school teachers. This is such a great tool that it had to fall into homeschooling hands!! :)

There are many ways you can do this. Mainly the ones that I have seen posted on blogs and on web sites have been taped together so they form a "cubicle" type learning area. That the student can just look up and have the information right there. They fold down to a single folder size that can be folded and stored for the next day.  The other's I have seen have been a single folder with information on all sides.

You can have them separate for each subject. Just pull it out for Math, or writing. Or you can have them all together in one folder.  And just turn it as the subject changes.

Well I have taken this and made it work for us. I don't like the cubicle Idea as we are usually working together on different subjects. But I loved the mini-office idea. So I knew I had to come up with something that would work. I also knew that a bunch of file folders would be an absolute disaster. LOL, the house is already in chaos on a daily basis, why add more potential to the mess??

So what I did was take 3 manila files and rubber cemented them together. V(glue)V(glue)V < -- Just like that.  Then I went hunting for the right pages. I have found tons of ideas. So many infact that I just couldn't put them all on. So I had to determine what each of my kids really needed.  DD9 was super easy. She needs a lot of help some days. So I found a spelling word wall that was in an excell spread sheet (pdf download though) that left spaces to add more words. She also struggles with math. So I knew I wanted an addition/subtraction chart. But she's also just started multiplication . . . so I needed one of those as well. The list went on. I finally just downloaded all the PDFs I found and went through them and printed them off one at a time.

DD11 (12 on this Saturday!!)  was almost a little hard to figure out!  I knew she needed help with her writing abilities, so that was pretty easy to figure out! Math though, she's doing Math-u-see pre-algebra. So I really need to find some helps/hints for her. Like a negative times a negative equals a positive! still hunting hers down, but I'm sure before the night is over I will have solved that problem! Both girls have a cursive line added! Their handwriting is in serious need of a bit of attention! :)

DD5's is going to be a bit fun! I've got an alphabet chart. A number chart, A color chart, shapes, etc. I plan on adding a few games to hers if I can find a few small ones! I saw a dominoes addition game that might be fun for her, but may be a little ahead of schedule! LOL. I just need to get it all put together still though.

Here are some links that will help you in your quest to build the perfect mini-office for your child/student! and a comment or two about each one:

BusyTeacherscafe.com 

This website has a ton of fabulous printables in .pdf format. This is where I got a LOT of mine. There are also links to other pages with printables!

Mini Office

This is the first page that I stumbled across. It has lot of pictures and links. A TON of links actually. Well worth the visit.

Livingwaters Academy

This page has an example of a grade 6 mini office. It shows the minibook technique. So it has mini folds instead of just printed out lamanated files. Also has a full list of what information is added to it.

Fields of Harvest

This one shows using a legal size folder instead of a letter size folder. Showing that there is a great deal that you can customize. Also shows some of the printables from Busyteacherscafe.com.

There are absolutely tons of we pages out there. In fact here is a google search with the words mini office lapbook as the phrase being searched! Now there is no excuse! LOL! :

Google Search: Mini Office Lapbooks

I will post pictures and a tutorial of how I made ours (because I haven't seen any like mine yet) tonight or tomorrow! Keep watching! ;)Be sure to check out the tutorial here:

Tutorial

~t8ermomma