Do you have older children that feel cutting and pasting is NOT for them?  Do they cringe at the thought of doing anything creative? Well, AJTL has the answer! Creating Binder Builders from lapbooks for your older children may just be the solution you are looking for.

Being creative IS needed by EVERYONE! Children learn BY doing.  Somewhere we have given the message to older kids that learning can no longer be fun.  The simple truth is, as homeschooling moms of “older” kids, sometimes we just want to get it done.

We see items like paper, glue, scraps, brads, scissors and crayons as THINGS we used in elementary teaching. In reality, these are brilliant tools that open true thinking and imagination in our kids!

Now, I will be the first to admit that my son (13) DID NOT LIKE file folders. So, I got creative. I started creating what we now call “Binder-Builders.” By taking a 3-ring binder and filling it with colored three hole punch paper and eight tabs (labeled Maps, Notebooking, Reading Books, Reports, Research, Timeline, Vocabulary, Writing), I turned an already packed lapbook into a MEGA binder of learning!

My son was given a sheet of card stock for each booklet. The instructions were simple- cut out and glue the booklet ANYWHERE on this page. You MUST provide (on this piece of cardstock) what is being asked on the booklet. You must also fill the REST of the page with the information you have learned in the study guide.

It always amazed me how he would come up with creative ways of remembering the study guides; army men with bubble words coming out of their mouths, snakes eating the answer, answer written down the side of a mountain – But, see, the learning and being creative part was STILL there!

The next day, he took the SAME study guide and had to looked up five NEW words from the study guide. Those were placed behind the “Vocabulary Tab.” Depending on the study guide, I would assign reports, writing, research, timelines, and/or require extra reading. All of these were then added behind the tabs. Now, I had taken a very informative lapbook and with a little imagination created a complete curriculum portfolio for my older child.

I pray that these simple changes will help you to see that kids are NEVER too old for paper and glue!