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Jul 23, 2013

Memory Work Lap Book Giveaway!

If you're not new to the world of Classical Conversations, then I'm sure you've already seen the amazing Memory Work Lapbooks from Karen at Wisdom And Righteousness. If this is your first time hearing about these, please check them out on her website and come back (she explains them in more detail). These are created to compliment the CC memory work each week, and they are just really, really fun to use during review time! Check them out: Karen generously gave me one copy of her Cycle 2 lapbook to review and one to giveaway! Thanks so much, Karen! Before we get to my little two cents, I had some questions for Karen about how she goes about making these and how long it takes. Here's my interview with Karen:

Me: When did you start creating the lapbook for Cycle 2, and how long has it taken to get ready? (Okay, so right off the bat, you can tell that I'm not the best at interviews. I mean, this is pretty much the same question worded two different ways. Sheesh! Karen, however, was a lovely sport about it all. Okay, back to the interview!)

Karen:  For some reason, I enjoy coming up with new ides for folding paper, and so whenever a new idea comes together in my mind for a new template, I run home to design it before I forget it!  That said, the creation of the templates has been happening for a couple of years.  I started to bring the Cycle 2 books together once I finished the Cycle 1 Orchestra Book late last fall (2012).  From that time until about early April (2013), I spent every spare moment creating and refining the templates.  Sometimes I have a great idea, but once I design it and print it out, it doesn't work as well as I had planned, so I have to go back and try something new.  Needless to say, we go through a LOT of ink and paper!  This year was fun because my daughter (8) really had fun joining in to cut out a new template and see it come together.  I even found her folding paper into new shapes in her spare time!  (Scary!)  :)  I would say from start to finish, these books take about 8 months to develop.  I am usually working on the Orchestra Lapbooks the remainder of the year.

I started creating these lapbooks back in 2010 with Cycle 3.  They have come a long way since then.   My readers have made some great suggestions since 2010 and I love trying to integrate them!  New things included in Cycle 2 this year include printing guides, a hyper-linked table of contents to quickly get to the template you need, and a "Binder-Book" option!

Me: What was your favorite part about creating these books?

Karen: My favorite part about creating the books has to be coming up with unique templates that are interactive for the kids.  I want them to be fun, AND for the kiddos to learn in the process! My husband has to feign interest and excitement when I wake him up at 2 a.m. with a new completed template!  The great part is he usually forgets about it by morning so I get to surprise him with it all over again when he wakes up.  He loves this!  (insert sarcasm here)  :).

Me: How has all of this blessed your family?

Karen: The greatest blessing has been meeting and connecting with moms all across the globe!  Can you believe it?  I am amazed at how far the reaches of CC can go!  There have been long conversations that start with help downloading files or general questions, and end up taking an hour or more as we share our families' lives and connect!  I have even been blessed to meet one mom in Nebraska who is now part of an online Bible Study with me, and have found a heart-connection with a fellow CC blogger-friend in Tennessee.  I treasure the ability to be able to have what I feel is a ministry for the Lord, right from my home in a very rural part of the country!  Although I don't get to write as much as I would like, I hope my website is an encouragement to my sisters in Christ, and a place where I can be transparent about what the Lord is teaching me and my family as we journey to eternity.

Doesn't Karen just sound like an awesome person?! There are so many great homeschooling moms that I'll probably only know online, but maybe the Lord will all bring us together in person one day (wouldn't that be an awesome practicum!!)

Okay, now, what do I think about the new Cycle 2 lapbook?

The lapbook was soooo much fun to put together! I'm an organizer/die-hard planner, so this was right up my ally. Mary, who is 5, is not quite cutting accurately yet (said in the nicest way possible), so I did assemble the lapbook binder for her ahead of time. However, while it did take a long time to print, cut, tape everything, it really was enjoyable for me! As Mary gets older, I know she'll love taking part in the actual assembly of the lapbook, so I'm looking forward to good mother-daughter bonding time over this one day. I mentioned that it took a while to put together, and it does, but Karen's addition of the Printing Guide is faaaaabulous! One page told me everything to print on cardstock, regular paper, colored paper, etc. I just printed that page first and went right down the list; it was way too easy! So, while Mary hasn't been able to take part in the cut-and-paste aspect of the lapbook, I know she'll enjoy interacting with it during our memory work review times throughout the year.

I chose to do the binder book version, simply because I l.o.v.e binders. Here are some pictures: Told you I love binders! Here are all the ones Mary and Anna will use this year. We'll review with our Memory Work Lapbook binder on Funday Mondays (second from the left). Aren't the paper templates neat?! If Mary were at least seven or eight years old, she would have a blast cutting and folding these with me. Her time's a comin' though. :) For now, she'll have fun filling in the blanks and opening the flaps and other fun things included in the lapbook. It's just a great way to make reviewing the memory work an exciting thing to do! In my opinion, the more ways they see it and say it, the better!

Would you like to win a copy of the complete Cycle 2 lapbook? Go for it!
