Description
Lapbooking is making a collection of mini-books, each covering a different angle of a larger topic. Once you’ve made enough of them, they come together in a single folder — sprawling, tactile, and satisfying in a way that a digital file never quite manages to be. The name comes from the finished product itself: open it up and it covers your lap. Learn more here.
What do you need?
- Cardboard
- Paper, pens, pencils, crayons, glue, tape, scissors
- Magazines to raid for illustrations
- A computer and printer, if you want to pull in anything from online
- 30 minutes to get your kid settled, started, and in the mood to make something
Let’s do it!
- Pick a topic together — anything goes, from potatoes to black holes, from Confucianism to ancient Egypt.
- Break it down into knowledge areas. These become the topics for each mini-book inside the lapbook.
- Decide together which mini-books your kid tackles solo and which ones need your input. A delegation board can help make this visual.
- Design, build, and complete the mini-books.
- Assemble everything into the lapbook and decorate it however you like.
- Before you start, take a moment to align on the bigger picture — timeline, depth of research, overall structure. A short conversation upfront saves a lot of course-correcting later.
- Check in for ten minutes each morning or evening. Review what’s done, adjust the plan. One mini-book per day works well as a rhythm — though complexity will always have the final say.
- Present it. Your kid can showcase the finished lapbook to the whole family, you can do it together, or film it and share with us. After all that work, the story deserves an audience.
What makes this an agile parenting tool?
- Your kid owns the project. You’re the Scrum Master — there to support, not to direct.
- The final presentation is borrowed straight from Design Thinking. It matters to tell your story!
Think back to your last genuinely interesting dinner conversation. A heated debate about vaccination. Female entrepreneurs in Africa. Something that sent everyone down a rabbit hole and left you wanting to know more. Tulip flowers. Chinese silk. It doesn’t have to be weighty — it just has to spark something.