Review ~ Lapbooks for Catholics

I have been, or can be if you click on a link and make a purchase, compensated via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value for writing this post. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

We caught the love of lapbooking a few years back.  We don’t often make complete ones from project packs, but will use the mini-books to enhance our learning where we are able.

What I do like is seeing R and D pull out the previously made lapbooks (or giant notebooks of mini-books in the case of our astronomy study) and read through their work.  Talk about a great way to re-enforce learning!

Disclaimer ~ Lindy was very gracious in sending me the pdf file of The Holy Mass Double Faith Folder to use and review here on the blog.  No other compensation was provided and the opinions expressed here are my own.

For the past 2 years, I’d heard about a mom (Lindy) in the midwest US making lapbooks specifically for Catholics.  Holy Learning (formerly Faith Folders for Catholics) is her company and it continues to grow in what they offer.  Until recently, though, I did not have the opportunity to really look at one of her packs up close.

The Holy Mass Double Faith Folder

We chose to review The Holy Mass Double Faith Folder.  It covers all the parts of the Mass utilizing different mini-books and flash cards to catalog all the information.   With D entering 2nd grade and anticipating reception of his First Holy Communion next May, it seemed like the perfect fit for our family.

What’s included?

Well, first off for almost every set of mini-books, you have a black and white or color printing option.  Although, some of the text and/or photos used do show up in color on the black and white option.  Where the color typically comes in to play is as a background.  So, those trying to save on ink cost can print black and white onto colored paper.  (We did a little of both for ours.)

Another option that helps to make these project packs contain so many pages is to either have answers pre-typed for you OR blank for a child to fill in.  While I typically would have the child to fill in the booklets as we learn, for this particular product I went with typed answers.  We are using it to help us learn from the get go rather than recording answers after the fact.

This is NOT a ‘light’ lapbook.  She calls it a double faith folder as the file folder format many in the lapbooking community use requires 2 folders to hold all the mini-books.  We opted to staple our file folders into a book rather than refold and glue.

D also picked a few colorful pages of scrapbooking paper to highlight a few mini-books.  He also used some on the back cover (shown below.)

We plan to use clear contact paper to ‘seal’ the cover pages.  As the compilation of the lapbook was only the FIRST step in our studies, I anticipate a lot of use throughout the year.  Even the older boys are going to join in on the learning as they can use the refresher.

You can purchase The Holy Mass Double Faith Folder from Faith Folders for Catholics as a downloadable pdf file.  The list of faith folders available to purchase is growing, some are centered around the sacraments while others fit for the liturgical year.

There are a few other products available, including faith rings (think flash cards on rings) and a Children’s Adoration Guidebook (all printed and shipped to you) that I am currently putting high up on my wish list.

So, if you are Catholic and looking for a way to help your child learn the faith, Lapbooks for Catholics could be a great place to check out.  While lapbooking is taking hold in the homeschool community, this particular company is NOT targeting just homeschoolers.  Considering how ‘light’ I find more religious education programs, this is something I would consider using even if the boys were not homeschooled!