I knew there had to be a way to bring Duct Tape into homeschooling! LOL!

My daughter loves to do “lapbooks” or “portfolders” or “lappacks”… basically a file folder refolded to make a portable viewing station housing a collection of little homemade folded booklets. It’s a great way to teach children to organize their thoughts… and we’ve been using it for years. THIS year however we decided to head in the direction of notebooking (keeping a binder full of page protectors in which we keep all our work each day)… now… Kenzi still wanted to do lapbooks… but how to put them into the binder to keep all her work together? Hmmmm…. Mom had to think about this a little.

Then it came to me! DUCT TAPE. Of course we all know that DUCT TAPE is the answer to all Life’s Questions… in fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find a striking resemblance between God and Red Green when the DAY comes…. (jk)

SO, I thought I would include some pictures, so you have an idea of what I’m talking about.

First, take an ordinary folder and refold it to make your project pack…

Second, measure a piece of duct tape just slightly smaller than the long folded edge of your folder.

Third, stick a (roughly) 1/4 inch section onto the folder. I do this while hanging the edge of the folder off the edge of the counter so the duct tape doesn’t stick to anything else (like my counter! LOL!)

Then flip the folder over carefully and folding carefully, stick the duct tape to the folder abotu 1/4 inch again to the other side, leaving about a 1/2 inch “tag” along the edge.

Be careful to stick it down straight, or you’ll end up with ridges and lumps in your duct tape!

Now… if you have a great three hole punch, go ahead and punch this like it is… I do not. And because it is tempermental, I decided the safest route was to go with my one hole punch and a piece of loose leaf to guide me.

Once the holes are punched… there you go! Slip it into your binder and move onto your next project!

Personally, I think this would be a neat thing to do to a bunch of folders in one session… it’s kinda sticky work, might as well get it over at once… so either hang on to the folders and insert them later, OR, you could make a bunch of folder packs up at once and duct tape them and THEN use them…. because the duct tape is so durable it won’t matter if it’s being handled.

Some examples of our lapbooks…. some of these are double (two folders attached together by one of the shorter edges… holds more mini books that way!

We love lapbooking! :o)  (okay, so these are just the outside covers…but honest, there are mini books inside… and maybe someday I might even get around to photographing them!  …. but then, that is what the notebook is for, isnt’t it?

Enjoy and I hope this has helped someone!