Space Exploration Study

D has almost finished his astronomy unit. The last section is about spacecraft and exploration. To me that part would be perfect for a lapbook. I looked up a space exploration timeline, looked for graphics/photos, information on the missions, etc. Perhaps these are the things he should have been doing, but I wanted to pull it together and then we'd study and organize it into a lapbook together.

I'm afraid I've given up on it.

Doesn't it sound simple? I still think it's a great idea and still want to do it; if I had ordered a lapbook kit (like from Hands Of A Child) earlier, I would be happy to do this project. As it is, I was surprised to see how many launches there have been! I wanted a timeline but the one I found was NINE PAGES LONG. It included all the failed launches too, I didn't want to deal with those. Then we found what a pain it is to copy the photos, endless photos! Then my printer started giving me trouble AND D is not at all interested in this part of astronomy. It would be fun, I think I could interest him in this if I had discovered earlier what to use and what to leave out. I just didn't think it would be so much hassle. If I had planned to do this (it was spur of the moment really, so perfect for a lapbook) ahead of time, I would have gotten pictures some other way, a used book perhaps. Having a list of which missions were the most important to learn about would have helped too.

The next one will be ready; I've already ordered and received it. I'll figure out the problem with the printer, probably just needs a new cartridge, then I'll print out the pages and plan how to correlate it with the study coming up. Lapbooks are fun to do, but until we've done a few and gotten the hang of them, I prefer ones that are already set up.