For those of you that have been homeschooling for any length of time this post will probably be a no-brainer. However, for those of us newbs who are just embarking on our home education journey, you may find this helpful.
Did you know you can have the spine cut off your workbooks and teacher’s manuals and have the pages either spiral-bound or 3-hole punched for easier manageability?
Last summer, while I was frantically planning out our upcoming school year I stumbled upon a thread on a homeschooling forum where it was suggested to take your bulky teacher’s manuals and home-instructor guides to Kinkos or Staples and have them spiral-bound. This way you can easily lay open cumbersome workbooks and it allows you to quickly and painlessly make copies from it’s pages.
I pretty much ran to my local office store and had Story of the World Activity Guide and Writing With Ease bound for under $5.
Considering that I plan to use the majority of my resources at least three times with each of my children, I like being able to quickly and easily scan and print from them.
I can see how some moms could suffer from spiral-bound fever and end up cutting the spine from every workbook they own. However, although $5 here and there might not sound expensive, it can really add up; especially if you plan on binding e-books or other online resources.
Workbooks should pass a cost-analysis test before you proceed. Does the cost of the workbook justify the expense? For example, I use Miquon Math workbooks with my oldest and hope to continue with my younger children. I can generally pick these up online anywhere from $5-9 in a pinch, or with a little planning ahead and luck I can pick them up for next to nothing at local used-curriculum sales. So in this scenario it’s actually cheaper to purchase three separate workbooks than it would be to pay to have it initially bound and (adding in the additional expense of using my printer, ink, and paper) to make individual copies of each page for each of my children.
For those folks who know they’ll be binding a large quantity of books it may behoove them to purchase their own comb-binding machine.
***And don’t forget about the more personalized option to make hand-bound books for your special projects and gifts.
Why, pray tell, do manuals and workbooks not come spiral bound? This is a very good tip, thank you. Also, would you recommend a scanner/printer or copier for at home use? I’m wondering if this could save money over time or not worth the expense and up keep? Also, have you come across a lot of curriculums (like writing with ease?) that have a PDF version (cd or downloadable) and is that a good option for multiple children?
I wish I knew why manuals didn’t come spiral bound. It makes life so much easier! The printer/scanner/copier system I use is a bit expensive. I am sure there has to be something more affordable that could be recommended but I don’t know any off-hand. If anyone has a suggestion, please share! This is the printer I am currently using. I do love it!
Also, I noticed that a lot of publishers are jumping on board with e-formatting. PDF’s, e-books, and Kindle versions are becoming more mainstream. Curr-Click is only one source of many online “warehouses” of download-able material. They offer a neat selection of rotating freebies as well so it’s good to check it often.
Hope that helps!
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. Our Math Mammoth books are really cumbersome and annoying to use. Having them in spiral would make life so much easier.
Very smart idea! I will remember this as we start to accumulate curriculum. Thanks for sharing all your clever tips!