Things I Bind: Song School Latin Coloring Pages

 

***This post contains information about a product from one of my sponsors that I just love and an affiliate link to an item that I use all the time!***

We've been using (and loving!) Song School Latin this year.  You can read my review of it at The Curriculum Choice if you would like.  Classical Academic Press offers free coloring pages to go along with each vocab word that is introduced, which my kids really like.  It is a nice activity for them to do while they are listening to the song that goes with the page.

For a while, we had been hanging the coloring pages on a cork board so the kids could see them and review throughout the day.  With about four pages per lesson, the pages began to fill the board and creep onto the wall around it.  Soon, Song School Latin was taking over our wall!  Honestly, I didn't really mind because the kids loved looking at them and it really did help them review, but at some point enough is enough =)

This was after I had already taken a bunch down!

Then I got the great idea to use my favorite new tool, my Spiral Binding System to make all the pages into a book!  (You can read my New Favorite Tool review and see videos of it in use if you'd like.)


Now the kids can flip through the book anytime they would like, and we also go through it at the beginning of each lesson.  I love that it keeps all the sheets together, and the kids love seeing the pages that they colored.  Most coloring pages end up in the trash, but these are really great to keep for review, so this is a great, permanent way to preserve them!

Do you use Song School Latin?  What do you do with all the coloring pages?

Want to learn more about Song School Latin?

Don't miss these other great products from Classical Academic Press!

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Simple Spiral Binding Machine - My New Favorite Tool

I am absolutely in love with a tool I got a few months ago.  It's a spiral binding machine.  Seriously, I love it.  I've been going a little crazy and binding everything in site!

I am not being compensated in any way for telling you about this (although these are amazon affiliate links, so I could potentially make about 50 cents if you buy it ).  I bought the Carl Brands Ring Binding System with my own money and I want to tell you about it because I LOVE it (oh, did I already say that?!)

It all started when I got the Young Reader curriculum CD from Heritage History.  I love using living books for teaching my kids, and love the clean formatting that Heritage History brings to these old books.  The only problem is that they are best used in ebook format.  They can also be printed out, but I found myself printing out pages and then misplacing them.  I knew I wanted to make these wonderful stories into books, but I didn't know the best way to do it.  I looked into many different forms of book binding, and finally found the Carl Brands Ring Binding System.   At less than $20, it was a perfect match between price and a great final product!

What kind of things can you bind?

Since I got the binding system, I've gone a little book-binding-crazy!  I've been making books out of just about anything I can get my hands on =)  Here are some of the books I've put together:

• Multiple Heritage History selections
• History lesson plans from Simply Charlotte Mason
• Notebooking Pages along with copywork pages for our Veritas Press Ancient Greece and Rome studies
• Song School Latin workbook pages (just for fun!)
• A Nature Journal
• A Beginning Writing Notebook
• A Story Journal (for simple book reports)
• and more!

How the Binding Machine Works

When I was trying to figure out which binding system to go with, something I really wanted was to see them in action to help me decide.  I thought it might be helpful for you to see how this spiral binding machine works.  I'm not great with videos, but hopefully these will help you get a feel for how it works in case you are looking to make some books too!

This first video is a close up of how the binder actually works:




This second video is so you can get an idea of the whole process and how long it takes to put a small book together:

 Highlights of the binder:

• punches holes into the paper 
• you turn the coil through the holes to make the book
• punch up to 5 pages at a time
• punch any size paper (up to 12 inches)
• punch locks into the strip to ensure perfectly placed holes
• coils come in many sizes to accommodate different book thicknesses

 
If you are looking for a way to preserve your children's work, make notebooks for schoolwork, or make physical books out of ebooks (and not break the bank!) I encourage you to give the Carl Brands Ring Binding System  a try!  Let me know if you have any questions and I can try to help you figure out if it would suit your needs.

Happy Book Binding!

Teach Your Child To Write - A Beginner's Writing Notebook

This post contains an affiliate link to a product I love.

My little girl is turning 3 this month.  For the past year she has loved coloring, cutting paper, gluing things, etc.  She has incredible fine motor skills.  These two things coupled together led me to begin teaching her to write letters a little over two months ago.  She is doing an amazing job, and I wanted to share with you what I have been doing with her.

This is a simple, no-hassle, no fancy curriculum needed, way to help your child (at whatever age they are ready!) learn to write.  It is the very first form of copywork; simply mimicking correctly written letters.

Just before I began teaching Mackenzie to write her letters, I bought a really simple book binding system (that I'm in love with!) so I just HAD to make up a writing notebook for her.

The idea was to have her learn a new letter each day we did school work, practice previously learned letters, and also master letter sounds along with it.  So, I printed these {free!} A-Z Handwriting Worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler and on the back of each page I printed these {free!}blank Beginner Handwriting Sheets from Classical Copywork.

Here is what we do

1. Review the previously learned letters by looking at each page in the book she has already done.  I turn the pages and she tells me the name of the letter and what sound it makes.
2. Learn how to write the letter by tracing over the letters and letter parts on the A-Z Handwriting Worksheet for the day.  
3. Practice writing the letter on her own.  I write one uppercase and one lowercase example for her on the blank Beginner Handwriting Sheet on the opposite page and she does her best to copy it across the line.  Some letters she caught onto quickly and others took practice over many days.
4. Review writing previous day's letters.  I write letters on the rest of the lines for her to practice with.  Sometimes I pick the more difficult ones that she needs extra practice on and other times I let her pick which ones she wants me to write.

 

This process does not take long each day and it is really working well!  In just two months, she can write and give the sound for almost every letter.  I love the idea of having it all in a book like this because it is easy to review the previous letters, everything is in one place, and I don't have to print out a new sheet every day.  I'm going to have a post up soon about the book binding system I've been using and how simple it is to use!

I encourage you to try making up a notebook like this for your child if they are ready to begin learning how to write!

What This Homeschool Mom Wants for Christmas

Kristen, over at Teaching Stars, is holding a really neat homeschool wishlist link-up called Dear Santa.  What is on your wishlist (related to homeschool!) this year?  Just write up a post about it and link it up to Dear Santa.  Then hop over and see what everyone else is wishing for!   Here's what I'm wishing for...

Ever since I got my hands on the Young Reader's curriculum from Heritage History, I've been debating in my head whether I want an e-reader or not.  I really don't love the idea of reading on-screen (though I know many of you do!) but it is definitely an easy solution.  I just can't convince myself that I want one badly enough to spend the money on it.

Then Kristen linked up a post to Trivium Tuesdays (a classical homeschooling link-up here at Living and Learning at Home!) about book-binding and I was hooked on the idea! 

Kristen has the book binder from Binding Books Beautifully.  It is a completely manual method that harkens back to the way books used to be bound.  I love it!  The only thing I do not like about this is having to make the covers (cover board with fabric).  If I'm missing something and there is another way to do a sturdy cover with this method, please let me know!

But then I started thinking..."Is this the best way to bind books for my purposes?"  I want to balance cost, efficiency, longevity, and the ease of doing this.  Also, it has to be a machine that I won't tire of using.  Heritage History has hundreds of books just ready to be printed and bound (or read on your e-readers for you fancy folks ;) so I'm envisioning a bookshelf full of bound books for my family to read for many years to come.

Zutter Bind-It-All

So I started browsing on amazon.com and found this nifty gadget that seems to be marketed at scrapbookers, but the end result is the same as fancier book binders I've seen, so I don't see why it wouldn't work for me!  It is called the Zutter Bind-It-All.  It punches holes into papers and then fits them with an "O-wire."  I like that it looks like the puncher can go through chip-board to make the covers. The negative here is that you have to keep buying the O-wires to actually bind the book.  At about 37 cents a piece (when you buy in bulk), it's more expensive than the string used for manual binding, but it's really not that bad.

Carl Brands Spiral Binder

Another Heritage History fan, Jodi from Granola Mom 4God, uses a Comb Binding Machine to bind her books.  Her post, Binding Books: Why and How, is fantastic so check if out if you have any interest in this process! 

I like the way that Spiral Binding looks, but the machines are pretty pricy.  Would a cheap one like this Carl Brands one do the trick?

So many options!  If you have any experience with book binding PLEASE help me out!  Are any of these options worthwhile?   Do you have any favorite methods or machines that I didn't mention?  Are any of these specific machines terrible?  And most importantly, who's buying me a book binding machine for Christmas???  I'm really not picky.  I'd be more than happy with any of these!  =)

Remember to stop by Teaching Stars to find out what great items other homeschool moms are wishing for this Christmas!