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Ambleside, Old Fashioned Education, Robinson, A2....Printing vs eReaders


dansamy
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Looking for some help. While I don't intend to use them as our sole curriculum choices, I do want to incorporate material from the reading lists of AO, OFE and possibly purchase the A2 disc. I don't see myself spending $$ on the Robinson stuff.

 

Lexmark now makes a printer that the ink costs are 1c per b/w printed page, which I would need to purchase. (Color is heinously expensive though.)

 

Alternatively, I could purchase Aluratek Libre e-readers from Borders for $120 each, one for each dc, for a total of 3. That would cost $360 plus shipping and tax. The Libre is a bare-bones reader with no connectivity so that dc can't go tooling around any internet sites or purchase any books unbeknownst to me.

 

The biggest pro, in my mind, to e-readers is less clutter. We have 5 people in a tiny space. (924sqft, 2bdrm,1ba) I simply don't have anywhere to keep printed books. It's going to be tough enough finding room to store their core textbooks/workbooks. I am going to install a cabinet in the kitchen for that. Heaven only knows where I am going to put the Christmas tree this year. The cabinet is going to be where it has gone the last 2 years.

 

I am not too concerned about DS10 and DD9 taking care of an e-reader. My youngest one is rough on things though. I am a bit worried about him. His Nintendo DS does still work but the hinge is broken and the screen now has dead pixels. There is no way I will buy that child a $200 e-reader.

 

Borders is also offering the Kobo for $150. I found an e-reader for $100 called eBookwise, but the reviews all say that it is difficult to load books. It may be worth the headache for DS8 though, since it's not terribly expensive.

 

Does anyone use e-readers? Does anyone use any of the reading material from AO, OFE or A2 and can estimate the volume and cost of printing? It seems a shame to print and then shred them after they are read. There's just nowhere for me to store them.

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and I love it. Most of the classics are available for free. I know what I want to read and I use Amazon to "judge the book by the cover" so to speak on newer books. Though I still use my library for many books.

 

My oldest is only 8 - and I don't have a problem letting her use it. In fact, we've discovered "The Twins" series lately - free on Gutenburg site - and she's constantly asking to use the Nook to read them.

 

I'm not sure what stories you want to download. Many of the AO choices are in the public domain and so are out there, formatted for the ereaders, for free. Some aren't.

 

If I were you, I'd make sure the books I wanted weree out there for download. Then, over the summer, I'd probably buy one for the older child and see how you like it and how it works for your family. Sometimes, at least for me, my theories don't always pan out in real life.

 

All that said...and here comes the plug...I love the ereader. I love having my books at my fingertips. I love having the three or four books I'm in the middle of all in one nice package at my fingertips.

 

Hmnn...

 

I'm going to interrupt my plug here with a little nagging feeling I sometimes get regarding ereaders. One of the downsides, is that kids can't peruse a shelf and find (albeit judging a book by its cover) a book to read. I know technology changes, moves forward, we adapt. But I don't think my daughter would have picked up a Twins book if I didn't first hand her the Nook and say, "Read this. You'll like it." Similarly, if she hadn't already read the Mary Francis Cookbook, would she have recognized the Mary Francis knitting book on my reader and asked to read it? I don't have those answers. And that bothers me a bit.

 

Don't forget - many of the AO titles are at the library, too. And if you do go the ereader route, I'd definitely make sure to take trips to the library. I'm just not sure the digitial bookshelf is tactile enough to encourage reading in the younger sets.

 

How's that for a non-comittal answer?

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I have an Aztak EZ Reader. I love this. I use AO and let me tell you how nice it is to load all of the books in minutes instead of spending time and money printing. It is great. I think that the Aluratek would be fine. I almost chose it but the Astak can read just about every format possible. I will say that I never use all of the formats as I have my favorites and calibre(the free software ebook converter)can change your ebook over to a format that the Aluratek can handle. I highly recommend getting an ereader. It doesn't have to be expensive.

 

I say go for it.:D

 

Penny

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Apparently, Sears had had the Libre on sale for $100 during Memorial day weekend. Sure makes me wish I'd been looking at e-readers 2 weeks ago!

 

That is a very good price. I do find that sears rotates sales very often. For example, I purchased a sewing machine from them and every couple of months the machine I got was $100.00 less for a certain period of time. You may wait a bit and see if it gets reduced again.

 

HTH,

 

Penny

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Hi,

I just went to my fav site for buying pc parts and they have it for $119. Sometimes they give free shipping so you may have luck with that.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16858723014

 

but just a reminder that the above is the Libre Lite version and they also sell a Libre Pro version like this

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5363132&CatId=4010

which looks the same but has more features. I don't think it is much difference but......I wanted to to know that they have two versions.

 

HTH,

 

Penny

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