HELP!!! Confessions of a Homeschooler "Letter of the week"?

[warriormom]

I cannot tell you how many times I have come close to buying Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler. What stops me EVERY TIME is the thought that I have to get this curriculum (that has over 1400 pages possible) printed. Oh and did I mention having a thousand pages :)

 

Any advice and tips for printing this curriculum? How did you make it work? How did you stay organized? Print, laminate and cut?

[Thia]

Can it be sent to Lulu or some other self publisher?

[clarkacademy]

That don't mean you will print it all though

[Mommee & Baba]

I bought it and REGRET it!

 

I was THRILLED to own it. Then I realized that it's WAY too much! Way too much COLORED ink! I tried to pick and choose which to use and which to not use. BUT I needed her schedule and her schedule includes ALL the pages! It was just too overwhelming.

 

Now it's un-used and I use a completely different setup curriculum outline for my upcoming prek'er

[AngelBee]

Taking notes...

[Ecclecticmum]

I just pick and chose the items I wanted.

 

I got both the K4 & LOTW programs, so I can't exactly remember, but I think there are a number of PDF files, optional, extras, etc.

 

So i didn't print stuff like the "bottle cap" activities, but stuck more with the do-a-dots and puzzles, etc.

 

If you have an ipad or netbook or something portable, you could keep the "lesson plans," and anything else that doesn't need to be printed, on them instead.

 

There is LITERALLY so much stuff. I plan to use some more of it next year.

 

because of the planner, you can just cross out/ignore items that don't apply to you. Perhaps your children already know there colours, and shapes, and do not need those pages, perhaps they just need more of the letter recognition & writing.

 

Its more like a customised curriculum, where you can make choice based on whats there.

 

I "threw out" the lesson planner and just added the do-a-dots, puzzles, magnet pages, tracing etc in as weekly items. We do two letters a week, and once at the end of that, we start over the alphabet again. So I mix up the activities we do.

 

Unless your doing a full days work in a classroom, you really don't need every single activity. And if you after a curriculum, the lesson planner is brilliant, and not totally based around the activity pages.

 

If you are wanting to do the complete program, it is a lot of pages to print out, BUT if you have more than one child, you can re-use them. I think the only ones (if you use as suggested) that aren't re-usable would be the do-a-dot pages. For the line drawing (tracing the letter) just put it in a page protector and use whiteboard marker. I can't remember whether they are in the "curriculum" or not (or whether I just downloaded from homeschool Creations) but I also have playdough roll-a-letter pages, so these would be laminted in order to be re-used

 

The sheer volume of stuff there, combined with the lesson plans and the amount of work that has gone into it, if it were a "commercial" program, sent to you already set up would probably cost near $1000. So unless you have a serious ink-eating printer, I still think its worth it. But only you know your budget.

 

If you download it, its only $10, even if you don't use the whole thing, I am sure you would get your moneys worth out of it. I love her stuff, she puts so much effort into everything, and its all well-done. Giving off a charming kindergarten-bright look, but still managing to look professional.

 

Sorry I couldn't be of more help xxx :grouphug:

[jenangelcat]

I did a free letter of the week curriculum and instead of printing all those weeksheets as is, I shrunk them down to 1/4 to 1/8 the size depending on what it was.

[DiannaC]

I bought it a couple of years ago & also bought a laminator that she recommends with gift cards on Amazon. I didn't print it all, but what I did print I laminated so it will last through my other 2 kids (and hopefully more!). It was well worth it when I considered how I could use it over & over. I also didn't print it all out at once, but just a couple of weeks at a time. My son loved it!:001_smile:

[kristi26]

I did a free letter of the week curriculum and instead of printing all those weeksheets as is, I shrunk them down to 1/4 to 1/8 the size depending on what it was.

 

I was going to suggest you look at a free letter of the week program if you wanted to go that route. You could also check out her budget suggestions...I know they're on there somewhere. I also read that some moms get a printer that uses super cheap ink to print on...

 

And I wanted to second the idea of making a bunch of it into PDF's and putting it on a Nook, Kindle, iPad, or something of that sort. Obviously this will only work for the instruction portion of things and the things you don't need to write on. But that could cut down on paper and ink usage.

[Pixjen]

I'm using her World Geography curriculum, and there is a lot I'm not printing out. My old printer used to make fantastic color prints on "draft" and hardly ever used any ink. My new printer's draft quality is so light it's unusable...which means I have to be a lot more selective about what I print, b&w and color. :thumbdown:

 

I'm printing out the things I know make the most sense for my DS8. For example, each week he's suppose to write a "postcard" about what he learned, and color it in. HA! My DS would rather die than color or write. Since my focus is geography rather than writing, I don't even bother to print it out. OTOH, there is a great free animals of the word go-along that I would love to print out, but don't because it's several pages of color photos and I'd quickly use up all my ink.

 

Just like any curriculum, adapt it to work for YOU. Don't adapt your school to work for IT. :001_smile:

[tuckabella]

I used it. I printed in draft mode when I really thought the color was necessary. Other times I printed it out in black and white and tried coloring some things in. I also printed on grayscale, that worked too. Sometimes all the color was too much and a bit over stimulating.

I agree, make the curriculum work for you! I plan on doing her world geography course this coming year and I won't print everything.

[APyper]

I bought it and only printed out a few things at a time. My son hated the repetition.

[paulasue]

I bought it and only printed out a few things at a time. My son hated the repetition.

 

I've looked at in the past. Do you do the same activities for each letter? I know that is what the free side looked like. I am not sure how DS would do doing the exact same activity for 26 letters.

[A.Balaban]

I bought it and only printed out a few things at a time. My son hated the repetition.

 

I haven't bought it, but my son loves the repetition. Of course, he will fill the same worksheet out 10 times. Got to love dry erase markers.

[huntchaos]

I bought it and though I do use some of it, I just found that we did better with the free Raising Rock Stars curriculum (http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingRockStarsPreschool.html). So, we actually use that more and just suppliment with the other.

[hsmomma]

Double post/deleting

Edited July 17, 2012 by hsmomma
double

[hsmomma]

I dont print it all but I have printed a lot as I go. We have this http://www.workboxsystem.com/printerinformation.html and printing is so very cheap:party:. For me it was so worth it. I use it now for our boxes that they can do when I am working with the older boys. I keep mine in binder right now but I am thinkig of changing over to http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2012/03/behind-the-scenes-storing-printables/

Edited July 17, 2012 by hsmomma
my computer is going crazy ad typos

[6wishes]

I bought it, have only printed off A activities, but my son enjoys it so far. I do love having everything laminated! The laminator she recommends is what I use-Scotch brand, you can get it at Walmart, amazon etc...I've used it for a lot of other things. I did just pick and print, and even when we're not "doing school" my son still likes to do some activities. I have used some to keep him busy while my olders do school. It is only $10, and for me, that seemed cheap for all the resources you get with it. I haven't incorporated lesson plans at all, I just talk through what we're doing.

[FromA2Z]

I use the LOTW program. My boys were gone for a few days so I took the opportunity to print/cut/laminate the whole thing plus some from other sites. It was probably a good 30-35 hrs of work. I bought refilled ink cartridges from this seller on amazon. It was recommended, I was very hesitant. So far I've used about 10 cartridges of black and color and all have been very good. The cost $: 13 for both black and color which are normally $80. I used 4 cartridges to print LOTW and others.

 

I file each letter separately, the week we use it I put different "activities" in work ins and color, do a dot, and letter sheets in his desk. The magnet sheet stays up on the board. He can pick and choose what he wants to do. Some weeks he does some things multiple times, some things not at all. Sometimes I "suggest" some things. I work with him on most of the activities. My younger does what he wants. I'll reuse stuff w/ him later.

I didn't use it strictly as is. The lesson plans are great and give ideas beyond the worksheets. But I didn't use them as is, as we are child led at this time. I also mixed mine up with others in theme months. Here's my schedule. Again, we will reuse things. And I hope to be able to give it away when we're done.

[warriormom]

Thank you! 30-35 hours for my child who might outgrow or refuse the curriculum does not seem worth it. I think Rod and Staff preschool books + a few printables from of LOTW on Confession of a homeschoolers will suffice ( along with Montessori activities, CC, Saxon K math and OPGTR).