Does anyone use Ebooks or PDFs?

[jmomma1203]

I have decided to use SOTW, FLLs 1&2, and OPGTR in our homeschool this year. I was wondering of anyone uses the PDF/ebook versions of these or other books in their homeschool. What are some pros and cons to doing this?

[momma2three]

I use the FLL as a PDF on my Kindle.

 

I love that it's so portable: we often do lessons in the car (while DH is driving, of course!), or when we're in a waiting room or something.

 

The primary downside is that it's in PDF and not text format, and formatted for an 8.5x11" piece of paper, so the type is awfully small on my little kindle, and there's no way to increase it. My eyes aren't great, and it definitely strains them a little. It's also hard to flip around, as the table of contents doesn't work on the Kindle.

 

The upside of portability outweighs those things for me, but I do wish she'd publish Kindle versions where I can change the text size!

 

If you were just planning on using it on a computer, that's not even a problem, and it would be easy to search within the text or whatever. I sometimes teach other things from PDF files on my computer, and it's pretty convenient.

[nmoira]

I have decided to use SOTW, FLLs 1&2, and OPGTR in our homeschool this year. I was wondering of anyone uses the PDF/ebook versions of these or other books in their homeschool. What are some pros and cons to doing this?

 

 

The biggest con for me is the price of the ebooks: I can get a physical copy of WWE at Amazon for less than the PDF version from PHP, and I can resell the physical copy. We don't use the consumable pages anyway because the lines are not the best choice for GDI hand writing.

 

I'd also be inclined to purchase physical copies of any books a child might read for pleasure, like SOTW, unless the child prefers e-books.

[nmoira]

The primary downside is that it's in PDF and not text format, and formatted for an 8.5x11" piece of paper

 

 

Ouch. That would be a deal-breaker for me.

[happypamama]

I am getting some of next year's curricula in PDF form, mainly to use via iPad, or DD's e-reader. I LOVE having PDFs. Our science program is entirely PDF (Mr. Q); we'll read the PDFs and use the iPad to fill out the follow-up sheets, and then I'll just print out a few samples for our portfolios. DD prefers reading (and writing) electronically, so when it's possible, I get her books that way. I am planning to get Art of Argument for DD for logic for next year, and I'll probably get the Kindle form. I'm planning to use some free math and grammar worksheets for her too, again in PDF form.

 

The biggest issue I have is that if things need the Kindle format, they can only be read on the iPad (or desktop computer), not DD's e-reader (which is a cheapie one that does PDFs nicely but not Kindle books), and so we could end up with a backlog, where two people need the iPad at the same time, so we can't keep our work flow going. I need WWE3 for DS1, WWS1 for DD, and the WWS1 teacher book for me, so I opted to get WWE3 and the WWS1 teacher book in paper form, but I'll get WWS1 for DD in e-book form. But if we all had Kindles or iPads, I could see getting all of it in e-book form. (We don't use the student pages in the writing books anyway; we use our own paper.)

 

We also travel for a full day at least once a week, to do errands, speech therapy for some of the kids, etc., and having the e-books is really helpful there. I often deliberately plan work for DD that is doable electronically for those days, so that it's not so much to haul around. E-reading/writing has been a HUGE benefit for me. :)

[TraceyS/FL]

Have you tried converting things in Calibre? You should be able to convert out of kindle into ePub (or whatever you need), possibly with some hoops you can google about.

 

For my middle child I will buy whatever I can in eBook format for her - if it is conducive to the kindle. She could use my iPad, but I don't like relying on that at the moment since all MY school books are eBooks. After going thru that this quarter, there are things I will not buy that way for her either. It really will depend on the particular book.

 

For now, she is reading Sassafras Science on her kindle, and I have some readers scheduled that will be on there too.

[NotSoObvious]

I have the teacher guides for FLL, WWS, WWE, SOTW, and Lively Latin on my iPad in iBooks.

 

It has totally changed our homeschool. It's so much easier for me!! I don't have a problem with text. I can easily make things bigger on my iPad. The have been no downsides for me. Less storage, less effort, lasts forever.

 

I have not bought many regular ebooks though. I don't like spending hours reading on a screen. I just can't get there yet. I like to feel the book in my hands. I'm sure ill make the switch sooner or later.

[claluck]

We bought CHEAP $30 generic e readers for my two boys. They do all their reading on them now and a few assignments. And it is significantly cheaper than paper. Because so much of their reading is available free through gutenberg or what not. We even put their math mammoth books on there and they can just use another paper to write out the answers or work. For math it is not ideal and I usually just print it out but for most other things they can just have them. I could have bought them nicer ereaders or tablets but I really didnt want them having access to games and internet. I literally wanted something just for reading. It is actually alot harder to find that you would think but they both got one for Christmas and love them.

 

Christina

[jmomma1203]

We have an original Nook for just reading, I have an iPad 2, and we plan to purchase 1 or 2 Kindle Fire HDs for our homeschool, so after reading the responses I really feel like Ebooks and PDFs would be very beneficial to us. We also have limited space...an 1100 square foot home for 6 people, so I think this route would help in those terms as well.

 

I really appreciate all of the input!

[Koerarmoca]

I use tons of ebooks and pdfs. I do a ton of printing too. Our library is awesome though because it gives you 75 pages of free printing every week and we have 6 cards so I take advantage lol.

 

I like to view pdfs/ebooks on my macbook so its right out on the table while we do school. I like it for answer keys and lesson plans as I like to only print materials that the kids need in print. I do some on my ipad as well for when we do school at the park or library so I don't have to drag the macbook along.

[JMDRAD]

I have WWE and FLL on my iPad opened in iBooks. I love how those books aren't taking up valuable space on my bookcase and I can simply print off the lessons that we are going to use for the week. I love the portability. I will say though, I think I'm getting my money's worth since I'll be using this curriculum with all four kids.

[kiwik]

I buy some things eBook or pdf because the shipping is expensive. I know in theory calibre will convert pdf to kindle format but I have heard it is a bit clunky (on my list of things to play with). I do like that having my kindle in my bag means I can have several things on the go. Some kindle books are cheaper but sometimes a pdf is the same place. If I was in the US and could get free/cheap shipping I probably get the actual book most times.

[heyyou]

We bought CHEAP $30 generic e readers for my two boys. They do all their reading on them now and a few assignments. And it is significantly cheaper than paper. Because so much of their reading is available free through gutenberg or what not. We even put their math mammoth books on there and they can just use another paper to write out the answers or work. For math it is not ideal and I usually just print it out but for most other things they can just have them. I could have bought them nicer ereaders or tablets but I really didnt want them having access to games and internet. I literally wanted something just for reading. It is actually alot harder to find that you would think but they both got one for Christmas and love them.

 

Christina

 

Christina, what brand did you buy? I've been looking for the same thing (an e-book reader, and not a web-browser, game player, etc.) and all I've found is the Ectaco jetBook Color for about $500!

[dsmith]

Ds prefers to read on his iPad or on my Kindle Fire. I purchased next year's science in PDF format, and plan on loading the student text on the iPad, and the student and teacher texts on the Kindle for me. I got a great deal on a set of Heritage History cds on ebay, so I loaded a lot of books on my Kindle to correspond with our history studies. I have been reading them aloud to him every day, and he loves them so far. I buy a good amount in PDF format and print only what I have to. I will also take a picture of a page in a teacher's guide that I need for the day and send it to my Kindle from a button labeled 'send to Kindle' in my camera app. I only discovered that feature few weeks ago, and I love it! Once I'm finished with it I delete the picture so I don't have a ton of pictures floating around on my Kindle. Some of my teacher's guides are over 500 pages, so that is a huge help.

[claluck]

Christina, what brand did you buy? I've been looking for the same thing (an e-book reader, and not a web-browser, game player, etc.) and all I've found is the Ectaco jetBook Color for about $500!

 

 

 

If you get the older kindle it doesn't have the browser or you can at least disable wifi and there arent any real games. I think those are. But I hated to be limited to just kindle. I do have and love my kindle fire. Like I said though I didn't want to hand that over to my kids. One of mine would seriously spend his entire day playing fruit ninja and angry birds given the opportunity. Before Christmas there were lots of options available and then there was a huge tablet push over christmas I guess and with the new year nada. Everyone wants a fancy toy that does everything. My oldest dropped his e reader down the stairs and luckily I had gotten paid $4 for a warranty on it so I got my money back and was able to find something else with alot of searching. Unfortunately neither of them are available anymore that I can find. I if I bought something now I would just buy the kindle or nook e-ink readers. I think there is a kobo and sony one too but if feels so wrong paying so much for a reader when you can spend a few dollars more and get a full blown tablet. I imagine in my future I will be getting my kids tablets and just insisting no games be downloaded on them. I will have to disable the wifi or something I am not sure. Its a bummer the e readers are still so pricey for what you get.

 

 

I think the biggest benefit is my school bookshelf is considerably smaller now. I dont have to have near as much space. Plus I am looking at schooling a very wide range of kids so it is not as if I can get rid of one grades work I want to save it for future kiddos. Its certainly smaller to save it on a little thumb drive or a disk than to save it in hard copy. Also we can have multiple copies going around. For all the free books I can have it open on my laptop, open on the computer, on the kindle fire and both the boys e readers at the same time. Much easier than having 3 copies of a book just for us to do our theater read alouds together.

[happypamama]

 

 

Christina, what brand did you buy? I've been looking for the same thing (an e-book reader, and not a web-browser, game player, etc.) and all I've found is the Ectaco jetBook Color for about $500!

 

Not Christina, but DD's cheapie e-reader is an E-Matic. I got it because I wanted to see if it would work for carrying my knitting PDFs, with e-books being a secondary function, so color was a necessity. It does work very nicely for PDFs and epub books. I have not tried mp3s or movies on it, but I think the sound is not spectacular. DD seems to enjoy it for reading. I liked that it does not have games or internet access; it needs a USB cable to connect it to the computer for loading. I considered the inexpensive Kindle (and may end up getting one of those for DD/the kids in general so we can use the lending library feature, which won't work on the Kindle iPad app, plus I like the e-ink) but ultimately wanted color.

[claluck]

See all the ematic, itomic, all those that were cheapy all seem to be gone. I cannot find them anywhere any more.

[mamajag]

 

Ouch. That would be a deal-breaker for me.

 

If you use an iPad, it will let you zoom enough to be usable. My eyes are really bad and most of our homeschool is on PDFs on iPad using the GoodReader app.

[Sleep-Deprived]

I also have the student and teacher books for FLL, WWS, WWE, SOTW, Lively Latin, and Mr. Q's science curricula on my iPad in iBooks.

 

I agree with Not So Obvious that It has totally changed our homeschool experience for the same reasons.

 

I absolutely LOVE the freedom of having it all on my iPad. It's much more portable, especially for schooling on the go. I find it is much easier to jump between subjects on the iPad - plus it keeps my place in each of the books. I originally had SOTW on my Kindle (before I had an iPad), but found it cumbersome to navigate there. That said, I do not like reading for pleasure AT ALL on the iPad. I do all my pre-reading and pleasure reading on the Kindle. It is much easier to hold than a book (don't have to hold the page to keep your place for instance), and I can have a number of books going at the same time..

 

I also prefer PDFs because I find it less cumbersome to print pages as we need them, rather than having the entire book for each subject at hand. I print four weeks of schoolwork at a time. Each child has two small accordion files that hold a month of assignments filed by day of the week.

 

I do buy MANY e-books (I almost always check to see if it's available in e-book format before buying a hard copy). I resisted at first, but have come to LOVE reading on my Kindle. I can grab it when I go anywhere, and find that I am able to read much, much, more, because I have the books handy, and can read what suits my fancy at the time. My oldest three kiddos (10, 9 and 7) each have their own Kindle too. My daughter will eventually have her own also. They are all registered under my account, so all can access all the books when they want to read them. I find the kids are now in the habit of grabbing their Kindles as we head out too.

[jmomma1203]

Yes I love PDFs for school! Our mainstays are Connect The Thoughts and Math Mammoth, which are both pdfs. And a great many of our read-alouds are on my nook, so it's so super handy to whip out even out and about if we're stuck waiting somewhere.

[jmomma1203]

Yes I love PDFs for school! Our mainstays are Connect The Thoughts and Math Mammoth, which are both pdfs. And a great many of our read-alouds are on my nook, so it's so super handy to whip out even out and about if we're stuck waiting somewhere.

 

Is MM the only math curriculum you use? What are your thoughts on it? I'm thinking about using it for my 1st grader instead of MUS.

[Alessandra]

I love the iPad, but one area that has not been a great success is worksheets. We have MM and a few other things on Notability. It's easy to enlarge the spot where you are writing, but using the stylus is not an optimal writing experience. We are all so used to using a pencil or pen with a point and having writing appear when we press on the point. Writing on an iPad is different and not so much fun, at least IMO.

 

An exception, though, is doing maps or diagrams in Notablity. Maps are great, because you can write all the labels/captions and then move them around if they all crowd together; caption type can also be smaller than most kids handwriting would allow, but still legible. Ds was doing a map of ancient Egypt -- everything seems to be located near Cairo. He was able to move his text boxes and draw lines to what needed labeling, so that the map looked truly professional. Diagrams work well on Notability too -- ds's 'color me' cell diagrams and microscopic animals looked very professional, much better than colored pencil would have done.

 

This is probably just me -- I can't seem to print just one page of a pdf from Notability. We have a HITW map collection that I would like to print one page of. I also have some trouble viewing landscape format pages. I should probably try some of the other pdf readers that I own, but don't use. Advice welcome!

 

Neither of my kids truly enjoy using readers, but I use both Kindle and iPad -- iPad more for reference materials and Kindle more for things that I want to read cover to cover.

[Dmmetler]

When I need to print a .PDF, I do it on the desktop PC, rather than from Notability for the same reason. I use a lot of the .PDF e-books on Notability, and DD did most of the National Mythology and Exploratory Latin exam study packets through it this year-there really wasn't all that much writing, so it worked OK. I haven't found a stylus that works well for writing.

[Hunter]

I love having a PDF or Kindle back up, but want a main hardcopy for anything that requires planning and prep. I like novels as ebooks, but don't like ONLY having important curricula as ebooks.