stm4him Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 I am planning to use RLTL and ELTL as soon as we can afford it (probably next month if not this month), and I have Strayer-Upton on the way in the mailbox to try out and consider, but it may take me longer than planned to be able to use Wayfarers based on the prices of the books adding up quickly. Just in case I need to fill in some time and also because I am just curious, has anyone considered printing off vintage books and compiling them into a textbook for you children? You could either mix up the lessons by subject so that a child moves right through the book (all subjects combined), or you could put tabs in for the various subjects. One would bind them somehow the way many Robinson families do for the books they print out. I have seen glue and duct tape used and I am sure there are other ways as well. I know it would probably be best to have a certain kind of printer for this, but one could make it work with a regular printer. I already own Robinson and I could use the Eclectic Education Series as a guide for grade levels and such and then search online for those since they are in the public domain and print and compile them. I HIGHLY doubt I will actually do this, but it is a neat idea. Anyone know of any blogs of people doing something like this (even if it is only one subject)? Hunter was talking about the difficulty in manipulating several books with Rays and I was thinking that if one got them printed out they could compile the books together to make it easier to use. Weird, middle of the night idea, but seems neat for some reason right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 The problem with printed math books at the higher levels is that sometimes the fractions and exponents are hard to see, especially the answer keys. Make sure to print out some test pages to make sure you can read them. Combining bits of the different Ray's books into one volume is actually a VERY good idea! I really like my Swingline heavy-duty stapler for making books. http://www.amazon.com/Swingline-Heavy-Stapler-Sheets-S7039005/dp/B0006HUPU2 Before that I used to hole-punch and use brass fasteners. I always meant to see if putting tape over the fasteners secured them better, but never tried that. And there are so many pretty tapes now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 LargeFamilyMothering.com has some blog post series for printing and making a curriculum using vintage books ( I think see uses McGuffey's). It may give you some ideas... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 I want to read her ebook called Homeschooling Sanity but I will probably have to order it next week. This week I will read through her blog. One could do the same thing with the RLTL books and the ELTL books combining them with the chapters of the books that are to be read. I vcould do it with the free math books Hunter listed but I wonder if they are as good as S-U. I am really curious about the history and science books. But doing this would be a lot of work.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Hunter, does your stapler hold more sheets than a brass fastener? I saw that the stapler holds 160 sheets but I don't know how many a brass fastener would hold. I was thinking about pronged folders (with the brass fasteners) which I think hold 100 sheets, but I didn't think about just putting a cardstock cover on pages with brass fasteners and then possibly even putting tape on top to really secure it and give it a nice spine. This is good for me to think through since I will probably be putting books together at least for the Handwriting Lessons Through Literature and some of her copywork since she only has those as downloads. I'm going to go read the post largefamilymothering has about binding books. I know Beth Lehman from Robinson has a youtube video about binding that looked neat, but an overnight drying type of project so not as fast as what you do. I read through one of the blog series by largefamilymothering and a lot of it was the why's behind things rather than the practical. There was some practical advice but it was pretty flexible to the point of not being something I could follow. But I actually am having them do their work in composition books and I am using a highlighter with my first grader to help her with the lines in her books for handwriting. So I am already doing some similar things. I'm not yet sure if I am going to use the workbooks that Kathy Jo has or just have them use their composition book but I know I will at least buy the download to look at how she formatted things to help me with ideas. Also, she recently made a Book of Centuries file and posted on the yahoo group and I will have to print that and put it into something. I really, really like the look of Wayfarers and think that as long as I don't rush anything we can make it fit what we already do. I am stressing a tiny bit about supplies for activities and the cost of all the books. I may decide to not allow myself to do the activities the first time through. I may have to buy the books week by week as we can afford them rather than purchasing the whole first term at once. I think most of them are available as ebooks so I can hold off on buying any of those until we actually need them and I do own several of the books on the lists. I'm not sure why this idea of binding books and compiling vintage workbooks sounds fun but it just does :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Both staples and brass fasteners come in different sizes. I have several sizes of both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 When using Wayfarers on an extreme budget, often if you are willing to be a bit flexible about levels, you can find enough to do just using library and free books. Many of the books are available as eBooks as well as hardcopy. My library has a sizable eBook collection. Between library eBooks and free public domain books, I was able to do Wayfarers as cheaply as I needed to. I bought what I could afford, no more and no less. At one of my libraries, Overdrive allows me to make requests. Most of my requests were filled in about 3 days. If you have a friend doing a different level, they might be able to loan you Kindle books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Well, I have time to collect resources since I am waiting for Modern and it won't be out until sometime this summer. I do have the booklist to help. But in the meantime I am thinking about maybe some vintage science to see how it goes. I should probably be covered otherwise. One problem I have right now is that we don't have bookshelves put up. I do have some in my garage but I am actually wanting a different style so I hesitate to lug my huge IKEA ones in here only to get rid of them soon. I do have a few large baskets of books and two bookshelves inside that are not full I can work with. We have just been enjoying what is already in the house. For history my son is reading from BJU's American History textbook for high school. He is reading Harry Potter for the umpteenth time too. My daughter is reading through the Indian in the Cupboard series since she never read it when she was younger. She just finished an Anne Frank book. I don't know what she is reading for nonfiction these days. I should ask her. My third one is reading the first Bobbsey Twins book and a book about how to raise chickens. Last night we just finished The Indian in the Cupboard and are working through By the Great Horn Spoon (about the Gold Rush) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I am excited to start a new read aloud for my younger ones tonight but it will probably be the sequel to The Indian in the Cupboard since they liked it so much. We are also watching a documentary series about the founding fathers. Not much science going on as usual. Homeschooling has been very relaxed here but consistent and enjoyable. My oldest two are working on LNST 3, HA 3, Hake Grammar 4 (not the writing book), and Saxon 5/4. My third one is doing LNST 1, HA 1, PreScripts (cursive copywork and drawing), and that free math book. I haven't been doing much language arts with him besides the copywork, though, but we are working on spelling through the math book together. I don't need to worry about grammar with him yet, but I can't wait to start RLTL (just the spelling parts) and ELTL with him. My fourth one is reading to me for 30 minutes a day from Scamp and Tramp (American Language Series) and we just finished learning all the cursive letters today. She is also practicing and writing out skip counting with me. Mostly I just check the work of my oldest two, but I have been spending a lot of time on math with the third one. I will slow down to one page a day with him starting tomorrow but Strayer-Upton should be here soon. Doing much less with him will also make my day lighter. I can't wait to start RLTL and ELTL, but for now I am enjoying what we have. I need to add in music theory, typing, and drawing as well, but I will add one thing at a time. I'll probably start with drawing since that is free..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Wouldn't it be a fortune to print all of that out? I imagine most books would be cheaper to buy on Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 I didn't know regular vintage books were available on Amazon. This would also allow for customization. I know there are printers where the cost is like one cent per page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Oh, so you're talking about taking it somewhere. Wow, I feel smart now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Also, don't forget about the possibility of getting it published yourself. If it's public domain you can have it made into an actual book that's bound with covers for like $25. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 How? That sounds awesome! Can it be sold? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Yeah. There's a ton on Amazon. I think this is one. Here's another. You would use a publishing company like Lulu. I'm not suggesting Lulu, I'm ignorant about this, but that's the kind of company you would use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 I would be mixing up parts of the books and perhaps sticking in extra copies of the drill pages, etc. Originally I thought about building six books, each covering two grade levels with all subjects in it organized by day/lesson number or by subject. But I am sure it would be way too fat and hard to format unless all the books were already formatted to the same size (which they may be on the EES cds). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 One other advantage is that they could be written in by the student possibly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Following Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happybeachbum Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 I think there was a book posted on the forums a while back. It was a vintage book. It was in the public domain. I think from google books. I don't remember what subject or even if it was just a teacher's manual. I remember the book had a schedule of the typical school day. Doesn anyone know the name of this book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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