MotherGoose Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Hi I'm using CLE LA 300 and it's made me realize that we need either a set of encylopedias (if such a thing exists anymore and I'm really not interested in having so many books) or the digital equivalent. So far Google has helped us, but that mostly shows up Wikipedia, and of course it can be unreliable. Can you give me suggestions on websites, digital encyclopedias, etc.? We have some Kingfisher encyclopedias so she gets the idea of the real thing, but I'd like to know what we should use for future reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 I vote for a real encyclopedia set, we have the 2001 Worldbook set picked up at a library book sale, my kids regularly pick up those books to look things up or just to read through, they have learned all kinds of things from articles that just happened to catch their interest while browsing through. An encyclopedia on the computer isn't the same. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherGoose Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 So they do still exist? I do remember the many hours I spent reading my parents' encyclopedias! They still have them but the ca 1980 version is a bit dated I guess ;) They'd be only too happy to have me take them though!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 http://www.worldbook.com/educational-print-books/world-book-encyclopedia-2015 They are expensive new, but libraries usually replace their sets every few years and you can buy the older ones at a significant discount. A few years doesn't make much difference in the vast majority of the articles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Agree--find a used library set. I bought a 5-year-old Worldbook set from our library used book sale for just $20. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skueppers Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I got mine when I asked at the local library when they planned to replace their World Book, and they realized it was overdue. A couple of months later, the old one was in my house for $20. :) I agree with others that the browsing value of the printed copy is worth the shelf space. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zuzu822 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 We have a discarded set of the World Book too! It's been totally worth it. Some of my best memories are of hanging out in the library after school browsing the encyclopedias. My husband grew up with an older set at home too, and has the same association. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athomeontheprairie Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I find this thread interesting...I unloaded my set of encyclopedias Tuesday. They take up so much space and were hardly ever used. I thought we would use then more. I wanted to. But in reality, we had loads of other books that the kids would rather enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threedogfarm Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I love having a set of encyclopedias. We have the World Book set. If you can't get a set from your library, look on ebay. There are used sets right now for under $200 with free shipping. While I would have loved to have gotten a set for $20, I ended up spending a lot more than that buying used on Ebay and I definitely think it was money well spent. We use the encyclopedia regularly both when homeschooling and when just talking around the dinner table. They don't take up as much space on the book shelf as you think and I actually think I buy fewer books because we have them. It makes using open ended curriculum so much easier. If we don't have a book on a specific topic at hand, it's easy to start with the encyclopedia to address the immediate question and then go to the library to get more books if needed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmingMomma Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 We love having a set of encyclopedias, my kids have actually used them quite a bit. We got our set for free at a garage sale. It was the end of the day, and when I asked how much for the set of encyclopedias they said please just take them! Ours is an older set (1986 I think), so I remind the kids that for certain things, they should check their info with another, more recent source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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