Catwoman Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Hi! My ds is starting fifth grade, and we're new to Oak Meadow. I was wondering if someone could describe the Main Lesson Books to me, as well as let me know if you buy yours from OM or make your own. What size are they? How many pages? Lined or unlined paper? Lightweight copy machine-type paper or heavy drawing paper? Are the covers made of heavy cardstock or something else? Do they contain any pockets to hold separate papers? Are they spiral bound or sewn or glued? Sorry to ask so many questions, but I'm trying to picture these things in my mind! I didn't order all of our books from OM, so I didn't even think of the Main Lesson Books until now; I wish I would have ordered a few when I ordered my other stuff! Thanks for any help or advice! Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristineinKS Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 (edited) I'm a former Oak Meadow user (way back in Pre-K & K!) but we still use Main Lesson books. I buy ours from Paper, Scissors, Stone. They have a great variety of sizes and shapes, but for most things we use the 9x12. They sell both lined & unlined & are a heavier paper which is great for drawings. They are stapled, but very nicely done. Edited to add: Here's a simple set of instructions on how you could easily make your own - though in that case she made mini books, you'd do the same thing except in a larger size. Edited March 23, 2009 by KristineinKS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Our local Waldorf school uses spiral bound main lesson books and, at the end of the year, takes out all the spirals and the kids hand bind them with hemp into a one neat book. So much nicer for storing than a million, different sized main lesson books. We got ours from Dick Blick (5th & 6th grade was 11 x 14) http://www.dickblick.com/products/strathmore-400-series-drawing-paper-pads/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 I'm a former Oak Meadow user (way back in Pre-K & K!) but we still use Main Lesson books. I buy ours from Paper, Scissors, Stone. They have a great variety of sizes and shapes, but for most things we use the 9x12. They sell both lined & unlined & are a heavier paper which is great for drawings. They are stapled, but very nicely done. Edited to add: Here's a simple set of instructions on how you could easily make your own - though in that case she made mini books, you'd do the same thing except in a larger size. Those mini books are adorable, Kristine! While I'm thinking that it would be fun to make our own books, maybe a semi-homemade approach would be easier... not that I'm completely lazy or anything... ;) I'll also check out the Paper, Scissors, Stone website to see what they have to offer. I know I've heard good things about them in the past, but honestly, if you hadn't mentioned the name, I never would have thought of it on my own! Thank you for your help! Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 Our local Waldorf school uses spiral bound main lesson books and, at the end of the year, takes out all the spirals and the kids hand bind them with hemp into a one neat book. So much nicer for storing than a million, different sized main lesson books. We got ours from Dick Blick (5th & 6th grade was 11 x 14) http://www.dickblick.com/products/strathmore-400-series-drawing-paper-pads/ Thanks! You know, I hadn't even considered the potential storage problem with using different sized books -- I'm glad you mentioned it. Thanks for the link to the Strathmore pads -- 11x14 seems pretty huge to me, but if that's the recommended size, that's what we'll try! I'm thinking it might be fun to use the pads as they are, and make nice covers for them. I know Michaels and AC Moore carry those pads, so maybe I'll pick up a few and see what we can do with them (when I have a coupon, of course! ;) ) Do you have any idea how many pages are in the Oak Meadow main lesson books? From what I can see, it looks like there are only around 32 pages in each book, but I could be wrong about that. If there are only 32 pages per book, won't we end up needing about two thousand books by the end of the year? (Ok, maybe not 2,000... but quite a few!) Thanks again! Cat Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristineinKS Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Everything doesn't go in the Main Lesson book, it's supposed to be only the "best" and neatest work (the final draft, essentially), so no, you won't go through quite that many but yes they can add up over time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 We've been using these... http://tinyurl.com/mlbooks I like the onion skin seperating pages a lot! Add to that they are inexpensive, take up little space, and my kids like choosing different colors for different subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 The ones they used at school are about 30 pages too. I ordered 8 or 9. It's easy to add in extra pages when you bind it at the end of the year. We used the Mercurius ones with onion skin (in several different sizes and both orientations), before the school discovered the book-binding plan. I haven't noticed much color-bleeding between pages since we omitted the onion skin. If you want to use charcoal or chalk, you would have more, but could also spray it with a fixative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 Everything doesn't go in the Main Lesson book, it's supposed to be only the "best" and neatest work (the final draft, essentially), so no, you won't go through quite that many but yes they can add up over time! Best and neatest... maybe we won't need too many books after all... ;) Thanks for the clarification! Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 We used the Mercurius ones with onion skin (in several different sizes and both orientations), before the school discovered the book-binding plan. I haven't noticed much color-bleeding between pages since we omitted the onion skin. If you want to use charcoal or chalk, you would have more, but could also spray it with a fixative. I don't think we'd need to worry too much about color-bleeding, but the onion skin paper in between the regular pages has a certain "cool factor" that ds might like -- or else he'd think the onion skin was so much fun that he'd start using that for his work instead of the regular paper! Thanks! Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 We've been using these... http://tinyurl.com/mlbooksI like the onion skin seperating pages a lot! Add to that they are inexpensive, take up little space, and my kids like choosing different colors for different subjects. Thanks for the link! It looks like you have to order 25 books per color, which is kind of disappointing, but the prices look reasonable enough that it may be worth trying them. Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 If you do a Mercurius order, they're usually the best place for painting paper, watercolor paint, Stockmar crayons and Lyra colored pencils too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 Thanks for the tip! I was just looking at their online catalog a few minutes ago, and noticed that I can buy quite a bit of stuff for the same shipping charge, so you know I have to take advantage of that... ;) Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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