Wow..seriously, you don’t realize how much thousands of pages are until you’ve been through a case & a half of paper. It really doesn’t set in until you’ve done about 700 pages inserted into page protectors. I’m so TIRED of sliding paper into these stupid things!
Has anyone created a presentation for getting your children to do them? How can I make this a lesson in practical life?… organizing, keeping Honey sane?…
Perhaps I can hire this out?
I’ve printed out every single free album I can find. I’ve also done what Karen’s sent us on the fast track (12months vs 24months). I’ve done Monteco’s 0-3 & 3-6, sue chen’s (is that right?), montessori educational center, & I swear there is more…
I’ve printed out the info from my NAMC cd, any freebies’ from Montessori for Everyone (I’m buying her compilation very soon it’s just SO AWESOME!!!), and from blogs that I follow. I’ve got to finish cutting, pasting, laminating (haven’t really started) & organizing. I thought you might be interested in seeing the process & how much ink I go through. So far it’s about 5 things of black & 3 sets of the magenta, light magenta, cyan, light cyan, & yellow. I need another black ’cause I ran out. So current total..21 things of ink. A case & half of paper, 3 reams of white cardstock, probally another 100ish of other colors of cardstock. I’m afraid to see my laminating bill when I do this. Perhaps it’d just be cheaper to buy one?… Does anyone have any for sell or would let me borrow?
Yes…that’s SOME of what’s been printed. We’re looking at about 3 1ft tall piles all together…scary huh?…The box on the back left has all the cardstock/nomenclature cards & such. I’m putting everything into the Avery heavy duty 3 inch binders. They were about 18 dollars at Staples but 5 were ‘free’ with staples rewards so…I bought the big ones’ & when my teacher rewards come in I’ll purchase some more ink & cardstock! 🙂 Poor Ben…he works to support the ink & paper.
He asked the other day if public school fees would be cheaper?… I just looked at him. ‘I know, I know…Sunshine can use all of this too…’ Silly man…he spoils me & the kids. By the way…don’t you love my jute rug? It feels so smooth to the hand, but when you crouch down on it barefoot those little valleys make your feet hurt…or it could be the extra weight that makes my feet hurt but we’ll blame it on the rug. 😉
Would you email Ben for me and let him know? I’m afraid he’ll think I paid you or bribed you in some way! 😉
It’s not that I’m right it’s that Karen is SO! right. It’s an awesome course isn’t it? And, I do enjoy hearing I’m right from others beside me. 🙂
Honey
Okay. You were right. I wound up printing almost all of Karen’s albums (not practical life or sensorial). It was just easier to have the other ones printed out. Just wanted to let you know because it’s nice to hear “you were right” once in a while.
I read an online rumor somewhere that Office Depot has in the past offered free laminating to teachers at the end of the summer. Don’t know if they still do it, but it’s worth watching for. 🙂
I used to be a teacher and haven’t noticed a difference in the laminating quality at home versus what I had at school. What thickness film are you using? laminator.com sells it in many thicknesses. The big “montessori article” on laminating says to use the 5 mil. If you’ve been using 3 mil you may like it better. I actually prefer the 3 mil for most things, and the 5 mil for occasional items (like small game pieces).
Your explanation still doesn’t explain why you needed NAMC’s AND Karens AND Moteacos AND Shu-Chen’s…. 🙂 That’s FOUR language albums alone! I’m afraid to even tell you where to find Elementary albums…Yikes!
Did you get Karen to give you all the albums up front? I only have language, math, sensorial, practical life, physical science, geology and ecology. I guess you mean you are using history from NAMC or something…
The more I study the more I realize most of what I needed was really in the Gettman all along and it takes up so little space…LOL. I guess I would have needed albums to finish anyway since he only goes up through 5yrs old, not all the way to the end of primary.
I wonder how the Montessori Research and Development albums hold up against Karen’s. They come all printed out and bound for 5-30 each. I just don’t know what they are like inside.
I have my eye on that Montessori for Everyone CD-Rom too…unfortunately I think it will come down to that or Math materials and math will win.
Nice chatting! Try not to cover the kids in contact paper!
I was emailed the other day asking about Karen’s albums & I told the gal all she NEEDED to print out was the materials. It wasn’t until THAT moment I thought….’seriously…why’d I print ALL that?…I could have saved money & just read from each one as we go’… But I have that horrible disease called OCD & part of me absolutly THRIVES on this type of thing. With the 3 kids I kinda need stuff from all the albums too. Sunshine’s doing a lot of the Sensory things & I ‘trick’ Tyler into doing them by teaching him to teach Sunshine. He sees it as wonderful since his little sister adores him & he’s getting the sensory help he needs. Plus it’s helping with his self esteem since he gets to show her. Rhea’s powering through all the language materials & they’re both working on math stuff, I LOVE doing history with them so we really enjoy working on that. My new obsession is putting together my cultural section. Since I’ve been unschooling forever we have some really neat stuff but I do need to flesh it out a bit..do a bit of spacklin’ to get everything nice & smooth so to speak.
Oh…I’ve a laminator too! Mine is from Sams but if you want to get the good stuff…make friends with teachers…oh yeah…now that’s where it’s really good. (Why does that all sound like Narcotics Hotline should be called?) I’ve traded designing/putting together/organizing classrooms for them to laminate for me. And, yes I did actually give some money for use of the film. But, my file folder games were so much better looking.
I do love laminating things…the warmth…the protection…it’s just beautiful.
Oh, and I have a plan for things that won’t fit the slot… contact paper… 😉 it’s all been thought out! hehe
I….am….stunned….! YOU ARE GOING TO DRIVE YOURSELF CRAZY!
I can’t imagine printing all of those albums! I printed Karen’s math and language albums in their entirety. I have only printed the table of contents and/or outlines from the remainder of her albums. I read the instructions for the activities on my computer as I need them. Math and Language I use so often it was easier to print them.
I have been doing the Montessori thing for a year-and-a-half now and one thing I’ve learned is that, for the most part, you need to pick ONE album and STICK TO IT. If you album-hop too much it is too difficult to coordinate the activities across subjects. If you are terrified you will need those other albums at a later date, or like them better, do what I did and download them and save them to CD/DVD. When I need clarification on a certain activity I might read about it in several albums, but I don’t need them all printed.
Also, buy a good quality hole puncher and save all that sheet protecting.
I own my own laminator. It was $22 at Sam’s Club. I buy laminating sheets for ten cents apiece at either Sam’s club or laminator.com
I did teach Kal-El to laminate. No, I did NOT write a presentation first!
Crazy! You make me laugh, but seriously, I don’t want to read a future post written by your husband that states “she finally cracked and laminated everything in the house that fit through the slot and put everything else into sheet protectors.”
okay beyond excited. I just read at the top that you are a Montessori, Waldorf, Attachment mama like me! Not too many of us doing the combination of theories thing…
Honey, I don’t think that is the case. I personally know many people who had parents who couldn’t sing at all and they sing very pretty. Maybe you could set aside time every week for them to practice singing. Maybe get some voice lesson cd’s? This is all personal opinion and none of it based on theory. I love singing more than just about anything. To me, it is one of the most precious gifts. I sing almost constantly. Do I spend all my time focusing on notes? Nope, I’m focused on joy and how much I love singing. Maybe put the focus on joy? To me, that is the point. I want to enhance my child’s joy of music. I sing pretty good and therefore I think I enjoy it more than someone who can’t carry a tune. I want my child to have the same experience. That’s the only reason it matters to me.
BTW, pretty excited to find your blog! I’ll be back alot.