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I am a spiraler I am dying to spiral bound my manual's. I am just wondering if anyone has done this and now regrets it. Should I take the plunge and do it

I'll be watching this thread...I'm wanting to do the same thing

Jennifer,

I am wondering if they might be too thick to be productive spiral bound. What do you think?

I'm not sure. We could probably divide it in half.... like into two volumes. Another thought that I had was to drill holes and put it in a three ring binder.

I didn't spiral bind my manual, but I did take it apart and put it all into page protectors and then into a 3 ring binder (had to split it between 2 binders). I LOVE it that way. It stays open to the page I need, it can't get coffee stains (or messy little fingerprints from painting etc.) on it, I can use a dry erase marker on the page if I need to. And since I plan on using this for at least 2 more children, I know it is staying protected, no sheets can get ripped out or torn.

I would take the plunge.

holyhart wrote:I didn't spiral bind my manual, but I did take it apart and put it all into page protectors and then into a 3 ring binder (had to split it between 2 binders). I LOVE it that way. It stays open to the page I need, it can't get coffee stains (or messy little fingerprints from painting etc.) on it, I can use a dry erase marker on the page if I need to. And since I plan on using this for at least 2 more children, I know it is staying protected, no sheets can get ripped out or torn.

I would take the plunge.

This is a great idea. I like the idea of page protectors as well.

I think the 3 ring binder is a good idea. I have my LHTH manual sprial bound. But I didn't do the others. I started getting so many spiral bound books that I couldn't tell which was which in my pile....just my 2 cents.

I have spiral bound and left as is. I will tell you that I think the best way is as is unless maybe you are a one page at time person them I might go for the binder. I know someone will post the thread that shows Mary's book with the index tags to mark your spot and the thread that had a very long discussion about if spiral bound is best (I can't find these if anyone else can). But bottom line is I have found as is is the best way because they are perfect bound and they do lay flat well over time. My spiral bound version is looking pretty trashed. We are kind of hard on our books and the perfect bound as is just holds up better.

It's a preference thing and how durable you need to be. I am reusing all my manuals so I want them to last at least twice they may have to go three times for some of them. I want it to be nice for the third time. I laminate the outside cover and that helps with the perfect bound but the spiral is coming apart. We will make it last but I have to be much more careful with it.
HTH

Here's one of the theads that w2w was talking about. I was looking as you were typing. Ours lays flat and is working great. (I'm so glad that I found out they had a lay-flat binding and I could press them flat without ruining anything.) viewtopic.php?f=6&t=289&p=1960&hilit=spiral#p1960

Here's another... viewtopic.php?f=6&t=133&p=575&hilit=spiral#p575

Here's the post with Mary's picture of her "tabbed" guide. (I do that as well. Thanks Mary!! ) You'll have to scroll down a ways to get to it. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1589&p=12419&hilit=tabs#p12419

HTH!
Kathleen

I'm so glad someone posted this question, simply because I was not aware of the "lay-flat" binding. Now I know that can be a little rougher on my book! And I love the idea of using tabs, what a truly terrific idea!

Yes I think I will just leave mine as is and use tabs like Mary does. I keep up with her blog and remember reading that on her blog a while back. I think I might even have some tabs if only I knew where they were at I also don't know if they would be the re-stick kind or not. For most of the tabs I wouldn't be needing to move them but if I want to have a stay put marker for where we are in the TM then I would need re-stick kind.

Oh you ladies are the very best in the world!

I got the spines cut off of my manual, singapore math text, wookbook and home instructor guide. I put 6 weeks of the manual, including everything I need from the appendix, math text book and home instructor guide in one binder!That way I don't have all of the books to keep up with and can just have one teachers manual! So every six weeks, I just switch everything out. It's been working really great! I also use the wonderful post it tabs to divide everything. I think it cost around $5 to get all of the spines cut and holes punched.

Christy in Texas wrote:I got the spines cut off of my manual, singapore math text, wookbook and home instructor guide. I put 6 weeks of the manual, including everything I need from the appendix, math text book and home instructor guide in one binder!That way I don't have all of the books to keep up with and can just have one teachers manual! So every six weeks, I just switch everything out. It's been working really great! I also use the wonderful post it tabs to divide everything. I think it cost around $5 to get all of the spines cut and holes punched.

I used to do that with a different curriculum we used, but with my HOD I kept it as is. I did get the workbooks for DITHOR cut so I could copy (since we use them just for our family) them and then I bound those into the boys' year long book.
Here's my post about what I did.

Christy in Texas wrote:I got the spines cut off of my manual, singapore math text, wookbook and home instructor guide. I put 6 weeks of the manual, including everything I need from the appendix, math text book and home instructor guide in one binder!That way I don't have all of the books to keep up with and can just have one teachers manual! So every six weeks, I just switch everything out. It's been working really great! I also use the wonderful post it tabs to divide everything. I think it cost around $5 to get all of the spines cut and holes punched.

I, too, get the spines cut off, but usually do have them spiral bound. I have done it for A LOT (ocd ) of things and so far have never regretted it. One trade-off that is a big consideration is that If you cut off the spines and spiral bind, then you cannot see the name of the book if you keep it, or later store it, on a bookshelf and this does bother me (but not enough to stop spiraling). I have also thought about laminating the cover before binding, but have not done so. I don't have a real problem with the covers, but I am a laminator, too. I keep the sheet protector companies in business, too. But other than that, I LOVE spiral binding and the way I am able to easily manipulate the books as they are in my hand/lap, etc. As a matter of fact, I have actually thought about doing exactly what Christy mentioned with the binders, so I was really glad to hear that other people have done that, too.

I sort of feel like we all go through a sort of "cycle" in how we do things so this is where I am now. If you ask me two years from now, I may decide that something else works. I don't know if it helps to understand me, but one of my absolutely favorite stores of all time is the CONTAINER STORE and I get ideas from there all the time.

For LHFHG, I spiral bound the HOD LHFHG Guide, Science book (The World God Made), the Devotions for the Children's Hour, the R&S Do It Carefully, The Reading Lesson (maybe it already came that way?), Singapore, and History for Little Pilgrims, Five in a Row Guide, and Explode the Code. It is a little pricey and it does add up, but that is when I remind myself that this is my little "treat" and "perk" for being Chief Exective Educator in our house and I sacrifice financially in other areas... And it is cheaper than a month of private school ! (see there, yes, I am good at rationalizing !!!).

Kathleen wrote:Here's one of the theads that w2w was talking about. I was looking as you were typing. Ours lays flat and is working great. (I'm so glad that I found out they had a lay-flat binding and I could press them flat without ruining anything.) viewtopic.php?f=6&t=289&p=1960&hilit=spiral#p1960

Here's another... viewtopic.php?f=6&t=133&p=575&hilit=spiral#p575

Here's the post with Mary's picture of her "tabbed" guide. (I do that as well. Thanks Mary!! ) You'll have to scroll down a ways to get to it. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1589&p=12419&hilit=tabs#p12419

HTH!
Kathleen

Thank you Kathleen for the links to the other posts on binding. Those were great posts.

I had absolutely no idea there was such a thing as "lay-flat binding". VERY COOL! I am going to have to try it. Old habits die hard, but I am also willing to embrace change !