heartofdakota.com

I just got my "Beyond" book and was wondering if anyone had ever taken their Heart of Dakota books and had them spiral bound. I have never done that with any other books, but I know people who do. I thought it would be easier to flip through. But I was worried the spiral binding process might cut through some of the words.

Thanks!
Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn,

I'm sure some other moms will chime in here to give advice about spiral-binding, but I did want to pop in and let you know that our books have a lay-flat binding. So, you can actually push your book open and get it to lay flat for you. The book is saddle-stitched to hold-up to that kind of wear and tear, so you may want to give it a try. At our house,we have lugged our books everywhere, and they still lay flat without coming apart!

Blessings,
Carrie

I spiral bound LHFG and wish I had not. It does not hold up as nice. I won't do it again since almost all of the guides we will use at least twice. Plus when I took it in to have it chopped off and bound they ruined one of my other books that was done. It's not worth it to me. And you can push them to lay flat. That's just our experience.

Thanks! That's what I was afraid of. I definitely don't want to ruin it or have it fall to pieces! LOL!

Jacquelyn

I have thought about what will happen when (and if) our book starts to fall apart. It may be possible to put each page in a page protector and insert them into a large binder. Then, you would have your cover slipped into the flap on the outside of the binder, and all of the pages should hold up well inside the page protectors. Just an idea; I have yet to try it.

inHistiming wrote:I have thought about what will happen when (and if) our book starts to fall apart. It may be possible to put each page in a page protector and insert them into a large binder. Then, you would have your cover slipped into the flap on the outside of the binder, and all of the pages should hold up well inside the page protectors. Just an idea; I have yet to try it.

This is what I was thinking of doing. I like to "mark" on the pages and this way when I come around to child #2 I can change protectors or clean protectors or something.

I'm not sure what to do! I can't make up my mind!

Blessings,
Sharon

I do have mine spiral bound because I like to keep it open to the page(s) I am working on. I only did it to one book and my phonics. I like it but I don't like how I cannot see the name ofthe book on my shelf. I have done spiral and the binder and page protectors. I think I may just keep the furture ones as they are and if they finally wear and tear i will just do the binder and page protectors.

Oh my goodness! I had no idea that the books have lay-flat binding! LOL!!


Jacquelyn

I've found all the guides really do lay open flat, once you just "smooth" them out. We had trouble with spiral binding other books - they didn't seem to stand up to the test of time as well, and it also bothered me not to read the title on the spine. Did you get a chance to read water2wine's post about sticky notes? We do that too, and if you are wanting to be able to "flip fast", they sure make that simple to do- even my son does it! Here's the link to that post:

http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=291

I can think of a ton of reasons to buy myself a comb-binding machine. For TM's that don't lay flat. Spiral binding is better than having a book that won't lay flat, but they tend to also unwind themselves on the top or bottom. If I had a comb-binder I could bind a bunch of stuff excess paper, cut and bound for notebooks or grocery list paper, etc.

These manuals DO lay flat. Yay Carrie!!! That is such a huge deal to me, because, I use a different phonics program and the book has been driving me batty for months! I have to put the heaviest thing I can find on the book to keep it open and it still slides off. I figured if I could comb-bind my Phonics TM it would be better. But I can't really justify spending the amount of money a comb-binder costs, except that I know "I" would not ruin MY TM by doing it myself unlike taking it to an office store and having them ruin it by spiral binding it.

Just thoughts I had to share....

Hi Jacquelyn,
I actually did have mine spiral bound (I didn't know about the lay-flat binding either until it was mentioned on this board ). I haven't had any problems with mine ( I actually like it spiraled), but I don't know if I'll do it with the next one. I was afraid to push hard on my first book, but I'm going to try with my Beyond copy, now that I know it won't break the spine.

I think there are poems to copy in some of the other books (I'm just in Little Hearts) and I'm not sure about making copies with the lay-flat binding (my copier is kind of awkward ). I guess I'll find out as we go. I've also done the binder thing with page protectors and that's nice to as you can mark on the protector.

Hope you enjoy Beyond!

I feel silly mentioning this (seeing as how this is my 3rd HOD manual)....

But I really had no idea they had a special lay flat binding. I've always been very careful not to crease the spine by pushing on it because I thought it would break.

All that time, I could have just pressed it flat!!!!!

Thanks Carrie.

Just had mine spiral bound and laminated last week and I love it! I must admit though, I did not know that it had a lay flat binding. But, I certainly do not regret getting it spiraled. It lays open on my side-desk at all times so that I can refer to it without bumbling around. I am also thinking of putting my set of plastic tabs on it. Hmmm...might go do that right now...
Blessings,
Amy

I haven't done that with my HOD books, but with some of the other teacher's guides I use I actually took the spiral OUT and 3-hole punched the whole thing, and put it in a 3 ring binder. That way I can put all 4 of the boys who are daily school do-ers in one 3 ring binder and have all their answers for all their work for one whole week in one place.
*phew* that sounds more difficult then it is.
I have one binder that has four sections-one for each boy. (my 2 yr old doesn't have school and the 4 year old uses LHTH) I put a whole week worth of assignments and teacher guide pages behind the appropriate boy's tab, and then I only have one binder to keep in front of me each day.
With my DITHOR, though, I kept that as-is. dh just told me I commented to him when we did it that I didn't want to mess that one up.

I'm curious where you've found to have the book cover laminated. I called the local libray (which laminates all of their paperbacks), and the librarian said they will not do this for the public. I also called a local book bindery, and they do not laminate book covers.

Does a place like Kinko's or Office Max do this? Where can these be laminated? I'd love to have my Beyond book done!