OT: Notebook organization

[mom23]

I was wondering how many of you have a home binding machine? If so, do you use it and think the purchase price was worth it?

Right now we're using binders to store everything, but they do make our school totes very heavy, and I don't like stacking them...I ran across an idea today to bind pages at home. Do you all think this would be a useful thing? As we go along how many different notebooks per year are we going to be needing? I have all my preparing stuff in one binder with tab dividers right now, but pretty soon we're going to need to split that binder up because there's too much to fit in one.

I think as we move into CTC there is a notebooking workbook that HOD sells. Does this eliminate the need for all those binders?

[annaz]

Mmmm. I like binders for one reason. The kids can remove the page and work on it, whereas if it was bound, it's harder to work in a bounded book.

I have a comb-binding machine and hardly ever use it. If it was spiral bound (circular punched holes as opposed to rectangular punched holes, I'd use it a lot more. Mine binds the flat spirals. I can't open the bound pages and fold them back. On the other hand, I can store the pages this way after binding them, long term instead of taking the pages out or storing the binder. But how long do you really want to do that?

As far as 3-ring binders, I prefer a bunch of small ones. One for each need. CTC has Student Notebooking pages that are 3-hole punched, put in a binder on your own. We found it easier to remove some pages to work on then put them back. Some also need things glued to them, so having them bound as a workbook wouldn't work. If you buy any binding machine, the circular binds, not the flat binds, work better. Those you can at least open and fold back if you have a large enough bind. You'd want one that binds larger items to enable the "book" to be folded back in half.

But I've tried to store all in one large binder and found it extremely cumbersome. Tiny ones are better if you do stay with this method, even ones that perhaps don't have such a hard cumbersome cover.

[Mom2Monkeys]

we moved tonusing composition books mostly and a couple binders....Bigger we used one.big binder then split into.history and.science with each having another section like dictation or grammar. then in Preparing we had two small binders...one history and one.science smd then spiral notebooks. We didn't like the spirals. pages.tore out and.it bugged us.
now for.CTC I have a binder with a more flimsy cover for draw and.write drawings and.copywork. a binder foe.Tue student notebooming pages, and another small binder for sconce labs, day 3 questions, and notebookimg.pages. then I have composition books for dictation, rod & staff, and..... drawing a blank.
I think ill need one more binder for the field notes and travel logs for geography.

if I were to ever get any of Tue binder.materials bound, it would he an.absolute hassel! I much prefer being able to.work with a little at a time then just store it together, remove and add as.needed.

[funkmomma71]

I use a Pro-click, which I LOVE!!! It is super easy to use and you can edit , meaning you can open it if you want add, subtract, or just rearrange pages. You can buy pre-punched translucent covers or you can make your covers from card stock either laminated or not. I have used to make planners for myself, calendars, copybooks, workbooks, or of course, keep my children's schoolwork organized.

As an example, this year my ds has been doing preschool work, so every few weeks I have put his completed ABC pages, number, and color pages into his "notebook". It makes going through it for review super easy and it is not bulky.

For my dd, I have made notebook pages for her bible, science, and history and put them all together into separate notebooks and she uses them like workbooks, and again everything is kept neat and orderly. Next year we will probably just add her notebook pages as we go along or maybe after a "term", like every six weeks.

Before buying the Pro-click I would just keep all my dd work in file folders and at the end of the year I would have them bound in to books at Office Max. That gets pretty expensive AND the pages would usually get ragged from all the in and out of the file folders.

One of the previous posters mentioned using a comb binder and why she doesn't use it very much, well the Pro-click folds back flat just like a spiral bound notebook, but it can be opened and closed like a binder. I'm going to stop writing now since I think I'm starting to sound like an infomercial! LOL ;D Hopefully I've been helpful

[mom23]

Thank you! That is so helpful, as the proclick was what I was looking at! Actually, the machine is made for wire binding, but will work with the pro click binders, as well. I was sort of wondering if they worked very well to fold back onto themselves, and it sounds like you use them that way. It was kind of hard to tell from the pictures .

The wire binders are much cheaper, I thought I could use those for anything permanent, but the pro click ones could be used for our current school stuff.