However, many people don’t want to print entire e-books and we understand!  Like most of you, we’ve purchased PDF files from other companies and stored them on our computer only to forget about them.  Out of sight, out of mind.  We don’t want you to forget about the NaturExplorers units – they’re far too much fun to stay hidden in the depths of you computer!  :)

Sheri from Scrapbooks and Lapbooks agreed to allow us to post her wonderful idea for keeping a visual file of all the e-books on your computer.  She has specifically written her post about the Hands of a Child lapbooks (which we love, too!), but the idea can be used for any e-books you own.

Sheri’s Post…

Ok, so after attending a conference last weekend, and hearing Niki from Hands of a Child speak and show her wares, I got to thinking….I know I have a lot of their ebooks, but which ones and where are they all.  Well, yes-I am that unorganized with such things-I have them burned to CDs and on my flash drive…but not all in one spot (now I do, as I made one CD with just those on it).  So then I thought-hmm, when I am planning, I don’t want to have to go thru the CD to see what I have…how can I make it so I know which ones I have and have it all neat and tidy?  Hmm…then duh!  I have had some postcard plastic sheet holders (I used them in my SU demo chick days to showcase the cards I made) and well-why not…

So I right clicked/saved then transfered to MS Word, the pics of the ones I have. I resized em to fit the holder slots, and now I have a nice display and reference of what I have.  No more guessing.  I can easily slide them out and rearrange to add more down the road too.  I did copy em in color, but one could easily do just gray scale.  I used what I had laying around…so these holders are bigger than what most would want.  I know you can buy those baseball trading card holders (most stores carry them in the sporting goods or in the trading cards area) in a pack, and then you could just size them for those slots.  It would save on ink as well as get you more per sheet, due to the smaller size.  I also am have a section going for my Home School in the Woods lapbook collection, my Live and Learn Press and the A Journey through Learning lapbooks too.  I just haven’t printed those but for one, due to running out of colored ink and time (IE: having to go thru my CDs to find them again…after knowing I had to get my puter diagnosed and then subsequently get it switched out from Vista to Windows 7-I had to do a quick “save it or lose it” CD burn-a-thon…so they are everywhere).  SO that is for another day when I have nothing better to do.

Hope this idea helps you organize your ebook collection too…and man, frankly-I could do this for all my ebooks I have. Hmm, another project for down the road.

I have these stored in my Lapbook 3-ring binder.  I also have the stuff I copy off from Homeschool Share in tabbed sections behind this-that way if I revisit the stuff, I have it already to go.

That empty spot is for the Hot Diggity Dog cover…I believe it is the current free one for the semi-annual freebie on HOAC..so until that is back on the site…that spot sits all empty like. Oh that is funny-just realized the Galaxies needs to go down to that blank spot and Hot Diggity can go after…guess I need to brush up on my alphabetizing skills-LOL!

I have one more on the back side of this…a couple are the free sample lapbooks (so I only have some sections of it-and plan on just writing “sample” on a slip of paper to slide in on top of them until I buy the full kit).  Many of these are ones I got for free, others I bought, and one was a part of the goodie package I got when  I renewed my TOS magazine subscription.  I am awaiting the States, and the Astronomy one (just purchased them at the conference)…looking to check them out. Fun, Fun!

Thank you, Sheri!  Be sure to check out her original post.  Others have commented with some of their own organization ideas, too.  And below is a little more about her and the FOUR blogs she maintains.

I also like to find ways to organize, and remember the huge collection of eBooks I now am in possession of. The highlighted post is one way I came up with to do just that.

However our opinion is that a printed out unit will most benefit you. So we have a suggestion that is not only affordable, but very functional, too. In fact, this is how we prepare the units for our own families to use!

What you need:
Printer
Three Hole Punch
1/2″ Three Ring View Binder
White Printer Paper
White Cardstock
Insertable Page Protectors (Optional)
Lined Notebook Paper (Optional)

For the best quality printout, set your printer settings to “text and image” printing. Print the cover of the unit on cardstock and slip it in the view pocket on the front of the binder.

On regular printing paper, print the entire unit, or whichever parts will most benefit you, and three hole punch the pages. Since you may be copying the notebooking pages, an option would be to not three hole punch them. But instead place them in protective page covers to have them ready to copy. You could also be really prepared and have as many copies of each of the notebooking pages that you will need already copied and placed in the binder ready to use.

Next, place all the pages in the three ring binder. If you’d like, add a few lined pages in the back to keep notes or add additional ideas.  If you come across another great idea that goes with the theme, you can easily add it to the binder as well, keeping all of those great ideas together in one place! Also, if you will be keeping a lesson planner, you can keep it in your notebook as well.

We hope that this suggestion is helpful to you!