Posts tagged ‘recycling’

Learn all about recycling at the Recycling-Guide website. Here you’ll find everything from how-to guides to recycling etiquette. You’ll also learn about the important reasons why we should recycle, which includes numerous facts and figures. They even have a page that helps you learn where to recycle. As if all this weren’t enough, they also include valuable educational activities for teaching your kids all about recycling, with lots of fun recycling crafts and projects that are easy to do.

Description of Product: “Loads of tips and advice on how to recycle almost everything! Recycling is a big issue and we are here to help…Recycling is one of the best ways for you to have a positive impact on the world in which we live. Recycling is important to both the natural environment and us. We must act fast as the amount of waste we create is increasing all the time.”

Parents can stay up to date on all the latest recycling news on their Blog as well!

Homeschool Uses: What better way is there to improve the environment than to teach our youngsters that recycling is not only important but fun. In the Recycling-Guide’s Educational Activities section (on the schools page), parents will find a number of recycling ideas and hands-on projects. They even provide teaching tips–like using role play to express opinions. There are pages that help kids become familiar with recycling symbols, arts and crafts that make learning more interesting, and puzzles. This is a great topic to weave into your science curriculum. In fact, the Recycling-Guide also contains a Science page, which is designated to teaching kids about various types of recycling materials.

Content and Safety: I didn’t find anything on this site that would threaten safety. There is nothing to sign up for and no personal information is given out. The content focuses on recycling topics and is targeted towards educators, parents and their children.

Using the Product: I took a look around and was surprised at all the information packed into one site. Although this is a UK-based site, the information can be used and put into practice anywhere. One look at the recycling facts should be more than enough to provoke interest in utilizing their recycling tips at home. For instance, did you know that just one recycled can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours? Amazing!

I found the site to be easy to maneuver around and all the topics are easily located at the top on individual tabs, which consist of additional pages. The activities were simple, and I even printed off the recycling poster, which requires Adobe Reader.

Tutorial or Promotional Video of the Product: I did not find any tutorials or videos regarding the use of the site; however, you don’t really need one. Everything you need is right there within easy viewing.

Summary: Recycling is definitely important to the future of our precious environment–but also to our children, as they are our future. Teaching them the importance of recycling, through the use of fun projects and interesting facts, can hopefully lead the way for greener habits and lifestyles as they grow. Not only can your children benefit from the Recycling-Guide, but we parents could certainly learn a thing or two as well.

This post was written by Nikki P., homeschool mom and Lesson Pathways contributor. You can find this original review post at ChoosyHomeschooler.

With our recent announcement of the new print function on LessonPathways.com, we thought you’d like to hear some ways you can keep your printing cost down.

Since the time I began homeschooling, I’ve always generously used the abundance of resources found on the Internet.  I could often be heard saying “All you need is a printer and a ream of paper to homeschool!”

While a ream of paper isn’t very expensive compared to the cost of a text or work book, you can easily find yourself spending more than you need on printing supplies.  Here are a few tips to help you stretch your dollar when it comes to printing and using Internet resources.

Saving on Paper

The saying “A penny saved is a penny earned” definitely applies here.  Before printing, consider carefully if this is something you really do need to print.  If you need to keep a portfolio of work, consider keeping a paperless portfolio.  Use a free service such as Screen Shot Captor to take screen shots of your child’s online work, instead of printing.  Not only will this save on paper (and ink!), but it will save precious real estate on your bookshelf!  Each year, save it to a CD or thumb drive to have your permanent portfolio.  You can always print it later, if absolutely needed.

Print on both sides of the paper. Not only are you saving paper, you’ll have less paper to cram into your binder!  Also, if you are printing something small, such as clip art, try to arrange more than one on each sheet

Use up your scraps.   If you are printing something that will be cut out, save your left over scrap of paper.  This can be used for scratch paper when working math problems, doodling or art projects, or jotting down your grocery list.

Use recycled paper.  A very good friend of mine receives the paper designated for the recycle bin from local businesses.  Most of this paper is only printed on one side, leaving her the other side free for her own use.  She rarely needs to buy paper!

Stock up! Keep your eye out for sales and rebates, most often found at the beginning of the school year.  Take advantage of the low prices by purchasing the maximum allowed and don’t forget to submit for your rebate!

Saving on Ink

Needless to say, if you saving on paper by printing only what you absolutely need, you’re already saving on ink.  There are a few other ink-saving strategies you can implement, for the times you do need to print.

Check your printer settings.  Many printers have the print quality options.  Try changing it to “draft” mode or a lower print quality when printing worksheets and such.  Most of the time, “draft mode” quality will suffice.  This uses less ink and will speed up the printing process too!

Print in black and white.  Color ink is more expensive than black ink.  Unless it’s needed, print in “grayscale” or black and white.  Some printers even offer a “coloring book” or “outline” option.  This prints just the outline of the graphics on your page.  If you can do this, you can let your child color in the pictures for added color.

Find less expensive ink sources.  Our printer ink normally costs around $70 if I purchase through our local office supply store.  I’ve found great deals at sites such as 123inkjets.com, and have been able to replenish my ink supply for up to 50% less!  Specialty websites such as these often offer “off-brand” or reconditioned ink cartridges.  It’s worth checking to see if your brand can be found there.

Refill your ink. Many stores are now offering “ink refill stations”.  This is another great way to reduce your ink costs.  Also, keep your eye out at unconventional places such as your local dollar store.  I’ve found ink refills at mine for $1.00!  Even though it can get messy to refill your own ink cartridges at home, you can save a lot!

These are a few strategies I’ve used to cut costs.  How do you save on printer supplies?

This post was written by Christina S., homeschool mom of two and LessonPathways.com team member.  You can find out more about her and other contributors by visiting the “Our People” page.

This is the final post in a 5 part series written by Bethany of Confessions of an Organized Homeschool Mom. Be sure to check back to read more great tips for taming the paper beast!”

Welcome to the final segment of the “Put Paper in Its Place” series! If you’re a homeschooler and if you’ve been reading the entire series, this last section should just help you synthesize everything. As you may already suspect, I am not an advocate of keeping every single worksheet, piece of art, or diorama produced by the little darlings. Shocking, I know. Surprisingly, neither am I an advocate for trashing everything. You’ll be pleased to know that a middle ground exists. It’s called a portfolio.

The word portfolio usually strikes fear in the heart of homeschoolers. I have to keep a what? Why would I want to keep all that stuff? But all of the shadow boxes, insect project boards, wooden villages, and authentic medieval costumes won’t fit into a binder! Yes, I have heard all these comments and more whenever the topic of portfolios comes up. Yet, I always reply that a portfolio is not only a necessary thing, but also a good thing. Let me show you how and why.

What is a portfolio, anyway? I decided to look up the word in my official Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition to see what its normal usage is. After all, it’s a unique homeschooling word, right? At least, I thought the way that homeschoolers used the word was specific to us. I almost fell off my chair when I read this definition:

“a selection of a student’s work (as papers and tests) compiled over a period of time and used for assessing performance or progress.”

So much for being revolutionary! Regardless, a portfolio is a collection of your child’s scholarly achievements.

How do you gather all this stuff? Do you just grab the last three pages out of your kids’ hands on June 15 and call it good? Do you wait until your high school senior tells you that his prospective college wants to see his portfolio when he visits tomorrow? No, no, no! On the other hand, you really don’t need to have the exact same number of papers for every subject perfectly typed on the computer and color coded in a set of twelve filing boxes.

A meritorious portfolio does not include every single assignment from every single subject. It includes a representation of work completed: the best writing samples, the best test scores, the best artwork, the best notebooking pages, and the best worksheet pages. It also includes pictures of 3-D projects, field trips, and other activities that can’t be condensed into a single written document. Set aside some work from every academic year. Do it as you go through the year so that it will not be an overwhelming task at whatever point you close out records for each year. I take my children’s desk binders about once a month, choose papers to go into the portfolio, and trash the rest, unless they’re needed for a later test.

The further your child gets academically, the more you may wish to weed out some of the earlier work. You may end up with only one kindergarten handwriting page and one first grade math test by the time your child graduates. That’s fine. Don’t take all of it out, though. I’ve attended homeschool graduations where a portfolio containing selections from twelve years’ worth of work was displayed. It was really neat to see the child’s scholastic progression through the years. Your child may enjoy looking back over her progress as well.

Okay, you’re collecting all of these papers and photos (of larger projects), so where do you put all of them? The best place for a portfolio is in a binder. Yes, even for you file foxes. The main reason for this is that a portfolio should be portable. (Extra bonus points if you notice that both of these words have port as the root, from the Latin word porto, which means I carry.) It’s much easier to carry a binder into a college admission counselor’s office than it is to carry a filing cabinet. You’ll definitely want a 3-inch size for this project. Feel free to let your child choose her favorite color, or buy the kind with the clear pocket on the front and have your student design her own cover.

Put subject dividers into the binder. File the papers from earliest (kindergarten or whatever grade you started homeschooling or saving papers) to the latest within each subject. Just save one out of every ten, twenty, or even thirty pages. Save more tests than regular worksheets. Save the best essays, and choose just one of those essays to show all of the child’s work—outline, rough drafts, corrections, and final draft.

I can hear you now: Why am I making a portfolio? It sounds like way too much work, and it’s not even required by my state! Do I still need to make one even if my child is not headed to college? Obviously, some states make portfolios mandatory, but aside from that, reasons abound for making one. If you choose not to give actual grades or not to fill out a report card (or its equivalent), then a portfolio becomes even more important. A portfolio gives physical evidence that little Johnny really is a genius—just as you always thought! Portfolios preserve hard work, provide evidence for skeptical grandparents or other family members and friends, help with planning for younger siblings, and record grades and/or levels earned and completed.

If you have piles and boxes of papers, start slowly. Set up the binder first so you have a place to put the papers you’re saving. Then go through one stack or box a day, perhaps while you’re watching TV at night, and eventually you will have a lovely portfolio of your child’s academic successes. I’m cringing as I write this, but I just have to reiterate that you must keep up with a project this large or it will get away from you. If you put a few papers into the portfolio every month or so, it will be no big deal, but if you procrastinate, you’ll find it more difficult to subdue the paper piles.

I hope you’ve found this series on paper to be helpful. The more I wrote, the more I realized could be written; however, this is it for now. I’ve provided you with the tips and encouragement that you need to conquer the paper monster once and for all.

This post was written by Bethany L., homeschool mom, Lesson Pathways contributor and author of the Confessions of an Organized Homeschool Mom blog.

This is the 4th  post in a 5 part series written by Bethany of Confessions of an Organized Homeschool Mom. Be sure to check back to read more great tips for taming the paper beast!”

This is the post for which you have all been waiting. I’m going to give you a clutter-free way to save all your favorite magazine articles, recipes printed from the Internet, and helpful seminar notes.

First things first: do not read any further until you have sorted through all the papers already in your house (see the first article in this series, “Do I Really Need to Keep It?”). Next, set up your filing system. If you’ve been reading the whole series, you should have chosen to set up either a filing cabinet/drawer/box system or a binder system.

After you get your have-to-save papers under control, it’s time to sit down with a cup of tea and sort through your want-to-save papers. Go through every piece of paper and re-evaluate it. Are you really going to make that recipe, or is it wishful thinking that your picky eaters will actually eat the exotic vegetable recipes you’ve been hoarding? Are you going to re-read those notes and articles? Are they still relevant and helpful? If you can answer a truthful “yes” to these questions, then put those papers off to one side in stacks (recipes in one stack, home decorating articles in another pile, organization tips in yet another spot, etc).

Next, pull out all the back issues of the magazines you can’t seem to resist at the grocery checkout line or to which you subscribe. This is a good activity for when you’re watching TV or waiting for soccer practice to end. Go through each magazine (quickly–it will take much longer if you re-read everything!). Try to remember why you saved the magazine in the first place. Did it have some great recipes you wanted to save? A new look you wanted to try for your living room? A great article on working from home? If you can’t remember why you saved the magazine, or if you can’t find any articles that you– in retrospect–really want to keep, throw the magazine out (or put it in the recycling bin). Yes, I’m serious. Do I need to come over and pry it out of your fingers? It won’t hurt; I promise!

Go through all the articles you pulled out of the magazines and sort them into piles with your other want-to-save articles and papers. Now comes the fun part: organizing them in such a way that you’ll be able to reference them easily, which is really the point of saving them.

Look at your (neat) piles. Do you have a lot of piles? Is each pile a mile high, or do you just have a few piles containing a few papers each? For just a moment, set the recipes aside. We’re going to do something different with them soon.

Binder Queens: Decide whether one binder will be sufficient for your want-to-save papers. If not, figure out which categories can be combined and how many binders you will need. Make labeled dividers for each topic. File the papers from each pile. Either punch holes or put the pages into sheet protectors. That’s it!

File Foxes: Set up a new hanging file or files, depending on how many papers and subjects you have. If some themes can be combined, form a broader category for them. Then make labeled file folders for each topic. Put the papers from each pile in the proper file folder–in alphabetical order–in your filing cabinet/drawer/box, and you’re done!

Let’s talk about the recipes now. Let’s face it: not all of the recipes will be as picture perfect on your table as they are in the magazine or online. Or maybe you’ve tried certain recipes that didn’t go over too well with your family, yet you kept the recipe. Go through all the recipes and trash the ones you know you won’t use again. Get another binder; a one-inch binder should be large enough, unless you have a ton of recipes. Yes, even if you’re a File Fox, this is an instance in which a binder is the best tool for the job. Get dividers and label them for each type of recipe you have: meats, vegetables, soup, desserts, salads, etc. Punch holes or put the recipes in clear page protectors.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m going to reiterate that in order for the system to work, you have to keep up with it after you start. I am the last person to tell you not to buy any more magazines or not to print off cool recipes from the Internet. Instead, turn down the pages of the articles or recipes you think you absolutely have to save. When you’re done with the whole magazine, go back and review the turned-down pages. If you think you still have to save the articles/recipes/ideas, just rip them out and toss the rest of the magazine away. Either file the papers right away, which is obviously preferable, or put them into your to-be-filed bin for later in the week.

There, you can have your cake and eat it too!

This post was written by Bethany L., homeschool mom, Lesson Pathways contributor and author of the Confessions of an Organized Homeschool Mom blog.

Did you know that most “junk” is still useful and can be recycled? Few people take the time to notice the countless items around them that hold so much potential. However, I am a recycling junkie, possessing firsthand knowledge of this hidden potential, even in the most unlikely of objects. Saving money is nothing new. Heck, who wouldn’t like to have a little more in her pockets? What’s sad is some people are leery about reusing old items, be it in the home or in the garden, afraid others will think they’re cheap. On the contrary, frugal individuals like me are not cheap–we’re simply being artistic (and happily saving money in the process).

Here are just some of the numerous ideas you can try to help you get started in the art of recycling…and remember, even if you share the same idea for something, it can still be unique if you add a personal touch.

• Consider displaying a number of your prized possessions on a makeshift shelf made from a rustic piece of board from a torn-down barn or other structure. Alternatively, you could spruce up an old ladder, adding quilts, family photos, etc. This is also a good way to preserve a small piece of history, perhaps even your own.

• Reuse boxes as makeshift furniture. Large boxes or plastic crates become instant dressers or shelves. Just stack them up (opening facing out). This is a great temporary fix for anyone on a budget (I did this following my divorce). You can also recycle old drawers to store treasures. Toilet paper tubes make interesting holders for writing supplies. Apply self-stick fabric to cereal boxes and store magazines or files in them.

• Don’t overlook little items. Small touches can add big appeal. CDs can be reused as reflectors, coasters, or other objects–like clocks. A stunning pair of earrings can be used to accent hand towels or curtains. Crystal necklaces or similar items can be used to dress up chandeliers. Hardware items, such as hooks or brackets, make great hangers for pots and pans, which can also become interesting pieces of art. Years ago, my brother asked me to help spruce up his landscape. While clearing the backyard of piled-up trash, I found a cast-iron skillet, old and filled with flaky rust. Anyone else would have tossed it, again. Not me. I took it home, cleaned it up, and painted a rooster on the outside of it. Then I hung it up on the kitchen wall where it’s right at home with my rooster collection.

• Create artwork by reusing old signs, magazine covers, board games, puzzles, or outdated books and calendars. Place your treasure in a frame and hang it on the wall or place it on a shelf. Use an old windowpane for framing photos, or cover an end table with a piece of glass and add your favorite photographs or artwork beneath it for everyone to enjoy. Laminate all that piled-up artwork (from your children) and decorate a bookcase or even a wall with them. You can turn your child’s favorite toy figurines into ornaments too.

• Use old clothes for creative projects. For example, when used as fabric, old pieces of clothing can make wonderful placemats, quilts, pillows, etc. Pockets are good for storing small items. Take them from a worn out pair of jeans and sew them on an old quilt, and then hang it up. Fill the pockets with sewing notions, craft tools, or even office supplies. You could also use pieces taken from favorite items to create a special memory quilt. Take those old boots and shoes and place them in the garden as plant holders.

• Turn a chipped bowl into a planter or centerpiece filled with potpourri. Use an old planter as a decorative storage container, filling it with washcloths in the bathroom. Plastic milk jugs or soda bottles can be turned into plant containers or piggy banks for the kids. Old coffee and soup cans can also make interesting containers for plants or candles. Transform a watering can into a garden fountain. Reuse baby wipe containers (the cylinder ones) as yarn dispensers to help prevent tangling. The list goes on and on.

Dare to be different. With a little creativity, you can turn nearly anything into something useful.

This post was written by Nikki P., homeschool mom and Lesson Pathways contributor.