No sleep....
Feb. 20th, 2011 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiberaddictI guess it's pain, because not much else is going on right now - we're in a waiting period. Fun stuff...
Yesterday, we went out to pick up some Math books. I have a lot of stuff bookmarked online, but - since we are pulling him out mid-year - I decided it would be best to have *something* in print, just in case the school wants to play nasty. (Yes, I've lawyered up - HSLDA isn't that expensive, and seems worth the money - but still, don't want to use them if I don't have to.)
We hit Half-Price Books first......and the "local" one has a pretty good section specifically for Homeschooling. I must have spent a good hour there......got some books in a series called "Creation ________" I got Science, Astronomy, and Anatomy. They're chrischun, but they're for K-12, they work Art/Music/whatever into each section (which is cool), and seem to be - on a quick browse, anyway - pretty good. They were $9.98 each, so not too much wasted funds if they are crap - and I can use the crap as a jumping-off point. I also stocked up on Asimov (for free-reading - Himself is already DONE with his age-level stuff) and "real" Astronomy books (Hawkin's "Brief History of Time", anyone? :lol:)
We then hit Borders, which is going out of business. 20% off of everything, + 10% if you're a member (and some things were 30% - 40% off to start!). I...um....OK, I'm a book junkie; adding the word "Sale" to "Book" makes me go a little crazy. We now have 4 Science Experiment sets, a skeleton model for Anatomy lessons, a scale model of Stonehenge....and, of course, more books. 1 of which is "What your kid should know by the end of 6th grade", just because, and some good Math books. Let's not discuss the hit to my wallet - I will defend myself by saying that we are set for this year and next, and I won't be able to run free in a bookstore ever again. Or at least, not like this.
After lunch, we hit Mardel's......yes, it's chrischun, but they have a HUGE HS section. :sigh: I scored the 2-volume set on History of the World, with the Teacher's Guide AND Test guide, some new microscope slides...I think that was it. It's all a blur - I think I hit book overload, which doesn't happen often. :lol:
I still need to find Grammar books, but I'm going to look for .pdfs online - which leads to a question I've been mulling over.
OK...so I'm on an email list for freebies - won't name it, since I don't want an active link here due to the nature of my discussion - they mostly have links to free .pdf files. Usually, it's aimed at much younger kids, but I've gotten a lot of good resources over the years. All free.
Every once in a while, they'll send me an email where they're selling CD collections of stuff they've gathered together. I usually delete them - before now, I wasn't going to HS, so didn't really *need* CDs laying around - but last week I decided to check out the "deal". Ummm....
1 CD = normally *$50* - full of the resources that a) they got free; b) they've offered for free before; and c) that are still available ON THE WEB for free.
I went thru and wrote down the resources on both CDs, to see if it'd be worth the $$......then I saw some that I had downloaded. Huh. I then went to Google with my list - and all 12 items I had marked were there, still free to download. Granted, I had to do the search, but....
I feel like they are doing something..not necessarily wrong, but.....immoral, by selling CDs of free stuff at such a huge profit. Is it just me? I mean, yeah - they went thru and put it all together - but the CDs aren't organized; I mean, this particular set has a little bit of this'n'that on it - it's not like they spent the time to put together a "Science" CD, or an "Art" CD or anything like that. This collection has a bunch of various holiday stuff, some reading, some Art, some crafts, some - well, everything.
It just.....gave me a bad feeling. I mean - normally $50? For free stuff? CDs aren't that expensive, and it doesn't take that long to burn one - so you're talking massive profit here. Yeah, they *did* go thru and find the stuff.....but, honestly? Anyone with a search engine can find the same stuff, if they think about doing it.
I'm going to stay on the list for now, because I don't know what I don't know. Thanks to their CD collection, I found a bunch of OOP Chemistry, Astronomy, and Rocketry texts that now reside on my Mac - and I wouldn't have thought to go looking for them. But...I have a bad taste in my mouth about them now.....is it just me? Am I being too...high-and-moral? I do sometimes get that way.........I don't think I am in this case, but wanted some outside views, too.
Yesterday, we went out to pick up some Math books. I have a lot of stuff bookmarked online, but - since we are pulling him out mid-year - I decided it would be best to have *something* in print, just in case the school wants to play nasty. (Yes, I've lawyered up - HSLDA isn't that expensive, and seems worth the money - but still, don't want to use them if I don't have to.)
We hit Half-Price Books first......and the "local" one has a pretty good section specifically for Homeschooling. I must have spent a good hour there......got some books in a series called "Creation ________" I got Science, Astronomy, and Anatomy. They're chrischun, but they're for K-12, they work Art/Music/whatever into each section (which is cool), and seem to be - on a quick browse, anyway - pretty good. They were $9.98 each, so not too much wasted funds if they are crap - and I can use the crap as a jumping-off point. I also stocked up on Asimov (for free-reading - Himself is already DONE with his age-level stuff) and "real" Astronomy books (Hawkin's "Brief History of Time", anyone? :lol:)
We then hit Borders, which is going out of business. 20% off of everything, + 10% if you're a member (and some things were 30% - 40% off to start!). I...um....OK, I'm a book junkie; adding the word "Sale" to "Book" makes me go a little crazy. We now have 4 Science Experiment sets, a skeleton model for Anatomy lessons, a scale model of Stonehenge....and, of course, more books. 1 of which is "What your kid should know by the end of 6th grade", just because, and some good Math books. Let's not discuss the hit to my wallet - I will defend myself by saying that we are set for this year and next, and I won't be able to run free in a bookstore ever again. Or at least, not like this.
After lunch, we hit Mardel's......yes, it's chrischun, but they have a HUGE HS section. :sigh: I scored the 2-volume set on History of the World, with the Teacher's Guide AND Test guide, some new microscope slides...I think that was it. It's all a blur - I think I hit book overload, which doesn't happen often. :lol:
I still need to find Grammar books, but I'm going to look for .pdfs online - which leads to a question I've been mulling over.
OK...so I'm on an email list for freebies - won't name it, since I don't want an active link here due to the nature of my discussion - they mostly have links to free .pdf files. Usually, it's aimed at much younger kids, but I've gotten a lot of good resources over the years. All free.
Every once in a while, they'll send me an email where they're selling CD collections of stuff they've gathered together. I usually delete them - before now, I wasn't going to HS, so didn't really *need* CDs laying around - but last week I decided to check out the "deal". Ummm....
1 CD = normally *$50* - full of the resources that a) they got free; b) they've offered for free before; and c) that are still available ON THE WEB for free.
I went thru and wrote down the resources on both CDs, to see if it'd be worth the $$......then I saw some that I had downloaded. Huh. I then went to Google with my list - and all 12 items I had marked were there, still free to download. Granted, I had to do the search, but....
I feel like they are doing something..not necessarily wrong, but.....immoral, by selling CDs of free stuff at such a huge profit. Is it just me? I mean, yeah - they went thru and put it all together - but the CDs aren't organized; I mean, this particular set has a little bit of this'n'that on it - it's not like they spent the time to put together a "Science" CD, or an "Art" CD or anything like that. This collection has a bunch of various holiday stuff, some reading, some Art, some crafts, some - well, everything.
It just.....gave me a bad feeling. I mean - normally $50? For free stuff? CDs aren't that expensive, and it doesn't take that long to burn one - so you're talking massive profit here. Yeah, they *did* go thru and find the stuff.....but, honestly? Anyone with a search engine can find the same stuff, if they think about doing it.
I'm going to stay on the list for now, because I don't know what I don't know. Thanks to their CD collection, I found a bunch of OOP Chemistry, Astronomy, and Rocketry texts that now reside on my Mac - and I wouldn't have thought to go looking for them. But...I have a bad taste in my mouth about them now.....is it just me? Am I being too...high-and-moral? I do sometimes get that way.........I don't think I am in this case, but wanted some outside views, too.
