I love being able to reuse the student activities, but I really don't think you need to laminate. I've used them with multiple kids and they have been fine. I just keep them in the page protectors. ❤

I prepped levels 1 and 2. I’m so happy I prepped them because my friend was able to use level 1 with her triplets and I’ll use it again with my second son one day, so 4 and eventually 5 kids will have used it! We’re on level 3 right now and I dreaded prepping it so I didn’t. Turns out I really can’t stand daily prep 😂 I’ll spend my weekend prepping the rest of level 3. But wow, that’s a LOT of laminating. I’d say a couple of things for next time…you might notice this as you go.. 1) the word flippers need to be stapled together to do the activity as intended and be truly open and go. 2) for next time, you could keep the word lists in its own sheet protector and never remove it. You could save the a couple of steps, but it would still have plastic protection. 3) after a lesson, the word and phonogram cards will need to be filed as mastered or review”, so they’ll leave the binder anyway… halfway through level 1 my kid usually had cards mastered after one attempt so I didn’t need the cards at all,… he just read the words straight out of the book, but most kids do need more review. 4) I only laminated or made copies of selected items. This might not be helpful for your purposes, but in case it is, I’ll share… I made photocopies of the word flippers and cut and stapled the copies together and kept the originals in the sheet protector. If they destroy it I have a master copy. Plus AAR usually is good about emailing people one or two damaged or lost pages. I only laminated high touch items if a kid is supposed to pretend to chop or cut or flip or build something… the words they’re just reading and putting into a pile have been just fine because they’re doing it side by side with me then it goes right back into the sheet protector 45 seconds later. I also laminated pages where you’re supposed to cut a slot and slide something through it…And only the sheet protectors from the applicable lessons come to the table. I don’t bring out the whole binder ever, just the sheet protectors for the current lessons. This system has worked will doing it with 4 and 2 year olds around and also for my friend with the triplets who also had a toddler underfoot. My level 1 used a 1.5 inch binder, level 2 used a 2 inch binder… I have a 2.5 inch binder for level 3, but I guess I’ll see if that’s sufficient or not this weekend 😆

Good tips here, thanks for sharing!!

0:47 I haven’t watched the entire video, but I also use a regular poly folder w/brads & house 5 lessons at a time. This way I only pull out the small, poly folder & Teacher’s Manual daily, versus the humongous binder. I pull out the huge binder probably every week & half to rotate & replenish the 5 lessons. It took me a lil over 2hrs to prep a whole level. We just popped in a movie, I cut & paper-clipped all the cutouts, put in sleeves, I had my husband staple the lil flipper booklets. I did not laminate anything but I did have the Teacher’s Manual spiral-bounded at Office Depot for like $7.

Thank you so much. I appreciate the advice.

This was super helpful!

I did this with older kids and they helped me prep!!! I got why are we prepping? I said it be worth it!!!

Holy moly, girl! That’s one big binder! I have 4 - 3” binders for Madelyn’s LA program. It was about 900 pages 😳 But thankfully I basically just printed everything, made tabs for each week, and was good to go. You deserve the best homeschool mom award for this! So much time, effort and love went into it! I think it’s a great that you laminated everything. That will definitely give it the longevity you need to last throughout the years. I do love to prep curriculum and laminate and organize all the things while jamming to some tunes or binge watching my favorite KZfaqrs.

This made my little passionate organizer heart so happy and excited to start homeschooling😂Is that binder for the entire year? And for all the kiddos?? *me going to go watch the unboxing now too* lol

This definitely takes a long time to prep😂❤

Hi there, question- Could I just keep the student workbook in tact and prep the cut out elements? I’d like to be able to keep her work together.

oh girl your flipper books were supposed to get stapled all together on the edge with the staple marks so the kids can practice turning the pages and see the consonant change and so that the pieces aren't all loose. I could see possibly laminating the big back piece and then stapling all the pages on top of that if you're really concerned about the longevity of the program.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy a second student pack than laminating the whole thing? I don't know where you buy your laminating pouches, but they aren't cheap. I also feel like it's rather unnecessary since the materials are literally used for one lesson and then you're done with them. They're not pieces you're going to be pulling out daily (aside from the flash cards) and that will be getting wear and tear. I'm just confused on why you thought this was necessary, seems like a huge waste of time and money to me...