How do I use computer presentations - tips on showing and printing our materials
September 18, 2007 — Alenka | Posted in Encyclopedic Knowledge, Foreign Language, Math, To Read.Since these books are Power Point Presentations, I show them to my baby on a computer and then print (See How to Create My Own Books).
- Showing Presentations on the Computer
- Randomizers for PowerPoint - problems resolved!
- Printing Presentations
- Creating your own Power Point Presentations
- Other Methods of creating books for your baby
Showing Presentations on the Computer
On the computer I show books 2-3 times a day for 1-2 weeks each (depending my kid's his interest). If the book is long, then I start just with a few pages (~6-10), and then show more pages every day. I show each page very-very briefly, only as long as it takes me to read what's on it. Even if you don't follow Doman's program, I would highly recommend not to dwell on a picture for a long time - .8th of a second is probably all your kid needs, and staring on it for a longer time might wear out your baby's patience! Though, if the picture is unclear, like Picasso's, or Dali's, or Monet's works, where it is just a big blob of impressionistic or surrealistic
haze, I would try to help my son identify, that this blob is actually a train, a girl, a flower.
By the way, if the book contains famous masterpieces, I don't recite it's entire name the first time we view the book: I would start by saying what's at the picture, on the second day I would say the name, by third-fifth day I would start saying artist's name, eventually I add year. So in the end I manage to spit out all the information, but only once it is already familiar to my child. If you've read our No testing! article, then you already know a technique of leaving the words out: reading a book a few times a week I would forget one or another word letting my son proudly say it himself. If he doesn't, I say it myself and give him a hug and a kiss regardless of his answer.
So, showing books is easy: just click F5 key in Power Point and vualya! read the book as appears on the screen, quickly traversing from one slide to the next - and stop before your baby wants to stop (it is better to leave the book unfinished then have a tired baby who doesn't want to watch it next time).
Showing Encyclopedic Knowledge books/presentations is very similar. Except to avoid baby learning the sequence of animals, metalloids or chemical elements we need to randomize them. Every time. I use the following free randomizer:Power Point Plugin for slide randomizing and teaching math . It allows to randomize pairs of slides (text on one slide, picture on the next) but it requires an even number of pages in the presentation. All the presentations that I create or translate have even number of pages, but if the presentation that you found on some other site doesn't have an even number of slides, just add another page or remove the title page (as you wish). I prefer adding a page where the book title is written without any distracting fonts or pictures.
Printing Power Point Presentations
I came up with a few options. First, simplest, cheapest, but less durable books:
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Staples, Office Depot and other stores sell sliding bar report covers: all of you probably used them in college (the ones I linked to are merely examples - I personally prefer "heavy weight" covers and protectors to make the page a little more sturdier). | ![]() ![]() |
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For especially loved and cherished books I placed their pages into individual sheet protectors and ring binders. | |
| The good thing: fast and easy! The bad: so far my almost two year old can hardly read a book without me - they are too fragile, sheets are too thin and easily crumble in the little hands; it is way too hard for a toddler to keep them open without damaging it. I am still experimenting. | ||
So, the next few methods involve a little more, but I like the results a lot better.
- I've heard someone purchased binding machine. I'd love to learn more about if you have an experience or you know someone who used it.
- I've heard someone used picture albums for the pages. I've tried some of the "page refills" - they are nice and thick, but smaller then the regular sized paper - cutting every page to make it fit was not on my agenda. 4×6 albums are way too small; 5×7 albums that hold just one picture per page - are rare.
- Thick paper: I've found much thicker paper - "Card stock", such as Xerox 8.5 x 11 Index Card stock. They are really similar to postcards - not as thick as a cardboard, but a lot more durable then regular paper. My sister buys something similar in a priceclub - a lot more cost efficient.
- Miniature books: for some small books, such as our alphabet books, I used "half size binders", like basic binder by wilsonJones (I'll add a link soon)) I've printed out my books on a card stock paper, cut them in half (I used very simple paper cutter that I purchsed in Michaels for $10), made three holes with a simple hole puncher and had a very pretty and sturdy little book!
My favorite Normal Size books: these are my favorite so far. I've printed the presentations (landscape format) on the thick paper above, used three hole puncher to make 4 holes on the right and… no binder. Instead I found binder rings that are sold separately (l'll add a link soon) and put them through the holes individually. To make it even pretty, I added a single sheet cover from Staples at the top.
It is quite sturdy, four rings on the side hold the book together pretty well and, most importantly, my baby can flip the pages from side to side as opposed to calendar style, that he can't hold! So he can actually read these books by himself!
Please share if you know any other method.
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