Putting Together Our Biology Book

If you saw my last post, A Different Biology, you know we will be using Wes Olson's Biology 101 this fall, along with John Hudson Tiner's Exploring the World of Biology.
I bought the ebooks for both so I could print them out for each of the kids as well as for me.  With at least one of my kids I will most certainly be reading aloud, so it will be helpful to have my own.  We can write in them and make notes.  AND I can put everything together in one book, in the order I want, and not be going back and forth between books and maybe forgetting when I wanted to read a chapter from the other book.

I paid $4.49 per book at Staples to have them bound. (It depends on the type of binding and the size binder needed - mine was 22 mm.)  In one book there were pages upside down and I'm absolutely certain that was my fault.  The same book had the wrong size spiral binding put on it.  But there was no problem!  She cheerfully cut off the binding, turned around the upside-down pages, and re-threaded it with the correct size.  She also told me if either of the other books had pages upside down, they would fix them also. =)
I hated that they had to waste one of the spiral thingys, but I'm thankful the mistakes were on the same book.  =)

I used my own clear binder cover (actually it says 'frost' but it's pretty clear - these -- they are heavyweight).  The free one that Staples offered along with their binding was too flimsy to last an entire year of being tossed around by teenagers.  And me.   ;-)


I made the cover page using various pictures.  The central pic is from Biology 101!  =)

See the Science Fact at the bottom?  😄

Next I put in a 1 page calendar, then the table of contents from both books.
I got this free school calendar from CalendarLabs.com, then tweaked and added highlighted days where needed.

Since I had chapters from 2 different books, and since some sections would have more chapters than others and it could get confusing, I used a colored sheet of paper between each section.  This is also where I printed the verses for that chapter.

 

Next I put in the assignment page.  Biology 101 comes with the assignments already made up, but I had typed up a few extra instructions.  This was typed very small on the left side of the page (see below) so that I could run it through the printer onto the Biology 101 assignment pages.  I like all the assignments on one page.  =)
I will add to and/or tweak these as we go.

Email me if you want my personal notes (see notes below, on the left side and at the bottom).  These include which chapters of Tiner's we will be using with each section of Biology 101.  You can also have the KJV verse pages if you want.
homeschoolersresources@gmail.com

hehe, I have "flower dissection" on there twice, lol.

Then came the Biology 101 chapter/section and the Tiner's biology pages.

At the end of each section, I put in a page with lines on both sides and a blank page.  Just in case I need them to write some notes or to draw something.
Last I added in the index pages from both books.

I did not include the answer keys in the kids' books; the quizzes will be open book.

For the back, I wanted a folder for a place to put in occasional loose papers, so I used a piece of cardstock as a guide to measure and draw lines, and cut down a file folder to fit.  =)
UPDATE: Either use plastic folders, or an additional heavyweight binder cover on the back of the cardboard folder.  With just a few days of use, I saw my cardboard ones were not going to hold up, so I had to get more holes punched in cut-down plastic folders, then cut one end off the spiral binding, and unbound and re-bound them myself.  You'll need needle-nose pliers to bend back the spiral binding.  Fun, fun.  =D  Actually not too bad once I got it going.

This is my book because I like green.  JohnDavid chose blue, and Bethany's is purple.

Including the pages I made up and added in (28), it ended up being over 160 sheets of paper, most printed on both sides.

I just love having our Biology made up into this cool book!  =)