Homeschooling without a Printer

For over a week now I have been living without a printer.  It suddenly stopped sucking up paper and, of course, this happened immediately after I installed a new ($50) ink cartridge. I even took it to our computer shop to see if it could be fixed because the scanner portion was still working.  As you would guess, replacement parts are more expensive than a new printer.

Even though I have saved a small forest by not printing things that I can, obviously now, live without, I'm not sure it is going to off-set the the waste generated by buying a new printer.  And why don't these things last longer??  I understand the market, but I don't like it!

Anyway...living (and homeschooling) without a printer has been a good exercise.  We do not rely heavily on "print-ables" or worksheets for school, but I can see even more places we could cut back.  I can live without printing the crossword, I can take notes by hand, I can draw, I can save recipes and look at them electronically.  And my friend, very astutely observed, "People have been homeschooling without printers for hundreds of years."  Yes, I suppose you're right...as long as you don't ask me to live without the computer!

So do you want to see a few of my creative expressions in lieu of clip-art?  My grandma would be so proud of my artistic practice!

I had to free-hand a penguin. Yes, I was using a book illustration as a guide!
What kind of penguin?  I don't know...one with orange feet and a feathery tail!


And today I had to free-hand a zebra outline. Which was probably a good thing...where am I going to find a clip-art zebra outline...the stripes make the zebra, right?







But that was the whole point.  Calvin and Andrew painted the stripes on their zebras. Kinda fun!  

And check out the cool table-top easel they got for Christmas.  This was it's maiden voyage.  It was perfect for them both to work at the same time.  



I think my grandma would be proud of Calvin too.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow! Calvin's zebra is awesome! He even got a little 3D action with the curved stripes on the body. The artistic genes must run down your branch of the family tree. :)
Aunt Missy
February 19, 2011 at 5:53 AM
Anonymous said…
I hope that zebra ended up being framed... it does look super great! Printer, schminter! kmc
February 21, 2011 at 12:53 PM
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