Kindle and Homeschooling

As of last week, I am now a Kindle owner. For me, this was a bit of an impulse purchase—normally, I research large purchases for months, but I had  over $100 of Staples Rewards that I needed to use, and nothing that I especially needed. I did some quick research on the Kindle and decided that this was something I would make good use of.

So…I’ve spent the past several days learning the features of this cool gadget and finding sources of free books. I’ve found quite a few classic children’s books already in addition to books for myself and now I’m starting to wonder how I can make good use of the Kindle in our home school in addition to using it for my personal reading.

At Amazon free Kindle books, thus far, I’ve found:

ESV Bible: I think it’s a bit slower to find a passage than in a paper Bible, but I did discover that by using “Go to…Index,”  one can type in the reference, such as Jn 3 16, to hop directly to a particular verse. It’s almost as fast to pick the book from the Table of Contents, then navigate to the desired chapter. A feature I love is the “search.” I typed in “waiting,” and was immediately shown all 144 passages pertaining to waiting—much faster than using a concordance! This isn’t my favorite translation, but the price is right!

I also love the ability to highlight passages, which are then saved in the “notes” for that book.

Bobbsey Twins books

Thornton Burgess books: I grew up enjoying this series of animal books and my children have, too. Unfortunately, the pictures aren’t included.

Other classics, such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Railway Children, The Secret Garden, Wizard of Oz, etc.

Since the Kindle can read PDF files, I’ve experimented with uploading many of the e-books I have on my computer. Many of these are still unread because I just don’t find it relaxing to read on the computer.  I’ve discovered that many of these books are readable on the Kindle, especially if I change my Kindle screen rotation to “landscape.” The print is just too small to read on some PDF e-books, though. Those that are formatted in two columns are not readable due to the tiny font size. (So if you are publishing pdf books, please make them single column with a larger font for Kindle readers!)

Do you use a Kindle in your schooling? Do you have any great resources to suggest? Any great sources for books? I’d love to hear any tricks and tips that have worked for you!