From the Holts

We are glad to hear this worked out so well for you. Due to the comments,
trials, and tribulations of the ladies on this e-group, we now offer A
World of Adventure in a three-hole punched format (unbound, and
shrink-wrapped) and have for quite some time now. This allows each of you
to use the book in the format that works best for you - either in a giant
3-ring notebook or in smaller separate binders for each unit. We will
continue to sell A World of Adventure, A New World of Adventure, and any
future books this way, as well as in the original comb-bound edition.
Believe it or not, people still continue to order the comb-bound just as
often as the three-hole punched edition.

We always want to hear from our wonderful customers so that we can continue
to make your learning experiences positive ones! We considered (very
briefly) making the unit available in individual units, but we quickly
rejected the idea because the book loses its integrity as a whole. The
introduction, as well as each unit really must be followed according to the
order provided. With each unit "booklet" bound separately, people would
eventually start selling them to others without the rest, skipping a unit,
etc. In the end, we need to do everything possible in order to ensure that
the book is used sequentially, or people will find it confusing and hard to
use. By offering it three-hole punched, we also run this risk, but it is
much more unlikely that the used copies would be sold as "separate units"
if they aren't individually comb- or spiral-bound.

The next book won't be as many pages, as it simply doesn't cover as much
history (only hundreds - instead of thousands, of years). Although it will
still cover 180 days of lesson plans, it shouldn't be as bulky. However,
we will still offer it either way for your convenience.

Thanks for your patience. You and all the other "LA focus groupers" have
helped to tweak this curriculum a little - for the better. The benefit for
you is that you got to use it before anyone else - the down side is that
you are using it before anyone else! That is to say, no one "paved the
way" for you, like you are "paving the way" for them. Thanks for putting
up with some bumps in the road on our journey together!

Dorian

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We will see when the time comes for us to have Sooooo many orders that we
can't print them all ourselves, whether or not we will use spiral binding
or a regular book binding. For now, we do all the printing and binding
here at home - that's why we offer the comb-binding, because we can do that
on our binding machine. Because we don't have the capability of spiral
binding here, we will not be offering that option on A New World of
Adventure. However, no matter what binding we use now or in the future, we
will probably always offer an unbound, 3 hole-punched version as well.
Even a spiral-bound book of that size has its problems - we had a LOT of
problems with the spiral bound Apologia Biology book (even though we LOVED
the content). I see that they are now binding all of their books in a hard
cover format, which is quite a bit more expensive for the user - but more
practical in a lengthy book. I have an A Beka teacher's edition of a
science book that is spiral bound and it flops all over the place. We
really aren't crazy about going that route either. Softcover books that
are bound like regular books are sturdier than the spiral or the
comb-binding . . . so . . . we will see when the time comes.

These are the kinds of decisions that absolutely drive me CRAZY. There are
Soooooo many of them, too. You should see me pulling my hair out in making
some of the decisions for this next book . . . which literature books to
use, what to cover, what NOT to cover, etc. I'm a pretty assertive person,
rather aggressive even, not usually the type that has trouble making
decisions . . . . but this project has presented all sorts of new
challenges!

This next book covers a fascinating period in our history - understanding
it well is SO important for our children - and for us. All of these
constitutional questions that we can't seem to answer very well right now
are directly related to those fundamentals on which our country was
founded. The early American period seems more relevant than ever in light
of recent events.

Anyway, I'll let you get back to ancient history - while I get back to my
visit with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin!

Dorian