AmblesideOnline Year 1 - a recap of our first Charlotte Mason homeschool year

We ended our first ‘official’ year of homechooling with AmblesideOnline in mid December. It took me until the last day of the year to take the above book stack photo (I had SO many ideas of ways to take it, spots to be in…like the garden/food forest) and then I realised if I didn’t just forget about taking the perfect photo, I would miss the opportunity before beginning Year 2! So here I am, a few days into January 2025, finally getting around to recapping our year.

AmblesideOnline is a free homeschool curriculum that uses Charlotte Mason's classically-based principles to prepare children for a life of rich relationships with everything around them: God, humanity, and the natural world.

Where did I get my books?

I bought the majority of the books new (a pricey investment but considering that I am planning to use these same books with each of my 3 children, I could justify the costs) and had them sent to family in the UK. I started compiling the books quite well in advance of starting Year 1, and in that time I had family members who were traveling to the UK who could be my ‘book mule’ and bring them back to South Africa for me. I used Amazon.co.uk for the majority and then used ChristianBooks (a US site) to order the harder to find Beautiful Feet books and a few others, and they were shipped to the UK. I did look into shipping straight to South Africa, but our postal system is unreliable at best, and the cost to ship them here and then the import tax to receive them was just too expensive. What is wonderful about AmblesideOnline is that a lot of the books are in the public domain, and available to download to Kindle/PDF. And then there is also Librivox which is a free audio site to listen to the books. It can be a bit hit and miss with the narrators on there, but the really good ones are linked on the AmblesideOnline book lists. I also found a few books second hand on the Homeschool Buy/Sell/Exchange Facebook group.

Here is a very brief summary of the subjects covered in Year 1:

We schooled 3 - 4 days a week this year (I was still running my Reggio inspired ‘Red Shed’ school in the shed next door to our house 3 mornings a week) and I only had one hour for each of those mornings to focus solely on Everly and her ‘official’ school work needs. I am happy to say that even though it seems like a tiny amount of time, we were able to complete 95% of the 36 week schedule of her work. I aimed for 4 days a week, but realistically only managed 3 days most weeks. We took time off for holidays each term (I ran my school on a 4 term schedule) and even between sick days/low enthusiasm days/people visiting and general life busy-ness, I am very proud that we finished just about every book on the schedule. Sometimes we caught up & finished readings on the weekends, but the majority of the work was done on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. It worked really well having both my Shed School (my 3 children and 5 other kiddies were part of the school…I’ll share more about this another time) but it was a constant juggle between the two. From next year (2025) I will only be homeschooling my own children, and I look forward to enjoying more of the homeschool lifestyle I had envisioned when I first began this journey of home educating back in 2021/2022.

Reading/Phonics

Everly’s reading really took off this year. I didn’t follow any formal reading program, and we don’t do spelling/reading lists (and a small part of me is worried we have perhaps missed out on some skills somewhere along the way) but seeing how she absolutely loves reading and is able to decipher pretty much any word she comes across, I would say what we’ve done up to this point has worked really well for her. I’ll share a full post on how I taught (or rather, how she learned to read) as I’ll be following the same process with her brother (Aaron is 5 turning 6 in February), but here are the basics of what we did:

We read lots and lots and lots of books together in the early years, and worked our way through the Letterland series together.

I also read (and re-read!) this wonderfully comprehensive series of posts by Joyful Shepherdess on how to teach reading the Charlotte Mason way, and found it really helpful too.

Once we had gone through all 26 letters (I started with the letters in her name, not with the official alphabet sequence) and then I moved onto the move advanced Letter land books. She was able to out together basic CVS words right after the first few Letterland Story books, but we took it slow and I think this was the key. Alongside Letterland, once we had gone through the majority of the letters, I started her with the below traditional Peter & Jane first readers that I picked up second hand.

It took us pretty much up until the start of 2024 to move through all the Letterland books and then to move from Peter & Jane Book 1 to book 4 (there are separate A, B & C books for each level). Once we had started AmblesideOnline Year 1 (and gone through Peter & Jane Levels 1 - 3) I then I changed things up a bit and followed the Ambleside recommendation of the McGuffey Readers (I had bought The First & Second but skipped purchasing the Primer) from Oikos when they were still selling…but you can now purchase these from the Oikos BOBShop or from the online GoodNeighbours Bookshop.

We began AmblesideOnle Year 1 with the McGuffey First Reader and are still making our way through it. I was worried it would all be too old fashioned, but Everly has loved this book, and while it was a big jump from the Peter & Jane books & she did not enjoy the challenge at times, the growth I have seen in her has been wonderful.

Handwriting/Copywork:

We started off our handwriting journey with The Good & The Beautiful Handwriting Pre-doodles and Level k workbooks, but I really didn’t enjoy the way some of the letters were formed and preferred Everly to write her letters & numbers the way I was taught as school. I then set out of try and find a nice South African handwriting workbook.

Initially I had Everly form letters in a very tactile way (playdough, a salt tray) and lots and lots of ‘air writing’, the workbooks came in later for us.

We swopped over to the Happy Handwriter workbooks (which you can buy online through JumpLeapFly)and I’ve been very happy with them. Everly had already learned to write all her numbers and most of her letters…along with some bad habits…so we started right back at the beginning and we also did lots of letter tile play with our Kids Corner Montessori moveable letters. I also found these lovely lined handwriting books for her copywork, and it has been amazing seeing her progress throughout the year. They also match up with the Head, Tummy & Tail formation (the little monkey pictured above) in the Happy Handwriter books, as well as the Kids Corner Head, Tummy & Tail Board for placing the moveable letter on.

Maths:

We chopped and changed quite a lot in the last year, as I’ve gone back and forth between what I felt was the ‘right’ maths program for Everly. We’ve had fights, there have been tears, there have been high fives, beaming smiles and just about every emotion in between. And after all of it, I have come to the realisation that all the shoulds/requirements of a year 1 student (or Grade 1 if you’re South African like we are) should be thrown out the window if they are causing conflict, stress and frustration for all those involved. I was reminded to re-read Ruth Beechick’s the 3 R’s, and to remember that education is the ‘science of relations’ (thank you Charlotte Mason) and my own desire to ensure Everly LOVES maths & the NEED to make up for my own dread of the subject in school has actually been having the opposite result. I think a lot of more veteran homeschool moms can probably relate to the feeling of doing too much for their first child in the beginning of the homeschool journey. The wise words from older moms on the Ambleside forum to ‘enjoy the early years’ and not to take things too seriously with subjects like maths fell on deaf ears, but I am listening now. I am taking my foot off the pedal a bit, and we are playing more games, dong more hands on maths again (just like we did when we first started our learning journey) and things are once again feeling more peaceful. We have used a combination of the following this year:

• The Good and the Beautiful Math 1 (TGATB)

• Math-U-See Alpha

• Life of Fred (LOF)

Halfway through the year, we put aside Math-U-See and instead alternated TGATB Math 1 with a chapter of Life of Fred every now and again. If I had had more faith in myself, we would have probably just done LOF alongside math games and spent the year with a less intense math focus. But, I am again reminded that the beauty of homeschooing is being able to change things when they aren’t working for your child.

We are half way through TGATB Math 1 (and I’m not worrying myself that we should have finished Level 1 because Grade 1 and Level 1 should correlate (ahem…that’s my A type personality trying to take over again!), and Maths is once again (for the time being at least haha) a happy subject that is challenging for all the right reasons.

On a practical note, I get all my large scale colour printing and binding done with Iron Pig Projects who are very affordable and produce excellent quality printable booklets etc.

Bible

When first starting to put my book list together, I read this article on the AmblesideOnline website which details why they recommend using the King James version. That’s why I purchased myself a copy on the GoodNeighbours website (click here).

Once I had actually started the year, I quickly realised that if I was going to be able to continue with all the bible readings, I was going to need something a little more comprehensible for myself. I’ve never actually read the bible myself and so my knowledge of the stories in the bible is so limited. Everly actually was able to handle the stories and narrate back to with more understanding than I was able to, but I decided the whole AmblesideOnline curriculum was enough of a stretching for us to start with by itself, and decided to dust off my old Women’s Daily Study Bible which worked really well this year. I would like us to move back to the King James version at some point, but for Year 2 we will probably stick with the Study Bible and see how we go. The Other bibles are story bibles I have read together with my other 2 kiddies during morning time (which I will soon share more of what that has looked like over the past couple of years), and the Wisdom & the Millers book has been such a lovely addition we are just about finished off together.

History & Tales

Our Island Story - I think I may have enjoyed as much if not more than Everly as I spent 5 years in living in the UK when I was younger. I learned a lot about the history of the UK (I’ve even visited Stonehenge, and had no idea of the stories and myths surrounding it’s history and how it came to be where it is).

Trial & Triumph - quite heavy going, and definitely pre-read for very sensitive souls. I thought Everly would be very upset narrarting this book, but she handled it well and it lead to a lot of really good (stretching!) conversations. I’m glad we didn’t skip it.

Fifty Famous Stories Retold - these were really great and Everly enjoyed every one of them.

Viking Tales - Suprisingly, this turned into one of Everly’s favourtie books! I think this may have to do with the fact that I started photocopying the corresponding illustration from each story for her to colour in and stick into her work book. It defninetly helped to keep her interest, and we both enjoyed going through the illustrations together after her narration.

**Child Craft - Story of South Africa (we started this in the 3rd term and just added it in every second/third week depending on the workload for the week). A lot of moms recommended focusing on history from your home country, and so this was a really nice living book to add in for South Africa that didn’t send us on too many tangents. Each story is short enough that I was able to add this book in without ommitting any of the others above.

Shaka Zulu - While I’m sure there are ‘better’ books on Shaka Zulu, this is one I had collected over the years, and this too, suprisingly, was one of the books Everly would always ask if we were reading each week. I chose Shaka as a historical figure for us because we live in Kwazulu Natal (his birthplace) and we often holiday to a place called Shakas Rock in Balito, which is named after him.

D’Aulaire’s Buffalo Bill & Benjamin Franklin (we skipped George Washington as I coulnd’t get my hands on a copy of it, and this is when I subbed in Shaka Zulu). Both really great books! I learned so much about American History from them, and Everly made all sorts of connections throughout the year after reading the books like pointing out the lightning rods/conductors on the thatch cottages in the Berg and mentioning that ‘Wasn’t Benjamin Franklin clever to think of making those lightening rods’.

We also started (as suggested by AmeblesideOnline) a personal history ‘timeline’ for Evs. This is the foundation for being able to understand the idea of where dates fit into history (something that starts more officially in Year 2/3 with the introudction of a Book Of Centuries…click here for some lovely ideas for when you’re ready to start that). The concept of a timeline is so abstract (basically numbers on a page haha) and doing a personal timeline of the child’s life is a wonderful way to help them get a good understanding of the ideas of the past and therefore 'history’.

Natural History

Burgess Birds - I wished we had both loved this book more (I mean, it’s all about Peter Rabbit and his adventures meeting lots of different birds!) but we couldn’t really relate to the stories as much because so many of the birds aren’t native to South Africa. I did get the Librivox version and have added it to Everly’s Yoto player, and she has enjoyed listening to them on and off in her free time. I had visions of beautiful dran narrations (there are SO many amazing ideas to bring the book to life…from homemade felt birds to paintings hung on a homemade forest/branches but we just didn’t get there this year). I borrowed this from a friend).

Paddle to the Sea - I bought a set of maps from Beautiful Feet and we enjoyed painting in Paddle’s journey to the sea together. This was a lovely story for both of us. There also also so many wonderful ideas to bring this book to life even more, but we again, just didn’t get around to all that I had hoped with it.

James Herriot’s Treasury - a favourite for both of us! Everly is a real little vetrinarian in the making, and as we live on a farm, so many of these beautifully illustrated stories have formed part of our every day lives. A must in your bookshelf collection (not just for Ambleside!). I think there is a whole collection of his stories on Audible too.

**When Hippo Was Hairy and Other Tales from Africa (when Burgess Birds got a bit long winded for us, I subbed this in for more African tales which was GREAT especially after we spent 10 days in the Kruger Park in July). These stories were fun to draw narrations of.

Nature Study

We did a lot of Nature Study during the year with my Shed School, but I did extra with Everly in the form of nature journaling (click here for a full post on this). Some good quality watercolour paints, a little journal/notebook with thick enough paper for the paint, and lots and lots of time outdoors.

Literature

Aesop’s Fables - we both enjoyed these short and easy to digest stories. These were fun. I recently bought the Audio version on LibroFM which Everly has really enjoyed listening to after having read the stories throughout the year.

Parables of Nature - although these stories were long and the language very challenging at times, we both really enjoyed the messages.

Just So Stories - Everly really loved these, Oh Best Beloved ;)

Blue Fairy Book - This was probably Everly’s absolute favourite books this year. The stories were long, and we often had to finish them off on the weekend, but they were filled with adventure and wonder.

Shakespeare - Everly surprised me with her narrations of the plays we covered this year (King Lear, As You Like It, Twelth Night,The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For the first 3 plays I bough these lovely colour-in-yourself illustrations (from Etsy) of each character which I laminated and then we used them as puppets to help us both understand what was going on. We had lots of giggles at Puck and reading Shakespeare with my daughter while chatting about who was doing what to whom was a very special time this year. I studied English Literature at University and English was always my favourite subject at school. Sharing my love for it with her through her own schooling has been very special indeed.

In putting the above photos together, I have only now realised that I might have gone a bit overboard in my collection of versions of Shakespeare books I have haha. The Usborne Complete Shakespeare collection is a really lovely version that my other 2 have enjoyed paging through often.

Foreign Language

This is something I would like to work on more next year, as all we did for this was listen to lots of French, Afrikaans and playlists on Spotify of kids songs from around the world. I do belive songs are the most powerful way to immerse yourself into a language, and when I hear my 3 year old break out into spanish because he knows the words to a song, my heart is glad we’ve made the effort to at least do lots of songs…even if they’ve only been background music to our arts and crafts. I studied French as a second language at school (as I lived in the UK for such a long time) which does make things a little more complicated for us when choosing a second language to study for my kids. Because of my French background, I feel more equipped to help them study French, than say, Afrikaans or Zulu which are the two most common second languages here in our province in South Africa. There are lots of great tips and resources on the Ambleside Forum (click here) if you’re trying to work out how (and which one!) to introduce a second language to your children.

Folk Songs

I simply went onto spotify and found a playlist for the year (based on the Ambelside Rotation) and we played this songs at breakfast time, in the car, whenever someone mentioned wanting to hear one of the songs. All 3 of my kids loved the selections.

Poetry

I found an old copies of 1 of the ‘recommended’ poetry books but you really can use anything! I added in the Christopher Robin Verse Book & A Baobab is Big & other verses from Africa to bring in some more local African flavor (it’s a lovely addition!).

And before you worry about how on earth to ‘do’ poetry, here is a great reminder from the AblesideOnline website:

How do you "do" poetry? Simply read it and enjoy it, re-read it, read it again and listen to the sound of the phrases, let them paint a word picture in your mind. AmblesideOnline Year 1

Art Study (Picture Study & Composer Study)

I had lots of grand ideas about how picture study would work, but in the end I simply printed out the images for the year (thank you Rebecca from a Humble Place for all your hard work in offering these art prints for free) and I taped them up on the bathroom door as it’s the most ‘looked at’ spot in the house haha. I then swop out one of the prints and put it onto the fridge as well for us all to look at and notice in our own time.

Composer study was less successful this year. We did listen to a few lovely classical pieces, but there is a lot of room for a lot more!

Handicrafts

These are also something that we didn’t do very much of intentionally. A lot of what we did do at my Shed School would be termed Handicrafts, but I’d like to be more intentional with Origami and sewing in the next year. And I’d like to fin a nice supplier for a loom too (oh, and pottery classes would be something else I’d love to start!).

Whew! After writing this post and looking back at our year, I am really encouraged by everything we DID do (and I’m not so caught up on all the ‘did not do’ parts of the year. It was a very stretching year, but we were able to take it slow and find a really nice rhythm to our weeks. This next year is going to be a bit more challenging in a lot of ways because I only have myself to be acountabel too (and not the other kids and their parents whom I was teaching). I will have a lot more freedom, but with that is also the worry that I won’t be as pressured to keep up with everything. Anyway, I remind myself often that these early years are incredibly precious and fly by so fast. If we do less this next year, but are able to keep focusing on the good, true and the beautiful every day, I think we will be just fine.

As always, I love hearing from you. Please leave me a comment if you have any questions about what I’ve talked about above or if you have any ideas/suggestions on anything you’ve done differently in your homeschool journey. I so enjoy hearing from you.

Roxy

x

The Red Shed - All About Rainbows

These posts document my teaching adventures in starting up a Reggio-inspired school in my farm shed in January 2023. I’ll share more about how all this came about soon, but in the mean time, I hope you enjoy these moments & learnings.

This week was filled with colourful sensory play, lots of paint (and mess!!!) and most importantly (at least for me and my view of education!) accidental learning through purposeful play.

I set up our sensory table (I had one custom made by Cob&Pickle in Howick…click here for a link to their Facebook page) and put some laminated rainbow images into the trays. I covered these with beans and rice and then let the children ‘dig for the rainbow treasure’. This was such a hit! I used some of the left over rainbow rice I made a good couple of years ago (yes, I am as shocked as you that that batch of rainbow rice is still going strong!). I love the photo of the kids looking underneath the tubs to see the rainbow (make sure to print and laminate it double sided so that it actually shows up nicely both from the top and the bottom).

I bought one of these lovely wooden rainbow stackers from Thornwood Treasures a few years ago for my kids, and it was the perfect open ended toy to bring out for this week. The kids had a lot of fun with them, using them in all sorts of ways…it really is a fantastic toy!

For ‘writing practice’ (I don’t believe in anything too formal in the early years) I use a big white board with lots of different sensory letters for the children to touch and trace. Then they get to have a go at writing the letter themselves with a white board marker. I always start this exercise at snack time (or while they are busy with playdough/plasticine), by reading the corresponding Letterland story that goes along with each letter, while everyone eats their snack or keeps their hands busy. And then they come up one by one so I can give them some undivided attention while they practice their letter formation.

Another favourite process art activity is marble painting. Simply dollop paint onto your paper/cardboard, and then let the kids roll the marble around the page. This is a little trial and error as to how many marbles to use, how quickly to roll (ie before the paint dries!) and for the little hands to practice holding up the tray and getting the hang of moving the marbles around the tray.

My favourite paints to use are the Giotto Tempura paints. The colours are nice and bright and the paint lasts for ages. They are well worth the extra money spent.

We also had some left over cardboard that we used for these (see the last two photos), and I suggest having more scrap paper/cardboard on hand as the kids always love this activity and will want to do more and more and more.

One of my favourite lesson of the year has been introducing the kids to measurements (and of course mixing of colours!) with this really simple set up. We were given a couple of these polystyrene test tube trays, and when you add droppers/syringes/pippettes they are perfect for all sorts of colour experiments.

Everyone got a turn to help me fill up the jugs with water, and then we had a discussion on colours (and what is a primary and secondary colour…this was a recap for the older kiddies) and then it was all systems go for some really fun colour water play.

This was a really fun & colourful week that I enjoyed just as much as my kiddies.

Kidscorner Kzn Math Counting Board - Helpful Homeschool Materials {Product Review}

Today I’m sharing the love for local brand @kidscornerkzn and their wonderful range of educational goodies & learning tools.
This is their Counting Board which is not just great for learning number symbols and quantity relation, but it’s also fantastic fine motor practice.

{This product forms part of a trade exchange between myself & Kidscorner KZN. I only share products that we genuinely love and use in our home}

The board can also be used to introduce the concept of even & odd numbers (talk about the numbers that have ‘pairs’ and the ones that are ‘alone’).

A nice extension activity is to use flashcards to add to the activity (these pretty number flashcards are from Stephanie Hathaway Designs) and feature really beautiful illustrations along with the number symbol and word.

This counting board is a really lovely addition to our homeschool classroom and both Everly and Aaron have been drawn to the board (for different reasons). Everly loves to play with the beads (loads of ‘accidental learning’ takes place as she makes cups of ‘tea’ with the beads…counting them out as she goes and moving them from the board to a tea cup). Aaron likes the pompoms, and likes to ‘cook’ with them, also counting as he goes moving the pompoms from the board to a bowl and into the oven in our little play kitchen.

The board comes with tweezers, a packet of 55 beads and a packet of 55 pompoms. It retails for R195.

All in all, a very budget friendly addition to your maths & number based lessons and would be a wonderful tool to have at home for your little ones to play with, even if you aren’t doing any formal homeschooling.

The ladies at Kidscorner have very kindly given my readers & followers a 10% discount code >>> Use the code Roxy10 to get 10% off your order at checkout on the website

Our homeschool journey - the beginning

For the time being, I’ve decided not to enrol Everly (4.5 yrs) in Grade RR…possibly even beyond that…and to rather spend this year following a loose homeschool/play based learning approach for both her and Aaron (3yrs)…with a bit of little Mason (6 months!) thrown into the mix too.

We will see how this goes (I’m also totally giving myself permission to change my mind at any time) but it’s been fun so far! As I am a teacher by training (and because I’m so passionate about play based learning) this has been a natural progression for me.

I do still send them both once/twice a week to the local pre-school for some social time and for a change of scenery. These stories & posts will document our adventures (and the prep that goes on behind the scenes).

I am often asked about my decision/interest in homeschooling and wanted to share more about it here for those who would like to know more. I hope you enjoy these posts and stories!

Why Homeschool?

Wondering why I’m interested in homeschooling my kids? It’s not just about the financial burden of mainstream education (although that is a factor when you have 3 kids!) but my reasons go far beyond that:

• I’m a qualified teacher and want to be involved/have a say in what my kids are learning

• I refuse to send them to school in masks

• I want to structure their day around their interests and their capacity (ie around nap times)

• School for us has a long travel time, and it’s not something I could easily do with a little baby in tow

• I love being crafty (printing & laminating make me so happy)

• I love a challenge!

• I’m a firm believer in routine so I know I will be able to figure out a nice (loose) structure for all 3 kids

There are as many ways (ie methodologies and paths) to homeschool as there are stars in the sky but here are a few things that do interest me and are elements that I would like to try incorporate:

• Montessori (especially their approach to maths & literacy)

• Forest Schooling (being outside)

• Reggio Emelia (child led learning & open ended exploration of materials)

• Charlotte Mason (her whole philophosy is incredibly inspiring…no formal learning until the age of 6/7)

• Routine and structure (to a degree…this is how I function best so it’s important I at least am able to follow a plan of some kind)

• The ‘pretty’ (I will always make things as pretty as I can while still trying to keep things simple. This also goes for what and how I share what we are doing…I love styled photos but everything I share will still be authentic, I may just move a few bits of junk out of the way when taking a photo etc)

I hope you enjoy these posts and if you have any questions along the way, please pop me a comment below. I love hearing from you!

Canon Pixma G3411 Refillable Ink Tank Printer for Homeschool, Photos & Home office Use - A Review

I have been on the lookout for a new printer for ages, something that is easy & (ideally) cheap to refill, and that does really good quality printing. I need it to be able to print worksheets and other fun activity pages for my little ones, and I also need it to be able to print really good quality photographs as we live in the middle of nowhere and getting photos printed is such a pain.

If you Google eco-tank printer, chances are the Epson Eco-Tanks will pop up. And while I was very tempted by them (and they have loads of great reviews!) unless you are going for the high end printer, it seems the photo quality isn’t that great. This was a big one for me as I want to be able to print photographs for scrapbooks, baby books and for frames around the house. And this is where the Canon Pixma comes in.

The one I eventually chose is the G3411…it does all your basic printery things (scan, copy & print), has wifi connectivity (I print straight from my iPhone and from my Mac…this has been a little tricky especially from my Mac because downloading drivers for a printer isn’t as straightforward as a PC but it’s doable!) and the best part is that the ink is refillable.

What’s in the box?

The G3411 is a midrange priced printer (I bought mine from Incredible Connection where it was on special for R2999 and it came with free delivery…it arrived out here on the farm within 5 working days!). The box comes with:

• actual printer & cables

• 2 black ink bottles

• 3 colour ink bottles (CMY)

The Set Up

I was slightly nervous when it came to setting up the printer, as I’m usually pretty slap dash and don’t read instructions. My mom was visiting, so that really helped as she read the instructions and I was able to actually follow them step by step. It took about 25 mins for the entire thing to be set up (it has to calibrate the ink and the black calibrates separately to the coloured ink) but it was very straightforward.

The actual printing took me a lot longer, as I needed to download the Canon Print app (I have an iPhone but the app is free and available for both Apple & Android) . Then to print photos vs documents is a little different from your phone. I used the Print app for for both photos & documents. And then to print from my Mac was a little trickier, as I have to connect to the printer via wifi (this means I can’t actually be on the Internet wifi…which was a bit of a pain as I have to disconnect from the Wifi and connect to the printer, and then connect back to the Internet when I’m done). I think I read somewhere that there aren’t any actual cables to connect this printer to a Mac…so just bear that in mind it would be much simpler if I was able to connect my laptop to the printer via a cable. But, as I work on a laptop and not a desktop, this isn’t such a big deal.

I have been blown away at the quality of the photograph printing most of all! The Print app is easy to use and you can print different sizes and collage using the photos on your phone. I tested the quality of my iPhone shot photos vs my camera images (I use Google Drive to on my Mac to upload my camera images to the cloud and then I download them from the Drive app on my phone) and I am very impressed.

Refillable Ink Bottle Prices

The ink is usually where you really get caught when it comes to home printers, but the refill bottles for this printer are pretty reasonable at R180 for colour & R270 for black (this is the online price at Incredible Connection right now). But, apparently I shouldn’t need to buy ink for at least a year (and then some!). So I’m hoping this proves to be the case even with printing kiddie related bits and pieces as well as photographs.

Filling up the ink tanks was very easy (you simply pour the ink into the little jars) and then once full the printer calibrates the colours. There is an easy to see ink level on the front so you can see how much ink you’ve used and when you need to buy more.

The nitty gritty product features of the Canon Pixma G3411 3-in-1 printer

• Print, scan, & copy 

• Ideal for those who do not require speed but low cost per copy 

• Ideal for regular printing  

• Page Yields: 12 000 pages mono / 7000 pages colour

• Productive low-cost printing 

• Wireless Connectivity 

• Rear paper feeding 

• Borderless printing 

• 12 Month Warranty 

So far I’ve printed a number of photographs and a lovely workbook from Under The Acacia (a nature based homeschool curriculum for little ones…even though I haven’t actually started it with Everly yet) and I am really impressed with the printer so far.

Next on my list is a laminator (any recommendations for a good one? I’ve been told it’s the laminating sheets that are the expensive thing?) This seems to be like most tech where the actual machine is relatively inexpensive, but the extras are what end up being so expensive.

I’m very happy with this printer, and will keep you updated as to how it goes and how long the ink lasts.