It’s mid-August, which means most of you are probably getting your kiddos ready to go to school! Lots of Shane’s friends are starting preschool this year but for this year, I’ll be doing “light homeschooling” with Shane. “Light homeschooling” is the way I describe my approach: child-led and play-based, but with a tiny bit of structure for good measure. All kids learn differently, and my goal for this year is to figure out what type of learner Shane is so that we can approach his education from that angle for the years to come.

While I definitely believe in play-based education, I also believe in child-led education, which means that I don’t discourage Shane from using worksheets because he really & truly loves them. He calls them “pages” & asks for new ones daily. He loves coloring pages, but lately he’s been up to more of a challenge with matching pages, same or different pages, counting pages and his absolute favorite- tracing pages.

Now all of those pages can get expensive. Take tracing pages, for example. He loves to sit & trace for at least 10-15 minutes at a time, but most of his tracing pages take him less than 30 seconds to complete. That would be at least 20 pages per session- which is not only expensive {between paper & ink, that adds up fast!} but wasteful. At first, I limited Shane’s sessions to a handful of papers & supplemented with some workbooks, which also cost money. But now I have an even better solution- we use our new Fellowes Saturn2 95 Laminator to make the pages dry-erase!

All I have to do is print out a picture, run it through the laminator, and give Shane some dry erase markers or crayons & an eraser & he can trace & re-trace to his heart’s content! I love it since I always felt like it was silly to reprint the same page multiple times, but I know that repetition is how you learn so I was always conflicted. Now I can let him do the same page over & over without wasting anything!

{Please ignore the dust- I’m pretty sure it’s from the paper I had just cut because it’s definitely not collecting dust somewhere!}

The Fellowes Saturn2 95 Laminator is a great choice for anyone, but especially for those with kids. Not only does it have HeatGuard Technology, which is double-walled insulation that keeps the heat inside so that you don’t have to worry about your child getting burned, but it can even laminate on a cool setting so that you don’t have to heat the machine up in the first place! And if your child insists on “helping” you but then the pouch gets stuck, there’s a jam release lever that will save you a headache {trust me, I jammed a laminator at work once- not fun}.

We’ve already discovered some great uses for our laminator- in addition to making sheets dry-erase, it also helps make some sturdier, like pattern block mats. We don’t mark on those but do reuse them a lot, so I laminated them to make sure they’d stand up to multiple uses. &While it’s not school-related, I’ve also laminated the cleaning checklists I use to make them both sturdier & dry-erase. There are a LOT more things to use a laminator for though & I’ve been browsing the idea guide from Fellowes for more inspiration. They even have downloadable worksheets!

Buy It: If you’re in the market for a laminator, be sure to check out the Fellowes Saturn2 95! From now until August 25th, you can get $30 off the regular price {$159.99} at Staples.com by using code 87298 {while supplies last; maximum of 2 per person}!

What’s the first thing you’d do with a shiny new laminator?

Note: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Fellowes and received a product sample to facilitate my review.