How do you make your learning materials?

[nic31600]

I'm very interested to hear from any parents out there who make their own EL materials and how you make them.  I've finally got a job working with children and I'm needing to creating my own learning materials, mostly because it's much cheaper than having to buy but I don't know where to begin.

I'm quite interested in how the ladies from the following blogs 1+1+1=1 and confessions of a homeschooler create their wonderful early learning materials so wanting to know if you make any similar materials. Is it just learning how to master MS word and Photoshop or something else?

Also, do you know of any sites that allows you to use their clip art/images etc free of cost (that allows you to earn off the use of their images without having to pay membership or to buy their images?)

Copyright search seems to be a big issue for me on the net as most I've come across says I can't make any profits of their images. I also want to make a little bit of extra money on the side by being able to sell the materials I make, kind of like how they do it on TPT and the above listed blogs.

[doreen123]

I make most of my learning material with the help of internet, there are plenty of informative sites available on net.

[Kballent]

I love 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler, but don't like how many cartoons they use in their printables, so I make a lot of my own. Because I post most of them to my blog, I am careful to either purchase the images (123rf.com) or get them from copyright free sites (clker.com, wikimedia.org, photoshop.com).  I use a combination of programs to make them.  Sometimes I edit in Paint.NET (FREE) and sometimes in Adobe Photoshop.  I tend to put the materials together with Microsoft Publisher, which then lets you save as a PDF or an image also.  I don't do anything for them in MS Word.  I hope this is helpful to you.

I don't know if any of the materials I have would help you, but I kind of have them broken into four categories.

Colors http://memorizingthemoments.blogspot.com/p/colors.html
Shapes http://memorizingthemoments.blogspot.com/p/shapes.html
Alphabet http://memorizingthemoments.blogspot.com/p/abcs.html
Other http://memorizingthemoments.blogspot.com/p/printables.html

[Korrale4kq]

Kballent,
I have followed your blog for a long time. I love it! I love the materials you make too.

[sonya_post]

I use a program called SerifDraw, it's a scaled down Photoshop - learning curve shorter and has all the functions I need. It's a vector graphics tool. There is a new version out but I have v4 and it is now selling for $30. I paid $100 for it. It does everything  I want it to do and a bunch of stuff I've never learned to do.

Here is the thing with images from others. They created them, and if you are going to make money from them, since they are the original creators they want paid. If you are just using it for your own purposes it doesn't matter for many of them. What you might want to check out is escrapbooking folks. I don't use them often and I know you aren't paying much to get the files. I don't know if you will be able to use the files to make money - but it may be that you can work out a deal with the creator. If it were me creating all those images and letting you use them for personal use and then you used my images to make money, I'd want you to pay for the use as well.

[nic31600]

@ Kballent that's exactly the answer I was looking for. I know a lot of them are copyright and I'm not really interested in the cartoon type myself and a thought crossed my mind, what about actual images (photos of real animals, real objects etc) is that copyright protected so that is why I asked this question. My daughter loves real images of objects and I want to make sure that if I made something or copied something and tailored it, is that illegal? So say a lady made a maze with a dog as an image and I cropped that out but kept the maze, changed it a bit and added a different object that's illegal isn't it? I would love to know how to make my own mazes and other things. Unfortunately my work is volunteer that is why I would want to or wish to make a small profit in return. I really love the blogs mentioned above and love how they make their materials and I prefer to make my materials by scratch but can it really be all achieved by scratch without having to purchase images etc and risk the chance of breaking copyright laws?

[Kballent]

I don't know.  Mazes may be a little hard to copyright since they are all so similar.  I honestly do not know all the specifics of the laws.  It probably wouldn't be too bad to make the very basic ones yourself with a bunch of lines through Publisher or a similar program. 

[lillok]

For free images and free pre-made flashcards try
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php
or
http://www.esl-kids.com/flashcards/flashcards.html

The images are not high-quality (mostly comic images) and not always the best ones,
but many are useable.

[letitia123]

I visit different libraries, to learn and gather my material.

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