I have been enjoying digitally flipping through the summer issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine this week. It's very simple to use, and I love the feature that lets you email an article to as many as 5 friends. What a wonderful way to share encouragement with other homeschooling friends who may not receive the magazine!!
I confess that I do love being able to carry an actual print magazine with me to Dr. appointments, or in the car ... but then you're also left with the clutter of magazines you just don't want to part with, and the magazine can get pretty tattered before you've finished reading it. I can't take this with me to the Dr's office, unless I print pages, but it also isn't adding to the paper clutter in my home. And I know that there are families who would find that to be a BIG benefit of the digital version.
I don't have high-speed DSL internet, (although I also don't have dial-up internet), and have been able to read the magazine easily, without slow page loads. We have a medium-speed satellite internet. Even with my non-dsl internet, I was easily able to download the magazine to my hard drive as a zip file, to save it long-term ... without overloading my magazine rack or file cabinet.
Another benefit to reading a digital magazine vs. a print magazine will become very real to me in a few months. You know how it is when you're trying to read while nursing or holding a baby, and the baby just wants to slap or kick the book or magazine you're reading? You try to hold it further away, but then you can't read it very well, and the one-handed hold doesn't work as well with a magazine as it does a hardcover book. Well, with the digital version, you just have to scoot a little further back from the computer desk, and keep reading.
If you have trouble with your vision, but don't like wearing your reading glasses ... just increase the print size of your monitor, or magnify the page as you're viewing it, for easier reading. I don't have this problem, but I have friends who do. So put away that magnifying glass, and just read the digital version instead.
There are two more advantages to the digital magazine: you don't have to wait for it to arrive in your mail box, and it costs less than the print version. If you've wanted to subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, but couldn't quite afford the subscription rate, then perhaps the digital version will suit your budget better, with a subscription rate of $16.95/year instead of $25.00/year. Or, if you wanted to gift it to someone else, this is a more affordable way to do that, as well.
And finally, with the digital version of the magazine, I won't have to figure out where my daughters took my magazine, or if they lost my place. It seems I'm always chasing down my print-version, since my daughters enjoy reading it, as well.
Blessings,
April
