Have you ever had your children's work falling out of their binders because the holes on the sides of their paper have ripped out of the three-ring binder clasps? Or have you tried to find and apply those ugly white donut rings onto those ripped holes and not quite gotten those on right--or not even had them on hand? AutO-Ring has come up with a very handy and practical solution and a variety of products to help solve these problems. I reviewed the following wonderfully practical and exciting products:

  Reinforcement Ring Applicator and 3-Hole Puncher
  Reinforcement Ring Applicator and 2-Hole Puncher
  Repair & Reinforce Paper Punch Holes (single-hole repair with 400 replacement O-rings)

This product makes initial hole punches in paper while simultaneously placing reinforcement O-Rings on those holes. This makes any papers you put in your binders extremely durable and ready for long-time use. You can flip through the binder without the pages tearing out. This product comes in several styles: a three-hole puncher with reinforcement rings, a two-hole puncher with automatic O-Rings, and a handy one-hole repair product with O-Rings. You can also purchase refill containers of just the O-Rings if your puncher or repair wand runs out. There are different varieties of refills based on which puncher you have, and they are all easy to install and remove.

The 3-Hole puncher punches and reinforces the holes in one step. If you want to punch a group of papers, it will punch up to ten papers, but only reinforces the top sheet. If you want every sheet reinforced, then you punch one sheet at a time. If you don't want to reinforce any of the papers, you can use it as a regular hole puncher.

The 2-Hole puncher is the same concept but with only two holes. It can also be used for only one hole, as it has a paper guide built in. These punchers are made with steel punch shafts, have easy-to-press handles, and come with cartridges of 100 O-Rings per punch shaft. There is also a removable collection tray to dispose of the punched out paper holes.

If you just want to repair damage already done on regular binder paper, the Repair & Reinforce instrument that just places the reinforcement rings onto the damaged paper. These little hand-held products have clear, see-through guides so that you can align the O-Ring over the damaged hole correctly. You then press down gently to place the clear O-Ring over the hole. This is easy enough for your kids to do by themselves!

If you need refill cartridges of the reinforcement O-Rings, they come in 100-ring increments and sell for an MSRP of $7.99 for 6 cartridges, or 600 O-Rings (about $1.33 each). The cartridges are disposable after use. The O-Rings are made of tough, tear-resistant material and are clear in color, so you don't see any white circles on the papers.

For those of you who purchased a planner like the Schoolhouse Planner, this is the most wonderful product to use in conjunction with that. I just print out the pages I want from the Planner for each child's binder; then I punch them with these automatically reinforced holes, and I have a wonderfully strong binder full of lists and activities for each child that I know won't tear out after much use.

If you are crafty and make things like bookmarks or scrapbook embellishments, these punchers would be a great investment for those types of things as well, as the automatic reinforcements stand up under time and use, and are clear in color.

This is the perfect homeschool supply product that should be in every school cabinet or work space!

Product review by Deborah Wuehler, Senior Editor, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, August 2010