Homeschool Mom Approved Necessities
I’m still working on writing a post about what our days look like as a homeschooling family, but in the meantime I wanted to share a few things that help to make my prep for activities and creation of lessons/material a little easier. I don’t usually purchase things willy nilly, I will only purchase (especially the big items) if I truly think they will be beneficial and I will use them more than once. When I first started out on our homeschool journey I had so many questions and very little resources of actual people to talk to about their experiences, so to the internet I went - and man that was overwhelming. Basically the theme I kept coming across was to recreate a school at home, and that was definitely NOT what I wanted to do. But then, I realized I wasn’t searching for the right things. There are so many different types of homeschoolers and ways to homeschool that I had no idea about. And even now I wouldn’t be able to say we are definitely one type over another, we do a blend of a lot of variations - which is the whole point of why we are homeschooling. We needed something that works for us and with us, not something that is going to work against us. So I wanted to share a few things that I purchased to help set myself up for success.
This is easily used at least once a week for: projects, create reusable items, etc. Just last week I had printed out a bunch of play money to practice counting money by playing shop and restaurant with the boys - and to make it last longer, laminating was a must. There are also worksheets I have printed out that I wanted to be able to use multiple times so I have laminated those to use a dry erase marker with. We also use this for non school things as well. We made ornaments for friends and family this Christmas and the boys just made bookmarks for valentines.
This was one that I went back and forth on if I actually would use or not but it has come in handy many times. For their curriculum that I follow, I just print - 3 hole punch, and put into a binder. But any workbooks, easy readers, or anything else that is smaller - this has been great to have to be able to keep pages together without having to be put into a binder. I’ll be super honest, when I first opened it I was very intimidated with how to run it - but I was definitely over complicating it in my mind and it’s very easy.
We have used this for a multitude of things. It was purchased with the intentions of keeping art supplies on it for easy transportation to and from the closet to the table, etc. It started out that way and worked great, until it somehow was commandeered by the boys to become a cart for their legos so they could transport their legos and lego builds to wherever they feel like building that day. Overall, this cart has been really nice to have for school items. When I first started I would also put all the items/supplies I would need for the week on it so when it was time for school, all I needed to do was grab the cart and it had everything on it I needed so I wasn’t scrambling around trying to gather items.
This is what we keep all of the things in. I have each drawer labeled what’s in it for easier organization and ease of finding what’s needed. I have a drawer or drawers for: paint, craft supplies, sensory tools, books, teacher tools, glue/scissors, workbooks, flash cards, and paper. I have a whole other tote that also has all of these things in it but that’s just where I refill from, rather than having to dig through that each day - I can come to the cart and grab what I need and just refill as needed.
This was especially helpful for all our kids and something we still do every morning. We say the day of the week, the month, what number day it is - we change the weather and what activities we have based on the day. It has been an extremely helpful visual for learning how to use and read a calendar. I also laminated all of the little inserts to aid in prolonging their life, boys are hard on stuff!
A good printer is paramount for a homeschooling family! While this printer especially is quite the investment piece, it’s worth it. We had a laser printer before and kept having nothing but problems, AND constantly having to buy ink. A couple years into homeschooling and I realized we needed something different. So to the internet I went to research printers, especially ones good for large print jobs and daily use. Everything I read pointed to getting a tank, uses less ink and saves money in the long run. Once I settled on the type, next was what one to purchase. This one came heavily recommended, while it’s not top of the line, it aligned with what we needed at a price that - while still very expensive - seemed manageable. This baby has printed THOUSANDS of pages in her short life, color, black and white, double sided - she does it all. It can also make copies through the feeder on the top as well as scan. We are coming up on a year and I haven’t had to add any more ink, there’s still some in the tank and more in the bottles it came with. I had some struggles with it early on, but we are smooth sailing now - and truly we print A LOT, especially since I print out all of our curriculum instead of purchasing the hard copies. Homeschooling doesn’t need to be expensive, just be mindful of the big purchases that will make things run more smoothly for you and know that you don’t always have to have the shiny new books - pages printed and thrown in a binder work just as well! (if not better in my opinion).
These are the things we use often and have been extremely useful for me being able to organize and get things prepared for our school days. Of course there are plenty more, but I wanted to share the basics of things that can be helpful as the homeschooling parent and the tools we need to set ourselves up for success before being able to do that for our kids. Something that might be a hot take, but in our journey right now - I am finding that I cannot utilize a planner. If I use a planner and write in where we should be at for school, like what unit/lesson/etc; it completely stresses me out if we get off course due to sickness, travel, taking random mental health days either for me or the boys. I like being able to be flexible and if I have a planner in front of me, my flexibility struggles and I put so much unnecessary stress on myself. With that being said, there are also so many things to keep straight in life and in order to know who needs to be where and when, we utilize the Google calendar and my husband an I have ours linked so he always knows where we are that day. Each of us has a color to keep straight who is who and easily know which person has this appointment or who all is going to homeschool group, etc. Of course there are always the random park outings or play dates and with that I will just send him a quick text, leaving for (name of park/persons house) see you in a few!
I hope some of this is helpful to anyone who may be starting out homeschooling or even those who have been in it for a while but looking for refreshing ideas. It is my hope that I can be of help to anyone who is looking for it. Enjoy your weekend, maybe get into a little mischief while you’re at it!
XOXO, mischief managing momma.
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