- Curriculum books, shelving or storage space, and basic school supplies are the most fundamental items that every homeschooling family has.
- A good planner, teaching storage basket, reliable printer, mixed media journals, and a display board are 5 of my top items that have been the most useful as a homeschooling mom.
- Please consider subscribing and liking this post so that you are notified every time I post new content. I also have a TeachersPayTeachers store that you can connect to here and I regularly post on pinterest.
There are many different items that are useful for homeschooling families. Curriculum books, shelving or storage space, and basic school supplies are the most fundamental items. These are items that everyone has and needs, and therefore, I will not be mentioning them in my top 5. My top 5 items are objects that I have found extremely helpful during my homeschooling journey.
1. A Good Planner
I feel this is a must, really. And it is the first item that I buy every summer before the school year begins. I consider a good planner one that allows for both school planning as well as personal planning. I like to be able to write down my lesson plans in the daily sections and keep up with personal dates in the monthly calendar pages. You can purchase a separate planner for each child or write combined lessons in one planner, whichever works best for you.
Planners that have medium to large sized daily “blocks” with lines are ones that I prefer, such as this Happy Planner. This makes it easier for me to write out my lesson plans and gives me room to add more details if needed. I have used both the large size planners and the medium ones. When I needed to write out more than one child’s schedule, the bigger one allowed for more room. I also liked the big size because it was easier to keep up with. However, once I was down to just one child’s lessons that needed to be written down, I switched to the medium sized planners. Both, however, are great.
These types of planners are simply to make your life easier. You can type out your schedule and print it or keep lessons plans on your phone for easy access. I like to have my daily plans written out where everyone can view them and then mark them off as we go. This makes me and my children feel productive and makes it easy for my kids to see exactly what the daily schedule looks like. I also pack up my children’s yearly scheduler with that year’s classwork. That way if I need to go back and check what we covered in a certain area the year prior, or if your state has a mandated check on homeschoolers progress, the planner is there as well.
2. A Teacher Basket
I know your first question here is “what is a teacher basket”. This is what I call the large utility basket that I use to hold all of my teaching tools and resources. And trust me when I say that I use mine daily. Many of these baskets have additional pockets on the outside for organizational storage. The size that you get totally depends on the amount of items that you use regularly with your children. Really, any storage item with a handle will do the trick.
This basket is where I store items like a daily calendar, flashcards, a foam analog clock, whiteboard markers, staples, extra pencils, rulers, notecards, my grading notebook, my planner, and more. I also place my kids’ worksheets and writing activities in daily folders in the basket as well as any reading books the kids may need for that week. This is a great way to easily store items that are needed daily but would take up a lot of room individually. It is also easy to bring the basket into whichever room we are using for studying or even outside if we are doing school outdoors. When traveling, I can easily bring this basket with us to keep everything we need at our fingertips.
3. A Reliable Printer
I am not going to lie, I have had an AWFUL track record with printers. However, having a reliable printer is nothing but life changing. Since I made my own lesson plans using various curriculum books and websites, I tended to use the printer on a daily basis. Worksheets, handwriting pages, and learning posters were just a few of my regulars. Honestly, whether you make your own curriculum or purchase pre-made ones, you will inevitably need to print some things out and having a printer that you can send the page to without having to worry about it not actually printing makes everything less stressful. There is nothing worse than spending 15-20 minutes trying to figure out what is wrong with your printer. It throws off your day and you then have to redirect your kids back to their schoolwork.
A good printer is one that works reliably and with little fuss, or at least that is what I consider a good printer. The specifics would really be whatever works best for your family. I prefer a compact printer that easily fits in the space that we have, is low to mid-priced, and that uses printer ink that is easily found in stores or online. The speed and color are less important to me but may be more important to you. I would highly recommend doing research online for a printer that aligns with what you are looking for. Another solid way to find a good printer is to talk with family and friends to see which printer or printers they recommend.
4. Blank Mixed Media Journals
Mixed media journals are often sold as art books but they are very versatile. There is so much that you can do with these journals. Artwork books and science journaling are the main things that we have used them for. Having said that, mind-mapping and brainstorming for ELA, timelines/geographical units/individual study pages in social studies, and scrapbook-style note taking are just some ideas that can be explored. Really, the uses are endless.
Every year I purchase 2 mixed media sketchbooks for each of my children. One we use as an art journal where they make all of their artwork for the school year. Being mixed media means that they can use paint, watercolors, chalk, charcoal, markers, oil pastels, crayons, or pens and nothing will bleed through. This allows you to teach any type of art lesson without having to use separate journals for each. The other journal they use as their science journal. In this they record their observations from experiments we conduct, do seasonal pages where they glue down leaves and flowers as well as draw things that they see during the season, make diagrams for units that we are studying such as the earth or flowers, and take notes.
If your child is more of a visual learner, a sketchbook may be a better place for them to take notes than a lined notebook. In a sketchbook they can draw diagrams, glue down printed pictures and write captions, or draw pictures along with their notes. As an alternative to traditional note taking, this is a great way for visual learners to study and another reason that these blank mixed media journals are a must for me.
5. Display Board
Okay, so technically this is more for decoration and fun than for the actual learning process. Several years ago I found a white board, about a foot and a half long, with 5 brightly colored clothes pins glued onto the bottom of the board. I hung it in our living room and that is where I hang artwork, project papers, about-me pages and more throughout the school year. It is essentially a cute alternative to hanging things on the fridge. But even with that being the case, I still highly recommend having something where you can hang a variety of papers. You could use it to hang a copy of the daily or weekly schedule, your weekly menu, or even pictures of field trips that you have taken. No matter what you use it for it will make an adorable and useful addition to your study space.
I hope this blog gives you some ideas of items that could be useful to you. If you found this blog helpful please consider subscribing and liking this post as it will help to grow the community as well as let me know which type of posts are more beneficial for you. If you are looking for a creative lesson involving the stars, check out my Creative Lessons: View the Constellations blog.
Find us on Pinterest!
What are some of the items that have been important or useful to you and your family on your homeschooling journey? Share them with the community in the comments below.
Leave a Reply