Posted in Resources and Organising

Why hadn't I thought of this before?  Something so simple as a desktop hanging file box.

I'm always printing out this or that that would be nifty for school.  Or a great article I want to read.   But then I lay the piece of paper down in my diary or in a drawer or worst still a folder in a drawer, never to be seen again...well until the unit study is over or we've accomplished that particular skill. 

Into the same piles I put the boys' completed worksheets and printed narrations...I do find those again...I have to...but the hunt is long and arduous. 

But gone are those days...I hope.  I have bought myself a cheap desktop hanging file box.  I've even done the hard yards and properly labeled the files, using categories that I will use and not a bunch of hopeful categories that will never get used.  Been there, done that.

It's home is right next to our workbook basket.   I didn't want it cluttering up our table.  Plus this makes tidying up at the end of the day so easy.   Workbooks get popped in the cane basket and now I can quickly and easily file papers into my new hanging file box. 

Posted in Resources and Organising

"Mummy I can't find a pencil!!"  Ever heard this???

I'm sure it's a familiar complaint. 

But I do not like to have to hunt for a pen...especially when I need to quickly get a thought down on paper before the idea leaves my noggin for good.   So I've always had cups of stationery stashed around the house. 

It wasn't until I started homeschooling however that I organised that overflowing collection of pens and various nifty coloured markers.  (Have you seen all the many amazing varieties of kids' colouring tools?  Wow!  For a stationery-addict it's like being a kid in a candy shop!!  Love it!!  Love them ALL!!)

My organisation system is simple.   It's just a small set of drawers. 

In the top drawer I keep our pens,

the next drawer down you'll find the pencils and erasers,

the third drawer contains various crayons


and the bottom drawer contains stationery items (rubber bands, staplers, sticky notes etc) that we're mostly likely to use during school.

No, these aren't our only stationery items...not by any means.   These are just our essential every day school needs - the things I've found us using on a regular basis during school.  We keep any other stationery items in the study or the craft cupboard.  I find it necessary to keep the homeschool area fairly clutter free in its "clean phase" as it's a huge magnet for "stuff".   It just makes life easier.  If I ask the boys to get a red, green and blue crayon to use in a Math activity, there is no need to make a decision over which variety to use.  

I also prefer drawers to pencil cases.   With a pencil case you have to poke around for too long looking for the specific item or colour you need.  Or worse still, pour all of the contents of the pencil case out onto the table.   With my drawer system we can still take our stationery to wherever we are working as the drawers pull out completely.  The drawers also allow for much easier access to our stationery.  No more upending of pencil cases...with miscellaneous staples and sharpenings scattered all over your work area.

Posted in Resources and Organising

I'm often asked, "What should I buy for our first years of homeschooling?".  I've answered the "What do I think you need?" question in a previous entry.  But if you really would like to buy some nifty resources then I do have a list of things that I have found useful and enjoyable to own.

These are just things that I use all the time in our homeschool:

*  a good art supply box/cupboard that includes lots of tape, glue, paper and various sorts of paints and drawing supplies

*  a basic globe


*  a world map for the wall and a wall map of your country


*  an alphabet/number desk strip or poster (I prefer the desk strip but I don't attach it to anything as I want the boys to be able to carry it to wherever they need it)


*  a hundreds chart/poster (we use ours everyday for skip counting and algorithms)


*  a hundreds board with number tiles or some other type of moveable numbers to 100 (you could make a set of cards up to 100 and use them with your hundreds poster).  I have a plastic hundreds board with plastic number tiles.  We use these a lot.  I also use the number tiles by themselves.


*  a container of counters (bought or collected from around the house).  I have a set of basic store bought counters and have used them for counting, addition/subtraction, sorting, patterning, games etc.


*  various dice are also useful.  You don't need a whole bucket but it is handy to have a few ten sided dice, maybe a letter dice, some blank dice, and a few basic dot/numeral six-sided dice.  Of course if you're not a game person then this might not be as important to you. 


*  MAB blocks are a must on my list.  If I had to pick one math item to keep then I would keep these.  Admittedly they aren't used for every topic but I consider them non-negotiable when it comes to teaching place value and algorithms, especially those with regrouping and trading.   My boys really only "played" with them during their first year or so, as I always introduce tens and ones using paddlepop sticks which are bundled into groups of ten with rubber bands.  But it isn't long before we use them quite a bit and it helps to have the "building" phase over and done with.  (Maybe you need to add paddlepop sticks and rubbers bands to your list too then.)


*  a clock with movable hands (store bought or an old broken one).  I found a little $5 store bought one and it's just the right size for little hands.  You could easily make one too I suppose.  My boys enjoyed their clock as a play thing so it does get a lot of use.


*  movable letters of some sort (E.g.  letter cards, letter tiles/bricks, magnetic letters, wooden letters).  We use these for all sorts of activities.  They are particularly useful when your child is capable of completing phonic type tasks but unable to write well or for long. 


*  phonic readers.  Some people will disagree with me here but that's okay because this is just my opinion.  I preferred to own my own set of readers rather than utilise the library's phonic readers.  For one, the library's readers are often incomplete sets that are old and falling apart.  Secondly, your access to just the right title for your child's current level of development may not be available when you need it.  Thirdly, I want to keep the readers that my children can read accessible so that they will return to them often.  And finally, by purchasing readers I get to control the quality and types of readers my children will read.  No, they aren't cheap (about ten books for $50-70Au is not unusual) but I think the investment is worth it.


*  an insect catcher.  We are forever catching some poor critter to observe.  It's definitely our most used piece of science equipment.  Of course you could easily use a clear plastic container with holes in the lid but for me it made more sense to have one container whose entire purpose was to hold critters temporarily and in relative comfort.  I don't want to be dashing around trying to punch air holes in a lid while the boys are yelling, "Quick".  


*  a CD player close to your work area is very useful too. 


*  personally I also LOVE my laminator.  Of all my office equipment, this is my favourite, besides the computer and printer.  However if you could really splurge I must say that a binder machine and an office sharper (not necessarily electric) are very nice to have also.  But now we are starting to push the boundaries of our wish lists.  I took me quite a few years before I acquired these things. 

No I don't own a blackboard or use a whiteboard for teaching so these are not on my list.   Some people like to use them but personally I can't see their value when you are only teaching a few children at a time and more often only one at a time.  If I need to explain with drawings or diagrams I use a sheet of paper that my child can then keep beside them.  Besides, the process of transferring information from a vertical board of some sort to a horizontal piece of paper is very challenging for a lot of children so I don't recommend it at all. 

Yes there are lots of other things that I purchased for our early years.  Things like scales and 2D and 3D shapes but I've found that they are things that we really could live without.  Their uses are minimal and mostly they just sit in the cupboard waiting for the once a year occasion when we study these topics for a week or so.  If money was no object then sure they are handy to have for those few occasions but in reality you could just as easily borrow them from a friend or make do with substituted everyday items.


So this is my suggested shopping list for those first years of homeschooling younger children.  Bear in mind that I didn't buy all of my resources at once.  I added things to birthday/Christmas suggestions when family asked for ideas.  I often received school items for my own birthday or Christmas presents.  Generally I just kept my eyes peeled for bargains particularly at the beginning or the end of the school year as teacher supply stores often have sales at these times of the year.  

The other piece of advice that is vital if you are heading to a teacher supply store is to make a list and set a limit before you get there.   I have taken many friends on excursions to my favourite teacher supply stores and they often do one of two things:
1) spend like a kid in a candy store and come home with a lot more than they had intended and sometimes not anything that they really needed or wanted
or
2) act like a deer in a car's headlights totally stunned by the choices or terrified at having to make decisions, in which case, more often than not, they go home with nothing and need to return at a later date. 

If possible take a friend with you and leave the children at home.  Take your time perusing your options, look thoroughly at what you plan on buying and above all stick to your list.  If you must, figure in one or two impulse buys but set yourself a price limit.  Trust me, it is hard to leave those tempting stores with any money left in your purse. 

I hope this helps those who are looking forward to buying a few schoolie type things for their  homeschooling journey .

Posted in Resources and Organising

I've just found a wonderful website that will enable me to share the educational resources that I enjoy making.  Homeschool Launch is a platform for homeschoolers to upload their files to share with others.   What a fantastic resource. 

I thought it would take quite a while for me to develop the skills necessary to share my homemade game files with others.  But that's obviously not the case.  Hey, I needed hardly any skills at all.  Homeschool Launch is really easy to navigate.

I even managed to add a link list to my uploaded files...it's apparently called it a "widget".   Yes, I've been surprising myself with these marvelous feats.  The widget is the blue box in the right margin.  It contains a list of links to the latest games I have uploaded to Homeschool Launch.   

At present I'm working on uploading games that I've already made but I'm happy to take requests too.  I can't guarntee that I'll have the skills or time to create every suggestion but I do enjoy fresh ideas. 

My boys love simple dominoe games so I have been making a lot of these recently.  You begin with the "start" card and if you proceed through the cards correctly you should end at the "finish" card.  Okay, so it's not the standard dominoe game but it is a fun way to review topics without requiring yet another written task or workbook page.  Games like these work really well in the Workboxes too. 

Posted in Resources and Organising

People often ask me what are the homeschool resources that I would recommend they acquire for their homeschooling journeys.  While I can't answer that for other people as I do think it's a very personal thing, it has made me ponder what resources I truly value.  Knowing what I value helps in knowing whether I really need/want to part with money to buy a particular resource. 

So what can't I live without or rather, don't want to have to live without:

1.  Paper - probably pretty obvious but we seem to use a lot of paper each and every day.  The boys draw on it, write on it, cut it up (and leave trails of paper clipping everywhere - THAT I could live without), fold it, wrap things with it and seem to forever have a chunk of it at their sides...just in case the urge hits to use some of it I suppose. 

Myself, I'm a print-aholic.  I print hoards of pages.  (Hubby does not approve of the willy nilly use of ink.  I affectionately call him the printer ink police officer.)   My reasoning is that I don't like to spend time reading at the computer.  If it's lengthy I'd prefer to print it and read it in the evening.  I also print things that I want to file to refer to later.  I know.  The greenies/environamentalists would hate me.  But I do use recycled paper if that helps .

2.  A good Computer or two with good Internet access - Definitely a must have for us.  We have three computers at present that are revved up to the max with RAM and hardrives and all that technical stuff hubby and Ethan drool over.   We could live with only one and did for a long time but the luxury of more than one is handy at times.  Internet access is a must too.   We use the internet as our encyclopedia.  It's also my teacher library and social network.  Yes, we defintely need a computer with internet.

3.  Good books - Of course!   No surprises here.  I need to have books on hand.  While it's nice to be able to look up a quick answer to a question on the internet, nothing can replace the specialness of snuggling up on the couch with a good book to enjoy or gather information from.  Yes libraries are great for supplying good books but I prefer to have a good smattering of the basics on our home shelves.  If the boys are interested in stars today there's no guarantee that they'll still be interested in them by the time we get to the library and home again.  For this reason I have collected a relatively good collection of junior non-fiction titles on various topics that may arise.  Having said this, we still do go to the library once a week and fill our bags with as many books as we can haul home.    You can NEVER have too many books...unless you are moving house which thankfully I don't plan on doing again.

There you have it...my "Must Haves".  Yes I could live without all the other stuff.  We barely use our math resources or games.   When we do use them it's for a specific use that only seems to come around occasionally. 

What would be great would be a homeschool resource library that you could borrow these "sometimes" items from.  If I ever come into a whole lot of time and money I might consider starting one of these .