This is an overview of my five most invaluable items I use in Homeschooling.
In trying to break down my most favorite things to use in homeschooling my children, either for their use or for mine, these are my top five most invaluable items. It’s tough trying to order them in priority, so just consider this list to be the most important for me, the order of which changes a bit from time to time.
- A library card. This is the one thing I waited rather impatiently to be able to get when we first moved 3 years ago. We usually loan the maximum number of books for our family’s one card. The most important tip I ever found on taking out library books is to not feel compelled to read them all. IT IS OK to return books you didn’t get to, or choose to, read. More on the library here.
Books & Audio Books. This may seem like a duplicate of #1, but it’s not. Books are something we as a family collect. Everyone collects something. For us, it’s books. From the time my children could crawl, they have had books accessible to them to peruse. I have had to throw many away because of the use and abuse of small hands, but those that were the most precious were kept for use under parental supervision. In any given store, the bookshelves are the ones that draw us all, without exception. Audio books are your best friend while driving – a take-along book!
- My Planner. Many years ago I made up some simple pages using Microsoft Publisher for me to use as something of a planner. Then, thinking that I should have something ‘proper and attractive’, I spent a whopping $20 to buy such a planner. I was disappointed to find that my use of it didn’t flow, so I apologized to my hubby for the expense and recreated mine, with the addition of further useful pages and the next most important thing. My #4 most invaluable item.
Color Printer. My life was changed with a color printer, as were my children’s interactions with ‘school world’. Until we added color to our pages, work was black and white. Literally. When we got our HP laser printer, all of a sudden, color burst into everything, and it was a pleasure to open things like my planner, and create books for the children.
- Notebooking Pages. While I love to create worksheets and other things using Microsoft’s Publisher and Word, the woman at Notebooking Pages has already done the work. She has 2 options available for downloading and using her pages. You can get the 600 plus free pages or you can purchase the Lifetime Membership for $97 to have full access to the thousands of pages she has available. I started out with the free version and naturally progressed to the Lifetime Membership.
I simply couldn’t end my list there. I just have to include one extra item, a bonus, that changed my living space and made things neater in our home.
Bonus Invaluable Item: A binder. I was lent (never to return it… shhh) a comb binder 3 years ago. It transformed my paper-littered space into a workbook-littered space. This of course is much more manageable for anyone busy, and it also makes things more presentable and more easily stored. I find all sorts of things to bind now!
My top five (most invaluable) items for homeschooling… all include color or books, or better yet, BOTH!
