What Works for Us in Homeschool

I thought I’d highlight a few things that we find useful in in our homeschool, whether big or small.  If I think of more things, I’ll write another blog post!

1.  Homemade play dough and containers--These baby bowls with lids are perfect for storing our homemade play-dough.  They’re colorful and low-cost, and the lids fit on perfectly.  Homemade dough, by the way, is so easy to make and much better quality than store-bought stuff.  I’ll never purchase play-dough again!  I use a recipe from My Montessori Journey.  We like to make ours scented and glittery!  

2.  Cardboard dividers—Okay, so these aren’t exactly pretty.  What I’d like to do is cover them with contact paper, but the kids have been personalizing them with their own drawings…so I’ll leave them like this for awhile.  Because of lack of space in our house, we do school on the dining room table.  I was tired of the kids distracting each other, so my husband suggested these.  They actually work!  I also took left-over rectangles of laminated paper and wrote the alphabet and numbers for the kids (manuscript for Moriah and cursive for Isaac), because both of them still have a habit of writing certain letters and numbers backward.  Isaac also needs help remembering certain cursive capital letters.

3.  Pocket chart calendar—This is new for us this year.  It’s very easy to use, and unlike my old magnetic calendar, the pieces don’t get knocked off.  My daughter loves using this calendar, and she’s learning days, months, seasons, numbers, and patterns a lot faster.

4.  School Supplies Organizer—I searched online and in stores trying to find something we could use for this.  I used to have the kids’ supplies in their own personal drawers, but I got tired of them leaving the table in the middle of a lesson to search for a sharpened pencil or a dry erase pen or scissors or a glue stick…and we kept losing our rulers.  So I hunted up some tins I had saved, put them on a tray on the table, and it’s working perfectly!  Everything has a place, and the supplies are shared, so no one is worrying which glue stick belongs to whom.  Everything they need on a regular basis is organized and conveniently located.  Mom is happy!  By the way, the red-colored tin had nothing in it when I took the photo.  It now contains all the rulers we had lost!

5.  Sue Patrick’s Workbox System—This is our 2nd year using workboxes, and we LOVE them!  I have to say, however, that we’ve modified the system to meet our own needs.  Last year, we used the schedule strips.  This year we ditched them.  The kids are familiar enough with the boxes, and I didn’t feel they needed the schedule strips anymore (plus the numbers kept getting lost).  Pictured below is our workbox shelves and tubs, thanks to IKEA.  This is one homeschool item I splurged on (I used all my birthday money), because it wasn’t cheap.  However, since we homeschool in our dining room, I wanted something that looked nice and would fit boxes/trays for 3 kids.  Also, I couldn’t find the right kind of shoeboxes and racks in England.  And anyway, books fit much better in these larger tubs.  Isaac and Moriah have space for 12 boxes each, and I have room for Gabriela’s tot trays, too.  You can visit the website or click on any of my workbox links to learn more.

6.  Accountable Kids—I can’t say enough about this program.  It has worked wonders for our kids.  Not only are they more responsible and better behaved, but they are improving in getting their work done quickly because they want to spend their tickets to play their new Wii games.  You can read my review on Accountable Kids or visit their website.

7.  Snack Tubs—I got a pack of 6 small snack containers at Target ($1 section) when we were in the US, which means each of my 3 children have a snack tub for morning and a snack tub for afternoon.  I try to prepare their containers first thing in the morning, so they can get their own snacks when it’s time.  Although I choose what goes in the containers, they can choose which to eat first.

8.  Worksheet extenders—If I were to make a list of the top 10 things a homeschool family MUST HAVE, this definitely would make my list!  As of right now, the only place I know of to buy them is Love to Learn.  I could not do without these things, seriously!!!  I highly recommend them.  The set from Love to Learn comes with 4 worksheet extenders and a set of damp-erase pens, but I prefer using dry-erase.  You can also purchase the extenders separately and without the pens.  I’m not officially advertising for Love to Learn (meaning I was not asked to, nor am I getting anything from it)…I’m just sharing the info in case you’re interested!



Just a note on these: Apparently, you aren't allowed to use these with a consumable workbook with more than one student (if the publisher intended each child to have his/her own consumable workbook) without breaking copyright law. Sound crazy? It's true--even if your child writes the answers in a notebook and never writes in the workbook, it's considered used and is not supposed to be reused. There are options: You can either write to the publisher to ask permission, buy each of your children the consumable workbook, or chose a program that doesn't use consumable workbooks. Some workbooks DO state that you may use the book with more than one child. Just be aware and check your books. Despite that, page extenders are extremely useful. I use them with printables I want to reuse and workbooks that do allow photocopying or reuse by more than one child (far easier than copying unless you want the copies for your records).

Source: Homeschool World

9.  Hanging pocket holder.  I use this to plan out the kids’ school week, and it has been a huge time-saver for me.  I have enough pockets for each day of the week for each of the two older kids, and I have 2 left over which I use for Gabriela’s Tot School printouts or to hold our worksheet extenders.  Every weekend, I print out or copy any papers they need for the following week and place them in the appropriate day’s pocket.  Then when I go to refill their workboxes, everything is ready for me.  It’s a lot of work on the weekend, but it saves me lots of time during the hectic week!  This was a $1 Target find, by the way.

10.  Book storage—This is 2 things, actually.  One is cardboard holders from IKEA.  I wish I had a bookcase with high enough shelves to have turned them all the same direction, but I’ve made do with what I have.  I love how these have helped me organize my children’s books.  We also love our book rack.  Well, maybe it’s really a magazine rack, but we use it for our books of the month.  This way, the kids can actually see the fronts of books I’ve selected.  They’re always excited when I put new books in the book rack, even though they always have access to all our books!

What things do you find useful in your homeschool?  What works for you?