Our School Supply List

This blog entry was meant to be posted when school started, but we’ve been very busy since then!  Anyway, here is my list of the school supplies we find indispensible.  These are things we stock up on because we use them regularly.

NOTE:  No one is compensating me for recommending these products.  I’m just listing what we like and use.

For the Kids

1.  Paper Mate Pink Pearl erasers—I’m pretty sure this is the same kind of eraser (rubber, for those of you outside North America) I used when I was in school in the 70s and 80s.  We’ve gone through a lot of erasers, and none compare to Pink Pearl, in my opinion.

2.  Pencils—Before this year, I would buy a pack of cheap, yellow #2 pencils for school.  Last summer, however, after reading at least 2 reviews for Ticonderoga pencils, I convinced myself I had to have some (see posts at Homeschool Creations and Confessions of a Homeschoolers).  The reviews were right, as far as I’m concerned.  These are the best pencils I’ve ever used, and my kids agree!  Our second choice of pencil is the more expensive Smencils (we have the Holiday Smencils).  We love the amazing scents and how well they write, but they’re a bit too expensive for us to purchase regularly.  They’d make great stocking stuffers or special prizes, though.

3.  Glue sticks—We go through glue sticks like crazy around here.  I don’t have a particular brand I recommend.  In my experience, we buy and try until we find one we like, and we stick with that (pardon the pun).  There are some rubbish glue sticks out there that don’t stick well and don’t last long.  At the moment, we’re using an Asda store brand, and it works fine for us.

4.  Dry-erase pens—This is another item we use daily, so I buy a LOT of them.  Not any dry-erase pen will do.  Some cheaper brands are horrid and not worth buying.  Either they barely show up, or they’re difficult to erase.  My personal favorites are Expo and SRX (links are for the actual pens we have).  I prefer fine-point pens for our school use.

5.  Construction paper—I don’t know what it is, but I prefer American construction paper over British (maybe I haven’t tried every brand, but I haven’t found any I like so far), so I stock up when we’re back home.  I buy multicolored packs of 9x12 as well as 12x18, as we regularly use both.  When someone wanted to send us a care package this past summer, I requested some packs of brown paper, too, since the multipacks I bought didn’t have brown.  While Isaac isn’t using construction paper as often now, the girls still use it a lot for various projects.

6.  Copy paper—We use this for printables as well as for notebooking and art.  Any store brand works for us.

7.  For Coloring--We have lots of crayons we been given over the years; however, our preference is Crayola Twistables. The girls each have a set, and they use them daily. In my opinion, they last longer and color better.

We also have a lot of colored pencils. Again, I think cheap brands are pretty worthless. Prismacolor is the best we’ve found, but they are expensive. Our favorite cheap store brand is Crayola.  For those of you in the UK, we also like WHSmith’s colored pencils. The tricky thing with the expensive pencils is finding a decent sharpener. If anyone has a recommendation, do tell!

Crayola brand markers have always worked well for us.  Cheap brands are blah.  Another favorite is Mr. Sketch, but that has a lot to do with nostalgia (I have very fond memories of using Mr. Sketch in the 70s) and the lovely, lovely scents (except the black licorice).  The downside is that they’re more expensive than they used to be.  I got my daughter some for her birthday last year, though.

8. Manila file folders—We mostly use these for lapbooks. We can’t find them in England, so I stock up in the US. Color file folders are nice, but we bought the cheaper, plain folders.

9.  Index/file cards—We use these for memory verses, vocabulary words, flash cards, and various projects.  We use lined, unlined, plain white, and colored.  We like variety!  The lined ones are great for writing, but plain cards are perfect for projects.

10.  Elmer’s glue—This is something else I stock up on in the US—it’s my favorite brand of school glue.  Stores in England don’t seem to carry it, but they do have it on Amazon here.  Although we mostly use glue sticks, we need the multipurpose glue for some of our projects.

Other general supplies we keep in stock:  Baby wipes, pencil-top erasers, spiral notebooks, highlighters,  notebook binders, page protectors, art pads, card stock, rulers, craft supplies, and scissors.  Most of these items we buy cheap wherever we can find them. 

For Mom

Here’s a quick list of school supplies I keep in stock for my own use or for projects the kids do:

1.  Post-it notes

2.  Staples

3.  Tape (all different sorts)

4.  Stickers

5.  Ziploc bags

6.  Paper clips

7.  Printer ink

8.  Permanent markers (Sharpie)

9.  Ballpoint pens (different colors)

10.  Blu-Tack

What “must-have” school supplies do you keep in stock?  What are your favorite brands?

My 25 Top Favorite Homeschool Tools

I love reading posts about people’s favorite homeschool tools—it’s fun to see what other people find indispensible or helpful, and I get a lot of great ideas from them.  Of course, I have my own favorite tools.  These are items I use regularly.  Naturally, I use my laptop, internet, and printer on a regular basis, and they’re an absolute necessity.  Seeing how those items are so obvious, I’ll leave them off the following list and focus on other things.  This list includes basic tools, not subject-specific, so I’ll save those for another post.  I’ll include links if I remember where I got items, and if I know they’re still available.  These are listed in no particular order (just the order in which I thought of them):

1.  Long-arm stapler:  I have a regular stapler as well (which is good to have), but I have been so pleased with this long-arm stapler.  It’s very useful for making books in school, which we do often.

2.  Samsung tablet:  I often wish l had an iPad because there are some really cool apps people review on blogs, and I can’t get them on an android tablet.  Aside from that, I really love my Samsung tablet.  I use it sometimes for showing YouTube videos at the table, but we also regularly use a stopwatch/timer app and a voice recorder app (great for spelling/dictation tests and making your own storybook recordings complete with “turn the page” signals).  I also found a few free apps that really help the kids on practicing math facts.  Finally, my tablet has Kindle, so I’ve been able to get several books and even curriculum on Kindle for the kids.

3.  Teacher tool box:  This is new this year, so I haven’t really used it yet…but I will!  Last year, I kept all my teacher tools in little baskets on top of our workbox shelves.  Needing more space for other things and wanting my stuff in one spot, I decided to condense everything into one toolbox…the kind with a tray inside.  Sweet!  (Oh, and I decorated it with stickers!)

4.  Hanging pocket chart:  This chart has just enough pockets for each of my 3 children to have 4 apiece—perfect for sorting papers they need for a week.  I make copies a week in advance and sort them by day of the week, Tuesday-Friday.  Monday’s papers go straight in their workboxes.  When I need to fill Isaac’s boxes for Tuesday, for example, I have everything in the Tuesday slot ready to go.  I think I got this at Target.

5.  Large magnetic board:  I got this at IKEA, and it’s been very helpful for our All About Spelling tiles.  I sort of wish I had an even bigger board, but there wouldn’t be room for it anyway.

6.  Wall maps:  We were given a large laminated world map, and I use it all the time.  It hangs in our entry hall.  I also have maps of the British Isles, Europe, and the USA.  We use them regularly.

7.  Accountable Kids:  While this isn’t necessarily a homeschool tool, it sort of goes along with it.  It helps in getting the kids ready for school in the morning—starts their routine.  They have morning, day, and night chores to finish in order to earn tickets, which allows them to play Wii, computer, or watch a movie.  You can read my review HERE.  It also assists in discipline and teaches responsibility.  This works super well with my son, but I am still trying to tweak it to work with my girls.  They don’t really get it yet, but I am very hopeful.  Find out more at the Accountable Kids website.

8.  Book/magazine rack:  I found this at a charity shop.  It’s great for holding books I want them to look at, whether they’re books on a topic we’re studying, or whether they’re related to a season or holiday.

9. Worksheet Extenders:  This is a tool we’ve used so much that they’re wearing out!  These are very useful for using with printables and SOME curriculum .  There has been a lot of discussion in the homeschool blogging world about copyright laws and reusing books that aren’t meant to be reused.  I try really hard to buy only books that specifically allow copying or reuse.  If I buy consumable books, I choose cheap ones.  SO, just saying, worksheet extenders are great, but use them legally.

10.  Small dry-erase boards:  I don’t have space for a large dry-erase board, and these work just as well.  We use them for math, spelling, language, illustrations, etc.  The lined ones are nice, but the lines don’t last long.

11.  Workbox station:  I have been using Sue Patrick’s Workbox System for several years now.  The set-up I have is probably my number one favorite homeschool tool.  I call it a station, because it holds tubs for all 3 of my kids (8 each) in one place, and it’s quite big.  This is one area where I splurged.  I couldn’t find the suggested shoe racks and boxes in England, so I shopped around and found this piece of furniture and tubs that fit perfectly (I got all of this from IKEA, but I’m having trouble finding them on the website—they may not sell them anymore).  It’s actually 3 pieces put together.  I used all my birthday money to buy these, and I even put them together myself (handy me).  I love the tubs because they’re big enough to hold all their books.   Also, there is plenty of room at the top for supplies and space on the bottom for Gabriela’s learning toys and play dough.  Because we use it in our dining room, I also wanted a piece of furniture that looked nice.  Luckily, we had just enough room for it.

12.  Hanging file box:  A friend gave me this box recently.  I’m using it to get ahead in my printing.  I’ve printed everything I need for the first 10 weeks of school at least, and I’ve filed them by child and box.  I also plan to keep forms, various logs, and lapbook templates in it.

13.  Staple remover:  This is a handy tool from my public school teacher days.  I got this Stanley Bostitch staple remover at a teacher supply store years ago, but you can find a similar one on Amazon.  It’s WAY better than the pinch-style staple removers, and this particular brand is far better than a cheaper version I used to have.

14.  Supply caddy:  I have been using an old dishwasher utensil holder up until this year.  It was ugly and full of holes (a problem, even though I put paper in the bottom).  This year, I saved my money and bought a new desk organizer from IKEA.

15.  Letter trays:  I have 3 of these, one for each child, and it’s where I put their finished papers to be sorted into notebooks at a later time.

16.  Learning Resources Calendar & Weather Pocket Chart:  This chart is big, sturdy, and easy to use.  It includes seasons, weather, holidays, and places to tell what day is today, yesterday, tomorrow.  This is great for the younger ones.

17.  Two-hole punch:  I have a 3-hole punch in storage in the US, but England has 2-ring binders, not 3-ring.  We do a LOT of notebooking, so this is a must.

18.  Bulletin boards:  We use this large board to display some of the kids’ projects.  I think the kids like to see their work up there, and we have a lot of people in our home often, so it’s a nice way to show others what the kids have been doing in school.  I think one benefit of having school in the dining room is that all our friends and other visitors have seen first-hand what we do, and I have yet to meet anyone who has criticized our homeschooling after being in our home (fingers crossed).

19.  Snack basket:  New this year is a snack basket they can spend some of their AK tickets on (see #8).  Challenge:  Finding healthier snacks that are cheap.

20.  Date stamp:  I use this for dating our work.   

21.  Craft Trays:  I got these from Oriental Trading Company.  I used them a LOT when Gabriela was in Tot School and Preschool, but I still plan to make her a few activity trays for Kindergarten, and we also use them for playing with play dough.

22.  Display books—These have plastic pages you can slide pages into.  I’ve used them for years to make the kids their assignment books.  I’ve also used them to make my own teacher guides and even my own recipe book.  I get the ones with 20 pockets, so I can put in up to 40 papers, front/back.  You can even write on the pages with dry-erase pens. For those of you in the UK, I got these at Ryman.

 

23.  Laminator—This is the second laminator I’ve owned, and I’m really pleased with it.

24.  Learning Resources tabletop pocket chart—I’m planning to use this pocket chart quite a bit more this year, for Moriah’s writing program and also for Gabriela.

25.  Shelves and book holders—Every homeschooler needs dozens of shelves!  Okay, I probably have just over 1 dozen—no room for more!  I also love these cardboard magazine files I got from IKEA—to organize my collection of children’s books.  I do have hundreds of books, and I use them all the time.  Having my books organized is a huge help!

There are a few things I’m still looking for (and saving money for), like a good electric pencil sharpener!  I need one that’s affordable, works well, and can be purchased in the UK. 

Many people include a library card on their lists of homeschool tools.  We do use our library several times a year, but we don’t go regularly.  One reason is that I own hundreds of children’s books already.  The other reason is that I’m not overly happy with the selection offered by my local library.  It’s okay but not good enough to make it worth walking there often (you have to pay to park, and it’s about a 10-minute walk, which isn’t too bad if it’s not raining and you have time).

In my next post, I’ll list our most essential school supplies for the kids.

In the future, I’ll make lists of my favorite subject-specific tools, such as science, social studies, math, P.E., music, art, and more.

What are your favorite school tools?

Homeschool Tools: Reminisce

My grandma subscribed to a LOT of magazines.  From the time I was a child until she died, I loved sitting down in front of my grandma’s coffee table, assured of all her latest magazines being there for me to thumb through.  One of my favorites was Reminisce.  In fact, after my grandma passed away, I ended up with all of her Reminisce magazines!  Knowing that Isaac would be studying modern history this year, I brought several copies back with me from the US. 

If you’re not familiar with Reminisce, I’ll tell you just a bit (no, I’m not being paid to advertise or review this publication).  Reminisce is a Reiman Publications magazine that focuses on the “good old days.”  True-life stories and photos are submitted by readers.  The stories take place between 1900-1980.  You can read more about this magazine at their website Reminisce.com.

I love the idea of using first-hand, true stories in history, whether it’s about a historical event or person, or whether it gives an idea of what life was like “back then,” I believe these stories are gifts to our children.  If you write down stories from your own childhood and stories told by your parents and grandparents, so much the better for your children!  But even the stories told in this magazine are worth a great deal. 

I read through the magazines I brought back and marked any stories I thought Isaac would enjoy reading as part of his history studies.  I was right.  Isaac DID enjoy reading those stories!  I even caught him thumbing through a Reminisce magazine this morning (I think he had discovered an old-time comic strip in one).

Here are some examples of how I have used Reminisce in Isaac’s history:  After studying the Russian Revolution, Isaac read a story in Reminisce about the author’s parents fleeing Russia with their prized samovar (January/February 2002 issue).  A February 2002 issue of Reminisce Extra had a collection of stories called “We Fought WWII on the Home Front.”  Here, he was able to get an idea of what life was like for American children who had to deal with rationing and shortages during the war.

When studying the Great Depression, a story about a teen’s first job as an iceman (delivering ice) was fun to read (July/August 2002 issue).  This boy didn’t take the job for selfish reasons—he did it to help his parents feed the family.  That’s why I love these stories—they tell about responsibility, honor, commitment, respect, and hard work.  The same issue also had a humorous story about a Model T. 

 

I just wish I had brought back more of these magazines!  Someday, when I’m living in the US again, I would love to subscribe.

Do you have a favorite magazine you use in homeschool?  What interesting sources do you use to make history come alive?

My Favorite Links for Free Printables

In our homeschool, I use a LOT of printable pages I find on the internet.  I wanted to share some of my favorites that I use on a regular basis.  Actually #10 and #14 are two websites I haven’t used in awhile, but I decided to include them in this post, I won’t lose the links! 

1.  Homeschool Creations—I use Jolanthe’s Geography printables regularly, especially the country fact sheet and the Children Just Like Me page.  In the past, I have also used the State Factsheet notebooking page, and some of the flags and maps for different countries.  I also use a lot of her literature based printables.  If you go to her main page, the tab for printables is on the right…there are LOADS of great printables here!

2.  Homeschool Share—This is my go-to place when we make lapbooks.  Not only do they have lapbook templates for a variety of topics and books, but they also have a large selection of blank templates if you want to make your own.  You’ll find some notebooking pages as well.

3.  Guest Hollow—In the past, I’ve found lapbook printables here as well as a template to make our own geography passport.  Currently, I’m using their timeline pages for my son’s history.  On the printables page, you’ll find charts, notebook pages, worksheets, copywork, and more! 

4.  Enchanted Learning—To use this website to the fullest, you must be a paying member.  There are, however, a large number of free printables.  I often use Enchanted Learning for maps to label.

5.  About.com Geography—When I can’t find a “Label the Map” printable for the country I want, I make my own using map outlines from this website (scroll down for blank and outline maps).

6.  More Coloring Pages—This website has a lot of printable coloring pages, but I mostly print out country flags to color for our geography units.

7.  DLTK—I use this website for various things, from geography to preschool to holidays.  They have color pages, puzzle pages, templates for crafts, calendars, booklets, theme units, bingo dauber pages, certificates, charts, and more!

8.  Confessions of a Homeschooler—Erica has a huge number of free printables, many of which I’ve used with Gabriela.  Currently, I’m just using the calendar notebook printables and some of the letter ones, but check out the others!  Categories include Animals, Art/P.E., Bible, Calendar Time, Geography, History, Kindergarten, Lap Books, Literature, Math, Mom Stuff, Phonics, Preschool, Science, Seasonal, Spanish, Weather, and Workboxes.

9.  Making Learning Fun—This early childhood website is a HUGE source of wonderful printables for dozens and dozens of themes.  I’ve used a lot of their alphabet printables and some of the themed pages.  I’ve just discovered that they also have geography printables for different countries…I will be checking this out!

10.  PreKinders—I actually haven’t used anything from this source for quite a long time, mostly because I forgot about it!  There are loads of free printables on this site, and I’m going to check out the pages for theme units.  They look really nice!

11.  Homeschool Helper Online—I’ve used this source a number of times, though maybe not regularly.  I’ve mostly used their lapbook and notebooking pages.

12.  1+1+1=1—Although I constantly read this blog, I haven’t really looked through the printables offered, although I knew they were there.  I do use some printables from the Raising Rock Stars curriculum for Gabriela’s preschool.  Have a look!  Just click on the “Printables by Theme” tab.

13.  Activity Village—This website has thousands of free printables on a large variety of topics!  I’ve used it several times, though mostly for geography.  I really need to explore this site more.

14.  Lapbook Lessons—This is another site I haven’t used in awhile, but it has plenty of free lapbook templates.  My only complaint is that all of the ads on the home page make the site a bit annoying to maneuver through.

UPDATES: Here's where I'll list any additional websites with lots of free printables (as I find them)!

15.  The Notebooking Fairy--This blog has lots of free notebooking pages for different categories.

16. Donna Young's Homeschool Resources and Printables--This website has printables both for organizing and for various subjects.

If I run across any more websites with free printables, I’ll update this post.  Also, if you have any favorites I did not mention, please do comment and share your find!

Homeschool Tools: Mad Libs

I’m certain most of you are familiar with Mad Libs.  If not, I’ll give you a brief description, and then you can check out the links below.  Mad Libs are stories with key words left out.  Usually played at parties or with a friend or two, one person asks the others to supply the needed words (noun, plural noun, adjective, verb, adverb, number, person, etc.), and then he/she reads the story aloud, using the words supplied.  The results are hilarious!

I’ve loved Mad Libs since I was a kid, and I was born in the 70s.  Apparently, Mad Libs were invented in 1953 and first published in 1958.  I didn’t know that.  Anyway, believe it or not, I still have ALL of my original Mad Lib books, complete with stories my childhood friends and I completed.  My kids get a kick out of seeing Mom’s childish handwriting in these books and reading the words my friends and I used in the early 80s (like “Gag me with a spoon!” for exclamation).

I’ve use Mad Libs in our homeschool several times, spreading the hilarity to my own children.  It’s a good supplement when you’re studying the different parts of speech in language.  My kids still sometimes forget what an adjective or past tense verb is, so Mad Libs provide good practice.  Just recently, I found a Star Wars Mad Libs and ordered it.  My son, a HUGE Star Wars fan, was absolutely thrilled.  I’m kind of looking forward to watching him use it with his Star Wars-loving buddies.  (Too bad I didn’t have this for his Star Wars-themed birthday party!)

Here are a few links you might enjoy:

Mad Libs--the official Mad Libs website where you can find out about their products, apps, downloads, history, and more.

It’s a Mad Libs World is basically Mad Libs online, so you can play right now!  There are currently 286 stories you can choose from.

I’m hoping to write a series of posts on “tools” we use in our homeschool—not curriculum, but things we use to supplement our curriculum, or other “things” we find indispensable (such as my long-arm stapler) in our classroom.  Do you have a favorite homeschool tool?

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?