Is your homeschool classroom your entire home? For many people it is. Having these ten items in and around your global classroom, is one way to help make your homeschooling lifestyle more manageable and enjoyable. The below is a list of my favorite ten items in no particular order.
1. Egg timer, or any other timer – Having this handy is a sure way of staying on top of your day. You’ll find plenty of uses for it, anything from timed math worksheets, to starting and stopping classroom subjects, to managing lunchtime.
2. Dry erase wall calendar, or other reusable calendar– Have your children change it every month. (This is a fun way of teaching months of the year, and penmanship.) Keep track of all outside activities here. Vacations, weekly music lessons, co-ops, field trips, and more are all recorded on the calendar for everyone to see what is happening during the month.
3. Stickers- Have a bin full of stickers. This works really great for grammer school children. Give the stickers out generously. Administer one for every completed assignment, finishing a worksheet before the timer rings, arriving to your class station on time, and anything else that you would like to see more of. Give it a sticker. It’s amazing the look of satisfaction that a sticker can put on a face. When shopping for stickers, let the children choose. They’ll be even more excited to receive one.
4. Lined notebooks and pocket folders- Stock up at the beginning of the traditional school season and stash the notebooks and folders inside a file cabinet or bin. Needing a notebook, or folder, and not having one during the school day is a pain. Having to buy one at full price because you don’t have one handy is annoying.
5. Large supply of writing instruments– Again, stock up at the beginning of the traditional school season with pens, pencils, markers, dry erase markers, and crayons. It’s nice knowing that if and when you or your child is in need of something to write with, it’s there. Children can really lose a pencil when it’s time to complete a worksheet. Even if you are doing the bulk of your work online, one day of digital malfunction and you will be happy to have your analog stash at the ready.
6. File Cabinet- Try and have a drawer, or a half of a drawer for each student. It’s nice to have one location to put away all of your school materials at the end of the day, or week. Every now and then we have to clear the kitchen table, right?
7. Art Supplies – Glue, tape, sissors, rulers, paper, paint, clips, yarn, and anything else that you can think of regarding art supplies, place in a plastic tote bin for creative days. Creative days are those days when you let your children loose to create art work for a couple of hours. You on the other hand can have some self care time, because everything they need is in the bin.
8. Snack Bin- It’s been said that a child not sufficiently nourished will not perform well in school. Try to have some healthy snacks always handy for days when you know your child needs a pick me up to finish out the day.
9. Wall Clock- In today’s digital age, I thought twice about including this in a must have list. Then I thought about a generation of children growing up and not knowing how to tell time from a traditional clock face, and shuddered. Perhaps I’m old school. What do you think? Are traditional clocks, going the way of the dinosaurs?
10. Backpacks- Have backpacks for your children handy for days when you want to pack up your school work and move to another location. Having a backpack at the ready makes school at the park, at the library, or at Grandmas house an easy transition.
These are just a few of my favorite must haves when homeschooling. Those of you who are in the midst of teaching your children at home, what are some of your must haves?