It’s Not Just Me, Right?

I wanted to take a break today from my usual posts to pose this question to you: Does this happen to you?? Please. This can’t be happening to just me!

Okay. ::deep breath:: Perhaps I should start at the beginning.

When we bought this house, one of the big selling points was the giant second floor bonus room. There is just so much space and so many possibilities of what to do with it. Of course we knew that a portion of it would make a perfect school space and the rest could be used for toys and our collection of books. (I’ve since added the computer to the space in the hopes of getting some work done while the kids are playing.)

What’s in Our Morning Basket?

 

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I have high hopes for the next 6 weeks. I want to be more intentional with the way we start our days and our morning time. The last six weeks have been a struggle. Our good days usually started out with time with Jesus Calling for Kids. Our other days, well, didn’t. They ended up being a little more chaotic.

After taking a hard look at our daily habits, the answer was clear: We are going to go back to starting our day with more structure and spending time with God.

I want to use our time together to touch on other subjects that tend to get pushed out for other *more important* things (while I agree these other things are important, I don’t think they are more important). Things that I’ve wanted to include are poetry, art, read alouds, etc. How to do this in a more cohesive way?

Friday Favorites – Teacher Discounts

Hey y’all! Well, my week of rest is winding down. I’ve had to do some more school shopping (getting that morning basket ready!) and pay from some upcoming field trips. This got me to thinking about saving money with discounts available to us homeschooling folks. There are already some stores and places I know of, and have been able to, thankfully, use my homeschool ID card to get the teacher discount. But there were more places that accept our status. After doing some digging, here is what I found.

10 Things My Homeschool Can’t Survive Without!

*While this post contains affiliate links, all opinions are my own. Read my disclosure policy here and thanks for supporting my blog!*

 

When I first started homeschooling, I joined a bunch of groups on Facebook. I searched for every possible group I could think of and joined the ones I could. It helped me feel less like I was jumping into the deep end by knowing there were lots of groups of people who had “been there done that”.

In the time since, I’ve been able to draw on these groups for inspiration, and reassurance, as well as to point me in the right direction when I was feeling overwhelmed by curriculum choices.

Recently, a mom who was just starting out on her journey posed a question: ‘What are 3 things you can’t live without’. She was trying to figure out which essentials to purchase for her new homeschool without buying more than she needed. I answered with what I thought were my top 3…and then as I read other responses, I realized it’s not possible to pick just three ‘must haves’.

So here we have it, 10 things I can’t live without:

1. a good printer and copier — I can tell you this is a necessity because my printer isn’t a good one and it’s a major headache!
2. a tall cabinet that my girls can store their binders, workbooks, papers, and pencils boxes in
3.  chalkboards — I have 2 hanging up in our school space that we use daily, and I just bought 3 small ones for the kids to have while they are working.
4. a globe — I will be getting one this summer. We really could’ve used it last year…There is one that I have my eye on over at Amazon. (I’ve included an affiliate link at the bottom of this list. If you’re looking to buy a globe from Amazon and you purchase this particular one, please purchase through my link so I can get a small commission at no cost to you.)
5. folders — we do a lot of unit studies and these help me stay organized; my girls use them works in progress and things that need to be graded.
6. 3-hole punch (this gets used A LOT!)
7. a good pencil sharpener — really take the money to invest in a good one, because the small cheap ones we have just don’t cut it.
8. a library card!!
9. a good internet connection — we like to use YouTube videos as part of our studies
10. the “traditional” school supplies: pencils, colored pencils, markers, crayons, tape, glue (both sticks and bottles), hot glue gun, small personal scissors, rulers, loose leaf paper.
11. art supplies — we are very artsy and my girls love projects and there is no way we could survive without art supplies. 🙂
12. spiral notebooks — without these, my kids’ journal entries and other notes would be lost forever. 😉
13. books, books, and more books! I buy them used for cheap when I can, and then go to the library for the rest.
14. COFFEE!! Without coffee, there is no Mommy. 😉

Okay, so I did have to add a few more things to my list. It takes a bit to keep this train running.

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What about you guys? Anything you can’t live without?

Let me know if I forgot something!

The girls’ craft desk with their art supplies both beside and underneath.

We also need some wall space to display art and posters for our current topic. 🙂