Whether you’re a minimalist or maximalist in your approach, choosing the right homeschool supplies is crucial. As a former elementary school teacher, I loved going overboard with our homeschool supplies. From posters to manipulatives, I wanted it all. I soon realized, though, that my attempt to replicate my traditional classroom was a waste of money.
Choosing Homeschool Supplies to Suit Your Lifestyle
Let’s face it, as Americans it’s easy to get swept up in consumerism. We’re constantly bombarded with advertisements, and every minor inconvenience in life can easily be resolved with the click of the “add to cart” button. I too have been baited into a purchase that I later discovered was unnecessary. So how do we avoid this mistake and purchase homeschool supplies that we truly need? I’m glad you asked.
What’s Your Homeschool Style?
Montessori, online, traditional, eclectic: knowing your homeschool style gives you an overall vision for how your homeschool operates. Once you know how you will be teaching your children, you can then decide what supplies will bring this vision to life. Focusing on the overall vision of your homeschool will also keep you on track when purchasing supplies. Anything that doesn’t support your homeschool style shouldn’t be purchased.
What’s Your Child’s Learning Style?
Just like your homeschool style, your child’s learning style significantly influences what supplies you should purchase. When we were taking the traditional approach at the beginning of our journey, I bought an entire boxed curriculum for my oldest daughter. As the school year progressed, I noticed that my daughter was exhausted from all the work, and I was frustrated that I couldn’t get her to do all the worksheets that I had purchased.
The problem wasn’t her work ethic, it was because the supplies or curriculum that I had chosen didn’t suit her learning style. She was only five years old at the time and would have benefited from more engaging, hands-on lessons than one that was littered with worksheets. Despite our move from a traditional homeschool style, though, my girls often need hands-on items to understand certain math concepts. For example, while teaching my girls place value, a Base Ten Set helped my girls understand numbers effectively.
Choosing Homeschool Supplies That Suit Your Space
Despite being called “homeschool”, your child’s education doesn’t necessarily have to take place at home or school. Keeping that in mind, you should consider your homeschool space when purchasing supplies.
Homeschool classroom
Having a traditional classroom typically requires more homeschool supplies. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, especially if your family’s needs are being met within your family’s budget. It’s important, though, to focus on the essentials as the cost of supplies can quickly add up. As I mentioned before, while we were taking a traditional approach, I purchased many worksheets. Consequently, I had to keep these worksheets stored in an organized fashion and I had to have space to store it all. When we moved away from a traditional teaching and learning style, we no longer needed a homeschool room. That reduced our storage space and our need for so many storage containers.
Although we’re still traditional in some ways, the shift that I made from a traditional style with a dedicated homeschool room forced me to reconsider many of the supplies that I once thought were necessary. The more that my girls moved toward online lessons and hands-on activities, the less we needed traditional supplies. Although I once shopped for individual desks for our classroom, I now realize that our kitchen table works just fine.
The Kitchen Table
Perhaps you’re considering using a smaller space to homeschool like we did. We got rid of our classroom and decided to do written work at our kitchen table instead. With this transition, however, I also learned that I had to be more creative with my storage to prevent my entire house from looking like a classroom. I decided to keep our supplies limited and would use a few storage solutions to keep everything tidy. Just off from my kitchen is a small foyer leading to my girls’ rooms. This little area was already colorful and childlike and became the perfect place to store their supplies. Currently, my favorite storage solution is this eight-drawer Rainbow Storage Tower. It holds plenty of supplies without taking up much room and the rainbow drawers are fun and colorful too.
Choosing Homeschool Supplies that Support Your Homeschool
We’ve discussed how to appropriately choose homeschool supplies that suit your lifestyle and homeschool space. Keeping these details in mind will not only support your homeschool effectively but will also save you money in the process. Whether you’re a traditional homeschool family who needs to scale back on spending or a world school family who would rather save up for trips, we can all agree that we’d rather pay for supplies that support our homeschools instead of ones that don’t.