Favorite Homeschool Stuff

Oh!  I got so excited to see Dwija's Favorite Homeschool Stuff link-up!  I have said a few times recently that there is nothing I appreciate more than a whole-hearted recommendation or an absolutely confident it's-not-worth-it-ation (?) from like-minded moms.  I've already benefited from this link-up and can't wait to track down one of these!!  And of course, I love to share my recommendations too! 

... I can't even believe that I am going to wax eloquent (or not, as the case may be) on office supplies.  And yet, when you have a blog you can pretty much ramble on and on about whatever you want (whether you can retain any readers after going on and on about office supplies, though, remains to be seen.)

(If you actually want to read about my favorite curriculum stuff, you can travel on over to this post here where I chat about Flyleaf Publishing, Dover Coloring Books, Draw. Write. Now., and copy work.)

The homeschool tools I love this year (and this stuff is so obvious that it will give away what a rookie I am) are binders and binder rings.  Flash back to last year when papers were flying everywhere, someone would ask to do a lesson and I couldn't find anything for them to do, I'd want to bring flashcards in the car but they'd be all over the wet muddy van floor in a minute... etc...  Then at an informal curriculum sharing night at my house, one of the moms brought over her child's reading lessons (the folded books from Little Stories for Little Folks) all gathered neatly together on a binder ring, and my world was rocked.  It was so simple, and yet, I hadn't thought of it.  Now, I will never go back.  And I had fun photographing the proof of the depths of my love...

Confucius say, "A binder for everything and everything in a binder."  

Handwriting practice for the littles?  Keep it in a binder.

Use Handwriting Without Tears and have letter cards and wooden pieces all over the place?  Put them in a binder.

Keep copy work contained... in a binder.

Binder rings for every sort of flashcard immaginable.  I especially love this for math facts and sight words because I can easily add the new material/facts when it's time.  And it all stays TOGETHER!!!!!  even when the whole pile gets accidentally knocked off the table or 'accidentally' thrown across the room.  

My mom and I thought it was superbly educational  to get these cards for the betterment of my children (plus they were in the dollar section at Target, so why wouldn't we buy them??)  But once they were in my house I had a rule that no one could take them out because they would end up under the couch, behind the shelf, and in the toilet.  Not so, anymore!  Now I even toss them in my bag and bring them to the pediatrician's office to show all the other moms in the waiting room how convenient and easy it is to homeschool on the go.  (please, I hope you don't miss the sarcasm here... I mean I DO bring them but they get thrown around the waiting room - it's just that the binder ring makes it convenient and easy to snatch them up and make a quick flush-faced exit from the office.)

 Thanks for the fun link-up, Dwija!