What kinds of things do we like to invest in as Homeschoolers?
You would think that buying an expensive curriculum would be where our money would go. We try to do dollar tree workbooks, materials from local bookstores and of course affordable online apps and virtual learning platforms like www.time4learning.com instead of buying thousands of dollars worth of binders and materials. We would rather our money go to other things like trips, educational activities, crafts and books.
Trips and experiences!
Anytime I see advertised online for a local museum or a homeschool coupon, I jump at the chance of getting monthly memberships or a group rate so that my kids can experience aquariums, farms and other local attractions.
Having Hands-on experience help to connect more paths in the brain for future learning!
Board games! We do at least two board games a day. We search for good deals at target, give them as gifts and find yard sales with them.
We found out about the benefits of board games when two of my kids were suggested by two different speach-language professionals to do board games daily to learn self-monitoring habits, language practice, critical thinking, public speaking, problem solving and more! (See one of many articles here: Benefits of Board Games for Kids | Scholastic | Parents)
I literally collect books. Thrift stores have TONS of cheap but quality books. If I see a great book at a local store, then I’ll do Christmas presents with them! We keep them in the car, in the bathroom and in rooms!
I was reading a few articles that stated about the importance of the presence of books in the home. The More Books at Home, The Higher the Child’s Education | Education World.
Not only doing read books every day as a family but we set aside time every single day for personal reading time. We give sticker charts out for those that read a particular amount to earn screen time.
Crafts and art supplies. We try to do something creative daily: draw a picture, cut out a collage, paint some thing, make a monster out of popsicle sticks, do a science experiement or just color. Dollar tree is our best friend for all things arts and crafts. See another one of our favorite articles here: The Importance of Creative Arts in Early Childhood Education.
We don’t invest a lot of money in electronic toys (my husband does love his Nintendo switch games with them LOL), but overall we love to invest money in science toys, stem related activities and building items.
We always ask for Legos for every holiday and birthday. We love how it promotes creativity and that we can have Legos for generations to come and pass down our sets to our future children’s children! Not only does building and playing with blocks promote engineering, but it also helps expand concentrating on a task. Benefits of Learning with Legos and Blocks - Simply Today Life.
We love supplementing our daily activities with music time, playing outside, cooking and of course home economics! Since we own four businesses from our home, our kids get put to work with daily tasks like organizing papers, helping us with social media content and responding to emails. We intertwine our business and personal lives so that we can give our kids a total experience of the work life and family balance.