Getting overwhelmed with all the "stuff"

[MrsBanjoClown]

I knew it would be expensive to homeschool, but even buying mostly used I am feeling like we are running out of money and there is still a lot more to buy! I have a cart sitting on RR with multilink cubes, a geared judy clock, a bucket balance, and geometric shapes that I can't order yet. Then we still need to get measuring cups, a ruler, and a meterstick, not to mention composition books. I'd also love to get a globe and ancient civilizations maps so we can find the places we are talking about. Oh, and did I mention we are starting the new year in less than 3 weeks? And there are a ton of other things I'd like to have (like the TM and monkey-match game for SSL) but that I am going to try to make do without. I guess I just need someone tell me that it will be ok to not have these things and I will still be able to teach my boys.

 

How are your preparations for the new year coming? Anybody else scrambling to get all of the supplies?

[pbt1294]

I have been homeschooling for 8 years and I HAVE all of those things. I just want to tell you that I RARELY, if EVER use them. You really don't need them. Okay, so maybe a ruler, but I still don't have a globe, but my kiddos know how to read maps and where different countries are.

 

Now you tell me that I don't need all of the curriculum that I WANT to buy this year!!! :lol:

[BakersDozen]

I have been homeschooling for 8 years and I HAVE all of those things. I just want to tell you that I RARELY, if EVER use them. You really don't need them.

:iagree: My cabinets in the schoolroom are filled with things (mostly from Rainbow Resource/Lakeshore) that I have used what...3-4 times over the last 12 years??

 

Measuring cups can be bought at a thrift store for pennies compared to RR. Globes are also fairly easy to find at Goodwill or on Craigslist. Have you tried posting on Craigslist for some of the items that might not be easily found in thrift stores?

 

Manipulatives are lots of fun but sometimes not worth the $ we spend when they aren't used all that much. ;)

[ALB]

:grouphug: I know how you feel! One of my current goals is simplicity. I don't know what ages and program you are using for math, but there is usually room to be flexible. I didn't buy a geared clock, just the small, cheap Judy clocks, and they have been fine. Actually I think we would have been fine just pulling off our inexpensive clock that's on the kitchen wall and using it :001_smile:. Linking cubes are nice to have and are called for often if you're using Saxon, but you could also use legos or duplos if you have a bunch that are the same size and shape. We haven't used any geometric shapes yet (except for 1 dimensional ones that we cut out of paper). Maybe you can use things you have, like a soap box, an ice cream cone, a ball?

 

I'm totally with you on the globe and wall map! We have yet to make those purchases (partly because I'm in Asia and can't find one with the names in English), which makes me sad sometimes, but so far we have coped. We just look at maps that are inside of books that we have. I do wish they were larger, but for now we're surviving. Don't forget google Earth and other internet goodies!

 

I would encourage you to make do with what you have, and slowly build up your supplies as you are able over time. Your dc will be absolutely fine without some of the more expensive/ complicated items out there!

[5LittleMonkeys]

The Monkey Match game is just a set of cards with Vocab words in Latin and English. You could easily make these on your own...better yet, have your dc help you. SSL is super basic, I don't think you really need the TM.

 

As for all the math stuff, you can help you dc make their own clock with a paper plate, brad, and card stock cut into hands. Go to Everything's a Dollar if you have one near you and get measuring cups and rulers. Google paper patterns for geometric shapes and print them out on cardstock. Your dc will learn more about them if they build them anyway. Multilink cubes are nice but you can use anything for manipulatives; beans, Cheerios, toy cars, straws. The balance might be trickier, but I bet you could find plans online for making a homemade one.

 

A globe would be a good investment, and one I would purchase before many of the math items you mentioned, however ancient maps can be found and looked at online, or possibly even drawn and colored by your dc.

 

Basically, do what you can with what you have for what you need right away, then purchase those things you'd like to have one at a time as you have the funds. I will tell you, from homeschooling for a while and with lots of dc, don't discount teaching with what you have in your home or with what you can make fairly inexpensively. Many times the homemade items will teach so much more than purchased things, and you'll save lots of money.

 

Relax...you'll do fine.:grouphug:

[mumto2]

Just wanted to add that we have a beach ball style blow up globe. Works great and super easy to store. Got it years ago--maybe dollar store or somewhere similar.

[Lily_Grace]

I'll agree with the others and say we rarely, if ever, use more on your list than a ruler and map/atlas.

 

However, I'm sure most would say the same about my list for the upcoming year. :D I have my shopping list broken into months, based on what we'll be using and when. August I'll be getting some Bill Nye videos. September, a kit to go along with our history work. And so on down the line. My priority right now is to get the basics (still have maths to get) and then work from there.

[Mom in High Heels]

I have so many things I thought I *had* to have and still have not used any of them. Don't worry about the extras right now. Get your main curriculum and then see what you really need. You can make your own manipulatives if you need them (we've never found them useful to be honest), classical academic press has Latin flash cards you can print off for free. While I like globes, we put a map on the wall that cost about $5. Don't go overboard on stuff in the very beginning. You'll probably find you actually can live without them and won't drive yourself crazy.

[kadesmom]

Alot of manipulatives you can pick up at the dollar stores. I also use a beach ball globe and it's perfect. I think you can order them from Oriental trading.

[swellmomma]

Like everyone else is saying most of the stuff you can not get right now is really not needed. We just got a globe this past year, our 6th, before that we used the maps in the books we had and an atlas.

 

The math manips you mentioned can totally be made for cheap. Our bucket balance has sat in a closet since our first year homeschooling. It will get pulled out for dd4 this coming year but then likely put away again. You don't need to spend a ton on measuring cups, rulers, composition books etc, buy them at the $ store, or walmart/target or whatever for cheap.

 

With that math manip list it sounds like you are planning to use horizons?

[queenie]

Most of the extra stuff that i have came from yard sales and consignment sales. I have gotten rid of a lot of the extra stuff b/c like everyone else we didn't really use it.

[beaners]

I don't know what you need a balance for, but when we needed one in MEP there were quick directions for a homemade version. You just take a wire hanger and tie a bag to each end. I especially like it because it isn't taking up storage space!

 

If you are in the US, there was a recent thread about when school sales would start up. I can always find rulers for a penny at Staples or Office Max. Someone usually has notebooks on sale for ten cents each. The dollar store has measuring cups. You can make your own shapes with cardboard or paper.

 

We do have lots of manipulatives that we bought really cheaply last year, and we do use them all the time. We don't often need them for lessons. My kids just think they are neat toys.

 

I don't have much on my shopping list, but I have a mountain of printing that I need to work on. I've been printing things off a few sheets at a time or as I need them. That has been the source of too much wasted time here, so I'm trying to print further out for the coming year!

[boscopup]

I've never needed many of the things on your list.

 

We do use our globe, but I got it free from public school castoffs (and it's a nice one, but no stand). You can get a wall map from Walmart, Michael's, and other such places locally.

 

You probably have measuring cups in your kitchen, don't you?

 

Legos work like multi link cubes, though if you're going to buy something, I'd suggest C-rods instead - non-linking version.

 

I have never needed a bucket balance. Our math programs have always shown a picture, and that was enough.

 

Pictures have been enough for geometric shapes here too.

 

I did get the geared clock, since it's cheap, but I can't say we've even used that much either, so I wouldn't worry about it. Again, your math program probably has pictures.

 

The only math manipulative I really use most of the time is C-rods.

[FO4UR]

:iagree:

 

 

The only math manip that I think truly worth buying is Cuisenaire Rods. The rest are either easy to make or easy to substitute...or not that necessary.

 

 

Globe - check WalMart in August. I bought one for $15 a couple years ago. It broke a couple months ago and I am holding out for the back-to-school sales before replacing it.

 

My kids like playing with a real (cheap) clock rather than the Judy clocks. We found a watch (at Wal Mart for $10) that has the 5 minute increments around the clockface. The Judy clocks are stored away...the watches are worn and used. (multi-purpose)

 

 

That to say, prioritize what you think you will really use and wait until August when the back-to-school sales strike. You probably don't really need your entire list.

[MrsBanjoClown]

Thanks for the advice and the great ideas! We are using Singapore for math, and they do have a lot of pictures in the textbooks.

Edited June 20, 2012 by jpope

[Critterfixer]

I'll tell you a real good cure for getting overwhelmed with "stuff."

 

Go clear out your desk, shelves and drawers of last year's "stuff.":D

[PeterPan]

Ditto the others' advice and I'll just add that you want to check your curriculum to see how often those things will be used. For instance, RS A uses the clock a lot but the geometric solids only *once*. Guess where you should put your money? Guess which costs more? ;)

 

Second piece of advice is to wait and watch walmart. They'll have a ton of stuff soon and may have much of what you need, seriously. Actually, I just saw really decent little judy-style clocks in the dollar bins at Target. Not as good as the fancy ones, but adequate and a great price. Walmart will have globes for a great price. The Learning Resources stores will put much of their store 20% off soon and run extra deals like throwing in a planner when you buy stuff, etc.

 

If homeschool groups near you are having sales, that's another way to pick up stuff.

[FairProspects]

Ok, I'm going to go against the grain here and say that it depends on your dc. My dc are both hands-on learners and we have used everyone of those manipulatives frequently (with the exception of the SSL things). Some of them you could definitely make (bucket balance) and some you may already have (yardstick, measuring cups), but I do think the manipulatives make a huge difference in teaching for some kids.

[Micron4]

 

If homeschool groups near you are having sales, that's another way to pick up stuff.

 

:iagree:

 

If there are any homeschool used sales in your area, make a beeline over and be first in line. I've gotten some great deals! The only bad thing is seeing things that you paid full price for already sitting there on a shelf at a fraction of the cost. :tongue_smilie:

[warneral]

for weights and measurements, we just used measuring cups in the house. I'm really into baking, so that wasn't a problem. I also have a digital scale from when I did weight watchers. I use this puppy all of the time. It is so useful to have. From weighing letters for the mail, weighing flour for baking bread, etc. etc. Of course I'm a bit Type A so it goes with my personality. I no longer measure my peanutbutter on a scale, but I still use it for everyday things.

 

My dd did need a clock b/c she just DOESN"T get it! Rulers, protractors, etc are in their math drawer. I got a ton from the big ecuisinaire sale last year and the stuff was super cheap. We got dice, blank dice, rulers, geometric shapes, cuisinaire rods for uber cheap.

 

I wonder if they will have a sale again this year?

[Uff Da!]

nm

[hollyh]

I used to teach in the PS and didn't have some of those things! Start thinking creatively on what you can use instead. If you can't think of something, ask here! :)

[Bear23]

Shipping is what gets me. If we were in the mainland of the states, shipping wouldn't be an issue but with location I have to normally pay priority prices to get something here within a month. It's the little nickle and diming that gets me.

[Lily_Grace]

Shipping is what gets me. If we were in the mainland of the states, shipping wouldn't be an issue but with location I have to normally pay priority prices to get something here within a month. It's the little nickle and diming that gets me.

 

 

Same. Though I haven't noticed a difference in time between priority and media or other classes in getting to me. However, there are certain companies I refuse to buy from anymore because of how they treat APO/FPO shipping. One made me pay darn near double the actual shipping cost! (for anyone not in the know, APO/FPO is the same as shipping to the coast of the US, where the military postal system picks it up for free).

 

There are stores, though, that have gone above and beyond and they will continue to get my loyalty after we move back - MUS, Lakeshore Learning, Mama Made Them...

[BugsMama]

certain companies I refuse to buy from anymore because of how they treat APO/FPO shipping.

.

 

Which ones have you had trouble with so I can avoid them? I pretty much stick with Amazon, because it's hard to figure out who will work with us an ship it priority.

[Lily_Grace]

Which ones have you had trouble with so I can avoid them? I pretty much stick with Amazon, because it's hard to figure out who will work with us an ship it priority.

 

The bulk have been Montessori dealers, but I can pm you my list if you like. It kills me that the companies dealing with a philosophy of peace and kindness and honesty are so fantastic at cheating others.

[Spetzi]

I agree you can figure out something on your own for many of these items. Always check the dollar store and educational/stationery aisle at WalMart/Target. Check online for printables or simply viewables (like the ancient maps or geometric shapes). Make your own movable clock by printing out a clock face and using a paper fastener (brad) for the hands. Glue the face on paperboard (like a cereal box) and use paperboard for the hands. Meter sticks are $.69 at Home Depot. You can make a simple balance scale.

 

I always think I want/need these fun items, but many of them are hardly used and turn into clutter.

 

I do love our globe and we use it often. I bought it at Costco for $25.

[SorrelZG]

I regretted buying the SSL TM. It added next to nothing to the student book. I wouldn't pay full price for the Monkey Match cards again either. They're pretty but we've never used them.

[laughing lioness]

We had a house fire in the middle of a school year and lost, or lost track of, most of our homeschool "stuff." We managed to get through the year with some B & N purchases and the library just fine.

Stuff is fun, stuff is good, but stuff is not essential to having a successful or rewarding year.

[Tidbits of Learning]

You should go to the Dollar Store this time of year. They actually have a lot of these type of manipulatives. The $1 section at Target also always has a lot of things. Target's $1 section normally has the blow up globe. It has paper atlases as well.

If you have a teacher supply store nearby, go check it out for manipulatives. It will save you on shipping costs. Also, don't buy everything up front. Buy the manipulatives as you need them for the curriculum. If you have a school aids or lakeshore learning nearby, you can buy as you need math supplies/manipulatives. Most places have local teacher supply stores as well. It was actually cheaper for me to get all our math manipulatives as we needed them from School Aids than it would have been for me to order online and have them shipped.

We have been schooling for 3 years and I started to buy everything a few weeks before we needed it last year. It really spread out our homeschool costs over the year and it didn't seem as overwhelming to our pocket book. I did this with novels, manipulatives, and such. I bought everything we would actually use in the first 9 weeks. If we didn't need it for the 1st 9 weeks, I didn't buy it until 2 weeks before we would need it.

[MrsBanjoClown]

Thank you all for your suggestions. They are really helpful to a newbie! I do want my kids to have access to all of the materials/equipment that they need to be experienced with, but I can see how some of it may not be necessary.

[WeeBeaks]

I haven't thoroughly read every post. Do you have a local HS group where perhaps you might borrow some of these things for a year? Or a semester?

 

I too have them stashed. They are used a semester here and there as required for their math or Critical Thinking books and then put away for the next child a lot of times. If someone in my HS group needed them, I would just loan them, and plan to as one of our group doesn't have them and needs them.

[Guest airbornewife82]

here's a link that will show you how to make a bucket scale with household items:

http://www.ehow.com/how_7384809_make-balance-scale-home.html

 

You you can also make your own clock with cardboard and a brass brad and marker. Or Print off a clock and paste it to cardstock usig the brad to attach the minute and hour hands.

 

for the geometric shapes you can buy foam sheets from the dollar store and cut the shapes out yourself. You can go a step further and glue magnets to the back of them!

 

I'm having the same problems with gathering everything needed to start homeschooling too. And I will be doing these to help cut costs!

Hope this helps!

[mjtsmami]

I was at the dollar tree yesterday and they had 6 packs of wipe off clocks. They had 3 different types, I grabbed the one with the clock and then the space to write the time digitally, since that's what he does in his math power ups.

 

As for a map we got shower curtain from Target that has the map on it. I think they have a USA one too, but I'm not totally sure on that. It's awesome because it wasn't crazy expensive, they can use dry/wet erase markers on it, and it's a shower curtain. We had it up on the wall for awhile, but they boys decided to put it in the bathroom and it's also become a bath toy, because they paint the countries they know.

 

Oh and Lego's make great math tools.

 

I would love to have all the "professional" manipulatives and stuff, but I just don't have the money for them...or the room to store them.

[MomatHWTK]

I knew it would be expensive to homeschool, but even buying mostly used I am feeling like we are running out of money and there is still a lot more to buy! I have a cart sitting on RR with multilink cubes, a geared judy clock, a bucket balance, and geometric shapes that I can't order yet. Then we still need to get measuring cups, a ruler, and a meterstick, not to mention composition books. I'd also love to get a globe and ancient civilizations maps so we can find the places we are talking about. Oh, and did I mention we are starting the new year in less than 3 weeks? And there are a ton of other things I'd like to have (like the TM and monkey-match game for SSL) but that I am going to try to make do without. I guess I just need someone tell me that it will be ok to not have these things and I will still be able to teach my boys.

 

How are your preparations for the new year coming? Anybody else scrambling to get all of the supplies?

 

I totally understand the desire to put everything in the "need" stack, but really- some books and some paper will get the job done. Everything else is a "want." I have spend hundreds of dollars on "wants" over the years. Cool lapbooks my kids couldn't stand, teaching software that no one was willing to use, games that no one liked. Ugh!

 

For your list in particular:

1. Don't know what multilink cubes are. I may have some, I found some cubes on sale for $.99 once and bought them- they link together but I don't know what they are called. They are in the kid's toy chest. Legos link together. I do have MUS blocks- seldom used them for actual math, the kids love buidling with them though.

 

2. Don't have a Judy Clock. For a few $ you can purchase various books with built in clock hands. We have a snowman one, a Thomas the Tank Engine one, a Peter Rabbit one...

 

3. Don't have a bucket balance. We do have a digital kitchen scale. You could in a pinch make your own balance if you have building blocks and cardboard.

 

4. Geometric shapes- flat ones you can print on cardstock. 3-D, again, building blocks or household items that fit the bill. You are really only using them to look at so the kids have the idea of 3-D. There are free virtual manipulatives available online if you need to do actual measuring.

 

5. Measuing cups- $.99 at WalMart, Target or the Dollar Store. Get the spoons too.:001_smile:

 

6. Rulers- Get thee to the back to school sales. These should be $.50 to a $1 at the most. Or- the dollar store. Meter stick- don't have one but don't use one. Get some cardboard and have the kids make one as a school project after you get the rulers. ;)

 

7. Globe- have it, seldom use it. Maps, do have these on the wall- on sale now at WalMart (or again, the dollar store). For ancient maps I look online when I need them.

 

 

To be completely honest, I have found that the more "stuff" I buy to teach with the less teaching actually gets done. I am so busy trying to find and incorporate what I have that we lose time and the kids get distracted. OR, they get distracted with the item and miss the lesson.

 

Free printables and the printer are my best friends. I print what I need when I need it and hopefully get to use it before it gets lost. :lol:

[MomatHWTK]

Adding... Whenever I start to think that my kids must have something to learn, I think of Einstein and Abraham Lincoln. Those poor guys didn't even have the internet. :001_smile:

[amyrobynne]

 

Globe - check WalMart in August. I bought one for $15 a couple years ago. It broke a couple months ago and I am holding out for the back-to-school sales before replacing it.

 

I saw globes on sale at Target last week for $17, I think.

[alisoncooks]

Target has foam clocks with moveable hands in the dollar bins...

[2_girls_mommy]

Some of that stuff helps some people, some of it doesn't help others. It is ok to start with what you have and continue to add to it as you go when you need it.

 

A FWIW, rulers are about 25 cents right now at back to school sales. I bought a clock book at a thrift store for about 75 cents years ago that I still use (never got the Judy..) and my globe was about $2 from a thrift store as well. It is the best one we have ever had. We have never had the cubes or fancy manipulatives that you talk about. We used a felt board that I made, plain old counting bears, and odds and ends I put together when I needed something to explain a concept. There are all kinds of how tos on blogs and in books on how to teach things and make things yourself if you are so inclined.

 

So get started and keep your eyes peeled for bargains as you go.