Family Life

Getting Ready for Homeschool

Sale PSA: A pointed suede pump from Gianvito Rossi, now 60% off, super cool drawstring (!!) linen pants from J.Crew, now 40% off, a simple leather slides from Chloe, now 60% off, and a yellow linen dress from Reformation, now $134.

Yes…August will soon be here and that means like many of you I’m going to be homeschooling! We kind of knew this day was likely coming so I’ve been low key preparing for it for the last month – I’m fortunate that my oldest is starting kindergarten so there isn’t that much “hard” academic stuff to do. I’m also personally not a super academically focused parent – I have friends who have all kinds of different philosophies, and I respect them all, for me I I remember what I was like when I was a kid and how my interests changed as I realized I had more free will so I guess I figure there’s only so much a parent can control. But I still want my son and daughter to be able to learn in a comfortable environment, and also without their stuff TAKING OVER the house – here are some of the items I’ve bought to help organize and make homeschooling a little easier.

Perpetual wood calendar: The most twee item I’m sharing today! I already got a big calendar from Amazon (this one) but had to add this. It’s maple wood and from a local company and is super cute, right? It’s about the size of a regular paper calendar – there’s also a big one but it was a little $$$ for me (but beautiful). I chose the Chinese version (you just add that you want it in comments, and there are multiple other language options).

3-Tier rolling cart: A local mom who has always homeschooled her kids for years recommended this cart to me, as a way to hold art supplies, construction paper, glue, etc. I actually ended up getting two of these (so I could meet the free shipping minimum, with some little clear boxes) – I think I’m going to use the second one to hold random odds and ends in my daughter’s room. I can actually think of TONS of uses for these carts.

PS: Target has something very similar for $5 more but then you don’t have to go crazy trying to find $75 for the free shipping with Container Store (though that is never a problem for me).

Acrylic book cart. I think (?) I’ve recommended these before. I have three!! They are expensive but great. HOWEVER one is cracking through no fault of its own (son stomped on the bottom ledge as part of a game). I’m repurposing one to hold their workbooks, little early readers, etc – the wheels are super handy because I can move it around (if you plan on doing this a lot however, I wouldn’t weigh down the cart too much).

I also have these acrylic bookshelves (I like acrylic! What can I say?). And they are used to hold a few of my kid’s bigger books. OR instead of drilling a hole in your wall, you can get some of these $4 (!!) storage cubes from Target.

Portable lap desk: this was kind of an impulse purchase but it’s been quite useful! Even for my husband and I, when we need to work on our laptops but have to watch the kids outside, etc (it’s easier for me to use than my husband). One thing to note is that it isn’t for heavy duty stuff – you can put a laptop on, or an iPad, or a notebook, etc. Which makes it fine for school activities and Zoom but I wouldn’t put say, a glass of milk as it’s easy for this to tip. An easy portable little desk and I expect it’ll come in handy especially as now I’ll be managing two separate learners with two separate school schedules.

Are any of you going to be new to homeschooling next month? Do you have any favorite homeschool (or just plain organization) goodies to share?

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11 Comments

  • Reply
    susan
    July 27, 2020 at 10:11 am

    Please keep us updated on your successes and lessons learned!

  • Reply
    Anna
    July 27, 2020 at 11:46 am

    Appreciate it if you could also share activities/curriculum. Scratching my head for home schooling right now!

    • Reply
      Jane Reid
      July 27, 2020 at 4:55 pm

      Hey Anna, I help people get started with their homeschool. I can help you find a curriculum if you would like. Feel free to hit me up at unpreparedmom.com

      • Reply
        Anna
        July 28, 2020 at 6:34 pm

        Thank you! I will definitely check it out!

  • Reply
    Anonymous
    July 27, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    Thanks for the 3-tier cart recommendation. Just ordered for our dining room. Last spring, the remote learning school supplies were in huge messy pile, so this is a great idea. My youngest is also entering kindergarten. Unlike my older kid at this stage, he knows how to read basic words and can write most letters, so I am hoping it won’t be too painful to homeschool kindergarten. I remember spending 45 mins. every weeknight for months getting my older one caught up to kindergarten level. I think she was sitting in class totally lost! Thankfully now she is fairly independent even during remote learning. I still expect this to be quite a challenge to have 2 kids learning remotely with 2 working parents. We aren’t able to block out or fully stagger our work schedules, and are often both on calls at the same time. I should start mentally preparing soon!!

  • Reply
    Phil
    July 27, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    Ahh, I love acrylic shelves, too! I have that same exact one from Crate and Barrel. Had it shipped to Hawaii so you could imagine my cheap ears screaming. LOL

    • Reply
      Kat
      July 27, 2020 at 4:50 pm

      Your comment made me LOL. Perfection

  • Reply
    Jane Reid
    July 27, 2020 at 4:56 pm

    There is a lot of good stuff on here for organization. Thanks for the tips!

  • Reply
    mct
    July 27, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    I did homeschooling/distance learning already this past spring with a Kindergartner and first grader and but will do just a bit of it again this fall when they are learning from home one day a week. I found they don’t need very much, but I also skipped any assignment that required anything but minimal effort on my part and/or elaborate amounts of material (read: all of art and some social studies projects). I did buy a lot of books for them to read (no more classroom library to tap into) and a few workbooks to supplement what the teachers had, but overall I felt they needed little more than pencils with good erasers and a good pencil sharpener. I did buy these organizers from IKEA and I think they are great – much bigger and sturdier than I had thought.

    https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/tjena-desk-organizer-white-60395452/

    IKEA in general has great things for the kids that is not too pricey and given that this is a temporary situation I think that’s probably a good thing :). Even if temporary is another year (fingers crossed).

  • Reply
    Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life
    July 27, 2020 at 8:53 pm

    JB already has a neat table and stool set up that PiC picked out a couple years ago so that’s become their lesson desk and I’ve repurposed a couple of my fabric baskets, as I clean and organize my office space with more long term storage, for their lesson supplies. I was considering several variations of these rolling carts two months ago and gave up after some decision fatigue. Lakeshore Learning had a really tempting but oversized cart I fell for. 🙂 This is still on my list of things to figure out. First I’ll repurpose what we have on hand to avoid creating more decluttering work for myself down the road.

    We’re getting a lot of mileage out of some small whiteboards for them to practice their writing, and I would like to find some space for an easel for an art book as well.

  • Reply
    CEO
    July 30, 2020 at 12:44 am

    Thanks for this recommendation. Also preparing our spare room for my son’s online class this September. He is starting grade 1. Also getting this rolling cart for his art class supply. Will definitely check out the calendar.

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