I could not imagine homeschooling without these amazing gizmos ~
- My laptop ~ I do all my research, planning, creating, corresponding and blogging here! I love downloading information, photos and ideas. I enjoy creating newsletters, designing worksheets, creating collages and making my own cards. I get a thrill finding information I need. I love to find free homeschool resources and online activities for the children.
My laptop
- Printer/ scanner ~ I try to save paper, but I just love to print out our copywork and handwriting pages with the correct lines and fonts, and all the minibooks for our next lapbook, I spend the evening cutting and folding the minibooks. I love having everything ready for class time and my children have everything they need at hand. I am so grateful for the ink refill company who refills my cartridges at half the cost of new ink cartridges.
Printer & scanner
- Guillotine ~ I’ve had this since I was a public school teacher and I think we use it at least 3x a week!
Heavy-duty guillotine
- Laminater ~ This is my absolute luxury! It makes everything last longer and is excellent for things that the children handle daily.
I laminate charts, cards and manipulatives
- Camera ~ I take photos as often as I can. It keeps our memories alive!
Photos on our Footprints Map captured an 18 month journey around South Africa using our Footprints On Our Land Curriculum
- Stationary ~ I love some scrapbook hardware to make lapbooks and journals really spiffy! We have collected a few odds and ends over the years, and these are our favourites – shaped punches, “corner round edge” (sorry, I’m NOT a scrapbooker and don’t know the proper names!), eyelet punch, scissors with different edge blades.
Eyelet punch
I know that this list looks excessively expensive, but I have saved a whole year for some of these gadgets, and received the others as birthday gifts over the years. (Don’t all homeschool moms ask for printer/scanners for their birthdays?)
Also, I need to say that we don’t NEED these gadgets … I just love using them. I can homeschool in simplicity, without electricity, with the least cost … we just need some living books …
So, what’s on my homeschool gadget wish list?
- Labeller ~ I love to label things … especially books where spines have no titles. I would love the professional finish of a labeller … oh, and I’d also label all the things in my pantry …
- Heavy-duty stapler ~ I would be able to compile books and pamphlets …
- Spiral binder ~ to make gorgeous notebooks of my children’s work at the end of each theme/ term/ school year …
What do you all love to use for homeschool?
Practical Pages 
Once upon a time as a newlywed woman, my dear husband gave me two birthday gifts. One was romantic and I can’t tell you what it was but then he gave me the other he said, “I know it’s not very romantic but you’d mentioned that you’d like to have one.” It was a label maker! That has been over 10 years ago now and I am just as happy to have it now (probably even more so) than I was the day he gave it to me.
One of my girlfriends called me the other day to tell me she was standing before a $20 laminator and asked if I’d like her to pick it up for me. I am tickled pink to have one of my very own now! She thought it was so funny to see me get so excited about a laminator but I still am excited to have it!
My first homeschool room accessory purchase was a used white board. I love that too. Makes my life so much easier!
Now you make me want a binder now… LOL!
LikeLike
Love the guillotine and laminator. I managed to get a comb binder away from my parents’ house, but I haven’t figured out how to borrow one of their guillotine’s… love that name! I always just called them paper cutters, but they are much more dangerous than that name. I do a lot of what I call “hillbilly laminating” with clear contact paper. But one of these days maybe I’ll get the real deal. Thanks for sharing!
LikeLike
Haha! Guillotine…that’s clever!
I too want a labeler. And I had never thought of a laminator. A new wish list item.
Thanks for sharing your ideas and gems!
LikeLike
Nadene, I agree. My printer/scanner/copier is probably number one. And our guillotine cutter is another well loved tool. I really like my swivel stapler as well.
LikeLike
Mum’s favourite gadget – HP ipaq. It has e-sword on it, plus heaps of downloaded sermons, worship songs, a place for making notes, address book, wireless internet capabilities (but we don’t have wireless yet), it’s a hand sized gem!
LikeLike
How about a long-armed stapler for all those books the children love to make? It’s on our “one day” list!
LikeLike
I found a ProClick binder on ebay last year and we love it! The kids really get a kick out of turning their work into books. I love that we can start organizing their work from the beginning and just add to it as we go. Plus, if they make a page or find info on a subject sometime after we finished up, it’s a snap to add it to the booklet. One of the best investments I’ve made.
Thanks for your blog!
LikeLike
Running or playing with farm-animals would be heaven for us (urban dwellers)! Ah well, we have two lazy guinea pigs that support us in times of math-meltdowns and bad weather 🙂
LikeLike
I am jealous with your paper-cutter and laminator 🙂
I couldn’t do without our whiteboard, lots of scissors on all strategic places, and our simple Hifi (for background music and audio books).
However, I ones read an article in a magazine and concluded that I am missing the most important thing to keep the kids happily learning: a sleepy dog under the table!
LikeLike
Hi Paula, I agree with your suggestions. (Don’t know about the dog under the table; ours are farm dogs and they stay outside waiting for the children’s free time to run and play!) I use my laptop for music and audio books. I even have a Mozart playlist to listen to during creative times.
LikeLike