Swiss Army Mama

 A lot of curricula for young students requires manipulatives. If you're only teaching for a semester or two, only have one student, or don't have a lot of money, you might be reluctant to pour a lot into hands-on tools for math. The good news is, you can count with almost anything! We've used all of these (and more!) to do addition, subtraction, grouping in sets, counting by twos and fives, etc.  I store most of my math manipulatives in one box for easy grabbing. I keep a stack of LEGO bricks in here so I don't have to go hunting for them.  www.themathworksheetsite.com also has a free hundred board printable, here . This site has a mix of free and subscription-only printables, but is only a few dollars a month. A lot of what you need for elementary math is free! A hundred board can be used to help kids visualize and track addition, subtraction, sets, and more.  The kid in our household with the more severe ADHD needed this for math everyday for a while, tracking add...

 Today, we made a thing! I don't usually go in for attempts at pinterest or instagram crafts, but pocketofpreschool  posted this great (and cheap!) little sensory kit and I decided to try it. I snagged about $1.50 of paint (we didn't use all of it), a bag of dried pinto beans, a $1 pencil box, and a few little containers, shells, kid tongs from the Dollar Tree. I didn't use all the containers, so it was like 25 cents worth of the $2 I spent. We had some plastic animals already.  I went sort of all out for this because I was in the mood, but you could easily just give a kid some plain dried beans or rice, a regular spoon or tablespoon measure, and a cup. Little cups cut off egg cartons are a great size for this. The goal is just letting them explore textures and movement.

 I owe a debt of gratitude to my friend for this tip. We were at her house several years ago and she pulled out a tray to do a messy science experiment on. I immediately went home and put some on my wishlist. I couldn't believe that in all my years of homeschooling it had never occurred to me to use a basic cafeteria tray for mess containment.  We use these for EVERYTHING. Playdoh, painting, coloring outside, science experiments, clay, beads, LEGOs, K'nex. We keep them on a shelf by our school stuff and even the two year old knows to get a tray out for messy activities. We have these but you can find other colors and sizes. They wash off easily and help keep working areas contained!

I like things that look pretty. I also like things that are cheap or inexpensive. I especially like things that don't break easily, but are easy to replace if they do break. My current favorite small school supply hack is this: These cups are yogurt cups. We bought these: And ate the yogurt, washed the cups out, and saved them. We only did this with two packs because usually we buy less fancy yogurt.  These are the cups we use for watercolor painting, for keeping small parts of craft projects collected together. They're pretty thick glass and sturdy, but if a kid does happen to break one it's going to be inexpensive to replace. You could probably find decent plastic ones if you preferred not even risking glass, but I like my kids getting some practice with fragile items in a low-risk setting.

Use a small index card or a trimmed piece of paper to make a list of things that need to happen to leave home. It can be words or pictures. Include between two and five items, no more. A list might include: -Get dressed. -Put on shoes. -Fill water bottle. -Get comfort item. Ten to thirty minutes before you need to leave, direct kids to the little list. They'll need you to go with them the first several times and go over it together. Start asking, "Did you check the list?" "Did you do everything on the list?" several minutes before you need to go. After practice, you should be able to say, "We leave in ten minutes, get ready and check the list!" It helps kids to know what you mean by "be ready" and it helps you to not have to mentally go through the list and verbalize it every single time, while also grabbing whatever you need. Especially for kids with poor impulse control, attention issues, or disordered task issues, it helps to have...

Hey, there! I have a new tool in beta to help new homeschoolers generate a list of their needs to find curriculum! It won't suggest curriculum for you, but it'll help the people you ask for help point you in the right direction. You can find the Curriculum Finder Aid by clicking here , or at the top of the Swiss Army Mama home page.