What are your must haves for homeschool?

[Psyche]

Curriculum wise and extra wise? Or specifically extra wise ;)

Are family memberships to zoos and local attractions a must? Memberships to the Y? Extra classes like dance, soccer, gymnastics, art, etc? How many extras are on your must list?

[Titus2Momof4]

I thought you meant extras like manipulatives and such? In that area, we have a complete classroom set up (which, even tho the kids are in school now, still serves as our "family school room", and makes an awesome place for homework and the summer schooling I WILL be having them do, since I see what happens when then are not constantly learning...) We also have an entire (large) linen closet filled with all kinds of supplies, manipulatives, reproducibles, games, etc.. you name it, I probably have it or something similar :shifty.

In the area of extra curricular things, we take things on a 'seasonal' basis. We are not involved in extra curr's year round. :no2 We will do Upward again in the Winter, and ds will do Tball in the Fall. That's it. Anything more is too much to handle, and takes away way too much time from our family. I am not sure if I will let ds to Tball in the Spring next year, since the girls will have Upward going on at the same time. We'll see. But everyone one of those things you've mentioned (dance, gymnastics, etc) we have done at some point, but since I refuse to be involved in something every week of the year. :snooty

[Titus2Momof4]

Oh, and as for memberhips to places... We have Sea World passes, so our kids got to go twice a week! I never saw a reason for museum memberships, since we happen to live in an area that is VERY homeschooling friendly (i.e Disney has it's "homeschooling days", Sea World offers field trips for homeschoolers, the Orlando Science center has a homeschooling program, and MOSI in Tampa has one as well. OMART (Orlando museum of art) also has some stuff going on periodically. So any time we went to those things it was generally in a homeschooling program (except Disney and SeaWorld--we choose to have those passes regardless...though currently we only have SW passes.) So, maybe it would all depend on your area. check around, if you live in a hs'ng friendly area then maybe there are homeschooling programs at all of these things, saving you the $ of memberhsip!

[rootsintherock]

Our dd (9) has riding & violin lessons weekly all year...gymnastics/cheer are weekly during the regular 'school year' although it looks like she may choose not to go back in the fall. DS (7.5) has piano lessons weekly all year...and Scouts during the school year. Other then that we have memberships to the Zoo, library & Science Centre plus DH likes to take ds golfing 2-3 times a month.

A printer with full coloured ink is a must have for us curriculum wise as we print most of our books/math right now & math manipulatives for dd.

[Grover]

Curriculum wise and extra wise? Or specifically extra wise ;)

Are family memberships to zoos and local attractions a must? Memberships to the Y? Extra classes like dance, soccer, gymnastics, art, etc? How many extras are on your must list?

A library card
Access to supportive families
Friends for the kids to play with
Tinfoil,stickytape,pencils and paper ,ink for the printer..


For me the must have's are my HOD curriculum.I know that alot of families here are unschoolers -but for ME to be able to homeschool happily I prefer a gentle curriculum.I found making up our own [and we did for six months] was more stress and worry.I love HOD because it all thought out for me .

I love that we have a years pass to the local educational farm and we just added a pass to the american museum.I wouldnt say either was a MUST have but they are very nice.Its great to take the kids out for a day.

[HomeWithMyBabies]

Our homeschool room is also our sensory room, so we have a yoga ball and a trampoline in here, and hopefully a swing sometime soon. I consider those must haves for my boys because of the way they learn. We don't have a curriculum but we do have lots of craft materials, building toys and manipulatives, an easel and tons of books. The computer is important and my oldest has his own desk. Our library cards are a big deal, too.

I could come up with a list of memberships that I'd like but I'm not sure they are must haves at this point. Maybe when the boys are older. :shrug3 Dh would like them involved in sports, and he thinks our oldest might be ready for something like that.

[WanderingJuniper]

A library card. :yes I'm learning that right now the biggest must have for my children is interaction with children who don't live with us. They don't care what age they children are but they currently crave the opportunity to play with other children.