Back to Homeschool Coffee Break - Coffee and Other Essentials

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I have a confession - I don't shop the Back to School sales for notebooks and paper and pencils. I haven't for a number of years. If I happen to see something we'll need, of course I pick it up at that lower price, but for the most part, I go find school supplies when we need them, rather than when the retail people tell me I need them.

Also, we're kind of past the stage of needing glue sticks and crayons, and a new spiral notebook every September. Of course we go through our share of paper, 3-ring binders, pens, and pencils, but our list of supplies that we must have on hand looks more like this:

Coffee - I mean. Clearly, this is a must-have item. This is just such a big part of who we are and what we stand for, so the coffee is brewing each and every morning, and we're glad to stop while running errands for a coffee break too.

Computer and Internet Access - Even though we don't do a lot of online curriculum, we do rely heavily on our devices and the internet to get through a normal schoolday. Kennady has chosen to continue with No-Nonsense Algebra, which means every lesson has a short video component. That's the only course where we must have the internet every day for the lesson, but there's so many times we need to research something, or check out a book from the library, or order something from Amazon (like maybe SAT prep), we'd be a bit stuck without our internet. I do my grading and record-keeping on the cloud, using Homeschool Tracker Online (which I'll talk about more tomorrow!). And in the writing class I'll be teaching at the co-op, I'm planning to allow the students to submit their essays for feedback and grading using Google Documents. When we are not schooling in the same place (for instance, I'm at work and the student is at home), messaging online is the best way to make sure school is getting done!

Y'know what is truly sad about this? Just a couple of days ago, I spilled coffee on my Chromebook, and I'm not sure yet whether it will survive. I was trying to think how long I could go without it, before buying a new one, and I've realized it is a genuine essential and if it doesn't revive I will have to buy another. Not the way I wanted to find out just how much we rely on it, but yeah. We do.





And a printer - I use the printer a lot, now that I think about it, and it's never good news when I run low on ink. For me, it's been worth it to have a teacher's account with Staples. Makes it easy to have ink - or other supplies - delivered the next day (no charge!), or ready for me to pick up in the store.

A vehicle - We have places we need to go in order to do our learning! Co-op classes, chorus rehearsals, and guitar lessons all require us to do a bit of driving in order to get there.

Travel mugs = also a necessity, because I need
to take coffee along on the road.

A comfortable place to work - Over the years I've learned that kids don't all work best at a desk or table; or at least not for every subject on every day. My oldest did most of his high school work sitting or lying on the sofa in the family room. My middle two generally used a desk to do their work, but not always. If they had a lot of reading, they would usually lie down to do that. And now my youngest does some work sitting in bed, some sitting on the floor in her room, and tries to do her reading lying in bed. I'm not exactly sure why she has a desk. She keeps stuff in it and on it, I guess. And she does use it when she works on an art project. But she's most productive when sitting on the floor. Go figure. Bottom line? As long as the work is getting done, it's fine.

What are your must-have supplies beyond paper and pencils? Be creative! Leave a comment and let me know! And visit the Homeschool Review Crew Blog to find all the Back to School Blog Hop posts about school supplies.

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