Through the years I have found a few items that truly have helped our school day move along more smoothly.
Electric pencil sharpener. Not a battery operated one, but one that actually plugs into the wall. It saves time over a hand crank. It saves pencils. When we had a hand crank sharpener, it would eat up cheap pencils, you know the cute ones that are in the Dollar Spot at Target or the ones that kids seem to accumulate. While I still prefer the good old yellow Ticonderoga pencils, the electric sharpener makes almost all pencils easy to sharpen and use.
Ticonderoga pencils. (See previous paragraph.)
A large whiteboard. (More on this in tomorrow’s post.)
A computer for the boys. I know this is a complete luxury item, but it helps us SO much.
Maps. I love maps. We have world maps, US maps, Texas state maps, and Texas county maps in our school room. I have them hung with O-rings on the bottom of the whiteboard. If we need to look at a map we just flip it to the one we need.
Timeline. Having a visible time line on the wall has been very helpful for the boys to understand that things in the past didn’t necessarily take place at the same time. They now know that George Washington didn’t know Abraham Lincoln. Also, that Texas was annexed as a state at the same time the Irish Potato Famine hit Ireland.
A library card. This is like having Charlie Bucket’s Golden Ticket. Our regular trips there enlarge our world exponentially.
What items help your day go more smoothly?
I have to add erasers, those large pink ones. My youngest destroys erasers, so those help her correct her mistakes.
Oh yes! I forgot those. Large erasers are a definite must!