What do you Need?

For any activity, there's a list of things you need to get started. Have you looked at the front of one of your knitting or quilting books lately? There's a whole list of things you supposedly can't do without. And I'm guessing that there are at least a few items on that list you either don't own or don't use.

Last fall, I kept stumbling across lists of the things you absolutely must have if you're going to homeschool your children, many of them written by mothers who'd been homeschooling for two whole weeks. I'm glad those moms were enthusiastic. I'm glad it was working well for them.

But the list of things you can't homeschool without is a very short one and it really doesn't include a dry erase board, a laminator, or an electric pencil sharpener. I've also done it for many years without a CD player or a printer hooked up to the computer. (That last one was kind of an accident.)

Depending on whether preschool counts or not, I've either been homeschooling for eighteen years or fourteen. However you add it up, it's been a long time.  I've had the dry erase board and the laminator and the electric pencil sharpener.... and I didn't use any of them.

So what do you absolutely need?  Most of it is stuff you already have if you're living in a household with kids.

More than anything else, it helps to have a sense of curiosity and the ability to be flexible. We spend a good portion of our days chasing rabbit trails, like the afternoon we spent four hours watching a fifty-eight minute video about the history of stained glass.  I do wish I'd switched to a smart phone sooner. Now we can look up things while we're out and about. Like the proper way to remove a leech from your mother's arm...

You need something to write on and something to write with. My current favorite pens for the kids are still those multi-pack of  Paper Mate InkJoy pens I can get for a couple of bucks at Walmart. For my own use, it's the Paper Mate Flair felt tips pens I use in my planner.  Crayons, highlighters, pencils, colored pencils, mechanical pencils... those are all optional.You probably already know which pens or pencils you like best. Use those!

We also like having a fast internet connection and a computer and access to a good library. There's plenty of other stuff that's great to have, but there's really no list of things you can't do without.

If you actually laminate things, go for it. (But I'm guessing you'd already have a laminator in the house anyway.) And I hear that dry erase boards are really good for practicing free motion quilting designs. Mine had an....unfortunate accident several years ago, so I wouldn't know.

This post is linked up to Tots and Me, Rock Your Homeschool, Faithful Homestead, Motivational Monday, Mommy Monday, Totally Terrific Tuesday,