Our Homeschool Cart
Our days at home now number 19 and we’ve become somewhat resigned to the reality that we will be here for a while. All five of us in our home can be a lot sometimes especially when two of us are trying to work while help the kids succeed at e-learning. We only have one true office/desk area and the bedrooms aren’t large enough for desks so it’s been a bit of a free for all with laptops and school supplies all over the place. I love myself some school supplies but after not being able to see our dining room table for the past two weeks I needed to take control. Perhaps this was my way of dealing with the uncertainty of the times but creating a homeschool cart to organize all the supplies the kids need for school plus a bunch of educational games and books felt so good! The kids loved helping to organize the cart and so far have actually kept it organized. So if you’re like me and are opening to regain a bit of control during these times, read on for my TAKE on a homeschool cart. Hope it helps at least one more parent stay sane!
I’ve always wanted to build an art cart for my kids so when the dining room table became a school desk for two (sometimes three) kids I took it as an excuse to create a homeschool cart. Having everything in place makes it easy for the kids to grab what they need throughout the day and alternatively, put things a way when they’re through. Plus the cart is easily wheeled into other rooms when the need arises.
The cart itself I ordered from the Recollections line at Michael’s. I opted for the larger version as I needed to house items for two kids but there is a smaller version with a lid accessory that could help the cart transition into a desk. Aside from the cart itself we had most if not all of the educational games, school and art supplies at home and I just pulled them from different closets and arranged on the carts shelves. There is a lot that can fit into this three tier cart and despite being jam packed is quite durable.
We have the cart full of the standard workbooks, pencils, crayons, paper, scissors and glue sticks but some items that have been helping to make our transition into e-learning a little bit easier are as follows:
Osmo Base for iPad - We do have Osmo and love it but the base has been particularly helpful when needing to prop the an iPad up to join a Zoom meeting or to use the Seesaw Class app.
A new set of these Crayola Double Doodlers have been a hit and have helped to get the creativity flowing during art projects.
We start each day with journaling and writing a letter to a friend so a journal and stationary are located in a prime spot on the cart. Thankfully, I randomly stocked up on some stamps in early March so we will be able to keep up with our letter writing efforts for a couple of more weeks.
Supplemental games for Math and Spanish are played a few nights a week in our house. Mobi a fast numerical tile game, Math Dice Junior and eeBoo’s Time Telling game are most popular. As for Spanish our workbooks were accidentally left at school so we’ve been using eeBoo’s Spanish Bingo and vocabulary flash cards to supplement. Luckily regular Spanish lessons are starting this week!
Kinetic Sand and Mad Mattr have been popular for my younger two. They love sensory things and you can use these materials to trace letters or to discuss textures.
Headphones! Don’t forget the headphones! They help my oldest of focus when there are many distracting younger siblings abound.
And of course, painters tape which has been the most surprisingly useful homeschool product to date. Mostly for the pre school set in creating invitations to play but also for chalk art.
There are so many supplies that you can add to a cart to make it useful for your family…books for quiet time and Magna-tiles have also been really helpful for us. Hope you have fun with putting your school supplies together and most of all good luck with this e-learning adventure!
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