My Favorite Homeschool Elementary Material
Often I get asked what material we use for our homeschool family. I will say that there are a ton of different ways to homeschool and material to use so find what works well for your family. If you are new to homeschooling then the general time frame they say to get a good grasp on what materials to use would be about 1 – 2 years. You will learn what works for you and your kids and then know what to use from then on out. We are now onto our second year and I’m still learning, but have a few favorites.
For a long time I used the same material our school used from common core on the engageny.org site. Takes me some time to find things, but they do have some printables for different grades. It’s exactly what they do in school. There’s also a lot of free stuff online, that’s harder to find because it’s usually just sheets here and there or you have to jump through hoops to actually find the free material.
First and foremost I love having educational books. My personal favorites are the Evan-Moor books. Last year we purchased a boxed curriculum from Timberdoodle which was great, but now I have learned what I like to use. That may be the way to go if you are new and overwhelmed. It’s an easy way to have everything selected for you and you can see what ones you like. So this year I was picking and choosing my material. The boxed set was night to start off with and gave us a good direction of what we needed. Timberdoodle is great at laying out things for you so you know what to teach and how to pace your work for the year. The only thing is that these boxed sets are a bit pricey.
That’s why I decided to shop online this year on Amazon. The Evan-Moor Educational Publishers provides educators with creative and engaging materials to make learning fun. Their products align with scholastic standards and practices to build basic and complex skills. A lot is even aligned with common core standards. I think they go up to grade 5 and have a range of books from geography to math to spelling. I personally liked looking at Amazon Reviews to help me see when others shared image of the insides of the books. That helped me a lot when purchasing material this year. You can find the Evan-Moor books online here.
I love finding cheap educational items in the stores. My favorites have been the Target Dollar Spot and the Dollar Tree. Above is a picture from Target before school started. They had all this and more plus a bunch of flash cards. Most of the items were only $1.00 each!! The same goes for the Dollar Tree.
Free Online Resources:
- Spelling City – there is a free and a paid version for more access
- Teachers Pay Teachers – select items are free to download
- Worksheet Fun – free random elementary printables
- Homeschool Printables for Free – various free printables
Paid Online Resources:
- Education.com – $9.99 a month
- ABCMouse 1 month trial
- Time 4 Learning – $20 a month
You guys there are seriously hundreds of free material out there. You need to GOOGLE and I’m telling you you can find a ton. It all depends on what you are looking for. I’m just sharing my personal favorites so far! There are tons more to look into. When I get a chance I’d love to collect and share with you all. Comment below and let us know what your favorite online resources are!
Check out more Homeschool printables here
New to homeschooling? Check out our how to section that will be growing this year as I share more of my experiences. I’m totally new it feels (we’re going on 4 years) to the homeschooling world still, but I want to share my journey with you! Check out the homeschool section where I share freebies, tips, and deals on many items!
