Homeschool musts

I have a couple of friends who are either new to homeschooling or contemplating doing it, and have shared with them our story.  I was thinking today the things that I can't live without.

1. My white board it is small but we write all we have to do that day on it, and I let the boys decide what order we doing things in, it makes our day go by much better.

2. Cup of tea or water (for me) and snacks for the boys (learning makes them hungry).

3. The laptop with the internet - so we can look up fun facts like if Russia is still the biggest country as it was when Peter the Great was alive.

4. A big laminated map - one side has the US the other the globe, our's doesn't have any writing on it, so we use wet erase makers to put the countries and states we learn about on it.  I've also used Lego guys to represent them, traveling from where we live to where we are studying.

5. Playdough, to keep Ethan entertained while Aiden does his work, and also to learn shapes/letters/ etc.  

6. A colorful Children's Dictionary we have the one by American Heritage.

7. For Ethan we have a colorful placement with the ABC's on it, I took a dry erase marker and drew things on the place-mat for memory pegs, like for 'I' I drew an igloo to remind him what 'I' says.

8. Lots of sharpened pencils and a pencil sharpener.

9. Flash cards for spelling words (to study, alphabetize, determine syllables, write paragraphs with etc.)

10. Any items I might need for Science projects.

11.  Paper, Aiden writes on Wide Ruled paper Ethan uses that big ruled stuff.

12. Patience, I pray for the day before the boys wake up after my Bible Study.  This is THE most important part, if I don't do my Bible Study and prayer time in my morning there is a huge difference in my level.

13. I also must remember not to schedule to much  in one day, or try to put to much in our day.  My stress makes the boys stress, and can ruin our day.

14. We buy at the beginning of the year a complete curriculum from Sonlight, we love it because it is literature based, and we love to read.  I picked it originally because of the ease (it tells me everything I need to do each week), and it wasn't a big change from what we were doing already at home, ie reading.

15. I make up a excel spreadsheet at the end of each year of what books I need for the next year, color coded so I know what books I'm buying/borrowing/or checking out of the library.  I also put what week I'll need them so if I decide to check them out I remember to do that at an earlier time than when I need it