Must Have Resources: Blog Hop!

I have been homeschooling for 12 years. Throughout this time I have found supplies and resources that have been invaluable to me. I want to share a few of my "Must Have" resources with you today. These links are not affiliate links; they are just for your convenience!

• A good pencil sharpener! This sort of goes without saying, but having a good pencil sharpener will make your homeschool day go much smoother! There's nothing worse than using a dull or cheap pencil sharpener and having your pencils break or not sharpen.

• Good pencils! Invest in good pencils and they will save your sanity. Ticonderoga have always been good. They sharpen evenly and don't break easily. The cute pencils with the decorative wrapping - skip those. The wrapping will come off, clog your sharpener, and cause you unnecessary grief!

• Sheet protectors! I use sheet protectors in our binders to keep our pages fresh and pretty. I hate when pages get torn out of binders and you have papers sticking out and falling out. Sheet protectors keep binders neat and pages in tact. They can be expensive, but it's worth it to me! 

• Laminator! I use my laminator all the time, especially with my younger kids. I laminate flash cards, games and pieces, resources I want to reuse, and charts. It makes things so durable and almost impossible to destroy. I have had my laminator for years and it still works perfectly!

Those are my top four must have resources for the school year! Tomorrow I'll be sharing about curriculum. 

Zeke's Tot School Resources

Zeke is 18-months old and I started Tot School with him a few weeks ago. I'm using Bible ABCs for Ones, Twos, and Threes for his curriculum. We have a Bible story each week that goes with a letter of the alphabet. He also has a color or shape each week, a Bible Big Idea, a song, a themed snack, crafts, and developmental activities that all tie in to the Bible story of the week.

I have some resources left from my older kids that I saved, but I did donate quite a bit of our educational toys and puzzles a few years ago. I gave myself a $100 budget for Zeke to order him a few fun resources that he can use throughout this year and more to come.

I think these color bean bags will be great for games and for learning his colors! At less than $20, this is a pretty good deal.

These simple shape puzzles from Imagimake are less than $10 and will be great for teaching colors, shapes, and puzzle skills. 

I love Larui Toys! These shape stackers will be fun for Zeke! I had this set for Titus years ago, but I gave it away. For $15, this set comes with 25 peg stackers and the shape puzzle. This is great for fine motor skills! Toddlers love stacking the pegs.

This puzzle from Melissa and Doug feature all of the shapes he will be learning this year. It's only $10 and such a pretty, bright puzzle. I love wooden puzzles.

I have a bag of random counting bears in various sizes and colors and am missing a few of the sorting cups, so I decided to get Zeke these jumbo counting bears and sorting cups for $22.

This set of 12 apples from Skoolzy have many ways to play! Zeke will learn numbers, counting, matching, colors, and more. These will be used for many different games. And they're on sale from $40 to $21! 

This stacking toy from Melissa and Doug will be a fun fine-motor challenge for Zeke, as well as help with colors and shapes. It's only $10 and I'm sure will be used many times.

And I've reached my $100 budget for Zeke! There are so many more toys and resources I'd love to get him, but I'm just putting them on a wish list for his birthday and Christmas. These should keep him busy until then! What would you add to my list?