Thursday, August 27, 2015

Our Homeschool Room

   Want ways to get free or discounted homeschooling supplies, decorations, or free curriculum? This is the post for you!
I wrote this post about 2 months ago as its own page. It makes more sense to have it as a post.

UPDATE: 

 We finished decorating our homeschool room!

I drew the owl's to save money on decorations. Why buy when I can make it?!
I was blessed to get the white boards from my dad. He got them for free and gave them to me for our homeschooling room. If you're looking for a free or cheap white board read the end of my post. You will find a lot of money saving tips!


The "today's and tomorrow's weather" were bought for a dollar at Target, along with the "day's of the week".

The numbers and United States of America poster's were also a Target buy.

Our Calendar was home made and the Months were a dollar at Target.



   Homeschooling doesn't have to be expensive! Let me share with you some of my favorite ways to save money on the things we have in our homeschooling room.
   First, my mom knew we needed stuff for homeschooling, so she went out of her way to help bring me some office supplies. 3 boxes worth of office supplies that she no longer needs.
  Then I found out that our state university has a reuse program. This program is set up so that when teachers/instructors or the school no longer needs their supplies or furniture they mark it with a "reuse" sticker and send it to the warehouse. At the warehouse they put prices (cheap) on the furniture to resell to make money for the university. They also have a HUGE isle FULL of FREE office supplies! My husband and I went and grabbed 2 bags and 1 box of supplies! I was so excited!!!
   Here are some pictures of the things my mom brought me and the things I grabbed for free and the reuse warehouse:

 3 stacks of 3 ring binders.

 I hope your state university or close college has a reuse program you can go to because they are amazing! You will be amazed at all the things they have in these warehouses. The next time I go to the reuse warehouse I will take pictures and post them.

A wipes box and bag full of tabs for file folders.

Tons of separator pages, folders, and report covers.

Two huge stacks of manilla file folders and 2 big stacks of the dividing, tabbed file folders.

Quite a few protector pages. I'm hoping to find more.

Sounds funny but yes, I grabbed some shipping folders. :)
There are 2 cups full of paper clips, a ton of black paper clips ( I don't know the technical name of them), a white basket, a green separator basket, and book spines for books, planners, etc.

2 off white magazine holders.
 These next items are from Target's $1 section. So they didn't cost any more than $3. The magazine holders, small buckets, days of the week wall hanging, stickers and pencils came from target. I got the stacks of colored paper for $0.52 at Lakeshore learning along with a basic concepts book that was on sale, a free planner, and a few other things. The alphabet chart came from one of our local elementary schools.

   I also like checking out craigslist for free things. They always have things that people are getting rid of that I could use.
   I'm far from finishing our homeschool room. My husband is going to make me a chalkboard and a cork board. I'm also working on the decorations for the walls. When our homeschool room is complete and organized I will definitely blog about it and post pics.
   Other ways to save on homeschooling things:
     1. Check out garage sales in your area. Often times they have furniture you can use for storage, tables, and filing cabinets. They also sometimes have used curriculum, world globes, decorations, books, etc.
     2. Cragislist: Craigslist - Especially the free section. They always have things that are usable for homeschooling.
     3. Target: Target's dollar section. Right now they have a ton of school items for $1 or $3. They have USA maps, World maps, school supplies, planners, and so many other things!
     4. Wal-Mart: Wal-mart- Yes, I know some of you boycott Wal-mart, but sometimes you just can't beat the prices on their school supplies.
Wal-Mart.com USA, LLC
     5. Lowes, Menards, Home Depot: Lowes, Menards, Home Depot -Make your own chalk board or cork boards. You will save a lot of money this way.
     6. Instead of having a white board: put together some picture frames, add some colored paper instead of a picture, and use dry erase markers on the glass. You have a home made "white board" that looks amazing!
If you want a white board: A great way to save is to find someone throwing out an old bathtub surround. Cut it down to size and add a frame. (This awesome idea came from my sister.)
     7. Free curriculum. There are quite a few web sites that offer free curriculum which I posted about in my "Free Curriculum" (Free Curriculum) post.
     8. Instead of buying books for your kids to read: Have a library day once a week where you check out books for a week or two. If you want to buy books a few great places to save money are: half price books, amazon.com (amazon.com), craigslist, or local co-ops (sometimes they have book swaps or you are able to buy books for cheap from other homeschooling moms).
 
 How have you saved money on your homeschool room?