What is your most valuable time saving equipment for homeschooling?

[Tammy in Germany]

I'm looking for household wise and schooling wise.
Thanks bunches!

[Laura Corin]

I'm looking for household wise and schooling wise.
Thanks bunches!

Ours is broken (a cockroach fried itself on the motherboard) and I can't get the spare part.

Laura

[Kendra]

My MacBook :)

Also, set meals in which I don't have to think, "What's for breakfast?", doing as many subjects together as possible (includes copy work, memory work, geography, history, science, art, p.e., and Bible study), and laying my own clothes out the night before.

[Soph the vet]

My hp printer/scanner/copier and my 3-hole punch. Could not do school without them!:D

[Closeacademy]

My teacher's book. I put together all my lessons plans, worksheets, and whatever we need that is paper and put it in order of need in the teacher's book so it is really easy to just pull everything out instead of searching all over the house and through files for this or that paper.:)

[angela in ohio]

nt

[PamInMN]

My greatest time saving equipment? Hmmmmm......... the ability to play hookie when we want/need to. lol lol lol

[Friederike in Persia]

My breadmaker.

Living in Germany you'll find the prepacked flour for them everywhere!

[Kinsa]

My own copy machine. :D

[Sandy in Indy]

I just bought an all-in-one and I think it's going to prove very valuable...no more running to the copy store which is 20 minutes away! (And it scans beautifully as well.)

[elegantlion]

My laptop and my copy/printer. It has been a lifesaver.

Outside of technology I'd have to say my dining room/classroom itself. Since we rarely eat in the dining room I can leave things out.

[Mrs. Readsalot]

I find the biggest waste of time is trying to find things so I try to stay very neat and organized, our motto a place for everything and everything in its place.

[mcconnellboys]

I agree with the pre-planning for school, planbook, copier, and three-hole punch. Also, my mother has time to go yard-saling on a regular basis and she picks up various sizes of three-pronged notebooks for me for next to nothing, so I generally have a good supply on hand. That's helpful as they're pretty expensive.

I would add that I really like pre-planning of meals for the week so that I know I have what I need on hand. I have been doing 30 minute meals for years (my time involved, not necessarily the amount of time for cooking) and I look for recipes that keep me in the kitchen no longer than that. I think a good crockpot is great for busy days when I won't be home until dinner time. I can start the meal in the morning before we start school and not have to think of it again.

Regena

[GreenKitty]

HSTracker and fast scanner printer that prints both sides!

[Michelle in MO]

my Edu-Track program for planning our lessons (except, now that there's HS Tracker, I wish I had that!) In the meantime, I stick with Edu-Track because all the other lesson plans are on it.

[Basketmaker Amy]

HST plus is a big time saver here!

[Kinsa]

I'm surprised that no one has said "answering machine" yet. ;)

[nmoira]

A good electric pencil sharpener that can sharpen pencil crayons without mangling them and a laser printer with built in copier.

[Jennifer in NH]

Crock pot,
audio books so we can "do school" in the car,
our printer/copier
and an extra vacuum cleaner! I can be vacuuming and my ds5 can be vacuuming in another room ( for that matter, sometimes the 2 year old vacuum too, and I am free to do something else)!

[Lorna]

Mechanical pencils (I used to spend evenings sharpening traditional pencils).
Dishwasher, washing machine, even running water and toilet facilities (after camping without water supply and drainage for six months - no more walks to the tap etc:o).
My Moulinex for chopping, blending, squeezing and grating (which we are without just now:().

[6packofun]

Aside from my laptop and all-in-one printer (and the internet...), my kitchen timer to keep us on track when we have very full days is a big plus.

Also, my FAT 3-ring binder where I put all of my teacher's materials, copies of legal stuff, lists, master copies for maps, worksheets, math charts, etc. and whatever else I can fit in. I like having it all in one place! :D

Also, our nice t.v. trays and/or our Belkin CushTop laptop platforms (http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Cushtop-Notebook-Stand-Green/dp/B000J4MOUG/)(basically a ventilated, cushy-but-firm, inclined lapdesk)--we have 4 laptops here :rolleyes: and someone always needs to use one for school so it's nice for us to be able to use them comfortably while sitting on the couch! Or a bean bag chair...

[Cindyg]

A digital voice recorder.

I record our memory work on it, add in a few files from various music and memory CDs we're working with, and DS listens independently an hour a day.

[Jodi-FL]

and having teenagers old enough to do breakfast and lunch (though they rarely clean up as well as I'd like them to, we're working on that).

[Plaid Dad]

Other than the computer itself, our all-in-one computer printer-scanner-copier. It saves me countless trips to the copy shop. :)

[nancypants]

I'm looking for household wise and schooling wise.
Thanks bunches!

Doing all scheduling online at Pageflakes. Really. That is the biggest timesaver for me.

[Kris]

I'd have to say HST. It's saved me time, but it's also saved me loads of paper and erasing and marking and messing around trying to make up some kind of schedule.

Of course, we don't stick to the HST schedule any better than we did the paper one, but I feel more organized and it's a lot easier to move stuff around. :-D

[Beth in Central TX]

I wouldn't complete all of the work I would like to during our school year without Edu-Track.

[battlemaiden]

Pre-holed copy paper!

I agree with the in house copy machine, but it's even better when the paper is pre-holed.

I also use a ton of 3 ring binders so everything has a home.

Jo

[Kelli in TN]

My seventeen year old.

Do I really have to let her graduate and go to college next year? Can't I just make her stay here and be my personal asst. for the rest of my life?

[FlockOfSillies]

:D

[Tutor]

It's a tie between my dishwasher and my copy machine.

[Tammy in Germany]

Thanks so much for the great idea's! I have several things from your list of favorites I'm going to purchase. :D

[kalanamak]

and sigh with happiness like a the woman in the grocery store ad with the full leg cast on who sees a nubile young man bringing her groceries to the door ("you know it's got to be good" is the tag line).

Grab this book, a gentle tworl, grab that book, a bag of dice and a pointer plus a pencil for each of you.
People come over. Do the oogle the 19th century marble bust of Joan of Arc, no, it's "oohhhh, I need to get one of these" as they spin it about.

Happy Monday all, hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.....