Flashback July 2002: Homeschool Supply Over-Spending Spree and What I’ve Learned from That Experience

I have been going through the shelves in our family library and through the closets and various places in our house, to declutter. I am finding lots of items that were never used or were used just once or twice. I recognized most of these items from a big last minute spending spree (of homeschooling materials) I did just before my older son started his Kindergarten year. I realized with surprise that it was fiour years ago --that seems like a long time ago! The month of July 2002 I clearly remember as the time that I freaked out about teaching math and overspent on that (and penmanship, too).

Before I officially started homeschooling I had read the writings of experienced homeschoolers and many cautioned to not overspend. Many cautioned that things would be purchased that would not work out for various reasons, and they would not end up being used. I also read, sometimes from the same people, to not overspend and that not a lot of stuff was needed to teach most subjects. However those same people sometimes shared the books and materials that they loved and I felt that I should listen to those wise people (it was partly a mistake).

We started off our homeschooling journey with an unschooling approach. I had read a lot, practically all of, John Holt’s writings. One thing that John Holt had praised was the use of Cuisenaire Rods to teach math, and other math ‘manipulatives’ (as he called them, the phrase was new to me).

So my overspending spree started off innocently enough, and it definitely was not planned. We had a July trip to Cape Cod scheduled, to visit relatives. I knew I’d have a lot more time to read books or magazines on the long car ride and while lying on the beach. I had a last minute idea to take along a whole bunch of homeschool supply catalogs that I had received but had not taken the time to read through. I filled a tote bag with the catalogs. (Since one was from Rainbow Resource Center, if you have received that catalog you know why the tote bag was full.)

The catalog that I read first, while on the beach was a teacher’s supply catalog. That catalog was filled with a lot of what I thought was ridiculous classroom decorations, nothing like that had ever been used in the public school classrooms of my youth. There were also child sized chairs and desks, etc. I nixed that idea as I didn’t want to buy expensive furniture that my quickly growing children would soon outgrow nor did I myself want to sit on a teeny-tiny chair, ever. So I got rid of that catalog, with glee. I also learned that not every catalog is chock full of necessary items.

The next catalog was for the Learning Resources company (a company geared toward school teachers). That catalog revealed to me the world of math manipulatives. I finally got to see what a Cuisenaire Rod looked like. I was influenced enough that I did buy some of them, but from a homeschooling family based business.

I then read the Timberdoodle catalog, whose products I enjoy. One thing I appreciate about Timberdoodle is they don’t sell everything under the sun. Timberdoodle sells items that this homeschooling family uses on their own children and some other unique materials. Their catalog is not gigantic, they pick what they think is the best of the best. They are also very selective in their choice of materials (if you don’t believe me read about why they chose that one typing software program to sell).

I then went on to read the Rainbow Resource Center catalog. I did not read it cover to cover but I read it from start to end in selected topic areas, such as teaching reading, teaching math, etc. My favorite thing about RRC is their long reviews. My complaint is that most of their reviews don’t point out the con’s of a program and they don’t compare and contrast to other items that they also sell. Each review actually is full of praise for that one item. However if you read every description, you may end up feeling that all of them are equally great. I have sometimes been unable to tell what the weaknesses of a product are or why one thing is different from another. Also RRC seems to not be choosy about what they sell; they offer many options for the same items. I remember once trying to pick out a world map wall poster and feeling that all were wonderful and actually feeling overwhelmed about picking one over the other, as each sounded unique and precious (too special to not buy). After speaking to a level-headed homeschooling friend she advised to go to Costco and buy the cheap laminated map they sell and be done with it (it came in a triple pack with a map of America and a world flag map and cost about $10—done and over with!).

As I read through the numerous homeschool supply catalogs, I began to get the idea that I absolutely needed this and needed that. The feeling that if I didn’t have this product or that item, that my child would not be able to learn X, Y, and Z started to build. Since at that time my husband was employed, the sky was the limit as far as spending on homeschooling supplies was concerned. When we got home from vacation I began ordering items from a few different homeschool supply companies.

I did a lot of spending on math teaching materials and manipulatives. Back then I had never heard of Math-U-See and I was not using Math-U-See, which I now love (and my children love). What I did buy at that time, was lots of other disjointed and not so easy to use items. I had purchased Cuisenaire Rods, and different books about using the Rods. One thing that I realized for the first time was that one book that I had purchased was, in my opinion, disorganized and not laid out well. I was supposed to select from various activities, all of which relied very heavily on teacher participation and organization. I was very surprised about that because so many unschoolers recommended the use of the Rods and that book.

I also had purchased pattern blocks, pattern block books, DIME build-up blocks and a book to go with it. The problem with those is that they were not laid out in an organized manner. I was unclear how to actually use them and realized that as the teacher I’d have to make my own lesson plans, organize what sequence concepts were presented, etc. Some of the books combined preschool level work with work for children up to grade six. There was nothing in all that I bought to teach me the sequence or to teach me how to be a math teacher (what to introduce when, how much is enough, how to mesh the pattern blocks with the Wrap Up’s with the Cuisenaire Rods, etc.). I actually felt disempowered by all this stuff. “A trained math teacher would know what to do with all this stuff”, I thought to myself. This left me feeling inadequate as I was a motivated homeschooling parent but I had not had coursework to train me how to use all this stuff and I didn’t know what to teach and when. One option at that point was to just throw these materials at my children and let them explore them in a playful type of way. However that would not fulfill what the intention of the math teachers who authored those books was. I was also afraid that I’d somehow ruin my son if I didn’t ‘do it right’.

Note also that in my entire public school experience I had never learned math by using manipulatives. The closest thing to a manipulative that I used was flash cards (introduced in third grade by my math teacher to help facilitate the memorization of ‘the times tables’).

I had also purchased the books: Family Math and Family Math for Young Children. I didn’t use these books and my main complaint with them is that activities and games are all mixed up and they are not in any sequential order. For example I remember some activities for teaching multiplication were in the book in the pages before introducing addition. I didn’t have the time or inclination to read the whole book and to make up lesson plans and schedules for what I thought was the proper order of introduction of these lessons. However I can’t tell you how many people praise these books!

Note that my main goal was to introduce math concepts in a way that was not painful to my child. I perceived teaching something to my child which was way ahead of what they were capable of, etc. I didn’t want to torture my child.

I also didn’t want to spend hours and hours reading through these books and reading about the theory of teaching math, and to somehow mesh that with what I had sitting in piles in my house. So I didn’t.

Now that both of my children are finished with Kindergarten I can report that we have many math manipulatives and programs that we never used or that we tried and didn’t like. I have sold some (at a great financial loss) to other homeschoolers. The $35 I spend on Miquon Math materials, only fetched $15 (numerous attempts to sell it at higher prices and other attempts to sell it at this same price also failed; I am happy I finally found a buyer for it).

I am about to let go of the Cuisenaire Rods (although I was going to keep them as a regular playing toy—a mini construction block). Explanation: My problem with the Rods is that in order to use them you must first memorize something like yellow rod = number 3, etc. I prefer the Math-U-See blocks because there are divisions between each unit, so you can count that the 2 is a 2 (no matter what the color is). With the Cuisinaire Rods one must memorize the number to the color (the number actually coorelates to a centimeter length, but since I don't use the metric system, ever, that doesn't help me at all.) As an adult I can’t even fathom adding in an extra step to math in a memorization way, so why would I expect this of my child?

Some items that I bought in that over-spending spree that we didn’t use or barely use are:

Wrap-Up’s: math and alphabet
Miquon Math Curriculum
Cuisenaire Rods
Cuisenaire Alphabet book
Cuisenaire Idea Book
Cuisenaire Crossword Puzzle type book
Various math workbooks (some from drug stores)
Counting workbooks
Coloring Books with math and alphabet teaching intention in them
Penmanship practice books (from drug stores)
Write on/wipe off math and penmanship books
Cheap ruled penmanship paper that rips when someone attempts to use an eraser on it
Kindergarten journal books, where they draw a picture and write underneath it
Pattern blocks
Several Pattern block books
Geometry boards with nails that you attach rubber bands to (forgot the name of them)
Montessori sequence cards
Wooden game to play with that imitates the hand movements made to do handwriting
Montessori method books about preschool and elementary years
Waldorf method books about preschool and elementary years

In the end for penmanship the best thing that I bought was the Ready Writer Pre-Writing Exercise program. I recommend the CD-ROM so that you may print off exactly what you want and need, and so you can use it on multiple children for a low cost. That CD-ROM also comes with Calc-U-Ladder, something else that we continue to use with success.

We also use Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting with success. I vacillate between using their workbooks and using the Start Write computer program to custom design our own copywork. Start Write uses numerous fonts so if I change from Italic to some other style I can still use the program.

For math I ended up discovering mid-year that Math-U-See exists. A homeschooler that lived in my neighborhood showed me her program and explained it to me. This happened by chance as the package was delivered by UPS when I was at her house for a playdate (serendipity--- God’s intervention!). At a homeschool curriculum fair a couple of months prior, I picked up a free outdated video for the MUS program, but had not watched it. Now that I knew what it was, I went home and watched it; I thought the program seemed great.

(As of now, we have used Math-U-See for four years with my older son and for two years with my younger son and it ‘clicks’ with both of my children and I also like everything about how I as the homeschooling parent interact with the program. I plan to continue using it for this upcoming school year and for every year that it continues to be right for our family.)

The lessons that I hope you learn from my overspending mistake that summer are these:

1. Set goals and make plans for how to arrive at that goal. Figure out what you need and then find the book or material to match your need.

2. Don’t let homeschool supply catalogs sway your decision on how to reach your goal. Have the plan in place before you open the catalog. Better yet, have a list of things you need to buy in hand before reading through the catalog, or go directly to those items, order them, and don’t look at anything else!

3. Try to talk to other homeschoolers that you know locally about what they use. Ask them the pros, the cons, and exactly why they, as the parent, like the program. Ask them how much prep time it takes to use the program. Ask how their children enjoy it (or do they dread it). Ask how long the lesson time is that they do, (do you WANT to spend an hour doing Kindergarten math per day in order to comply with the outline of the curriculum?). Gently inquire as to how their children grasp and learn the concepts in the way that the program introduces them (to figure out the effectiveness of the program).

4. Try to view the items or kit components in person if possible. I have found that catalog descriptions can be misleading or incomplete. (One look at a friend’s math program with two gigantic boxes filled with ‘stuff’ overwhelmed me and I knew that it would never be right for me and my children. Likewise the looks of the giant Saxon Kindergarten teacher’s manual seemed to me to make teaching simple concepts much more dragged out and complicated than it needs to be.)

5. If you feel you are lacking a general overview on how to teach children reading, language arts, and/or math, read the little booklets by Ruth Beechick—each are quick reads and are 28 short pages in length, and are inexpensive. I wish I had known about these and read them before embarking on my spending spree. The bundle of three booklets is called “The Three R’s” and is well worth the less than $10 that it costs to buy it new on Amazon.com.



6. Homeschool supply catalogs are not always the best place to look when feeling worried or overwhelmed about teaching a subject. You may end up overspending as a way to squash your anxiety. Buying stuff may seem like the cure but it is not. Material things are not always the answer (especially with Kindergarten and the elementary years, teaching math and penmanship can be done on a very small budget!).

7. Don’t beat yourself up if you end up over-spending. There is no point to it. Just move on and try to learn something from your experience.

8. Try to resell used or never used items to recoup some money. Try the (free) Sale and Swap board on The Well Trained Mind website or the (fee for service site) eBay---either using eBay auctions or eBay Stores (setting up your own eBay store).

9. Try not to stress out about teaching your children at home.

10. Seek support from others about homeschooling, whether that is in your own town or state or whether it is on Internet Discussion Groups (i.e. Yahoo Groups!) or by reading blogs or websites about homeschooling. Get whatever support you need from those who have ‘been there, done that’.

11. Avoid other homeschoolers who seek to convert you to their way of doing things. Ask why they do what they do and what their goals are, and see if their reasons match your reasons and your goals, before tailoring your plans to match theirs. Don’t be swayed by peer pressure—don’t let others TELL you what to do. There is a fine line between seeking support and advice from others and being persuaded or strongly guided to do exactly what they do, try to find that balance (it can be done).

12. Most importantly, remember each child is unique and you need to make the choices that are best for your family. What works for another child doesn’t always work for another child. What one homeschooling mother loves, another may not like at all.

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