When our kids start official homeschooling (K or 1st grade, depending on the kid’s eagerness and interest), we take them out to buy them a fancy new binder along with a backpack and new school supplies. Sometimes a lunch box. Basically all those things that make going to school so exciting. And then we use them for things like car trips, outings to weekly homeschool park days, co-op lunches, etc. They get use is what I’m saying. And they get the kids geared up for the onset of homeschooling plus they don’t feel left out of the excitement of the Back To School media frenzy

The binder, though, is one of the things I love most, aside from school supplies themselves.

Here’s how I pack up our binders:

The Essentials

• Folders (just 1 or 2 will do)
• Lined paper (notebook or loose leaf, appropriate to the age/stage of the child)
• Zippered Pocket (filled with pencils, compass, scissors, etc)
• Top Loading Page Protectors

Now that the essentially are all nicely aligned inside the trusty binder, it’s time to add a few of my favorite Internet Resources. Just print these babies off and slide them into one of the top-loading page protectors for reference for years to come:

• Map of the world (.pdf)
• United States map (.pdf)
• First 100 Words
• Commonly Misspelled Words
• Proofreading Checklist (this is the version I use but there are many others online)
• Commonly Mixed Pairs
• Multiplication Chart
• School Year Calendar (.Doc - editable)

Obviously your binder will vary based on the age of the child and what areas they most need a reference for. In the past we have also had time lines and money identification sheets as well as full calendars for each month and common punctuation reminders.