10 Educational Tools that We Frequently Use as a Minimalist Family

As a minimalist family who resides in a 900 square foot home where my husband works full time and I homeschool our two children, we’ve quickly learned that in order to stay sane and happy in our small space we need to be intentional with the educational supplies we choose to have in it. Certain things that are a must have for some homeschool families; world globes, microscopes and shelves and shelves of books aren’t going to fit into our space.

Here are 10 educational tools that we frequently use as a minimalist family. It’s an eclectic mix of things that work for our family.

1. A Library Card

When I became a stay-at-home parent the first place I went was the library. I immediately unlocked a plethora of resources that helped me in my new profession. So, when I became a homeschool parent I knew just where I needed to go. This wasn’t my first rodeo.

The library is the most valuable educational resource we use and we visit at least once a week. Our state allows us to easily borrow books from any library by requesting them online. Within a couple of days, they are delivered to our local library. It’s faster than having them shipped from Amazon or Thrift Books, not to mention free.

Not only do we borrow books from the library we also borrow; games, puzzles, musical instruments, Audubon Society Nature backpacks, microscopes, audiobooks, movies, video games…the list goes on and on. Borrow is the key here. We bring them home, try them out and then bring them back where they are stored for us safely at the library should we want to use them again.

Our library offers free passes to museums, theater performances and planetariums that we have taken advantage of frequently. As any card-carrying minimalist family knows experiences over things all the way and the library has us covered on that one.

They also offer free apps to stream audiobooks, which we’ve used extensively.

We attend various free children’s programming, like a homeschool STEAM class during the day or LEGO club in the afternoon.

The library is always my first stop when planning any sort of educational activities for us. Anytime the kids want to learn more about a topic we find a book from the library about it. The library has saved us so much money not to mention space. Although we have a small collection of books that we read and reference over and over again in our home, I prefer to store the bulk of “our books” at the library and check them out as needed.

The library is also an invaluable place for homeschool social networking. We’ve not only made friends but found out about other homeschool programs and activities from families in the area.

2. An Audible Membership

I go back and forth on Audible, because it’s not cheap, but sometimes the kids are really into an audiobook series that I just can’t get for free from the local library. I’ll do the membership for a bit and then cancel it. Audiobooks are great for us because the kids can listen in the car on the way to their various activities or when running errands with their headphones on and I can listen to a podcast or audio book in the front. We both get a break but they are still learning.

3. A YouTube Account

We use YouTube a lot. Pretty much any topic you can imagine has had a video made out of it and they are able to convey the information in a much more entertaining way then I ever could. We’ve learned about everything from California to Simple Machines on YouTube this year.

4. A Kitchen Table

Our kitchen table was a Facebook Marketplace purchase a few years back. It’s big and beat up and perfect for homeschool. We spend a lot of time at our kitchen table eating meals, making art, playing games, doing school and basically doing life. Our table is well loved and in no way Instagram worthy and I love it. It’s invaluable to our family’s life and perfect for our needs.

5. Sensory Friendly Chair

My daughter kept destroying our kitchen chairs with her wiggling, constant movement and at times literally falling over in them. After the second one broke I did some googling and found a sensory friendly chair. It fits perfectly at our kitchen table, rocks and is comfy for both her and Jacob. We bought two. It’s their homeschool chair and also their seat at the table and they love it.

6. Games

We play A LOT of games…like a lot. They easily tie into learning and our day. We’ve found anything created by Gamewright to be fantastic. There is a game to teach anything. Instead of using flashcards to teach Jake his math facts to 20 I picked up the game Sum Swamp, I Sea 10 and Race to Planet X which he will happily play all day without hearing any complaints he has to “do school”. I use a couple of shelves on a bookcase as my boundary and strive to only keep what fits on this shelf. These games serve multiple purposes. We use them not only for school, but also entertainment and frequently play these games as a family on the weekend.

7. Basic Art Supplies

Other than pencils (we all prefer mechanical ones) I’ve found if I have crayons, water colors, markers, paper, paint, scissor, glue, air dry clay and tape the kids can do so much with it. The other day inspiration struck and Anika created her own board game. She made tiny game pieces using air dry clay and paint, a game board with a piece of paper we stuck in a sheet protector and game cards she designed using Canva. This wasn’t an assignment I created that day, but she got inspired, had the materials on hand and checked so many “educational boxes” that day with her own self-created project. I store art supplies in a cart in our living room. The cart is our boundary and things must fit into it or it’s time to declutter.

8. Hands on Math Manipulatives

I’ve very intentionally narrowed down our math manipulatives. We initially used Right Start Math, but it wasn’t a great fit for our family. One reason was there were many manipulatives, many of which were large and infrequently used but required for occasional use in the program. We ended up choosing a different math curriculum and I aggressively decluttered math manipulatives down to the things we use daily. We’ve kept place value discs, unifix cubes, base 10 blocks, plastic counters and fraction tiles. We also have some pattern blocks and a couple of geoboards as well as things like building blocks, LEGOS, and Magnatiles. They are used by both of my children and help math make so much more sense. I frequently hear myself saying I wish I would have had these when I was learning math. They are also small and take up minimal space in our homeschool area.

9. A Giant Whiteboard

We have a whiteboard that is hung on our kitchen wall above our table. It takes up zero space and is used daily in our home not only during homeschooling but the kids enjoy drawing on, we write messages to each other and decorate it for special occasions.

10. Cordless Vacuum Cleaner

I know this seems ridiculous to recommend on a list of educational supplies but our vacuum cleaner is used multiple times a day. The area we spend homeschooling in is the same area we use to eat and live in. Being able to quickly vacuum away the mess of our daily life helps keep the area calm and allows us all to focus.

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About the Author: Nikki Cox is a mom of two striving to live life with intention. Find her at Lovelylucidlife.com.