What kind of math materials does your homeschool use? Homeschooling can be expensive. Between curriculum, books, memberships, field trips, and events, the costs quickly add up. My family is always on the lookout for frugal homeschool solutions.
I often challenge myself to look for ways to cut back on these expenses. I borrow books from the library, participate in curriculum swaps, and I have a wonderful mother-in-law who looks for our wish list items at thrift shops and garage sales.
Another way that I save money on materials, is I try to use what we already have in our home. There are so many items that have unlimited learning potential… you just have to look for them!
With my youngest daughter being in kindergarten, it’s easy to get wooed by the beautiful educational catalogs jammed with pretty little math manipulatives. I resisted the urge to spend money and scrounged around the house for alternatives.
What I found far surpassed my expectations of a trigonometry set and a couple of calculators! The math materials in and around my home were amazing and I thought I would share this fantastic list with you!
Check out this list of 65 math materials you can find around your home! #budgethomeschool #math #homeschool Click To Tweet
Math materials you can find at home
- rocks
- sticks
- shells
- corks
- pine cones
- acorns
- seed pods
- Lego bricks
- popsicle sticks
- toothpicks
- egg cartons
- plain wood blocks
- colored wood blocks
- rulers
- yard stick or metre stick
- dice
- straws
- pony beads
- pencils
- pencil crayons
- marbles
- wooden beads
- bowls
- divided plates/serving trays
- paint chips
- cherry tomatoes
- grapes
- berries
- raisins
- seeds (pumpkin, sunflower)
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- containers
- muffin tins
- ice cube trays
- water
- sand
- play dough
- pom poms
- string
- yarn
- food scale
- level
- nuts and bolts
- poker chips
- playing cards
- buttons
- clocks (analog and digital)
- stop watch
- sand timer
- glass beads
- mirrors
- bottle caps
- measuring tape
- dominoes
- pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters
- bingo chips
- graphing paper
- clothespins
- paper towel tubes
- plumbing washers
- elastics
- ceramic tiles
- spools
- pipe cleaners
I’m sure there are many other items I missed. The potential for math materials you can find around your home is great!
I hope you find this list useful! If you have any other suggestions, please let me know!
Psst – Make sure to also check out these 65 science materials you can find around your home!
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How fun and creative! I would love to hear more about your homeschooling journey…it is a ways off but my husband and I are trying to decide if, when the time comes, I will homeschool our children or not. I am interested in your perspective!
Fun! I would never have thought to use probably most of these items for counting.
What a great list!!! Isn’t it great the things you can find for free!? :-)
I like the nuts and bolts idea, for some reason it makes the most sense to me but generally I think any object used to count numbers makes arithmetic more enjoyable
Math is really all around us, and your post proves it! Marshmallow Math is a great book that pairs well with manipulatives and young children, and there is nothing like a fun math song and some manipulatives to really solidify the math concepts.
They are expensive aren’t they? Love your ideas! Buttons and Legos are great!
Very very creative.
Wonderful and creative list! When teaching children it doesn’t have to be very costly as many things may already be in the home. I probably would not have come up with as good of a list as yours so thank you for sharing.
I will pass this on by sharing as well. Many moms could benefit from this
Have a great weekend!
Simple learning at home. Love.
What an awesome list! And a great reminder that materials for teaching and learning are all around us. Thanks for linking up with Share It Saturday! I’m going to be featuring this post tomorrow!