I don’t know about you, but I’m always on the lookout for a good homeschool hack. Whether that be a gold nugget I read in a favorite homeschooling book, something I hear on a podcast, or a great piece of advice I hear from a fellow homeschool mom, I’m here for all of them!

If you’ve never heard of the website Teachers Pay Teachers, you should definitely check it out. It’s a huge database of resources, all created by teachers! The majority of creators have been classroom teachers, but in more recent years, more and more homeschool shops are popping up. (There are also shops run by specialist teachers like music, art, and P.E., shops created by Speech-Language Pathologists, counselors, all sorts of other educational professionals).

TPT offers a massive variety of original products, but one of my favorite features is the amount of free resources! Over the past 10 years or so, as I have used the site for a variety of needs, no matter what niche I am searching for I can almost always find versions of my desired activity, for free. No joke!

How I Discovered Teachers Pay Teachers

The way I first discovered Teachers Pay Teachers was through my own teaching job! I had several teaching jobs after graduating, including an international experience in Guatemala, and a job teaching middle school Spanish in Texas. My third job, before having kids, was teaching Kindergarten at a Spanish Immersion school. I worked at an incredible school, and had a team of colleagues who were kind, experienced and resourceful. There was a steep learning curve my first year there as I learned the ins and outs of language immersion instruction, and one of the many resources I learned about was Teachers Pay Teachers!

I remember sitting at a grade-level team meeting, and browsing a few of the worksheets my colleagues planned to use the following week. I grabbed copies for myself, and asked where they had found such a cute supplemental worksheets. “Teachers Pay Teachers!” one of them answered. “I get all kinds of things on there. They have thematic worksheets, printable games, activities for centers, classroom decor and posters, all kinds of stuff!”

I was intrigued. This was back in 2014, and while Teachers Pay Teachers had been founded in 2006, I had never heard of it! I decided to make a free account and check it out for myself. The rest, is history!

Using Teachers Pay Teachers in your Homeschool

Once I learned about TPT, I was hooked! Since my days teaching kindergarten, I have used it for day-to-day activities as a mom, as well as for educational activities, now that I homeschool. Since it has a built-in search engine, you can pop on there anytime you need a “little something” to supplement a lesson.

Here are a few examples of things that have been game-changers for me:

I love these free schedule cards, which I printed off and laminated for my preschooler this past year. I use a lot of the ones included, and also created a few of my own. My son loves seeing his plan for the day, and it’s helpful to use this in tandem with our Editable Homeschool Student Checklist, too! (This is a 20-page PDF is free for email subscribers- you can grab your copy, here!) My older two, 2nd and 4th graders, can manage the checklist, while my younger son still benefits greatly from seeing the visuals with simple words.

If you love to read aloud to your kids, or have ever used Five In A Row (one of my favorite curriculums, by far), maybe you are familiar with the storybook, Roxaboxen, by Alice McLerran. I read that with my kids this summer, and found this adorable worksheet on TPT for $1. It’s a 7-page PDF of questions, coloring, and writing activities, which is a great deal. It was nice to have something already printed and available, instead of having to create something myself!

Probably my favorite find on TPT this summer has been these writing prompts. (They are on sale right now-I got them for $20 instead of $60!) This PDF is over 300 pages, because it includes several versions of the prompts. I am using one of the versions for my preschooler (kindergarten this fall), and the lined version for my 2nd grader (moving into 3rd this fall). A few reasons I love this product:

• The PDF provides three different line options for a range of learners
• The prompts cover a wide variety of topics: seasons, “my favorite,” how-to’s, choices, community helpers, story writing, animal habitats, and more!
• The prompts provide a word bank to help spark ideas, assist with spelling, and encourage writing

Here is a little sample of my preschooler’s progress using this resource. I use the primary “line” option for him, since he hasn’t learned how to form all of his letters, yet. I love the word bank it provides, so that he can copy words and use them in his sentences! This is a great way to scaffold for kids.

Why Homeschool Moms Should Use Teachers Pay Teachers

It seems like a no-brainer for homeschool moms to utilize sites like TPT–even if you only go there for free items! There are so many great resources to explore. For years, the way I used the site was just a resource here and there, things I found through direct searches.

After awhile, I started becoming more curious about the shops themselves, and started “following” a few I really liked. Sometimes there is a creator whose content you feel like you’ll return to over and over again. I felt that way about EduClips Clip Art, Keeping My Kinders Busy, and Mrs Cabello Spanish Class.

Regardless of how you use Teachers Pay Teachers, I hope the word gets out to the homeschooling community about this amazing resource! Sometimes those heavy-duty curriculums are overwhelming, and you just need a small boost to supplement a lesson. That is where TPT can be extremely helpful. All you need is a printer!

Have you used TPT in your homeschooling? Do you have other favorite sites with free resources? I’d love to hear!

With love,

Cait