Kids Homework Station
The stores are full of school supplies, parents are posting about their child’s new teachers on Facebook, and the hope of cooler days to come are here.
Yep, it’s back-to-school time.
While many parents look forward to this, I really don’t – I love the unscheduled days of summer and both my boys having a constant playmate. And I love having Jack home all the time.
But alas, going back to school is part of life – so we might as make the most of it right?!
Amazon has made that a little easier this year, and they sent us a fun back-to-school package to help get Jack ready and excited for school.
They are definitely the go-to spot for back-to-school prep. From backpacks to school supplies and the Kindle Fire HD 10, they definitely have everything you need.
As I looked at the contents, I thought it would be fun to use the items (and a few other things I picked up) to make a homework station for school this year.
Jack is good at doing his homework without complaining, but last year, I felt like we were always looking for pencils or crayons or his homework folder… so I’m hoping to make things a little easier this year with this.
I also am doing some home preschool with Oliver, so these stations act to help with that as well.
Before I started on mine, I looked on Pinterest and was overwhelmed by some of the options I saw.
So I exited Pinterest and just thought about what I wanted ours to include:
- Easy to access to all the school supplies he would need
- An easy way to keep papers organized from school
- Lots of bins for organization
And most importantly, I wanted this to be very budget-friendly. We already had the desk and cabinet, and I bought all the containers and supplies for less than $20. I was so happy with how it turned out.
If you are looking for a simple homework station, hopefully, this will give you some good ideas to create one in a corner of your house. You don’t need a big office space or anything – just a few extra feet of dedicated space!
Here is what ours looks like:
Here are the specifics on everything we have:
IKEA Table – we have had this for years, and it’s served many purposes. We thought it was perfect for doing homework and other little activities this year.
Cabinet – I don’t even remember when or where we got this, but it’s great for storing everything. I definitely recommend looking around your house or a thrift store to find what you need. No need to spend a bunch of money!
Kids Homework Station Ideas
Plastic Bins
I got a bunch of plastic bins from the store for just a couple of dollars each, and I think it just makes organization so much easier.
The yellow and orange ones are for homework and papers that Jack needs me to look through. I feel like his homework was always just laying around the house, so I hope that this will help keep things more organized.
I also got a few other bins to store miscellaneous objects, craft materials (because Oliver will need them – and I’m sure Jack will for class projects), and a tool holder for random supplies.
Although I didn’t buy ours on Amazon, they have lots of great options. Here are a few I found.
Tool Cups
I got a couple of cute, metal cups to store pencils, markers, colored pencils, etc. in. I really love having those all set out on the desk for so they can easily be found.
Jack was really excited when he saw I got a little pencil sharpener. It’s the little things!
I got a little container that was specifically created to hold crayons, so I put all the crayons in there. My hope is that we can keep everything here, rather than having them strewn throughout the house.
Desk light with tool holder
Obviously, we have some decent natural light coming into our house, but as the days get shorter, we will need to supplement that a little bit.
I searched high and low for a desk light with a tool holder (just for extra storage) that had good reviews and wasn’t going to cost me an arm and a leg.
I LOVE this lamp I purchased on Amazon. It’s really kid-friendly and cute, doesn’t require me to change the light bulb, and it’s super easy to charge! It comes in several colors. Highly recommend!
Various school supplies
I’ve already mentioned school supply holders – but we obviously have LOTS of school and art supplies that we might need for both Jack and Oliver.
Here are a few essentials:
- Pencils and Mechanical Pencils
- Markers
- Colored Pencils
- Crayons
- Erasers (my boys love these scented erasers)
- Scissors
- Waterproof Paint
- Paintbrushes
- Cotton Balls
- Stamps
- Printer paper
- Loose change
- Stapler
- Glue sticks
- Liquid glue
- Notebooks
Calendar
Our homework station has two calendars.
One is a full calendar that we can add our own events to, which I hung on the wall. Jack was so excited about this. He is always asking us about dates for things, so this will be an easy reference for him when he’s looking forward to something specific.
I also got this cute little calendar that we can change every day. I primarily got this for Oliver to do in the morning. But it’s also just helpful to be able to look over quickly and see the month, date, and day of the week!
After school checklist
My friend shared this awesome after school checklist last year, and she was nice enough to let anyone who wanted it have it. It worked SO well for Jack. He’s really a visual child, and he likes being able to check things off a list.
I have this hung up next to the calendar so right when he gets home he knows what is expected.
It has things like put away shoes, empty lunch box, do homework, give mom a huge, and free time. You can easily make something like this in Canva!
Kindle Fire
We try to keep our kids pretty low-tech, especially once they get home from school. However, we do have a family Kindle Fire HD 10 (the kid’s edition).
I really do love it, and all the parental controls that are built-in. We have Freetime, which allows us access to thousands of eBooks and audiobooks for our kids. I also love the two-year guarantee that comes with the kid’s Kindle Fire – it basically covers everything for two years!
While I prefer for the kids to read actual books, there’s something just really convenient about having the books on the Kindle Fire. We keep this in our homework station for reading time, and when school starts, I will allow certain apps that are sometimes suggested by teachers for homework.
I also plan to download ABC Mouse, which is what I sometimes I use for Oliver’s preschool time.
Headphones
Sometimes there are things Jack wants or needs to listen to (such as an audiobook), so having some good headphones are always helpful in case we don’t want the excess noise in the house.
We have these ones, which are nice because they are noise-limiting. This helps prevent kids from turning up the sound too loud (which they almost always do!).
Amazon Echo Dot
We have Echo Dots all throughout our house, including one in our family room. I moved it over to the homework station so Jack can listen to music while he does his homework, ask Alexa questions, and if I use the drop-in intercom system (which is my FAVORITE feature of Echo Dots), he can hear me easily.
Books
We try and go to the library pretty regularly, and when Jack starts school, he will have a book from the library each week.
I’m not going to lie – we lost his library books more times than one, and it was always so stressful trying to find them!
So this is our new library book area, too! The kids can take their books out and read them, and then they just go right back over here so we can always find them.
De-stress activity
School days are really long for kids, and I like to let Jack wind down a little bit before he has to do his homework.
I plan to switch out the activity at the station every now and then, but he is loving this Traffic Jam Logic Game. It really gets his mind working, and it doesn’t feel like school to him!
Snacks and Drink
What child doesn’t look forward to an after school snack? Admittedly, I am not very good at putting out fun ones for my kids, but I think it will be nice to have water and a simple snack ready to go.
I really like the S’well water bottles because they stay cold for a long time, so I can set out the water and a bag of crackers, chips, fruit leather, etc. earlier in the day and not worry about anything getting warm or going bad!
Definitely, use Amazon to order your favorite snacks and have them auto shipped. These plantain chips are especially delicious!
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