Easy Homework Helper Station

Is school starting soon for you?  It actually doesn't start for us in Washington until early September,  but I'm starting to get ready!

We are going into our 4th year running on this idea and we still love it as much as we did when I first created it!

While we were school supply shopping, I realized that one annoyance is that we can never find what we need for homework, especially later in the year, so I started doubling up on some supplies.  But even so, I still didn't want them absconding with these supplies for all their random craft projects.

I needed something to store it all in, but still be easy to move around as needed, and then it hit me.  I wanted a caddy of some sort, with a handle, which I finally found at the Dollar Spot at Target.  I bought that in green (neutral) and filled it with all the supplies my kids are likely to need to do daily homework.

So what's in the caddy?

• 2 boxes crayons (50 cents each)
• 2 boxes pencil crayons (50 cents each)
• 2 boxes thin markers (50 cents each)
• 2 rulers (19 cents each)
• 4 gluesticks (50 cents for two)
• 2 pairs of scissors ($1 for a two pack)
• 2 pink erasers (50 cents for two)
• 2 packs of mechanical pencils ($1 per pack)
• 1 pack of index cards (50 cents)
• 1 pencil sharpener (50 cents)

Add in the $2.50 for the caddy and that's just a little over $10 for a good set of basic supplies for the house.  When they're done their homework, this set is getting put in the cupboard till the next day.

As for paper?  I took an old 3-ring binder and filled it with lined paper, graph paper and white paper, which we store with the caddy.

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Updated for 2016:  I just went through the box.  We still have two boxes of crayons, but a lot of nubs, 1 box of markers in each size, 1 box of pencil crayons.  The pencils are mostly gone, but somehow we have 6 rulers.  Time to restock!

Updated in 2018: This is *still* going strong.  I finally needed to replace the glue and add more index cards.  Pencils got another refresh, since most were missing lead or had no erasers left.  But the vast majority of the supplies are still all in one place!