Homeschool Mom Gift Guide | My Ten Favorite Things

Hey everybody. Welcome to the Waldock way. I'm Jessica. And today's video is going to be a homeschool mom gift guide. For the past few weeks, I have been sharing all about educational gifts for kids and stocking stuffers and fun homeschool plans. But what about us moms? So today I am remedying that and I'm going to share my top 10 gift ideas for the homeschool mom in your life or yourself. Feel free to forward this video if you need to forward it on to somebody for gift giving ideas. So everything that I am going to show you is going to be something that I have absolutely loved that is one of my favorites and that has kind of revolutionized either my homeschool or something that has saved me time. So that's what I'm going to be showing you. These are gifts that I would buy again and then again and again for myself and other homeschool moms in my life and I hope that you like them. So the first thing that I have are friction pens. These are by far my favorite. You can tell by the amount that are in my hand and it is the one thing that I ask for every single Christmas because I need new ones every year. I literally run the ink out of them. Now friction is a pen that erases and I absolutely love that as a homeschool mom I tend to either over plan or under plan or plans happen to change, especially when I'm trying to follow Emily's lead. And so an erasable pen is like seriously life changing and I love them. I like the fine liner ones because they write a little bit thicker than a ball point. I'm more like a paper mate flare pen, but if that is not your jam, they do have ballpoint pens. They also have markers. They have all kinds of different ones. I've used them all. I love them all. The fine liner is just my top pick. It is my absolute favorite. The next thing on my gift wish list is a scotch thermal laminator. Now it doesn't have to be scotch. It can be any laminator you want. I like the thermal ones because they are like once it's done, it's done and it's done forever. But this one was cheap. They have them on Amazon and target and even though it was cheap, it has still lasted me for years. Laminators give you the ability to have extra durability when you're doing things and then they also give you the ability to reuse. So you can use a dry erase marker on anything that you've laminated and it will erase. So if you don't have a laminator, you need one because it is amazing for your homeschool. The next thing on my gift guide is a binding machine. Now this is the Proclick. It is my personal favorite. You can see more about the Proclick and how to use it in this video right here. My favorite thing about it is that it's easy. It's super simple. Even Emily can do it. You literally just insert a paper and slide that. But the spines that you use with the Proclick are like, they open like a three ring binder. Again, you can see more in that video that I linked, but I love that I can change my mind. I love binding things. I love the look of things being bound, but I always used to feel like I was wasting my money because I wanted to be able to change things and I couldn't. And with the Proclick, I can and it also saves me time because I'm home and now I can print, laminate, bind, and do all the things I need to do here. And I don't have to drive somewhere or wait for something to come in. I can easily use digital curriculum and I can have it ready like within an hour of purchasing it. So I absolutely love having all of those things in my home for my homeschool. The next thing for the homeschool mom in your life are books. You literally cannot go wrong with books and there are a ton of really, really great ones on the market specifically for homeschool moms. I will leave a link in the description of all of my favorite homeschool mom books so that you can go look there. But if you really, really want to be extra kind, instead of buying her just a book, you will give her a gift card to a bookstore. Barnes and Noble, books a million, a local bookshop, wherever it is, because that is like the gift that just is tops at all because you're not only just buying her a book. That way you are giving her hopefully an afternoon out alone. You're giving her the ability to walk through a bookstore, sniff the books and then leave with a book, which I don't know about you, but if you're a homeschool mom is literally my idea of heaven. So getting that gift card is probably the best gift you can give a homeschool mom. In fact, if anybody is wondering what to get me for Christmas, that's it. If you are a homeschool mom who is too busy to read a book, I have a few solutions for you. The first one is a Kindle paper wipe. I got this for Mother's Day. It has been one of my absolute favorite things because I have books at my fingertips all the time. It's waterproof so I can have it beachside in the pool and the bath and the rain and you know, sidelines of a game. If I finish a book, I can instantly get another one. I have read easily three times as much since getting this that I did before getting it because it's just that convenient and as a busy homeschool mom, I absolutely love convenience and the ability to sneak seconds for myself and this allows me to do that. So that is a really, really great thing. It's easy to throw in your purse and carry with you anywhere. Now if you are still too busy, if the homeschool mom, if you're thinking of the homeschool mom in your life or you as a homeschool mom are like, I don't have time for books. I don't have time for a Kindle. Then my next solution is a audible subscription. I love audio books. Audio books are something you can do while you're folding laundry, while you're doing dishes, while you're driving in the car, while you're doing all of those things that we have to do, whether we like it or not. And so an audible subscription is perfect because then you can pick whatever book you want to read, but the person is still being able to give you a gift. So it's kind of a win-win. They're getting to give you a gift and then you can pick whatever it is you want to read. And then if you end up with an audible subscription or even if you don't end up with an audible subscription, my next gift is a set of headphones. Now I know earbuds are super popular and a lot of people like them, but I don't. They hurt my ears. Most of them are noise canceling. You can't hear what's going on around you, which while that might sound like a fantastic idea as a mom, it's really not. And so these aftershock headphones go around your neck and then they sit right outside of your ear. They're like the bone conducting ones. We all actually have a pair of these and we love them. You can hear what's going on in the world around you, but you can still hear everything that you're listening to in the headphones and they hold a charge for a good length of time. They're lightweight. And not only that, but they don't hurt your ears. And so you're not having like sore ears. I didn't have to worry about my daughter using them. I don't have to worry about anybody. They're just really, in my opinion, the solution that I've looked for for years as far as headphones go. So if you're like me and you're like, I can't do earbuds. These are amazing and you should get a pair. The next two things that I have are really just because they save time and sanity and they help me with my stress. The first of which is a robot vacuum cleaner. Now I don't know which robot vacuum cleaner specifically we have. I think it's a Roomba. It's years old. We've had it for two or three years, I think. And when we got it, I was originally like, eh, it's great. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's changed my life. We love it. You should get one. It helps keep the house clean, which means that I'm less stressed because the house is clean and the floors are vacuumed. And it's just one less thing for me to stress out about. It is time-saving because we are not having to vacuum as frequently. We have two cats, so we were vacuuming quite a lot. And so it's saving us time. It's saving our sanity. We're not as stressed out and it's seriously so simple. You can schedule it from your phone. You can set different things. It's just such a fantastic thing. And again, if you don't have one, you need one. This is actually a gift for a mom in my life this year, because again, I really think that everybody should have a robot vacuum cleaner if you don't have one. And then the last thing on my gift, guide is an instant pot. I cannot tell you how many times I have forgotten to thaw meat, or I just don't have a lot of time to cook something, or I don't have the energy or the power to do a lot of dishes. This gives us the ability to cook a fantastic tasting meal for it to be quick for us to not have to pre-think ahead if we didn't, because most of the time you can cook frozen food in it and not have a ton of cleanup, which kind of just gives us more time in general, which is fantastic. So that is another thing that I absolutely think if you don't have, you should get or some sort of kitchen gadget that will help save you time. If it's not the instant pot, something else, but definitely something that's going to help save you time in the kitchen because as a homeschool mom meal time can sometimes be like literally the most stressful part of the day. But let's be honest, really the one thing that homeschool moms need everywhere is time. It's the one gift that you could give that we would all love. So if you can think of a way to give the gift of time, whether that looks like you taking her kids to a park for an hour to a week so that she can lesson plan, or whether that looks like you coming over and helping her clean or whatever that might look like. If you can figure out a way to give the homeschool mom in your life or to ask for, if you are the homeschool mom, the gift of time, that is really the one thing that we all need more of. So that is probably the top thing on all of our wishlist. And now I would love to know if you're a homeschool mom and you are watching this video, what is on your wishlist this year? What is the number one thing that you want for Christmas? Please leave it in a comment down below so that we can all see it and so that we can build a resource for everybody looking for ideas for what to get the homeschool mom in their life.