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This is the first school year officially homeschooling our daughter, she is 4-years- old in TK, and enrolled with Inspire Charter School in California (Click here to see my list comparing Charter Schools in Southern California).
This list is for homeschooling parents of charter school students, that receive funding. Most charter schools will give your child/ student funds to be spent on classes, services, and educational items. With items, it’s broken down into two categories, consumables and non-consumables. Consumables are products or items that the student will use up completely and therefore the item cannot be used by another student. Examples include; Classes, Field trips, memberships, subscriptions, and educational items. (Click here to see my list of Consumables).
Non-Consumables are items that can be used again by another student. The items go to a lending library after they are returned to the school (you do not have to return them until your last child is Un-Enrolled out of the school or graduates. Inspire Lending libraries are where you can go and “rent or check out” educational items like a regular library. You can borrow educational materials so you don’t have to use your funds. (Examples include; books, computers, instruments etc).
Last year, I wrote a post entitled “The Ultimate Consumable Idea List for Charter School Funding“. It had such a great response I decided to make a list of Non Consumable educational products that can be purchased with charter school funds. This list of Non-Consumables is comprised of my own ideas, online research, and personally speaking with teachers and other home school parents. The Non-Consumables that are “bold” are ones we have personally purchased with funds. I will update this list regularly when I purchase these items with our funds and find new products to add.
One great thing about Inspire is your child’s unused funds are rolled over to the following year if you don’t use them all. Every charter has different rules, what one school considers Consumable another may not. If you have any question you can always contact your teacher before placing an order. Keep in mind that some things get marked wrong on accident. If that happens, you can always contact your teacher and ask them about it, it can be fixed in their system. Sometimes the teacher or people ordering aren’t positive what is in the subscription or what exactly the item is and don’t want to mark it wrong, inadvertently it still happens. From my understanding everything is automatically marked a non-consumable by default, they have to change it in the system when it is not. Also, our ES (teacher) said if you do order non-consumables and in her words “they break, just snap a photo or keep in a bag and return it so they see it was well used etc. accidents do happen. They take that into account.” Also, you can order from any website you want to, if it’s not on the list just click the “Other Vendor” option. You can order any online curriculum (if it’s not religious).
If you are with Inspire and interested in a certain type of class, utilize the Inspire Enrichment Order & Vendor Lobby online, you may find a local vendor for the class your child is interested in. If you are interested in a local class that is not with Inspire or (another charter), try speaking with them you may be able to convince them to become a vendor for charter schools.
NOTES:
- We have a huge collection of educational materials that I have purchased before joining Inspire. My favorite places to find treasures (many you can find new & new in box) are thrift stores, estate & yard sales, OfferUp App, Dollar Tree, 99 Cent Only Stores, online (Amazon, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace).
- Please check back regularly, as I will update this post, as I purchase and come across Non-Consumable ideas.
Non-Consumables
- Binding Machine
- Camera
- Dry Erase
- Finger Caps for hot gluing
- Fishing Poles
- Globe
- Laminator
- Learning Posters
- Light Box Ultra Thin Portable Tracing Table
- Magnetic Learning Sets
- Maps
- Microscope
- Musical Instruments
- Osmo Genius Kit
- Placemat (Dry Erase)
- Projector
- Puzzles
- Rock Tumbler
- Scale
- Science Lab
- Sewing Machine
- Solar System
- Tabletop Magnifier
- Tape Measure by Learning Resources
- Telescope
- Tools
- X-Rays
Books
- Bob Books
- Biography Easy Readers 12 Book Set
- Cardiology For Kids…. and Adults too?
- Daisy Comes Home
- Daisy The Extra Special Flower
- Digger and Daisy Go to the Doctor
- Digger and Daisy Go To The Zoo
- Digger and Daisy Plant a Garden
- Drawing Books
- Finance 101 for Kids
- Frog And Toad Are Friends
- Hieroglyphs
- How Cars Work
- Let’s Read and Find Out Series
- Clouds
- Down Comes The Rain
- Energy Makes Things Happen
- Feel The Wind
- Forces Make Things Move
- Germs Make Me Sick!
- Gravity Is A Mystery
- Hear Your Heart
- How A Seed Grows
- Light Is All-Around Us
- Simple Machines
- Sounds All-Around Us
- Sunshine Makes The Seasons
- The Planets In Our Solar System
- The Sun And The Moon
- What Is The World Made Of?
- What Makes a Magnet?
- What Makes Day And Night?
- What The Moon Is Like
- What Will The Weather Be?
- Why I Sneeze, Shiver, Hiccup, and Yawn
- Mia And The Daisy Dance
- Music
- My Body
- Rock Painting For Kids
- Saige (American Girl Book)
- The Body Book: Easy To Make Hands On Models That Teach
- The Human Body Science Vocabulary Readers – 6 Books
- The Human Body: The Facts Book For Future Doctors
Popular online vendors to order Educational Materials with funds (Note: You can order from anywhere)
- Amazon
- Etsy
- Fat Brain Toys
- Hobby Lobby
- Lakeshore Learning
- Mercurius
- Rainbow Resources
- Teachers Pay Teachers
- Thames kosmo
- Usborne
- YOOBI (everything you buy not only gets sent to you, but also to a class in need)
Other Related Posts You May Be Interested In
If you have any suggestions for Non-Consumables that should be added to this list or a favorite educational online store not shown. Also if you have any questions about this post, or anything else… Please feel free to message me or leave a comment.
Thank you for reading!
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XOXO, Cameo
*LIST UPDATED 6/5/20*
Great article, just what I wanted to find.
That is great that the unused funds can be rolled over to the next year. We are not in California, but might be moving there in the fall, depending on what happens with this coronavirus stuff. Even still, you’ve given me a great starting point to do some research for local charter schools here in North Carolina. I appreciate your extensive lists.
Thank you for reading 🙂 It is important to know & explore all your options. Good luck on your endevours.
We are in San Diego and have been wanting to join a charter school, my son Jace is 7 and my daughter Sarah is 10. This list is really helpful!
San Diego is beautiful, what a fun city to live! I’m glad to hear my list was helpful! 🙂
SO is the charter school free? I’m still kinda confused on the whole thing… it’s considered a public school still, right?
Hi Joy, Yes charter Home schools are free public schools… Please see my post – Choosing a Charter Home School – Comparing Charters in Southern California -hopefully it will answer any questions you have.
http://creativehomelife.com/choosing-a-charter-home-school-comparing-charters-in-southern-california/
This is perfect!!
Happy it helped!
Is the Enrichment Order and Vendor Lobby with Inspire like classes the child has to attend in person? Or are they just materials for you to teach them? I’m a bit confused – We are new to this! Thank you.
Enrichment is where you go through to place an order for educational materials. The vendor lobby is where you can search to find local classes for your child to attend online or in person. Hope that helped clarify. Thank you for reading!
Glad they are so nice about it if a non consumable item breaks, that’s a relief.
It does make it easier to purchase non-consumables, if you don’t have to worry about that.
So how is the non consumable list gathered? Do they allot a certain amount dollar wise you can spend on the non – consumables or does it go by the category/item? Still so new to this – thank you in advance!
Hello, Thank you for reading… You place an order through the enrichment website and the school staff approves or denies it and places the order in your students name. You can ask to order whatever educational materials you need.
Glad to see microscopes are on there! My son loves his kid’s microscope.
My daughters love theirs too! We ordered this microscope this year, it is awesome it has a huge screen! We are always keeping an eye out for fun things to look at with it 🙂
(aff) https://amzn.to/2MzNpCk
I have been browsing online in excess of 3 hours today, trying to find non consumable ideas, but I
never found any other article like yours. This is AMAZING! I am starting to home school and have been overwhelmed. Personally, if all
bloggers made good content as you do, the internet could possibly be far more useful than ever before.
Hi Rebecca, Thank you for your compliments, you are too kind! I am so happy this post has been so helpful to you and has made your home school journey a little easier. I made this post, because I was trying to find ideas myself and I couldn’t find anything either. 🙂
This piece of writing is genuinely a fastidious one it assists new homeschooler. Thank you it is very helpful!
I do my best to be as detailed as possible. I am glad this post was helpful to you!
This is incredible. I’m not with a charter, but I homeschool! This list is much needed. Thank you!!
You’re welcome, happy to help!
Thanks on your own marvelous posting! I genuinely enjoyed reading it, you are an excellent author.I am going to make certain to bookmark your site and
indeed will keep coming back soon. I want to encourage you to continue your great posts,
use a nice afternoon!
Another great post! Thank you!
Thank you! Enjoy!
Oh my this list is so helpful! I was out of ideas of what to order this year. Thank you, thank you!
I love being helpful! You’re welcome! 🙂
Thank you for this post! I needed ideas! I love your blog 🙂
Thank you for reading! 🙂
This is so helpful! I needed ideas of what to spend our funds on. Thank you
I’m happy to help!
To begin with I would want to say excellent blog!
Everything is on here!!! Thank you!
Thanks!
Good article! We are linking to this great article on our website.
Maintain the excellent writing.
Thank you for linking!
My wife and I ran out of ideas, this list has been so helpful!
Thank you for this post. One question? Will a cricut machine be approved with our school funds.
Hi Cristal, That is a good question. I have not heard of a cricut machine being approved. Check with your HST, if one is approved please let me know! 🙂