Homeschool Wish List

Help me with a little imagining. What if your family were offered a job transfer to a far away country. It might be Germany or Kenya or Ukraine. You ask about school. You are assured that you don't need to worry. The company has educational allowances that generally cover the cost of a private school. But what about our homeschooling. That's ok too. You can homeschool instead, and even receive an allowance for that. In fact we'll give you over $5000 for each elementary school aged kid and over $7000 for each high school aged kid that you are homeschooling.

There are a few restrictions on what the company will reimburse.
Items must be at the students grade level. You can't stock up on materials for future years. But if something is useful for a range of years and the student is in the range, that's allowable.
Traditional textbooks and supplemental materials are allowable. Encyclopedia sets and other reference materials (like dictionaries and globes) are not reimbursed.
Instructional software/cds, curriculum guides and math manipulatives are allowable. Purchase of equipment like computers and microscopes are not.
Online instruction is allowable. Instruction directed toward parents is not.
Fees associated with library memberships or group lessons for things like sports and music (that would normally be provided in a US public school) are often allowable. Travel and museum fees are not.
Testing costs and costs of formal recognized study at home programs are allowable. Costs of paper, pencils and other consumable items usually provided by the parents in a US public school setting are not.
Living books for historical periods is allowable. Textbooks, Bibles, workbooks, daily devotionals, or any material primarily for religious instruction is not.

So now that you know the rules, where would you spend your money? You aren't required to spend the entire amount. Money from one year does not carry over to the next year. Non-allowable items can always be purchased and utilized, but will not be reimbursed?

Here are a few of my thoughts, in no particular order:

Lots of math manipulatives. Starting with a full set of everything I need for Saxon math (our program) and including enough for both older kids and me to have a set. Rainbow Fractions in a variety of shapes (circles, squares, towers, and maybe even solids). I'd also make sure to get a few activity books for each type of manipulative so I had ideas for using them that went beyond the lessons in our books. We use linking cubes in our math, so I'd also get the supplemental prisms to go with them. These are two different triangular prisms that allow a lot more flexibility in making structures with the linking cubes.

A great history program that is already scheduled. This might be Story of the World or Tapestry of Grace or Sonlight or something else. I might have some resistance if the program is overtly religious, but the trade books (living books) would mostly be allowable.

Supplemental activity books for history like History Pockets from Evan-Moor (which are favorites of my kids) or books from the Williamson Kids Can series or teacher's activity guides published by various historical sites for the period we're studying.

Spelling Power. Not only is this a great spelling program, but it is usable for almost any grade and for multiple students.

Reading. If one of the students were a beginning reader, I'd buy lots of sets of early readers and chapter books. There may be some English language books available overseas, but they tend to cost a lot and are more often older chapter books (Harry Potter is everywhere. I bought the new English version of book six at a technical museum in Germany before my mom could send me a copy from the States). It is harder to feed the ravenous hunder an emerging reader has for Magic Tree House, The Littles, Horrible Harry, Henry and Mudge, Mr. Putter and Tabby, The Boxcar Children, etc. Depending on the mail, I might use a homeschool registration in Scholastic Book Clubs for this.

Science. I would have to pay for a microscope myself, and I like our Brock Magniscope enough that I probably would buy one, with blank and prepared slides. There are some great science kits out there. Science in a Nutshell, Wild Goose science kits, Sonlight science, and many more. I would also get some good activity books here, like the Awesome Ocean Science, The Kid's Book of Weather Forecasting, or The Kid's Guide to First Aid. If the kids were upper elementary or middle school, I might do the Prentice Hall Science Explorer series (although I'd be strongly tempted to skip the newest edition and just get a slightly older edition used - in most subjects a couple years wouldn't be cruicial and could be supplemented with the news articles keyed to chapter areas here).

I'm having fun with the wish list and I haven't even scratched the surface. What about writing, art, music. What about foreign language.

What would be on your wish list? What gems have I completely missed?