Buying age-appropriate materials is tricky, especially when you are trying to find materials that work for multiple or all age groups. The speaker in the video made a good point of “less is more” or similarly, simple is better. You don’t need a super diverse array of materials necessarily; that can be expensive and time-consuming to accrue. Instead, having a lot of blocks and other simple materials that can be used in countless ways is smarter and cheaper.

Using household items is something we do at our school. When we teach our kids about different concepts, we often find household items and applications in order to strengthen their understanding. Giving multiple, real-world, tangible examples is a good way to generalize concepts and it’s cheaper than buying new materials.

We are huge proponents of donated materials. In fact, we have received many books and toys from fundraisers