Free Homeschool I.D. Cards!

FREE Homeschool I.D. Cards!

I've blocked out any personal data, but this is a general idea of what our homeschool I.D. cards look like for this upcoming school year.

I've found, over the years with educating our children at home, that it has helped to carry a Homeschool I.D. Card with me in my purse or wallet.

     In order to receive educational discounts at fabric and craft stores, gain entry for field trips at an education discount, and other things, it has been beneficial to be able to "prove" that our family is a home educating family.

     In our particular state, no "proof" of home education is given by the state government or individual school districts.

     I could carry around a copy of the letter I have on file from our county education office, showing that they have received our notice of intent to home educate our children, but it is dated from 7 years ago, so I don't think most businesses would consider it a valid confirmation of our current status with home education.

     There is literally nothing else I have to "prove" that we are teaching our children at home...except that they are home with me on most days...so what else to do?

Here are two options for making your own
homeschool I.D. card:

Option #1: Homeschool Buyers Co-op

     A few years ago, I began making my own homeschool I.D. cards, using the free site for this sponsored by the Homeschool Buyers Co-op. You can click on the graphic above:

Or, here is the link:

http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/homeschool-id/

     If you click on the graphic or link above, it will take you to the Homeschool Buyers Co-op FREE HOMESCHOOL I.D. CARD page.

     At their website, you can design your I.D. cards and then download them to your computer where you may print them out onto cardstock using your printer. At that point, you may either choose to have them laminated or leave them "as is." The other option is to pay approximately $5-$6 per I.D. card for them to send you a laminated copy of the I.D. cards you have designed for your family.

Option #2: Big Huge Labs

If you click on the graphic above, it will take you to Big Huge Labs' free I.D. badge making site.

Or, here is the link:

http://bighugelabs.com/badge.php

For our I.D. cards this year, I happened upon a new-to-me website that also provides free I.D. cards - Big Huge Labs. It provides a bit more flexibility with what you would like your I.D. card to say and how it will look; you can choose colors and text in a lot more places.

The photo I.D. card at the top of this posting is a sample of what I've made for this coming school year, using Big Huge Labs' free website.

     Big Huge Labs won't laminate your card for you (for a fee) and send it to you in the mail, like Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

     But that's okay! I found a more frugal method of laminating our I.D. cards than what Homeschool Buyers Co-op will provide. I was able to easily laminate all three of our I.D. cards for the same price as what Homeschool Buyers Co-op charges for one I.D. card.

     In fact, I found that I could laminate up to five I.D. cards for not much more than what the Homeschool Buyers Co-op charges for one laminated card.

Fellowes® Self-Adhesive Business Card Laminating Pouches (Double-Sided) 5mil, 5 Pack

Item #572893; costs around $7.99 at Staples.

When looking for laminating pouches online or at office supply stores, you will want to look for the words, "self-adhesive" or "self-laminating," or "cold laminating" if you don't personally own a laminating machine. The employee at Staples who helped me find the correct laminating pouches (since I don't have a laminator) told me that for the Fellowes brand, I should look for the laminating pouches that have snowflakes on the bottom right hand corner. That made it easier!

I chose to use the Business Card sized self-adhesive pouches, since I wanted them to be about the size of my driver license, the typical standard size for most cards carried in wallets. You may choose whichever card size you prefer. Just make certain that the measurements of your printed I.D. card are about 1/4" smaller all around than the outside measurements of your laminating pouches, or you may find that the pouches begin to peel apart over time.

     One of the most common problems people have when making their own I.D. cards like this is that they find that the photo they want to upload from their own computer or camera is too large in size. This wasn't so much of a problem in years past, when cameras had a lot smaller megapixel capacity.

     I found that when I have made our I.D. cards, no matter what website we have used, I must use another website to "shrink" or reduce the size of megapixels in the photos before uploading them to make our own I.D. cards.

     One of the easiest and free ways to do this is to go to www.Picnik.com and register for free as a member.

     At www.Picnik.com, you can upload up to 5 photos at a time as a free member. This means that every time you choose to open the Picnik website, it will allow you to upload 5 more photos, so it's not really a big deal. Or, you may become a paid member and can upload up to 100 photos at one moment.

     Anyway, I uploaded the photos we had for our I.D. cards, from my computer, and with each separate photo, I chose to CROP the photo first, to just get a good close-up of the face.

   Then, I chose the RESIZE tab. I clicked on "use percentages" and reduced the size to around 15% (if I'm remembering correctly). Feel free to experiment for the size that you want.

     After you are happy with your resized and cropped photo, choose the SAVE & SHARE tab at the top right hand side. This will allow you to save the new cropped, resized photo to your computer.

     Now you are ready to upload the resized photo to the I.D. card creater website of your choice!

     If you have any questions, feel free to contact me here or leave a comment.

I learned that Michael's craft supply stores are now offering 10% off an entire purchase on Fridays for teachers...and they will include homeschooling families in this discount if you have some sort of I.D. card or "proof" that you are educating your children at home.

This also makes sign-up for JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts painless. Instead of being grilled by the staff, as has happened to me before, you can just show them the card and get signed up for their educator/
homeschooling discount without a hassle.

How useful have you found homeschooling I.D. cards? For what have you used them the most?