I used to feel like I had to have every educational toy, every workbook, all the curricula, every new thing I saw – to homeschool my children well…
But I realize now that I don’t need much. Kids learn well when left alone, maybe just a little coaching and guidance. We’re pretty laid back these days.
I have minimized to the top ten items we love and need to homeschool our four kiddos.
Our Top Ten Homeschool Items
10. Reference books: encyclopedias, dictionary, and thesaurus; Strong’s and Matthew Henry (yeah, I’m old-school!), our history encyclopedia…yeah I know that’s technically more than one thing. See what I did there? While we love the Internet for research, I think it’s really important that my kids learn how to use these tools.
9. Workboxes (or cubbies, cubes, drawers, folders – however you want to work it); i.e.: somewhere for the kidsto put their stuff! I like the Closetmaid Cubeicals
8. Art Supplies (all that crafty stuff that makes life stressful and messy and fun and beautiful). We like to get our arts and crafts stuff from Discount School Supply. We love colored pencils and glue sticks and the Back to School aisles still give me butterflies!
7. Library Cards (the kids and I all have our own cards and we max those suckers out each week!)
6. Camera: to document memories, for those blog pics, and to send to friends and family to prove that we do something productive (those doubters!).
5. iPad Minis. Alex loves his. Thank God for technology. Starfall taught Alex his ABCs. The kids and I all have one with color-coded Trident cases. (They were gifts from grandparents.) We use them daily for schoolwork and fun. I gave the girls their own shared Kindle account and we download FREE eBooks all the time! (Am I brilliant, or what?) We love weather and geography apps. And yes, we watch YouTube and Netflix when we have WiFi. We love Stack the States, Splash Math, and Duolingo !
4. Printer, duh. How else would I function and print all the kiddos’ notebooking pages?
3. Bibles. Each child has a KJV. We have The Message, an Amplified Bible, and The Complete Jewish Bible for comparison. I love having this freedom to teach the Bible during our school day. Also those Bible reference materials. (See #10.) And we love Bible apps too. We use Pray Now every evening before bed. Sure, we have Bibles on our Kindle, but sometimes, I want to feel a book.
2. Pencil Sharpeners. The kids all love their Staedtler manual pencil sharpeners. I like this one from Royal. It’s also a good idea to get good pencils, not those cutesy bargain ones.
1. Lap Desks/Trays. My kid fight over the lap desks. We have four of this little table kind, but they argue about who gets the Marvel superheroes one. ugh! I found plain ones at Michael’s and the Marvel one at Savers thrift store. We use these to do our school work and to eat in front of the TV (a special treat!) We also have these fun ones from Room It Up
We continue to purge and downsize our belongings, including our homeschool items, each year. It’s getting even more fun as the kids get older. We need less and less.
What are your must-haves for your homeschool?
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This is a great list!!
Great list, Jennifer. I’ll be sharing your post with my homeschooling friends! Have a blessed week!
I think we use all of these things except for lap desks. I’ve thought of buying them, but I find that with multiple desks/tables throughout the house they haven’t been necessary. I don’t think that I would add anything to your list.
Definitely a library card! I’d also have to say Wifi since we use a few on-line programs and YouTube, etc in our day. Great list.
oh, WiFi is a must!
Great resources, Jennifer! I used to love reading the encylopedia when I was a kid.
We will be starting our ‘official’ homeschool journey next year. I completely agree with the lap desk, nothing better than sitting down comfortably whilst doing some learning, I used to hate sitting in those hard plastic chairs at school! #twinklytuesday
Yes, it’s time to start thinking school again! Thanks for this gentle nudge.
I have some friends that would find this super helpful!!
I’ve just got myself one of those lap desks for evening blogging in front of the TV. I love it. I’m a bit sad mine isn’t a marvel one now. Hmmmm. #fortheloveofBLOG
Love the lap desks!
I have a friend who is going to home school so will pass this on #fortheloveofblog@_karendennis
I know that if I was to homeschool, I would have all of the notepads and stationary that exists hehe!!! Thanks for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday
I’m not a homeschool mom, but this sounds like a great list. And after our last PCS I’m all for purging and downsizing! LOL Thanks for sharing!
I agree with the others that this is a terrific list. As an educator, I appreciate the inclusion of the reference books, and library cards. It seems so much more efficient and productive teaching in the digital age, but I think it’s also important for kids to know there’s more than one way to get information. Thanks for sharing what you’very learned.
Visiting from Quietly Reminded! This is a great list…foundational! Instead of lap desks, we use Clipboards like crazy so that they can grab it and work in the car or on the couch. The library card is the gem of them all!
Library cards! Yes! Couldn’t have homeschooled without them.
I’m not homeschooling this next year, but this is a great list of homeschool supplies. Thank you for sharing.
Shopping for school supplies is one of my favorite things to do! I love the idea of a lapdesk. As a homeschooling family, these would work great – thanks for the suggestion!
I like the simplicity of this list! I need some of those lap desks and a better way to organize!
Such a useful list for homeschooling. Thanks for linking up to #fortheloveofblog x
I am a mama to ten children, and we homeschooled for 13 years. I have had many of the items on your list. And having a good quality pencil sharpener, that has alway been at the top of my list has a “must have” — I hate having dull pencils. It’s like a silly pet peeve of mine! Okay, maybe not so silly to home schooling mamas, right?