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Last year I shared our ten favorite homeschool supplies and while the list hasn’t changed much, there are a few new things we’ve found this past year that have made my teacher-heart ever so happy, so of course I need to share.
You likely have a few things that you cannot live without – am I right? Your list may be different from mine – and I’d love to hear what you all consider the MOST necessary to have on hand. A few of the things on my list you may have already guessed, but these are the ten things that I turn to a daily basis {well, almost daily for most of them!}.
A Kindle Fire
We weren’t ready to invest in another iPad, so we decided on a Kindle Fire for her and it has been great alternative (and a lot cheaper). She can use it to work on her North Star Geography and also has a few of her other school books loaded on it as well. Incidentally, the Send to Kindle app has been so much easier to use. You can just drag a file on your desktop and it sends it directly to the Kindle!
While I love my iPad and use it for many of my teacher’s manuals (like Picture Smart Bible manual, All About Homophones, Introduction to Literature, North Star Geography, and Home Art Studio pdfs) this year it has been a HUGE help for Laurianna to have something she can take to co-op or use while the laptop is in use by a sibling.
Post It Note Flags
Such a simple little thing, but Post-it flags of all shapes and sizes can be found in our schoolroom. They make it so much easier to quickly find where we left off in a lesson or book and they peel of easily to reuse. Yep, I love them!
Mavalus Tape
You’ll want to hide your roll of Mavalus tape when you get it, because it isn’t cheap, but it is wonderful! We’ve tried using different sticky substances on our schoolroom walls to hold up posters, but they have either ripped apart the drywall or haven’t really worked well. This tape isn’t cheap ($6.99 for a 3 foot roll), but you don’t need to use a ton of it to have it work, which is great. And you don’t have to explain to your husband why there is yet another patch of drywall that needs to be fixed.
Ticonderoga Pencils
The standard No. 2 pencil will forever be linked to the name Ticonderoga pencils. Yep – we’re pencil snobs. Cheap pencils just kept breaking or not erasing and just causing headaches in general, so it was much more economical to purchase a giant pack and be done with it for the rest of the year.
To keep track of mine vs. the kids, I pick up a few packs with a black exterior and also some of the red correcting pencils. My pencils are my pencils, and I will hunt down children who take my pencils and try to keep them. Be very careful….(grins).
An Amazing Pencil Sharpener
It may seem over the top, my nothing irks me more than a pencil sharpener that doesn’t do a good job (i.e. keeps breaking the tips off until all you have is a tiny nub of a pencil) or ones that break easily. We’ve gone through our share of pencil sharpeners over the years but the Stanley Bostitch Quiet Pencil Sharpener has been FABULOUS. There are different sized sharpening holes and it has even withstood a certain 9 year old’s curiousity on what would happen if you stuck a pencil in the wrong way to sharpen it. Besides, those Ticonderoga pencils need to be treated nicely!
A Dry Erase Board
Our dry erase board has been one of the best purchases that we’ve made. It hosts our All About Spelling letter tiles and we use it during our reading time as well. Somehow our markers like to make a mess of it, but we recently figured out how to clean a dry erase board easily – and that has helped a lot!
Weekly Homeschool Planner
It may surprise you to know that I don’t plan out our entire year. In fact, I typically add our lessons into my homeschool planner as we go along throughout the day. At the beginning of the year I sat down and figured out how many lessons we needed to work on each day in various subjects, but I have a hate getting a planner out of whack.
A Laminator
It’s shocking (I know), but the Scotch Laminator has been a faithful part of our homeschool for over five year now (and yes, I still have a spare one just in case!). We found some cheaper laminating pouches to use, which makes the whole process super easy! While I may not actually laminate daily, we do use things that I’ve laminated every single day, including parts of our Daily Calendar Notebook and our Weekly Workbox Grid.
Graph Paper
One of our daily staples is graph paper. I shared recently how huge of a help it has been for our girls during their math lessons, so it’s something we keep on hand always!
Utility Tote Bag
No I don’t have thirty-one bags, but we use 31 bags! We have four utility totes that we use constantly – one for all of the high school lit supplies, one with my teacher binder and daily teaching supplies, another holds our writing folders, and still another holds our reading materials.
The bags are quick and easy to pick up and go, especially if we are traveling {not that I would make our kids do school work on the go – cough}. While mine doesn’t have it, the new bags zip on the top so your stuff doesn’t fall out if it tips over! I dropped in an open top file box to make it a little more sturdy and can also use that to hang file folders inside.
What are YOUR must-have homeschool supplies?
Would you like to see more of our homeschool classroom? Feel free to stop by and visit! There’s even a video tour as well!
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my favorite homeschool supply is our big monthly calendar… really helps to learn the days of the week AND the “bigger” numbers :)
My favorites are many of the ones you shared (what an odd coincidence! Lol) My favorite supply would be the Ultimate Homeschool Planner. I’m still trying to get into the groove of using a planner but when I do, I love it! Between the design and inspiration packed into a great planner, it’s a nice addition to our school.
I love my laminator too. It makes me feel like a “real” teacher, lol.
I hear ya! :)
Our fav supply is the dry erase board!
My favorite homeschool supply right now is our color printer/scanner/copier.
I love my new planner from Mardell.
Homeschool planner, printer, computer….I would say laminator but we are in need of one so we can stop paying for our things to be done by others….thanks for the great giveaway
My favorite supply so far (we just started homeschooling) is my planner. I do mine in Excel and don’t print it out (to keep for documentation) until the week is over.
Thanks for the info! I love my laminator! ;)
Hmm, my favorite school supply is probably our Nooks. They can take their reading wherever we go and I love math drill games that I don’t have to participate in. :) I also love our Konos timeline.
Great information!!
Love my planner, and plan similarly to you.
My favorites would probably be my teacher planner, laminator and binding machine. I see a couple on here that I need though! ;)
oooo – a binding machine!!
I love my dry erase board, laminator and surface pro 2.
what is the surface pro??
A few of my favorite supplies are index cards, dry erase board and a copier.
I love pencils and art supplies best. Thanks for sharing and for the great giveaway!
We do too!! Our art supply stash is crazy fun. :)
I’ve been homeschooling for quite a while and still found some new great ideas here. Thanks!
I think my favorite homeschool supply is my lesson planner. I couldn’t function without that notebook!
I love colored pencils and Mr. Sketch markers (because color makes things much more fun!), but being practical, a good planner is a favorite.
My favorite homeschool supplies are my Sharpies of all colors.
Oh – yes to the Sharpies!! :)
I have so many favorites! My #1 would have to be my laptop where I find many of our free printable’s/curricula offered by other home school moms :-) , then our laminating machine, school planner, kindle fire, and cubbie unit my father-in-law built for us to store our wonderful curriculum’s and manipulative’s in.
Ticonderoga pencils and graph paper are huge in our day!
I love my laminator, and I REALLY love Pinterest!
PINTEREST – ahhhhhh!! Yes!! :)
Thanks so much for this blog post. I love learning about others favorite supplies. I totally have to agree with the laminator. It is used in our classroom ALOT!! An absolute must have and totally worth the money!!
I couldn’t live without the school calendar. Keeping me on track.
I couldn’t live without my iPad! It makes researching for science and geography so much fun for my girls! I love our chalkboard too!
I love my Scotch Laminator!!! Been using it for years. Thank you!
I love my Frixion pens!!! They are erasable and come in different colors. I want to try their highlighters next…..
Ooo – I’ll have to look those up!
Love to win the gift card and the planner! It will help us purchase more school supplies. Our favorite is dry erase board and whatever go with it!
I really like having a laminator heart at home! and I need a good pencil sharpener so badly!
That’s a hard call. IfI had to pick just one tool that is my favorite it would be the Kindle Fire we recently bought. We all love to use it!
What a generous giveaway! One of our most prized homeschool supplies are fine-point dry erase markers :)
what an awesome giveaway, thanks. i LOVE our crayola erasable twistable colored pencils. no more redoing maps because my little perfectionists made a mistake.
We love those too!
I wish these were refillable. I find they break off too easily and I have to buy a whole new set. First world problem for sure, but if they made a set that was refillable it would be smarter for all!!
My favorite thing this year are these student planners from Multi Taskin’ Mom found here http://themultitaskinmom.com/planners/. They have really helped me and my kids stay more organized and helped them take charge of their scheduled school day a little more.
paper, colored pens, and BOOKS!
Laura
Amen to books!!! :)
School supplies are so much fun!
Some of our favorites include dry erase markers and various boards, lap trays, Smencils, my printer/copier, book baskets, bookshelf with cubbies for each child’s school books, etc. And of course your planner :-)
Right now it is our laptop. We got it at the end of the school year last year and it helps having the kids where I can see them.
My favorite school supply probably is Pinterest, I have found so many fun things that I don’t think I would have found if I weren’t on there. But my laminator is right up there. I recommend that thing to everyone. So glad to hear yours has worked for 5 years. I have the same one and have had it 3!
I’m just starting this year with preschool so this post was really helpful. One thing that I’ve used a lot more this year is our library! I’m thinking it will continue to really help with our homeschooling. :)
We LOVE our library too!
Pinterest
My favorite are white boards. We have one per child and lots of colored markers. Makes math a lot easier!
My favorite school supply is my laser printer.
I would LOVE a laminator!
Our favorite supplies are the individual white boards. The boys love using them and like to use them outside of class. Yay! Thanks for the giveaway.
S. Jones
We use our dry erase board more than anything!
My favorite supply is probably our huge lined dry erase board.
My laminator.
My favorite home school supply is my Binder/Planner. It is my brain!! Especially with a college-bound 9th grader.
Our most used items are our totes and white board.
We love dry erase board, laminator and printer.
My 2-hole puncher. I like to make mini-books on cardstock and it’s just the right size.
Humm I think my favorite thing is probably the small dry erase boards I picked up cheap. The kids can use these to make notes, to work out problems in math, to draw ideas, to practice their spelling words, and so much more. They are especially useful for my son who likes to make sure he’s got it before putting things onto paper. This way he can erase and start over, and over and over. And our books. We have TONS of books at all reading levels and on a variety of subjects so there is always something they haven’t read or looked at……
I love a regular 3-ring binder! We have our calendar time, plus charts that I would hang on the wall if I had room, but instead we have 8×11 size charts (Books of the BIble, Presidents, alphabet, etc) in our notebook that we can flip to to review each day.
I love our laminator and our oil drip pan calendar board!
My favorite homeschool supply at the moment is my vis-a-vis markers. They are awesome and I have this sight to thank for them!!
Those were a GREAT purchase for us too! :)
Just discovered Mavalus tape and it is marvelous! also love my laminator.
I discovered one of my kids using it the other day – not so mavalus!! :) We may have had a little review on what is in Mommy’s drawer is off-limits unless you ask first!
My favorite is our multiple dry erase boards. I love the big one for all the kids to see. The little ones work great for each kid to work on letters, numbers, math problems, etc.
My favorite supply is probably our expo thin dry erase markers!!
Love your top 10! I gave up on finding a good electric pencil sharpener…we have a thousand little handheld ones all over the place! They work well, and they’re fast (& cheap)! I also love my 3-hole punch since we put a lot of things in binders. As for the wall, I staple or use a straight pin. At least it’s a tiny hole! My latest love has been those expandable fold-over files to keep their pages in for the year. Those just might replace my beloved 3-ring binders! And dry erase anything… Best invention ever!! Thanks for doing this giveaway!
My favorite is the new pencil sharpener from classroom friendly supplies. No more broken lead, no more uneven point…just perfectly sharpened pencils!
My favorite homeschool supply is my laminator. I bought the one you recommend and I LOVE it!! I am down to one laminating pouch – definitely time to stock up!
We actually lost our Kindle Fire… how is that POSSIBLE?? So I’ve been thinking about getting another one. We haven’t had it for about a year and now that the kids have started homeschooling, I feel like it would be a good investment again. Thanks for the list!!
Oh my goodness – how in the world?
I mistakenly let the kids play with it unsupervised (age 3) and then they said they didn’t know where it was. We have looked under every couch.. every corner. Ugh.
You’ll find it when you least expect to – and where you least expect to. Been there! :)
I always appreciate your blog and it has been a real encouragement in our homeschool journey. Our essentials are also good pens and pencils…we each have favorites and a library card for each of us (we often have over 80 books out at a time in this family) and tablets….especially for spelling practice! Thanks for the giveaway!
Oh my goodness! That’s a lot of books. :) We’re headed to the library today and I know we’ll be scrounging up books from everywhere!
I really like our individual dry erase boards, our own “in house library” and a dry erase easel board/ felt board and has large lined paper roll attached.
My favorite homeschool supply is our library card!
Just started homeschooling Pre-K, so my favorite is our big calendar. My son loves seeing everyone’s birthdays and adding new numbers.
I would have to pick my Ticonderoga pencils as my favorite .
We use binders with dividers for each subject. Loose papers and study guides are so much easier to find!
Pencils! <3
I love my planner. And paper, lots of paper.
Internet access is my favorite resource. Homeschooling in the days before the internet would have been more challenging for me!
My favorite homeschool supply is my printer…which I use to copy or print many, many worksheets.
My favorite is a toss up between my laminator & my planner. I think I’d be lost without them both!
I love my homemade planners customized for each member of the family using our duplexing laser printer, laminating machine, and binding machine. Makes my life so much easier!
My favorite is my dry erase board
My favorite homeschool tool is ToDoist. :) It keeps me on track with what’s up for the day.
off to check it out!
I always love to read your supplies tips – so helpful. And thanks for keepin it real;))
Can’t live without our laptop and copier/printer!
Dry erase boards as we use them a lot.
Mine would have to be my printer. I have an HP Officejet Pro 8600 and it is a workhorse!!! I will soon have 4 kiddos (6, 4, 2 and due in November). I am always printing, printing, printing. I had a Canon Pixma before and it sucked down SO much ink and the printer head really couldn’t hack it. This HP has been AMAZING and I am so blessed to have it!!! Thanks for this awesome giveaway!!
My favorite homeschool item is my son’s whiteboard planner. It helps him know what he is doing each day. He is dyslexic and it is perfect for him. I praise God for helping me to think of it!!!
Finally…another Ticonderoga fan!! Those are the only pencils I will buy. My oldest now loves the tri-write.
This year, it would be my planner – finally feel a bit more organized. And another new addition is our bulletin board made from 8 frameless, magnetic dry erase boards (silver colored). Multi-functional is good!
Love all this stuff. The pencil sharpener is my fav because I have the other things.
Dry erase board
My favorite homeschool supply is books, books, books, and more books! :)
a tray to keep small piece together when the preschooler works with something like legos or a puzzle