7 Favorite Homeschool Products & Supplies
For us, homeschooling involves more than just curriculum, so I want to share with you my favorite must-have homeschooling supplies. These are just little things that I keep throughout my school room that I enjoy using and make my life easier.
#1 – Electric Pencil Sharpener
An electric pencil sharpener might seem like a no-brainer, but we’ve had ours for years. My children are obsessed with it. It’s been kicking for a long time and we all love it.
#2 – Microscope
When you are at a place in your homeschooling that you need a microscope, I cannot recommend this one enough. The quality is so good and it’s fairly decently priced. You can look at all kinds of things under a microscope and it’s super fun!
I also want to get a handheld microscope for the kids that I’ve seen used on beauty channels. They use it to look at things like makeup but I can think of all kinds of fun things we could do with that!
#3 – Usborne Books
Usborne Books are some of my very favorite resource materials to have in our homeschool. They are something I’m absolutely willing to invest in every year as we build our collection.
I’m a big fan of their non-fiction and resource books like the encyclopedias, science books and illustrated dictionaries. These books are colorful, the graphics are beautiful, and they make things super easy for the kids to understand.
Some of the books are internet linked, so they will tell you where to go to find out even more than what’s listed there.
Usborne books are an incredible resource for our homeschool and well worth the money. I love them so much.
(Full disclosure, I am an independent consultant for Usborne, but I don’t do it as a business, I just do it for the discount. If you choose to buy anything from my links, I get a percentage of the sale, but I only share things with you that I really, really like.)
#4 – Label Maker
Who doesn’t love a good label maker? I like to label all the things.
The one we have is by Brother and it has many different fonts. I’m sure there are nicer, newer ones out there now, but it has worked for me for a really long time. It’s great for organizing closets, shelves, books, bins – I can just label everything. Even the dog! (just kidding ;)
#5 – Laminator
If it’s in your budget, I would highly recommend getting a laminator. I laminate everything.
My kids are not gentle with things, so pretty much anything that I need to use more than once gets laminated. Otherwise it’s gone.
I laminate my kids’ daily schedules so they’re sturdy and then the kids use a dry erase marker to mark off that they’ve done each of the things on their schedule.
This is such a good homeschooling resource to have – I use the heck out of mine!
#6 – Book for Lesson Plans
Right now I just use a teachers’ grade book and keep track of lessons as we go, but some kind of good planner or lesson keeper is really helpful.
There are lots of really awesome ones online too, if you want to start tracking records that way. I think we might move towards that when my girls get a little older and we have to start keeping transcripts for high school, but for right now a plan book works for me.
#7 – Hobonichi Planner
My hobonichi planner has taken quite the beating, but I absolutely love it! I have an extra notebook in it to take notes. It’s like having my brain all in one binder – a centralized location to organize all the things.
That’s pretty much it as far as my favorite and must-have home school supplies.
These things make my life as a homeschooling mom easier, but although all this stuff is fun, please don’t feel like you have to have it. Like I’ve always said, all you really need to homeschool is a pencil and a library card!