Are you planning to start homeschooling or just made the transition but aren’t sure what you need? Let’s go over the 5 must-haves for homeschool together that we found were needed from day one!
(this page includes amazon affiliate links – while you don’t pay anything extra, we do receive a portion of each qualifying sale)
White Board
This is definitely a must-have. You can use this tool to organize your day, use for examples/demonstrations, art, and more. These items are versatile and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Not to mention, no mess like chalkboard dust.
Calendar
If you have small children, this is a must. A calendar helps keep track of the days of the week, weather, seasons and more. If you have middle aged children, it can be used as a countdown towards certain special days coming up or events.
Storage Cart
There is no doubt you will be adding items to your household. Where there’s more items, there is a need to keep it somewhere out of the way, but also handy – as you’ll need it every day. Every home has a different aesthetic and needs, something functional, with many drawers and on wheels is definitely the most useful. This will allow you to take your schooling from room to room or from child to child around the table. It also allows for more sorting between different items with various drawers.
Accordion or Expansion File
With school work, comes a lot of paper. I don’t think I know of anyone who homeschools and doesn’t have papers coming out their ears. Even if you fully online school, there’s still art work, scratch paper, notes etc that your child will want to keep, or you will need to keep records for. While you have one, you may want more than one. One for keeping their school work and one for keeping your planning and grading (if your area requires reporting, this is very handy.)
Quality Printer
While on the topic of paper, how about a good quality printer that won’t eat through your ink budget. This printer was made for homeschool life, I swear! This ink doesn’t dry out like regular ink-jet printers do (ever wonder why you’re always out of ink… it dries out when you don’t use it often enough). This printer gives you almost as much life as a laser, without the bulk or price tag. The ink refills are reasonable too. The quality of color prints are exceptional for an ink-jet style printer. Just telling you now, get this printer, you can thank me later. (up to two years of ink with regular use).
BONUS!!
A Planner
There are so many ways to keep track of schedules, plans, curriculum, literature, passwords, accounts and so much more! However, there’s something so simple with just writing it down. There are many planners on the market from structured teachers planners, to fun and free planners, to helpful planners. This one I find is very helpful as they break it down into sections that work and flow well with a homeschool environment with a classroom of not 30 kids. A written planner will keep everything in one spot, easily accessible and available even on those days the power goes out (sorry kids, there’s still lessons to be learned).
If you’re looking for the ever adjusting list of what we have in our Homeschool rotation and products, check out our Amazon Homeschool Storefront.
These are the five (plus one) must-have items we found very useful for our homeschool environment. Even as it moved from our home to the road. What did you need when you started homeschooling that you think others would find useful? Leave a comment below so we can build a great resource for other new homeschoolers.
One Response
We don’t homeschool, but I love the simplicity of this list too! Thanks for keeping it short and sweet!