I’m a first-time homeschool mom and these are the homeschool essentials I’ve collected to give my child the most successful year. If you’re looking for homeschool essentials for your home kids, this blog post will cover everything from homeschool supplies to online resources to help you along your homeschool journey. Through my personal experience as well as my experience as an informal educator in the classroom, I hope this information is valuable to you and helps your homeschool days even more enjoyable!
I decided to homeschool for a few reasons. For one, as an educator myself, I’m in the classroom a lot. I see firsthand how children learn in a traditional classroom setting. Although I grew up in public classrooms and I’ve always loved school, I want to provide my children a bit of a different experience where I can fill in the gaps of some of the things I think those school systems may be lacking.
For example, I love that through homeschooling I can follow the curriculums according to where my child is instead of where they should be. I also love the one on one attention I can give to my children to make sure they are understanding their lessons and school work.
This blog post is all about homeschool essentials to help you have the best homeschool experience with your kids!
Registration
You’ll want to make sure you have officially registered as a homeschooler in your state. Each state has different requirements so I can’t give specific steps on how best to meet those requirements. You’ll need to know about record-keeping, standardized testing, and making sure you are on track.
Curriculum and Educational Materials
There are so many curriculum to choose from. I like using curriculums because they help me to stay on track and provides a basis for me to follow along to ensure my kids are staying on track. For me, a curriculum is an essential item. You can purchase a pre-packaged curriculum, find an online program, or create your own!
We are currently using a combination of ABCmouse and The Good and the Beautiful as our homeschool essentials for the curriculum.
No matter which curriculum you choose, you’ll need textbooks and workbooks. Before you go filling up the bookshelves with every workbook you find at Target or Barnes and Noble, remember that you don’t want to overcrowd your homeschool space with too many resources. Remember it is important to have books in different subjects such as math, science, language arts, and social studies.
Supplementary Materials
I love to use educational games, flashcards, art supplies, and science kits. They enhance and supplement learning and they’re so much fun. Incorporating these types of games gives me an opportunity to make learning fun, something that I often see missing in traditional classroom settings. Here are some of my favorite supplementary materials to add to your homeschool essentials:
Educational Games
Flash Cards
Art Supplies
Science Kits for hands on experiments
This kit has 75 experiments for ages 8+!
This kit is great for preschoolers and above (with parent supervision of course!):
Computer or iPad with internet access
Printer
If you don’t already have HP Instant Ink, I would highly recommend it. This program guarantees you never run out of ink or paper which is a great resource for homeschool life.
Use my code here for one free month of service which includes 1 month of ink and 1 month of paper. This plan have been so beneficial because it takes off the mental load of having to remember to have enough paper and ink. We get a lot of use of out it because it removes the barrier of not having what you need to go along with your lesson plans that day.
Along with the printer, don’t forget the laminator!
Organization
Organization is probably one of my favorite things, ever! Although we do not have an entire homeschool room, we do have a set, dedicated space for homeschooling. Establishing this space as a homeschool space has been very important to me. This is because once we are in this space, there is no association with homeschooling. My kids know, it is officially time for lessons. This may not work for everyone.
Some homeschool families use their living room, or even the kitchen table for their homeschool classroom. That is okay too! The most important part is that kids are able to receive their instruction during their school time and gain the knowledge they need from their homeschooling parents.
In addition to an organized space, you’ll want to have items to keep your materials organized. I use these zippy bags as well as 3-ring binders and folders. I received a second-hand Ikea dresser where I can store all their supplies.
We have a handheld whiteboard to reinforce lessons as well as a large calendar. This calendar is a great way for us to practice our days of the week, months of the year, emotions, and scheduling.
Planning Tools
If you’re really looking to get super-duper organized, check out this insane planner called the Dailee. There are a few versions of them including college planners, teacher planners, and blogging planners. My favorite, however, is the mom planner. It has everything and is one of my homeschool essentials!
it has everything you need, from weekly trackers and grocery lists to school information and daily breakdowns. This helps keep me on track each week.
For specific lesson planning and planning out my homeschool year, my favorite planner is my undated homeschool digital resource. It has over 90 pages of planning sheets, completely done for you! It not only helps you plan out your year, but gives you several guides and logs to keep you on track with homeschool requirements, expenses, and activities. This is the perfect homeschool planner to help you be the most organized homeschool parent and not miss any of the important details required with homeschooling!
Assessments
You’ll also want to make sure you are keeping track of your child’s work and progress. You’ll need to track what books were read, what lessons were done, what papers were written, etc.
You can use apps like the SchoolHours app or track with old-fashioned pen and paper.
Community
One of the criticisms I often hear about homeschooling is the lack of interaction. I make sure this is not the case for my kids. Here are some of the ways I keep them engaged socially
- Facebook mom groups for playdates and meet ups
- Neighborhood playdates
- 3-day per week homeschool co-op program
- Library card membership and classes
- Extracurriculars such as karate, swimming, baseball, dance, etc.
Physical Education
Physical education is crucial! I have this philosophy that if we teach our kids the importance of physical activities when they’re young, they will already understand the value when they grow up. Physical activities for us include field trips, park/outdoor play, nature walks, sports, and extracurriculars, but also exercise videos. On rainy days or days when we do not have sports, I have no problem using a YouTube video with fun exercises to accomplish their need for physical education.
Checklist
Supplies
- Pencils (I love these pre-sharpened ones!)
- Pens (I love these pens!)
- Highlighters (they’re aesthetically pleasing, but also fast drying and amazing!)
- Markers
- Dot Markers (bingo dabbers)
- Dry erase markers
- Dry-erase board (I love these because they kids can use them to practice their letters or write out concepts for better understanding)
- Erasers
- Notebook paper
- Notebooks
- Composition notebook (these are great for interactive notebooks)
- Construction paper
- Binders
- File folders
- Laminator
- Laminator sheets
- Electric sharpener
- Index cards
- Ruler
- Protractor
- Sticky Notes
- Scissors
- Glue
- Tape
- Crayons
- Colored Pencils
- Paints and Brushes
- Craft Supplies
- Art Smock
- Magnifying Glass
- Binoculars for nature finds
- Label Maker
- Calendar
- Map
- Good and Beautiful Curriculum
- ABC Mouse
- iPad
- Printer
- Headphones
- Organization Bags
- Organization Cart
- Rolling Cart
- Science Kits for science lessons
This list should help you get organized and ensure you have everything you need for a successful year of homeschooling.
I hope you enjoyed this post about homeschool essentials to help you have the best homeschool experience with your kids!
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