School Supplies We Actually Use
I love walking through big box stores during Back-to-School shopping. There’s something so tempting about buying Elmer’s Glue sticks for a quarter and ten three-prong folders for a dollar! But the school supplies we need in our homeschool are sometimes a little different. We don’t need a spiral notebook and colored folder for every subject (though we do use a few). We don’t use personalized pencil containers (though I’ve tried…everyone just loses their stuff and borrows from their siblings, anyway). Here’s what I buy (often in bulk!) at the beginning of our school years:
Personal dry-erase boards. I’ve picked them up in the Target dollar spot, as part of a homeschool promotion, and even have a few hand-me-downs from our old homeschooled babysitters. A lot of what we write doesn’t need to be permanent, and the kids prefer to practice their spelling with colored dry erase markers rather than pen and paper. When we do dictation or compositions, I will write out the trickier words on the dry erase board for the kids to copy down (and let them erase them as they work through them). When I’m sitting next to a child, working out a math example, I’ll use the dry erase board. I do invest in the name brand Expo markers, because they seem to work better and last longer than the cheaper options.
Ticonderoga (Dixon) #2 pencils. I learned from my time as a classroom teacher that kids lose pencils at an alarming rate. Back then, I would buy jumbo packs and keep them sharpened in a jar on my desk so that we didn’t have to waste class time hunting for pencils. I still buy them in bulk and have dozens available in our school supplies cart. Cheaper pencils don’t sharpen as well, so we’re name brand loyal.
Papermate pink pearl cap erasers. I have to thank a homeschool mom on one of the message boards I frequent for cluing me in to the fact that decent erasers will actually erase and won’t tear the paper. I threw out all of the other random cheap erasers and keep a bin of these at hand at all times.
Frixion Erasable Pens. Okay, this is possibly our family’s single favorite school supply discovery of the past five years. These pens write smoothly, reducing wrist fatigue, and erase completely. I use them for all lesson planning because they don’t smudge like pencil does but easily erase if we need to change things. I let the kids use them for writing, especially once they start cursive, because they don’t have to stop and resharpen. You can drop them into the bottom of a backpack and take them to a museum or zoo for the day and not worry that the lead will break. It may sound silly, but I have found that little girls who balk at doing a math facts review page or field trip report in pencil will happily complete it if allowed to do so in pink and purple pen. I buy the refills in bulk. My kids ask for them for Christmas and birthdays. Frixion erasable pens have brought more peace and harmony to our homeschool classroom than any other single school supply.
Prismacolor colored pencils. You may see a theme here, which is that I’m brand loyal to quality products. We do a lot of coloring and drawing in our homeschool—in our nature journals and field trip journals, in Dover historical coloring books while we listen to read alouds and audiobooks, and just general free art. After years of using whatever cheapo “kid” colored pencils, I asked my sister-in-law, a professional artist, what she recommends, and she directed me to Prismacolor. Unlike the squeaky, unsatisfying pencils we’d been enduring, these are smooth, rich, and long lasting. We’ll never go back. I recommend buying (or asking Grandparents to gift) the biggest set you can afford and find your kids and yourself asking to color!
Nature journals. Every time we go on a hike or a trip to a botanical garden, we bring along our nature journals. I also enjoy sending the kids outside to record a view of the yard or park at different times of day or different seasons of the year. These journals are nice and compact, so we can easily fit several of them in a backpack. The paper is thick, so we get good leaf rubbings. I appreciate the leaf and animal track guides.
Field trip journals. One of the great opportunities with homeschooling is to go on lots and lots of educational field trips! After trying several different options, I’ve settled on one that perfectly meets our needs, created by a homeschool mom! She has thought through all sorts of great things that matter, from listing who we went with to what we had for lunch to what book this place reminded us of. There are different levels depending on your kids’ age and writing ability. The kids love flipping back through past years’ journals and remembering the places we visited.
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