Do you have your staple items to get started with homeschooling? Beyond just pencils, crayons, paint and the like. Do you have items that will make your day easier and more efficient?
It’s taken me a number of years to learn what items really make a difference in our homeschool, and what items could come or go without much effect on our routine. I’d love to share with you my top items I would buy first to get our homeschool off to a strong start.
Staple items for homeschool
It’s not a homeschool without a laminator! We’ve laminated du’a that we use often, pattern cards for our wooden pattern blocks, meal planning sheets, and nature study eye spy cards, just to name a few. Especially since we have three kids coming up to the homeschooling years, I want things to last, and a laminator is a great way to make sure paper items can stand the test of time.
Don’t have a homeschool room? Right now, neither do we, so I keep all the kids’ workbooks, printables, and even their crayons, markers, and math manipulatives in this box. I’ve had the box for a long time, back when I used to file away all my bills and balance my checkbook by hand, so I can’t say it was with a homeschooling intention that I picked the perfect box, but it works fabulously. The clasp is essential with a toddler at home. Without it, our stuff would be everywhere, I can assure you. When we’re ready to work on school, I just grab the box, and we are ready to go.
Do not waste your money on a standard 3-hole punch. For one, once you laminate something, it might not fit, and for two, with the advent of curriculum providers now using eBooks, a 3-hole punch will be your best friend. I have been buying 3-ring binders to hold our printed eBooks, printables I find online, and collections of lapbooks. With a standard 3-hold punch, doing any of those things is a much bigger chore
Paper organizers are not just for separating colored construction paper. We use ours for holding blank printer paper, partially completed lapbooks, construction paper, cardstock, felt, and lots of flat items we want to have at our fingertips.
I originally bought small bins just to segment our hallway closet and all the school stuff I was putting in there, but it’s been incredibly helpful to be able to bring all our paints to the dining room table, or all our scissors and glue sticks because they are in bins and easy to grab.
Laminator with pouches: $34.58
Hanging File Folder Box: $16.24
Heavy Duty 3-Hole Punch: $13.99
Paper Organizer: $22.02
Small Storage Bins: $13.99
Total: $100.82
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And make sure to check out what other homeschool moms would do with $100! Click on the image to see a list of bloggers that are sharing how to homeschool on $100, or what they’d do with an extra $100.
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