Essential Homeschool Supplies List for Small Spaces

Ever wondered what the essential homeschool supplies- those things that most homeschooling families cannot live without? Although every family is different, I am going to share with you the things that we have used constantly for most of our homeschooling journey so far.

Essential Homeschool Supplies List- The Things we dare not live without

I don’t know about you but I love stalking (I mean searching) Instagram and Pinterest to see what everyone else uses in their homeschool. There is something about getting a glimpse into someone else’s homeschool world that makes me giddy.

I love comparing all the homeschool supplies that I currently use as well as the things that I think will be a good fit for us down the line. When I come across a gold mine in a FaceBook community thread, you better believe that I am saving that conversation so that I can look at it later.

Please note that affiliate links are used below for your convenience and at no cost to you. 

 

 Thirty One Fold N’ File in Charcoal Crosshatch – No Monogram – 3890 Thirty-One Double Duty Caddy in Fab Flourish – No Monogram – 4787 NUOLUX Mini Tinplate Metal Bucket Icing French Fries Tin Pails – 6 Pieces AmazonBasics Volume Limited On-Ear Headphones for Kids – Blue/Green Day Designer for Blue Sky 2018-2019 Academic Year Daily & Monthly Planner, Flexible Cover, Twin-Wire Binding, 8

 

1) 31 Totes and Caddies

 

 Thirty One Fold N’ File in Charcoal Crosshatch – No Monogram – 3890 Thirty One Double Duty Caddy in Sweet Sprinkles – No Monogram – 4787

Although any tote would fit the bill, I have had my 31 Fold N File tote since I first started tot school with Jael years ago. I am able to place all my teacher manuals, flash cards, as well as my pens and dry erase markers in there comfortably. My lesson planner (something I will talk about another time) is also kept there as well.

We also have 2 caddies- a purple on for Jael and a green one for Caleb. The keep all their school supplies excluding pens, pencils etc in here. Inside each caddy you will find their handwriting curricula, math workbooks as well as language workbooks and their dry erase boards.

 

2) Buckets for Pencils, Crayons, Dry Erase Markers and Glue sticks

 

 NUOLUX Mini Tinplate Metal Bucket Icing French Fries Tin Pails – 6 Pieces

The buckets just like the double duty caddies are color coordinated for my children- green for Caleb and purple for Jael.

Their pencils are also color coordinated as well as the dry erase markers they use.

As for dry erase markers we have our favorites. For example, I was inclined to get the Crayola Dry Erase Markers because they are washable. Unfortunately they barely survived and so I now stick to my oldie but goodie EXPO DRY ERASE MARKERS.

Crayola is still the number one choice for our crayons both regular, triangular for better grip, as well as dry erase.

3) Headphones and Apps

Both my children use the iPad and iPhone for supplementary practice with math and phonics. In order to ensure that they can both concentrate on their apps, they have their own headphones. Blue and green for Caleb and Jael has a pink and orange one courtesy of Amazon. Sadly there were no purple headphones that we liked but I tried to coordinate as much as I could.

There are a few apps that we use almost daily. These are

• Splash Math (both kids)
• Phonograms by Logic of English (mainly Caleb)
• Letter School (both kids)

4) Curricula

This is something that every homeschooler loves finding out and I promise I will share exactly what we use in the future. For now, I can say that we use Logic of English as well as Singapore Math. The rest you will have to be patient for.

5) Plan Your Year

Yes, I know I am not a new homeschooling mom and I am quite capable of planning my school year. However life gets insane and my best intentions of being on top of things remain just that- intentions. Luckily I purchased this in 2017 and Pam keeps updating it. 

 

6) Ontario Standards

In my homeschool planner I keep a checklist of all the standards that my kids are working towards. It gives me a sense of direction event though I am not legally required to follow anything or even submit anything. What can I say, I love the feeling of checking off a skill that I know my kids have mastered.

Although my standards may not look like yours, I would recommend getting a checklist for your area of what is generally taught at a particular grade. Just because you have the freedom to homeschool doesn’t mean you can’t have a benchmark.

7) Pens

I have a confession- I have had a love affair with stationary ever since I was in high school. I love them so much that even my husband knows not to abuse my pens and pencils. Naturally, pens are on the list. My absolute favorite pens of all time (I am actually trying to keep calm while telling you this) are the Pilot Frixion erasable, retractable and refillable pens. These pens are fantastic- when I make a mistake I can erase it. As a matter of fact, I plan to start stocking up on these babies from my own allowance (that’s another story).

 

8) Manipulatives

Both my kids use manipulatives to help them with their school work. Below you can see a pic of snap cubes in action by Caleb when he was doing preschool.

Working on sorting colours with snap cubes

A post shared by Hands on Learning & More (@funlearningideas) on Jul 14, 2016 at 9:00am PDT

Well there you have it- our essential homeschool supplies. To sum it up we use

• totes for holding our curricula
• buckets for our stationary
• headphones and apps for our devices
• Plan Your Year 
• grade standards
• pens and
• manipulatives