As soon as I get on Instagram my eyes and mind are drowned with a sea of items to buy – Prime Day deals that you MUST GET NOW, handmade math manipulatives, furniture, bookshelves, Montessori toys… Consumerism is no respecter of persons, not even the humble homeschool mama. 

When I started homeschooling I was on a tight budget, as my husband was fresh out of school and working on his actuarial exams. I felt that if I couldn’t afford _______ then my children wouldn’t learn. If I could only buy _________ then my home would look and feel more like a proper learning space. 

Well, we’ve lived in a few different houses since then, including a 900 sq foot apartment where I had to pare down to the bare essentials. I’ve been able to clearly see what is important and what is just fluff. 

There are very few items I actually use on a daily basis, and there are a few items that are as handy and versatile as a Swiss army knife. 

Every family is different and will have different hobbies, preferences, etc. But this is a good list to get you started. 

BOOKS!

This is, perhaps, the most essential item in your school. A small, but well-stocked home library will give your kids an amazing education. And take advantage of your local public library, as well. A library card that gets you access to interlibrary loans is an invaluable resource. You can also access digital items on archive.org. I use this site all the time for good books that are out of print. When I want to buy books for my own library I go to library sales (sooo many good books for only a quarter!), bookfinder.com will help you find the best price for a certain used book, but most of the time I go straight to thriftbooks.com. Purple House Press, Living Books Press, The Good and the Beautiful, and Yesterdays Classics are good places to buy new (living) books.

Notebooks

I’ve spoken a lot about the humble monthly planner in my YouTube videos and on my Instagram. It is a workhorse in my schoolroom. We use it to help kids establish a sense of time and learn the days of the week, the months, and how many days are in each month. They record the different flowers in bloom as well as the weather each day. Older kids record the temperature and rainfall for their science. 

Blank Kraft Paper Notebooks are a must-have in our home. My boys use them to write their own books, and they can be used for drawing lessons, science notebooks, map drawing in geography, and daily logbooks. 

Copywork notebook is essential for copying down sentences and doing language arts lessons. 

A gridded math notebook is used for all ages, it’s where they write down problems and answers. I have PDFs for both of these notebooks in my curriculum guides. 

Nature journal is where my kids record observations from our nature walks and our special studies. Older kids add a science notebook in about 6th grade. Just a multi-media spiral bound notebook will do.

A Book of Centuries is added in 6th or 7th grade. This is like a museum and a timeline for your child to record dates and sketch drawings of artifacts, inventions, and more. It is a place for all subjects to come together, not just history.   I bought mine from Riverbend Press because I wanted the hardcover version with bookmark ribbon. I  have a PDF Book of Centuries you can download and print at home. It’s available in my Form 2 curriculum guide. 

Finally, the Commonplace book is where older kids (middle and high school) record inspirational quotes, poetry, and examples of excellent writing from the books they read. 

Timers

I love these visual timers. I don’t know what I’d do without them. They are rather spendy, but I feel like it’s worth the cost. Each boy has one in his basket and uses it to keep track of time while he reads during individual learning time. 

Art Materials

Everyone needs a few dozen HB pencils for writing and drawing. We buy them in bulk. We also like black  fine-tipped pens for outlining drawings in nature notebook and Book of Centuries. My boys love these black pens because there are a variety of sizes and they don’t bleed when used with watercolors. 

My boys prefer colored pencils to any other medium, although I prefer watercolors. We have both in our house for people to use in their notebooks and for any other projects. I have a paint pan, round brushes in sizes 2, 6, and 8, and a basic set of watercolors. Its much cheaper to get Windsor & Newton watercolors from Michaels when they are on sale.

Clay

Air dry clay is another workhorse in our home. We use it to make statues of monsters from myths and other stories. They use it to make models of the special study topics in nature, land and water forms in geography, and we use it just for fun and creative stress relief while I read aloud books. Tools are fun, but not necessary – you can make your own tools with things from around the house. 

Montessori Moveable Alphabet 

This was a splurge when I first bought it with my oldest. It was one of those big purchases that I wasn’t sure if it would sit in the drawer and gather dust, or get broken and lost from so much love. It was definitely the latter. I’ve used this alphabet to teach my boys the sounds of each letter, and eventually to build words and read. I use it for Word Study in the beginning when their hands aren’t quite ready to write out new words, I have never regretted this purchase and encourage moms of kindergarteners to invest in one as well. 

Globe or Wall Map

Where I got my large, vintage wall map is the most frequently asked question I get. I found it on Craigslist after a long and arduous search on online marketplaces. It just happened to be close to my home and I found it within a hour of it being list, and I knew it was meant to be mine when it was only $100. I haven’t found anything like it since. If you can’t find a used vintage map, a large world globe or world atlas will work just as well. Your children just need a little piece of the world to look at and get a sense of where they are and other places are.

Chalkboard

I LOVE my chalkboard! My husband and I made our first one back in 2020 and I missed it so much in our little apartment we made another one when we moved to our current house. It’s simple to make and costs under $40 for the materials. I use it for my boys’ first handwriting and drawing lessons (whole-arm movement is important!), I put the lyrics of the hymn or poem we’re learning. I add to-do lists, copywork sentences, and my boys just enjoy drawing on it. If you have the space I highly recommend having some kind of chalkboard or dry-erase board on your wall. 

Bookmarks

I use these little bookmark tabs all the time. I use them to mark copywork passages in our read alouds, and my boys use them to mark their place in all of their schoolbooks. I also use them to organize my homeschool planner and pretty much anything! I prefer these to regular bookmarks because, well, large paper bookmarks slide out and are lost forever, its just in their nature 🙂

Black Metal Clips

I didn’t think I’d use this as much as I do, but I use them everyday. I originally bought them to build an artwork holder for our wall (to display our artist study paintings). But we now use them to hold the boys’ daily logbook on their basket, and keep books open, which is especially helpful for math and piano practice.

Furniture and Storage

When we lived in a 900 sq foot apartment I had a 2×4 IKEA Kallax next to our kitchen table. I placed some books on the shelves and added a few wire baskets with blocks  and another one with notebooks. Above that I installed a wire curtain “rod” to hang our artwork from. On the top of the Kallax I placed some mason jars to hold our art supplies and baskets to hold our “loose parts” (see below). I added a few large glass jars and other containers to hold our precious nature collection  I hung some picture ledges (also from IKEA) on a sliver of a wall to display the books we were currently reading and some others to display the paintings we were studying for artist study. Next to the couch I placed another wire basket with (more) books. This was our humble schoolroom. It wasn’t much, but it was all we needed. With all the large and beautiful schoolrooms parading around on Instagram I’m reminded of that humble, yet cozy schoolroom. We didn’t have desks, so we used the kitchen table. We didn’t have bookshelves or space for a lot of books, so we got what we needed from the library and put them in baskets or on the Kallax. 

You don’t need a lot of expensive supplies and a large curated space to homeschool – yes, it’s nice, but not a requirement. You simply need a few versatile materials plus a couch and a table. 

Optional

These are items I use occasionally and are nice to have, but not essential. Don’t feel like you need to go out and buy them, but if you have the budget and space you should consider getting them. 

Wire Basket. I have a wire basket for each of my boys. It holds the schoolbooks their currently reading, their notebooks, timer, and logbook. I bought mine from Target years ago and it isn’t available anymore, but here is a similar one.

Gathre Micro Mat. I use these for clay and other arts and crafts. They keep the mess contained on the mat and make clean up a breeze. You can find similar mats that aren’t as expensive as Gathre, but these are the ones I have.

Microscope and slides. My boys really enjoy looking at slides in their microscope and attempting to make their own slides (spoiler: it never works). You don’t need one, but it’s nice to have if you have the money and space. It becomes necessary once your kids are in middle school and taking biology. 

Large 18×24 multimedia for mapmaking. We use these for making larger than life maps of the countries we study. My boys like the large paper so they can fit more details into their maps. 

Loose Parts. This is a term coined by British architect Simon Nicholson to describe lots of loose, random objects that can be used for anything. I use loose parts for math, geography, and play. We have small wooden cubes, wooden beads, a shoelace (for stringing beads), wooden shapes, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, wood unit blocks, coins, pattern blocks, and play money. These take the place of expensive math manipulatives and I use them all the time for our math lessons. We use the money to play store, which is a favorite activity for math lessons when learning how to add up to 100. My boys also like to use them with our wooden unit blocks to make all kinds of things while I’m reading aloud. 

Magnifying Glass. My boys use our magnifying glass all the time, just not for its intended purpose. They’ve tortured many Lego men by burning their faces or appendages. They’ve also started small fires in our yard. As for using it to inspect nature up close, I’m still waiting for that to happen. If you buy one and you have boys, just know that it will provide hours of entertainment and it will be well used. 

Things I Bought and Never Used

Handheld microscope. I heard such good things about this little device, but my boys never use it. I occasionally trip over it while it lies on the ground, batteries pillaged and missing parts.

Handwriting Without Tears Wooden Shapes. I bought these thinking they would be a valuable tool for teaching handwriting, but my boys never really used them. They preferred to write on the chalkboard or with sticks in the dirt. My boys did enjoy using them for making cool designs, but they were never used for their intended purpose. 

Field Guides. I’ve bought a lot of field guides. Probably a whole shelf full. And although I still hang on to them because someday I just know I will need them, my kids still haven’t used them. Instead of hauling them with us on nature walks we usually end up using the app Merlin for birds and Seek for all other flora and fauna. I know, phone apps… But my boys are much more excited to identify creatures when it’s on the app versus a field guide.

Online Courses. I am proud to say that I keep Udemy in business. Unfortunately, I still can’t yet leave an honest review of their courses. I’ve bought quite a few watercolor and drawing courses over the years with high hopes and grand visions of artistic pursuits. My boys do one lesson, maybe two, and then decide they hate art. For some reason online courses are our Mount Everest. 

Homework Assignment

Purchase supplies for your school year! This is probably the most exciting school assignment you’ll ever have. You can purchase the items I list above, or choose whatever you want! Just make sure you get the items you need to begin school.