The Homeschool Room Essentials You Don’t Want to Be Without

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my laser printer. Before school starts, I like to print out all of our digital curriculum that we will be using and take it to have it bound at our local printing store. This uses so much ink, but because we switched to a laserjet, I don’t have to worry about running out in the middle.

I do like to make sure just before starting a new school year that we have enough printer supplies for the year. Since I usually do a lot of printing before we start I check ink and paper levels. This is also when I buy paper because I can find it on sale. For our family, we typically go through 1 large box of paper, or about 10 reams. If I buy it all now, it saves me money overall and will last the entire school year.

It gives me peace of mind not having to worry about running out of paper in the middle of a printing project.

And, because regardless of how much planning I do, we always have a lot of printing to do during the year. With my laser printer, I have the confidence I can print whenever I want.

I never felt the need for a laminator until I began homeschooling. Since then, it has become a necessity. We bought this laminator when we first began homeschooling over six years ago and it still works great! I also love that refill supplies are easy to find.

Most of my laminate pages are for my younger kids. They are great for pairing with dry-erase markers so you don’t have to keep re-printing worksheets.

Flashcards are another thing I laminate all the time.

My older girls also use it for crafts and business cards.

Refill packs are usually in the highest stock right now, so I stock up on them as well.

We just replaced our huge dry erase board with a smaller (but still fairly large) magnetic one.

I use our dry erase board to write daily assignments and upcoming projects. Scriptures to memorize and motivating quotes.

I also use it to teach various subjects. Sometimes it helps my kids to see a math problem, or the like, written out in a larger format.

My oldest daughter has a personal-sized dry erase board that she uses much like scrap paper for her assignments. It is where she brainstorms and works out problems. It also cuts down on scrap paper.

I also use personalized whiteboards with younger kids to practice handwriting or sentence diagramming.

And don’t forget to grab ample dry erase markers. I prefer the ones that include a magnet and eraser on the end.

No matter how much I try to get kids to switch to mechanical only pencils, they like the feel of a good ol’ No. 2. (Ticonderoga really are the best.)

We went through so many pencil sharpeners those first years before I finally found one that could hold up to our use.

This sharpener will even sharpen our colored pencils. The only thing we have to be careful of is specialty pencils covered in plastic. If the plastic doesn’t get peeled back first, then it kills the sharpener and my husband has to fix it.

It has, however, lasted us more than a year.

7. Large Book Bins

I like these book bins to organize school books for each child. They fit nicely on my bookshelves and come in a variety of colors. Each of my children has a designated color that I put their books in for the year.

This solves the problem of notebooks, soft workbooks, and folders that do not stand nicely on a bookshelf.

Sometimes my kids will just grab their bin(s) off the shelf, do their schoolwork, and then replace them.

For us, these are essential homeschool room organizational items.

8. Art Supplies

Magic Stix Markers have become a homeschool room essential since we first discovered them.

They are the only markers so far that have lasted us a full year despite being used by a toddler who never replaces caps.

Prismacolor is my favorite colored pencil brand for art projects because they blend well. And I recently found these Colors of the World colored pencils from Crayola, I think are just awesome.

I also make sure to load up on glue sticks, crayons, construction paper, etc that are on sale for much less than they would normally be.

Of course, having something to organize your homeschool art supplies is also important. These three-tiered rolling carts are a great addition. Not only will they keep your supplies in one place, but you can easily roll it out of sight (out of mind) when you need to.

9. Three-Hole Punch

A heavy-duty three-hole punch is great for curriculum that needs to be put in a binder.

I find for downloadable curriculum, I’m either going to print it and have it bound or I’m going to print as we go and put it in a three-ring binder.

When I’m printing to put in a binder, it saves me time to be able to do a large amount at once.

A normal three-hole punch will also work. It will just take you longer and may not hold up as long.

Either way, you will want one in your homeschool room.