I do a lot of our homeschooling for as free or cheap as we can, but there are certain school supplies that I keep around, because they are worth the money! Here are some of my favorites (along with some of the free supplies that we use):
Mom’s Supplies
- Scotch Laminator and laminating pouches
- My planning binder (more about this next week!)
- Good quality pens (I have some of these in black, but I’d love the fun colors!)
- Page protectors for dividing my binder
- 3-hole punch
- Long-arm stapler
- Brother printer and replacement cartridges (we have a slightly older model of this one, not pictured)
- Printer paper (not pictured)
School Room Supplies
- Bins for manipulatives – mine have mostly been gifts or have come with something else
- Bookends for holding up my curriculum
- Calendar display – We bought this at Target last year for about $5, and since the stickers are reusable, we are continuing to use it again this year! I can’t find it online though.
- Sticky tack
- World map and U.S. map
- Shelves and bookshelves – we gathered these from other places they weren’t being used in our house
Craft Supplies
- Washable tempera paints and large paintbrushes (similar to these)
- Dot markers
- Glue sticks and Elmer’s glue
- Construction paper
- Scissors (righty/lefty compatible ones)
- Drawing/penmanship pads of paper (similar to these)
- Markers
- Crayons
- Googly eyes
- Brad fasteners
- Paper plates
- Popsicle sticks
- Clothespins
- Hole punch
- Circle stickers
- (FREE) Brown packing paper from Amazon shipments
- (FREE) Old magazines
- (FREE) Paint shirts made from Dad’s old dress shirts – put the shirt on the child backwards and button the top button (not pictured)
Kitchen Supplies
- All purpose flour
- Rice
- Dried beans
- Vegetable oil
- Rubbing alcohol
- Corn starch
- Food coloring
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- (FREE) Old pie plates, muffin tins, and baking trays
- (FREE) Containers from fruits or veggies
Manipulatives and Learning Tools
- Pattern blocks
- Geoboards (similar to these 2-sided ones)
- Unifix cubes
- Dry erase alphabet practicing – we have a few different sets that we’ve found in the dollar section
- ABC puzzles – we have some like this and this one
- Dice
- Coin jar (not pictured)
- Learning clock
- Legos (not pictured and not free, but we certainly have them anyways!)
- Magnet letters (Melissa and Doug)
- How To Build An A with foam building blocks
Free Things!
- Days of the week printables for calendar time (included in this free daily notebook pack)
- Free branches of government poster
- Weekly planning and recordkeeping sheets
- Pattern block pictures like these transportation vehicles sheets (but there are tons of categories on Pinterest!)
- Unifix cube pattern sheets (#2 in this post)
- Printable dot marker letter pages like these and these
- Lego ABC cards (see these in the Manipulatives picture above)
Obviously there’s a lot on this list, and we certainly didn’t get it all at once! These are things that we’ve acquired over the past few years. Some we’ve purchased, and quite a few things have been gifts! I try to always keep a Homeschool Wish List going on Amazon, so I can add a few educational items to birthday and Christmas lists when relatives ask.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I receive a bit of a commission at no additional charge to you. Thank you for your support!
For most of preschool and kindergarten, I find the majority of my math and reading activities and projects on Pinterest. And while you can purchase curriculum for those subjects, there are so many free ideas out there that you can put together your entire school year for the cost of the supplies for the projects. For more on that, check out Pinterest Preschool.
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