Back to school shopping: homeschool edition

Back to school shopping: homeschool edition – Angie Cruise Blog

Back to school shopping: homeschool edition

It’s that time of year again! Back to school shopping is in full force. Here’s a list of school supplies we use in our homeschool to help you get started.

Last year was our first year homeschooling, and the lack of a school supply list really threw me off while back to school shopping. I’m so used to being handed a list that I kind of didn’t know what to do! Do I still go on the hunt for that stupid yellow folder with brads and pockets?

So, I did what any sane homeschooling mom would do. I turned to Pinterest in search of a school supply list.

By comparing the lists I found online and the list for our local public school, I was pretty proud of my haul, and I was

Over prepared, if I’m totally honest.

I spent a lot of money on things we didn’t end up using last year, so this year, I’ll be a lot more frugal.

Need a list of basics to help you get started? Here’s my back to school shopping list for our homeschool.

School Supply Shopping Tips

I want to preface this post by saying we’re

different. What I need in my homeschool could be totally different than what you need. It’s important to evaluate your own needs when putting together your list.

For example, the curriculum we use is literature based. We read a

of books, talk about them, write about them, and do projects based on them. Most of our work is done on paper and requires things like pencils, art supplies, notebooks, and glue sticks. But, if you are using an online curriculum, you’ll most likely need less of that. On the other hand, you

need a computer, which is something that is considered a bonus in our house.

So, before you start shopping, ask yourself these questions:

Do you plan to do a lot of nature study?

Are crafts going to be a big part of your day?

Is your curriculum online or on paper?

Do you need to print of a lot of worksheets every week?

Does your state require you to turn in grades or work done?

Now that you have a basic idea of how your homeschool will run this year, you can start building a list. I’m no expert, but after a year of homeschooling both kids, I feel like I have a good grasp on what we actually needed and what we ended up wasting money on.

I’ll split this up by category so you know what you can disregard and what might be helpful in your own homeschool.

Our favorite supplies for nature study:

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that we get to incorporate nature study into our weekly lessons. We spend a lot of time outdoors exploring, and I’d venture to say it’s my 5 year old’s favorite lesson.

We put together little nature packs to make nature study easier. Ours include:

reusable water bottle

we really like these for the kids

(for collecting treasures on our walks)

local field guides (I get mine at the register at the grocery store)

Our favorite art and craft supplies:

We don’t have an actual art curriculum, so we just kind of wing it. If you have a formal curriculum, you probably already have a supply list. Here, I’ll share some of our most-used supplies. We have this book, which has some pretty cool art lessons in it, but I also scour Pinterest for ideas and tutorials regularly. If you aren’t sure how to incorporate art into your homeschool, I found

I want to point out that it’s easy to stick with cheap supplies since they’re for kids, but we get try to get good supplies because they just produce much better results.

(I’d love to keep an assortment of papers on hand for different media, but this is a great “one size fits all” option for our homeschool)

: these are similar to crayons in a way, but way more vibrant and versatile

: trust me, they’re

all the same. Really good quality colored pencils are worth the extra money.

Paint brush assortment

Watercolor Set: We like to hit up the paint section of Hobby Lobby or Michael’s when they have a sale and stock up then.

Air dry clay (we tend to stick with white and then paint our creations)

(art pencils just offer better results than basic writing pencils)

Black Sharpies: we like to use these in our art, especially the fine tipped ones for outlining!

Traditional Supplies:

Of course, you’ll also need some basic supplies for any homeschool. Last year, this is where I overdid it, and I ended up with a

of extra. The good news is, this year we don’t have to buy much! If you’re coming from a traditional school setting (or comparing your list to a local school), remember that they have you buy extra. In a group setting of 20 kids, things go missing a lot easier than they will in your home.

Our school supply list looks like this:

1-2 packs of Ticonderoga pencils, depending on how many kids will be using them

1-2 packs of Crayola crayons

1 pair of age-appropriate scissors

a good pencil sharpener

rulers for each kid (I like the wood ones because they’re really sturdy)

Notebook paper, spiral notebooks, or composition books (this year I’ll be getting wide ruled for my kindergartener and regular for my 5th grader)

1-2 packs of colored pencils/map pencils

a map of the US and the world (we like these scrunch maps)

Folders with pockets