Five Homeschooling Supplies You Didn’t Know You Needed

Whether you’ve been a homeschooler for years, or you’re finding yourself scrambling to keep up with the demands of online education brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, it can sometimes start to feel like there’s always something else you need to go buy.

Everyone needs school supplies, and it’s not uncommon for even the most experienced homeschool teacher to get caught off guard when trying to find supplies to make the at-home school experience more productive and engaging. In these times of increased homeschooling and enforced social distancing via online classes, teachers and parents of all experience levels have found themselves in need of greater supplies and learning tools.

Sure, we’ve all got the staples — notebooks, pencils, a laptop charger with a long enough cable to be useful — but there always seems to be something else we can set up in our at-home classrooms to make the experience easier for everyone, and encourage greater learning and involvement in our students.

Whether you’re a long-time homeschool teacher that wants to prepare for the coming semesters, or you’re a parent that was suddenly caught off-guard by your child’s need to be taught from home (as so many of us were this year), here’s five homeschooling supplies that tend to go overlooked, and what they can do to be helpful:

Easels

When you picture an easel, you’re probably remembering those big wooden triangles from art class that were seemingly always covered in paint and clay. (And now you’re probably thinking about how that clay smelled, for the first time in 20-some-odd years.) While you’re not far from the truth, they can actually help with creating the right homeschooling atmosphere too!

Particularly if your curriculum tends to involve art classes, visual aids, or any kind of large physical presentation (flow charts, posterboard presentations, etc), easels can help in a number of ways, not the least of which is how much easier it will be to make these sort of visual projects with a dedicated workspace.

Better yet, however, is the ability to show them off! Particularly for kids who are adjusting to being homeschooled after being part of the public school system, your little artists might be missing that feeling of showing off their art to their classmates and friends. Setting up some easels can help them recreate that feeling by giving their art a place of prominence, and making it easier to send pictures of it to grandparents and friends.

Crayola is usually the name to know for kid’s easels, but if you’re close enough to an IKEA (and if it’s open in your state), they have some cute ones that are the right height for little ones.

Craft Mats

Speaking of arts & crafts, the reason those easels at school always looked like that is because art projects can tend to get a little…messy.

While most experts agree that art classes, both the creation and appreciation of, are important for any homeschool curriculum, most people’s houses just plain old aren’t equipped for big art projects, especially ones as messy as kids’ art tends to be. Art mats are a great way to contain all your kids’ various spills and messes when painting or crafting, and they’re easy to clean when you’re done!

Colorations makes some affordable and low-maintenance options for keeping your kids’ art area much tidier than you might be afraid it is.

Whiteboards

For experienced and novice homeschool teachers alike, the right writing surface is crucial for, well, much the same reasons classrooms all over the world still have them. What a lot of homeschool teachers don’t recognize, however, is that whiteboards can actually work a lot better than chalkboards for cleanliness and readability purposes.

Most whiteboards are easier to clean than chalkboards and won’t leave as much dust and crud behind, which makes them both easier for your family to use and less messy for the home at large.

Don’t feel like you have to spend a ton of money on a fancy one, or even go so far as to use something too ‘permanent’ like whiteboard paint — whiteboard manufacturer PolyVision points out how much harder whiteboard is to clean, as well as the portability issues. Stick with something from them or Writey, or just head down to the closest office supply store.

Clipboards

This one might come as a surprise, especially in today’s mostly (if not all) digital world, but a good clipboard can actually add a lot of versatility to your learning and lesson plans.

Clipboards can serve as a portable writing surface in areas where you might not have access to an entire desk, whether it’s taking notes during a video (where the monitor or TV you’re using to watch it gets in the way of writing anything down), or going outside to do something more hands-on. If your kid gets excited about the prospect of doing a science class outdoors so they can see nature a little more closely, you’re gonna be pretty glad you brought those clipboards.

Most craft stores will have kids sized clipboards, or you can hit up Frecklebox for something a little more fun and personalized.

Lockers

Right now, more than ever, most homeschool kids are new to the whole thing, having been displaced from their normal school routine in favor of virtual/blended learning from home. While this might sound like a dream for students on paper, in reality the adjustment has actually been very hard for most students.

A good way to add a little storage space to your home while helping your kids stay in that “going to school” mindset is to get home lockers! Smaller lockers, particularly for younger kids, can help you organize things like school supplies, books, and even clothing, while still setting up a bit of that “school” aesthetic at home. It can help establish a better routine for your kids by having them go to their locker to get things between classes, and can help unify the school day in a way they don’t normally get through homeschooling.

The Shelving Store has some lockers in good kids’ sizes, as does Global Industrial.

Hopefully, you’ve been inspired by a few of these to get your kids better equipped for success, whether they’re temporarily learning from home or getting a full-time education through homeschooling!