20 of Our Favorite School Supplies

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School supplies can be hit or miss. The quality of some are fantastic and others not so much. Finding a tried and true favorite can be hard. Let us help you narrow down your search with twenty of our favorite school supplies.

Some of the items in this list are absolutely non-negotiable and we buy them every year. Some are staple items that we bought once and now have forever. There are a few pieces that are more for me than for the kids. Its a mixed bag but each of the items on this list will be part of our schooling this year.

1. Ticonderoga Pencils – Pencils might seem like a silly thing. It might not seem like something that can make or break your school year, but believe it or not, being smart and simple about your pencils can make all the difference. We’ve tried lots of different types of pencils over the years and what we’ve found is nothing sharpens and nothing erases quite as well as a Ticonderoga. Even our sensory picky child would agree with me that they are absolutely worth the splurge.
   
   
2. Wonder Stix – Wonder Stix have made a huge difference for us in our homeschool days. They write on absolutely everything and come off windows, Magnatiles and white boards with ease using just a tiny bit of water. We use them multiple times every day and I honestly can’t imagine going back to schooling without them.
   
   
3. Large Capacity Hole Punch – This one seems like a silly and frivolous purchase until you realize how much time you save. Not only does this hole punch punch a large number of pages at a time but it also does so with very little effort. Why does this matter? It matters because then even my kindergartener can punch his own papers and put them into his binder with ease.
   
   
4. Variety of Die – Regular dot die, even number die, odd number die, die with 20 numbers, die with money amounts, die with different colors on each face . . . there are endless options and endless possibilities. We use dice to practice math facts, decide how many math problems we need to do for the day, determine the number of details are required for the middle of a paragraph, choose who goes first and so much more. Having a variety of die adds fun to our school day and reduces the complaining and arguing because Mom didn’t decide, it was a roll of the die.
   
   
5. Magnatiles – Can this toy really make a difference in your homeschool adventure? YES! YES! YES! We regularly mix things up by using these tiles. Some of the boys write a singular letter on several tiles and then mix them around to build spelling words. The youngest loves to make “houses” of words with the same vowel sound or rhyming words or some other combination. The oldest two will build sentences in Spanish with a word on each tile. Sometimes I write on the tiles (using Wonder Stix – see above) and sometimes the boys do the writing. If you have a kinesthetic learner, these are a must.
   
   
6. Rocketbook Filler Paper & Frixion Pens – Somehow using reusable paper and fancy colored pens makes everything more fun. It also make creating a digital portfolio for the year super easy. I bought one package of the filler paper and divided it over all four boys. Each one has paper with lines, paper with dots and graph paper. They often use this paper to show their work during math and write their rough drafts for writing. After completing an assignment they scan it in and erase. Even when we’re not working on the Rocketbook paper, the boys and I love the way the Frixion pens write. Even if they were not erasable, these would be among our favorite pens.
   
   
7. Three Tier Cart – I needed a way to keep the books and materials we use every day as a group handy. This three tier cart does the job beautifully! It lives near our kitchen table, which is where we do whole group school activities, and it keeps things from looking messy. When it does get a little messy, I can clean it up in less than two minutes. I also love that I can move it to another space in our house if we choose to do school in a different area for the day.
   
   
8. Date Stamp – Dating things has helped us stay incredibly organized and helped me make sure that we are doing a bit of each subject regularly. BUT the boys are always running up and asking me what the date is. So, now we are the proud owners of a date stamp. One of the things I do as I prep for school the night before, is change the date on the stamp. That way, no one has to ask me what the date is AND everyone consistently dates things the same (even if I accidently goof and don’t get it changed). It also helps things actually get dated because who doesn’t like to chu-chunk a stamp every time you finish something?
   
9. Fabric Baskets – The three tier cart is great for everything we do as a group and for supplies that all or most of the boys are going to need but what do we do with individual notebooks, binders and folders? Enter our 13″ fabric cubes. We have a cube shelving system in the room we call the library and each child has a cube on the bottom shelf that is their school basket. But even if we didn’t have the cube shelving system, I think I would be finding a way to use these fabric baskets for the boys. I love how the baskets have straight sides so things are leaning and they are tall enough for text books and binder. The baskets are also wonderful for hiding the mess that some of the boys keep because some kids are more organized than others.
   
   
10. Canvas Tote Bags – This one may seem weird but we love our canvas tote bags. We regularly home school on the go whether it is because someone has an appointment or because we are off to visit family or because we are taking a few days adventuring somewhere and these bags let us put our homeschool essentials in and make for easy access during the car ride which is when most of our work gets done while we’re out. Each child has their own bag and for fun we tie dyed the bags to help us tell them apart.
    
    
11. Personal Timers – While most of the time we work on school work for a dedicated amount of lessons each day, occasionally something is based on time. The boys were always climbing over one another to get to the one moveable timer we had in the house and poor Alexa had more timers than anyone could keep track of on her, so we bought cheap personal timers and now the boys use them even more. The oldest one has started using it on subjects that he finds hard to help him remember to take a break and to see that often times the subject actually takes less time than he thinks. The smallest two set timers and see if they can do what they need to do before it goes off. And then there is the second one who often sets a very long timer just to keep track of how long until lunch.
    
    
12. Highlighters – Kids love a highlighter. I don’t know what it is about them but they are always a fascination. So, I do whatever I can to add them into our lessons with some regularity. Sometimes we use them to mark the first step in a math problem or to mark those pesky negative signs so we don’t forget them. Sometimes we use them to highlight the part of a spelling word that has been giving us difficulty. Regularly we use them to mark sources and special dress ups when writing. Need an extra spark to an activity? Find a way to add a highlighter to what you are doing.
    
    
13. Binder and Dividers – If I only had one child, I think I would still set up a binder and dividers for him, but since I have four binders with dividers are absolutely necessary for my sanity. Our binders keep the boys and I organized and keep our physical papers – you know the things we don’t or can’t do on Rocket Paper – in order. I especially love the dividers with pockets for when we don’t have a hole punch handy or for when someone decides that it is easier to hole punch everything once a week. We have always used 1/2″ binders in the past but this year we are going to graduate to 1″ binders in hopes that the pages are just a bit easier to turn.
    
    
14. Exacto Pencil Sharpener – Pencils should be sharp and evenly sharpened. I know I’m picky about writing utensils but it really does make a difference in the quality of work your child does. Also, a good pencil sharpener clogs less and rarely breaks.
    
    
15. Art Caddy – A lot of families I know give each child a pencil box of supplies and while my kids do have pencil bags full of math tools – think protractor, compass, straight edge – and their frixion pens, most of our supplies are community supplies. Why? We’ve found it makes for easier clean up! If our tools are in one place then we always know where they are and we can help one another get things put away. An art caddy like the one in the link – they don’t make the six cup one I’ve had since I was teaching any more – helps us organize our community supplies. I love that this type of organizer has cups that are removable because then if we are working on something and need the markers, we can just grab the marker cup and go to wherever we want to work.
    
    
16. Dry Erase Board with Handwriting Lines – Not every activity needs saved for the portfolio. Having a dry erase board is great for things that are temporary. Why have one with handwriting lines? Several reasons. I use the handwriting lines for me to write out copy work examples or teach handwriting. The boys use the handwriting lines side for spelling practice. We all use the handwriting side to help one another spell words for their writing. The other side gets plenty of use as well as we use it for diagraming as a group and individual “scratch” paper.
    
    
17. Wave Chair Writing Desk – School happens all over our house. I don’t particularly like to sit in a chair and so I spend most of my day on my feet. The boys have followed suit and often work standing or sprawled out on the floor. Now and then though, non-table surfaces are inconvenient because they lack a hard surface for writing or a table for the laptop to sit on. Enter the wave chair. This writing desk is so nice because it raises the height of the writing surface unlike traditional writing desks. This keeps handwriting neat and lap tops at a more ergonomic position.
    
    
18. Loops – This school supply is more for me than the boys. Loops are what help me tune out all of the extraneous noise that comes with having four boys in the house all day. We play outside a lot and I’ve yet to need them out there but sometimes, especially in the winter, we are housebound. Loops allow me to still hear everything but knock the decibel level down to something that keeps me from being overwhelmed. I often hear that I should just ask the boys to quiet down instead of putting in my Loops but honestly sometimes the excitement and laughter isn’t something that I want to ask them to reign in. .
    
    
19. Sticky Notes – Need an equation out of your text book to be handy while you’re doing the problem set? Can’t find your bookmark? Looking to mark a question you have that you’d like to explore more while reading history or science but you know that it would be better to come back to it after you finish the chapter? Preparing for a presentation? Need mom to buy a particular supply that we don’t have? Sticky note to the rescue. These smaller pieces of paper are wonderful for quick notes and are excellent idea keepers. We love that they can be placed right into books to hold a place or show an idea temporarily but they are also able to be moved and arranged over and over as we need them.
    
    
20. Hanging File Box – We would not survive a school year without our hanging file box. Before school starts each year, I print off as many of the papers, book studies and maps as I can. I also grab off our shelves books I know we are going to want for read alouds or comprehension strategy sessions. Where do I put these things? I the hanging file box! I sort them out by the week that I think I am going to need them and off we go. I do know other people who sort by child and subject and I am intrigued but I haven’t jumped ship on my sorting system just yet.