Part of me is like, we homeschool. Do we even really need anything for back to school? We roll differently around here. We school differently around here. If we decide to spend a whole day just focused on one topic, we will! If we want to take a day off, we do! Do we want to have school at the museum one day? Then we go!

Every homeschool family has their own routine, their own way of doing things that work for them, and things that are useful. What works for me might not work for other people, and that is ok. In fact, that is the point! I make my homeschool work for Wyatt, for his strengths and interests.

However, that being said, there are some things that I have found to be very helpful. Some are just things for my ease and convenience, some are things that are needed by Wyatt. And no, not just snacks, although we do need those too. I have made this list just to put it out there in the world, in case someone is looking around for some ideas or has a need and I know the answer. I know that I learn from other homeschool parents, even if I take their idea and adapt it a bit. I love that about homeschool, how organic it is.

Let’s start with the things that I really like and use a lot.

This post does contain affiliate links.

I tried to take a photo of my two favorite workhorses, Laminator and Hole Punch, but it turned out really weird no matter what I did. Like a sketchy ad on Facebook Marketplace or something. So, I am just using the stock photos from Amazon.

Laminator || Electric Hole Punch

A lot of the time, Wyatt’s curriculum that I buy is stuff we have to print. Thank goodness Billy works for an industrial printshop! At the beginning of the year, when I am putting together all the binders of material for him and for me, since they do come with a teacher/parent guide, I am extremely thankful for my electric hole punch. It’s a hit with the kids too, as both Wyatt and Mermaid Girl enjoy playing with it if it is out. Lol.

The laminator is also super useful. I make all sort of different resources for Wyatt that we use over and over, and having them laminated preserves them. I also use it for other things as well – I just bought a game that has those slips of paper for each game play, where you check off, etc, and we are just going to laminate a few so that we can use those with dry erase markers as well.

Another thing that I really love are the front opening changeable frames that I have! Like every kid, Wyatt loves his work displayed Since we homeschool in the dining room most of the time, I wanted a way I could display his work in a bit nicer, tidier way. These frames are perfect for that, and Wyatt loves it. And during the summer I can just put photos in there, or Wyatt’s art work – whatever I want. We also use bunting to display his artwork in our den. I actually love this myself – it is always so bright and cheery and cozy feeling to see it hanging there.

Frames

Also, our aquarium water is not green – that is just a reflection. We actually just had it tested and it is perfect, the lady said!

I also need a planner to survive. I am a planner girl. I have a Passion Planner for my life, and then a Clever Fox Teacher Planner for school this year. I am a person who has to physically write things down to keep track of appointments and lessons and all that stuff and this system works well for me. I also liked my planner that I used last year. I also might really like green.

Clever Fox Teacher Planner || Passion Planner

And that is enough about me! Let’s see what Wyatt likes!

I asked him what he liked best that we had, and unsurprisingly his first answer was paint. So then I asked him what else he liked, and he told me a few different things. The second thing he picked, and I should have known, is all the games we have. He loves games so I have a bunch of games to accompany his learning. It took me a while to get used to the idea that learning through games was also learning, and for Wyatt it works really well! I should probably look and see if there are any games that would be useful for this school year.

Zingo || Money Bags || Sentence Building (also good for speech therapy) || Bananagrams || Sum Swamp

His final favorite is his little light up globe! This made me smile, I wasn’t expecting him to pick this. My mom got him the globe for Christmas and I am sure she will be tickled when I tell her it made his favorites list. You can actually see it in the picture above of our table, but this is the stock photo. It’s a small little globe and it lights up – it is pretty cute and does the trick!

Globe

I had put together a homeschool curriculum earlier this spring; if you are interested in peeping what we are doing this year, you can find it here.

So these are our favorites – now what about you? I would love to hear from anyone, homeschoolers, parents, teachers, grandparents – whoever! If you have any tips, favorite items, anything at all, just let me know in the comments!