Supplies Necessary For Homeschooling

Each year, students receive their infamous school supply lists to ensure that they are set up for success. Though students that receive traditional instruction are provided with this resource, families that engage in homeschooling are typically left to fend for themselves. Given that one out of every 12 students were reported as being homeschooled, according to the  2021 U.S. Census, this is a major opportunity to address. As you consider your approach for the next school year, we’ve put together a list of essential supplies for homeschooled students to point you in the right direction.

Homeschool Supply List

Though there isn’t a standardized list of supplies you’ll need, there are a few items that are essential to your student’s success. Those items include:

A Homeschool Planner

Keeping organized is extremely important when it comes to homeschooling. To keep both students and homeschooling parents moving in the right direction, it is important to keep a planner. This will allow students to keep track of assignments and tasks while helping homeschooling parents keep track of their daily schedules, lessons plans, and activities.

A Homeschool Binder

Staying on-track involves being able to easily find assignments, reading materials, and quickly start each task. Keeping a homeschool binder will make it easier for students to find completed assignments, materials to complete future assignments, and resources related to the respective lesson. This binder can be created to specifically cater to a particular lesson or unit, or it can be organized to support all anticipated units for the year. In addition, it is important that homeschooling parents keep a binder as well to help them easily find what they need to deliver sound instruction and monitor student progress.

General Office Supplies

From pencils to folders, general office supplies are definitely necessary to support your homeschooling student as they complete activities, read and annotate texts, and more. Though this may seem basic, these items represent the absolute essentials outside of lesson plans and a  sound curriculum.

Plenty of Books

Access to a variety of books is essential to the development of sound foundational skills. Furthermore, ensuring that your student is equipped with a variety of reading material will strengthen vocabulary skills, comprehension skills, and background knowledge in a way that will prepare them to be exposed to new, more complex texts in the future. Make sure that your student has access to printable or digital reading materials that cater to their unique needs.

A Printer

Oftentimes, homeschooling parents tend to print out resources, texts, and assignments that correlate with their lesson. Make sure to purchase a printer if you prefer to use printable resources rather than digital resources, texts, and assignments.

A Digital Device

In the age of information, it is imperative that homeschooling households have access to digital technology such as a laptop, a tablet, or a desktop computer, academic software, educational games, and/or printable resources. Evaluate your student’s needs and learning style to select which digital learning tools would best benefit them.

Academic Games/Game-Based Lessons

As a homeschooled student, student engagement is critical to staying on-track and remaining motivated to learn new skills. Having educational games or game-based lessons on-hand can help you introduce new concepts, reinforce learned skills, and reach higher academic heights while instilling the joy of learning.

Headphones

The homeschooling environment can inherently include distractions such as a TV or toys in the living room. With the introduction of headphones, you can reduce these distractions and ensure that your student is focused on the activity, assignment, or assessment of your choosing.

Art Supplies

Integrating the arts with other academic subjects has the power to spark student engagement and enhance creativity. As your students embark on new challenges, such as writing, they will need this creativity to help them compose new stories in vivid detail. Art supplies can include, but are certainly not limited to, paint and paint brushes, construction paper, glue, markers, and colored pencils.

Supporting Homeschooling With Raz-Kids

As a homeschooling parent, it can be tough to juggle everything. From determining what school supplies your student may need to delivering instruction, finding quality, appropriate reading materials, and monitoring student progress, homeschooling can feel overwhelming. Luckily, many households around the world have found simplicity and comfort with  Raz-Kids by their side. Our most popular product among homeschooling households, Raz-Kids delivers an interactive experience for students while streamlining instruction. Raz-Kids improves the homeschool experience by:

• Enabling students to read books at their own pace and complete associated assessments
• Providing access to student data to inform instruction and track progress
• Offering over 800 texts at 29 different levels of text complexity to cater to your student’s unique needs and interests
• Exciting students with a game-based student portal filled with rewards and incentives to accelerate reading development and boost student engagement

We hope you found this list of supplies helpful. As you consider which supplies to acquire for this school year, we recommend you take a look at adding Raz-Kids to your homeschool supply list.

Eggleston, Casey, and Jason Fields. “Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey Shows Significant Increase in Homeschooling Rates in Fall 2020.” Census.Gov, 8 Oct. 2021,  www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/homeschooling-on-the-rise-during-covid-19-pandemic.html.