I see and read a lot of posts lately on Facebook about parents asking what they need to start homeschooling their children. I also see a lot of posts selling various items or things to homeschooling parents.

I’m writing this blog post to help new homeschoolers focus on the essentials and save their money because times are hard. We do not only have a global health crisis. We also have a global economic crisis. A lot of companies here and abroad are struggling to keep their business afloat. Many have already closed and many more are laying off people. There is a lot of uncertainty. Thus, it is wise to spend your hard-earned money wisely.

My family and I had been homeschooling for at least a decade but we do not have a dedicated homeschool room. Yes, are you shocked?

A dedicated homeschool room is not a prerequisite to homeschool or to homeschool successfully.

I would say that we had been homeschooling successfully in the past decade because we had been accomplishing our goals for our children and for our family. Our children have also achieved some milestones and achievements that we are proud of. You can read about these here, here and here.

I’m sharing this with you so that you will not be disheartened if you do not have a dedicated homeschool room. Also, I’d like to help you save money and time. It takes time to plan, decorate, and furnish a room in a house. I know this well because we have moved houses at least thrice.

We could have transformed any of our rooms into one if we wanted to. We have a number of rooms in our current house. But, it was not essential or a priority for us.

What are essential then? What should families prioritize?

Let me give you a short list.

1. BOOKS, ACTIVITY BOOKS & WORKBOOKS – I have written in a previous blog post that computers and the internet are not required in homeschooling because online learning is different from homeschooling. You can homeschool even without a computer. But it is hard to homeschool without books at all. This is where our family invests a lot. We buy many books and we do our best to get the best books for our children. What I love about books is that you can bring them anywhere and you can educate children (and even adults) using them. You don’t need to be plugged to the internet or a power source for it to work. There are many affordable books that are also good. Do your research and set aside a budget for books each school year. I also suggest that you get good workbooks that are aligned with your kids’ interests so they would be more cooperative when answering them or doing some drills. When my kids were younger, I bought workbooks and activity books inspired by Disney characters or movies that my children liked.
2. BOOKCASES – These will help make your books last longer. Invest in sturdy bookcases. Most of our bookcases at home are almost as old or older than our eldest child. Would you believe that? My eldest is already almost 12 years old. We may not have a dedicated school room but we have bookcases and books at different rooms in our house. This makes it easy for our kids (and my husband and I) to read a book anytime. Books are accessible wherever we are at home. Some of our bookcases have cabinets at the bottom. We use these parts of the bookcase to store our school and office supplies. if you are new to my blog, I had been working from home also since I got pregnant with my eldest child.
3. PAPER & NOTEBOOK – Purchase different kinds of paper. Pad paper, bond paper, construction paper, art papers, colored papers, etc. We used a lot of paper either for writing, printing worksheets, or art activities. But notebooks with lines for young students if your kids are still learning how to write properly.
4. WRITING TOOLS – Buy different kinds of writing tools: pencils, ball pens, pentel pens, whiteboard markers, sharpeners, and erasers.
5. ART SUPPLIES – Buy crayons, colored pencils, paint, paintbrushes, drawing or sketchbooks, etc. But only enough. Don’t buy the expensive brands yet when your kids are still young and just starting to learn basic drawing and painting skills.
6. ORGANIZERS – There are many kinds of organizers that you can use in your homeschool to organize your materials and files. Use what works best for you. What worked for us are expandable envelopes. I but at least 1 for each child at the start of the school year. When it gets filled up, I buy new ones. I also color-code them to whatever is the favorite color of each child. That way, both the child and I know which one is his. What I love about expandable envelopes is that it has many pockets and you can also put labels per pocket. It is child-friendly. Even a small child can be instructed to put his paper, activity sheet, or worksheet on the corresponding pocket inside his expandable envelope. I also use magazine boxes, clear books, boxes, bull clips, paper clips, and folder. Some homeschoolers use ring binders.
7. EDUCATIONAL TOYS & MATERIALS – Since I use the play-based approach in homeschooling, these are what we invested in early on in our children’s education. Our eldest loved puzzles even as a toddler. We bought puzzles for him on various topics. Solving puzzles is play for him. The same is true with our younger children. Most of the puzzles we bought for our eldest were still used by our second child and now are being used by our youngest. Our children were also visual learners. So, we bought posters and maps. Our eldest liked looking at the globe also. We bought him one when he was 5 years old. Our first globe got broken already. I plan to buy a globe ball soon that is made of rubber. I hope it is in stock in our local bookstore. I don’t want to buy one that easily gets broken. One of our best investments also was the Fun Thinkers Set that we got from Grolier. The kids consider using it play. They can use it on their own or with minimal supervision from me. I used it for my eldest. I used it also with my second. Now, we are using it with our youngest. It was worth our investment! We also use our Legos and wooden toys as manipulatives in our lessons. They are so flexible.

That’s my top 7 recommended homeschool essentials or supplies!

You really do not need a lot to start homeschooling. You just need the basics. If you have a limited budget, but only what you need when you need it.

Now, if you have an extra budget, I recommend that you invest on a computer and a printer. You can also find a lot of free materials on the internet from curriculums, worksheets or activity sheets, coloring pages, etc. You can print these if you have a computer or printer.

But if you do not have these yet, don’t fret. You can copy the worksheets on pad paper, notebook, or bond paper anyway and let your child answer there.

More than any of these school supplies and materials, what are essential really to successfully homeschool your kids is to provide an environment that is conducive for learning and teaching them to have a positive attitude towards learning and to have a growth mindset.

When your home is a place where your children experience and see that learning happens naturally, any time and anywhere in your house, they can also think that wherever they go outside your house, they can continue to learn.

Maybe, that is why it was not a priority in our home to create a dedicated homeschool room because we homeschool all around our house. Learning is a way of life for us. We are not confined to one room of our house to do our lessons.

Since we no longer had maids in the past years, I cook our food. When I am busy working in the kitchen while homeschooling, the kids are working on their lessons on the dining table or on the center table in the living room. When I am working in my home office, they are working on the floor. When I was on bed rest due to pregnancy, we were homeschooling on the bed. When I just gave birth to a new baby, we homeschooled a lot in the bedroom on the bed or on the floor beside the baby’s crib.

If I am to trim this list down to just 2 things, I would say that you only need books and quality conversations with your children! That’s all! Then, model to them the values and skills that you want them to learn. Children are great imitators anyway.

Read from one of my previous blog posts how conversations shape and educate a child. Click here.

I wish you success in this new school year!

I hope this list helps you. If you need more homeschool tips, I invite you to join my support group on Facebook called Homeschooling Parents Support Group PH. I would love to interact with you there.