Homeschool Tools

Aside from the books and pencils, there are a few tools that come in handy for homeschooling:

I love laminating things!  We use this quite a bit for making preschool games, laminating chore charts, potty charts, and anything else I can think of.  The laminating pouches are sold in bulk at Sam's club for a decent price.  You can usually find this laminator for around $25.

This year I purchased an electric pencil sharpener at Costco.  It saves so much time to just zip a pencil in!  This one doesn't seem to work well with some of our cheap Dora and Tinkerbell pencils, sharpening them off center leaving a bit of the wood.  It does fine with the better quality ones though.  Any homeschooler should have an electric pencil sharpener!  With all of my busy little artists constantly going through pencils, I am sure this is saving me countless hours.

This is another tool I picked up recently.  I had been trying to make a book for a school project of Lucy's.  After experimenting with several different methods and then breaking a needle while trying to sew the spine, I ran out that night to buy this.  I can now simply fold paper in half, open it, and staple on the spine!  Genius.  Lucy really enjoys making books (see an adorable one here), and I'm sure we will be using this often for school projects too.

I don't think I can tell you how many times I've tried to get three holes in the right spot by just using a single punch.  Inevitably the holes are off just a little and the paper doesn't fit the binder correctly.  Needless to say, it is quite handy to have a three hole punch!

As you can see, I've tried to get by without some of these items, but find them very handy to have.  They are all stored in a big cabinet in the basement along with countless other craft and office supplies.


Do you have favorite school tools that you can't live without?