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3 Useful Tools for Your Homeschool Year

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Three useful tools for your homeschool year

 

Next week officially starts our homeschool year. Lord have mercy, I am not ready yet!! While there are a few homeschool supplies we love and use daily, this year we found three new items that we can’t wait to get started on using – and I’m sure will become things we wondered how we ever did without. Two of these the kids get to use and the last one is a mom-only – no kids are allowed to swipe my supplies! (Yes, I may get a bit territorial at times, I’ll admit it!)

Folding Bookstand

useful homeschool tools-7

Laurianna has a lot of larger textbooks this year in high school and this would have been so handy to have last year as well! The folding bookstand is really compact and opens/closes easily so she can take it with her to co-op and quickly prop it up on her desk to hold one of her books, save a little desk space, and keep her place in the book.

It’s actually a cookbook holder, but will definitely do the job, especially with those larger books. Above you can see a quick video of how it works.

Boogie Board eWriter

useful homeschool tools

Sometimes there are things that you just don’t want to use paper for or don’t necessarily need to have a record of. The kids will all be using the Boogie Board LCD tablet for spelling and a few other subjects that will allow us to work on the tablet and then erase it when we are done.

There is a special pen that writes on the board, so you can doodle, draw, or take notes to your heart’s content. When you are done and need a clean slate, you push a button at the top and the entire contents erase, leaving you with a fresh screen. The kids have already been having a blast drawing pictures and using it for their math work.

For us, this will also be handy when traveling and we don’t want to bring a bunch of extra paper (yes, I’m one of the moms that might make her kids do school work when we travel). There are bluetooth versions available which would sync your notes to your computer, but for now the standard board should be great for us (especially since this is 1/4 of the price)!

Erasable Pens

pilot frixion pens

These are the ‘mom-only’ supplies. Yes, they are fun and the kids will enjoy them, but sometimes I like to have something for just me. For the last year and a bit I’ve been using the Pilot Frixion pens but this year bought a set that is clickable – meaning I don’t have to take the cap off (and lose it). The eraser of the pen stays in place and the set comes in a variety of colors too. Being able to erase any mistakes = heaven. And ten colors – yes, please.

My color-coding brain did a happy dance when I saw the clickable version of these pens.

Seriously they have been the best pens ever. The ones I used last year were so handy for correcting papers, because I like using pen, but hate that when I make a mistake I have to scribble everything out. I like a smaller point too on my pens, so the .05 size is perfect for using in my planner or correcting or anything.

 

Homeschool Supplies We Love

Here’s a peek at a few of our other favorite homeschool supplies as well. Do you have a useful tool or supply that has helped your homeschool time? I’d love to hear about it – leave a comment and share!

This post may contain affiliate or advertiser links. Read my full disclosure policy .


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Comments

  1. Fun! Love the video! I added that to my cart! I need to get some erasable pens.. I did pick up some nice mechanical pencils that made me happy :-)

    • You definitely want those pens!!!!! I’ll let you try mine – but you have to give them back. It’s only supervised visitation. :)

    • LOL!! Okay I will give them a spin and return them!! I promise! We loved our boogie board so much we got a second one that I use in the kitchen.. we use it a ton since Sammy doesn’t like to write on the white board and wipe off his work while he is right.. silly backward handed boy!

  2. I’ll have to check out those pens and the book holder! Last year when we were in the US, I got each of my girls a boogie board, and they have been wonderful for school and trips. One did stop working; however, the company we bought it from shipped us a new one (except it went to my mom’s address in Missouri, so we’ll have to wait to get it). That’s been one of our favorite school tools, though. Another favorite is the new pencil sharpener I bought when we were back. It’s the Classroom Friendly Supplies sharpener. I can’t remember which blog I read a review on, but it has been the best sharpener we’ve ever used and one I’d include as a top favorite school tool.

    • Debbie – pencil sharpeners were my nemesis until I recently found our Bosch. Granted, it quit working briefly after Zachary decided to see what would happen if he stuck a pencil in with the eraser end first (duh), but once my dad got the metal out we were good to go. I’ll have to look up the one you mentioned too – just in case! :) GET THE PENS!! Trust me!!

  3. I love the pilot frixion erasable pens. My daughter won’t write with pencil since she doesn’t like the sound. With the erasable pens, she loves writing! If only I knew about them sooner.

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