Favorite School Resources – or Homeschool
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I spent 8 years homeschooling and another 15 teaching in elementary school. Over those years, I’ve developed some definite preferences for supplies, curriculum, books, and more. This page lists my favorite school or homeschool resources – emphasizing Prek to 5th grade. No books are listed here – check out the “Books” menu for my favorites there!
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School wouldn’t be school without pencils! And trust me when I say, you only want Ticonderoga pencils. In the classroom, I had to cope with every brand of pencil available. These are the best and nothing else even comes close. If you want to up your game a little, get the black Ticonderoga pencils. They’re almost indestructible!
There’s a reason the Crayola crayon box says, “Preferred by Teachers.” It’s not just a marketing ploy. But you really do get what you pay for. I’d scoop up a couple dozen every year at back-to-school time to replace the not-so-great crayons my students brought when they inevitably broke. And with a roomful of little kids, I always needed extras!
Some other brands of colored pencils do fine – much better than off-brands of crayons. But Crayola still has (almost) the best. The truth is, for most elementary, or even middle school, students, these are perfect. If you have a budding artist, you may want to spring for more expensive pencils, but these will do for almost everything else.
If you have a budding artist – these are the BEST colored pencils. The lead goes on smoothly and they come in so many colors. The largest collection you can buy is 150. By the time your artist is in middle school, he or she may want all those colors. Another great feature is you can buy individual colors to replace the most commonly used pencils as needed.
Just like teachers have experience with all the brands of pencils, we’re pretty well versed on all the pencil sharpeners available too. I’ve had heavy-duty classroom pencil sharpeners that didn’t last as long as this model. I’ve purchased the same brand three times. One wore out, one I gave away when I quit teaching, and the third is still going strong on my desk.
Markers are loved by children! So do yourself a favor and buy the washable ones for the littlest kids. They come in a wide variety of colors – although preschoolers only need the basic 8 that comes in the smallest package. Save yourself some headaches and take a few minutes to teach (and repeat over several days) how to “click” the lid back on nice and tight.
Also by Crayola, my older students (second grade and up) loved the variety and thinner lines of these SuperTips Markers. So do I. This is the marker I always have on hand for signs, crafts, and grandchildren. The biggest drawback is that the lids don’t “click” as nicely and loudly as Crayola’s other markers, so loose lids and dried-up markers are more common.
By fourth or fifth grade, children usually want markers with finer tips for more detailed coloring and drawing. PaperMate Flairs are my favorite for detailed coloring books as well as diagramming and labeling cell structures, parts of a flower, or recreating national flags. A pack of 24 is usually their largest, but occasionally they’ll have special colors available.
My favorite ink pens are Pentel Ener-Gel Pens. They come in LOTS of colors – but you can buy multi-packs of blue, black, or red also. A close second is InkJoy by PaperMate. I guess I just love colorful pens because I usually have these in at least 6 or 8 colors. My husband thinks it’s a bit strange. But it makes me smile.
Just like there’s not really any sense in buying any pencils other than Ticonderoga, the same goes for whiteboard markers and Expo. The quality difference is beyond compare. I’ve had Expo markers last months when another brand, opened the same week if not day, were used up in less than 2 weeks. There’s no comparison.
These clickable erasers were for the teacher’s use only in my classroom. I still have several in my office at home. Compared to the alternatives – end-of-pencil erasers (get hard or chewed off), cap erasers (break and get lost), shaped erasers (almost useless), or the traditional pink erasers (worked great but broke), these are gems.
Glue. What school, classroom, or home would be complete without it? I’m not partial to any one brand – I’ve never noticed any difference between them. Just stick with small bottles and – especially in the lower grades (second grade and below) – glue sticks. Whoever decided to make glue sticks purple was a genius! Always get the purple!
