Not-Back-to-School Homeschool Supplies

Every year as summer winds down, inspiration strikes me when I’m shopping at my favorite store. You know, the one with the hypnotizing bull’s-eye and all that inviting redness? When the water guns disappear and are replaced by colorful displays of glue, markers, and folders, I want to pull a school list from the end cap and start pitching notebooks into my cart. And the lunchboxes! I still fondly remember that red and black plaid one I had with its matching thermos…

My boys always roll their eyes when I suggest buying new backpacks and barrels of paste, then they remind me that we homeschool.

The Homeschool Supplies List

This year, I decided to make my own Not-Back-to-School Homeschool Supplies Shopping List:

1. File folders for lapbooks! After ten years of homeschooling, I still don’t quite know for sure what a lapbook is or what it does, but at least we can keep our options open.
2. New water bottles for park days, er — PE
3. Rubber bands of various sizes for rubber band gun ammo.  We could predict the velocity of the projectile as it ricochets off the wall.
4. Miniature marshmallows and toothpicks to construct a DNA replica. Pinterest is calling my name!
5. More LEGOs. Can you ever have enough? Hey, they can be used as math manipulatives or for constructing a Roman coliseum for history.
6. An alarm clock…Aww, who am I kidding?
7. Crickets, meal worms, frozen rodents, etc. for the homeschool classroom pets. It is important to keep weird stuff in the fridge, after all.
8. New denim jumper for me and color coordinated button downs and khakis for the boys.  New pajamas (see number 6).
9. Films for teacher in-service days:  The Notebook, Mission Impossible, Where the Wild Things Are, Back to the Future.
10. Just for fun, new notebooks for everyone.

What’s on your homeschool supply list?