Best homeschool supplies

While the beauty of homeschooling or remote learning is that you can tailor them to your child's specific needs, some families find that a separate study area is a big help. Setting up a kid-friendly desk in a corner of the house or bedroom might be just the motivation your child needs.

Keep your kids organized with daily work by setting out their individual worksheets and schedules on their own colored clipboards. That way, they can get started first thing in the morning and know exactly what's due that day. Genius, right?

With home schooling comes a lot of home paperwork – which means that a smart sorting and filing system is vital for keeping paper clutter under control. I have four school-aged children, so I bought this four-tier shelf for our kitchen countertop and designated a shelf for each child. When they finish work that needs grading or have papers that need attention, they file it in their slot and I can go through it later. Clutter = solved!

Even toddlers as young as 2 can get used to holding and using a pencil with this workbook from Kumon. It focuses on basic pencil control and helps children develop skills gradually. Toddlers can begin tracing simple lines and move on to more complicated tracing, such as zigzags and curves.

Mastering sight words will help your child become a fluent reader, but they can be a challenge. (Cough, my son, cough.) Give your child a boost with this beginner's guide for early readers and kindergarteners – it has bright colors, fun animals, and the top 101 sight words to increase reading speed and comprehension.

Counting, sorting, stacking, color matching – the possibilities are endless with these classic cubes. If you have a range of ages in your home, your older kids can use these cubes as math tools while your little ones have fun stacking and sorting them.

These oversized lacing beads with sturdy string are the perfect tool for teaching fine motor skills and working on hand-eye coordination. You can also use them to teach colors and shapes. One note: These are recommended for children age 2 and up.

Build hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and dexterity with these whimsical animal lacing cards. We predict that even big kids won't be able to resist lacing with these in the house.

Having loosely homeschooled my four children with a baby in tow this spring, I can say with 100-percent certainty that a dry erase whiteboard is a must for at-home learning. I used a large one for instruction during our lesson time, and the kids used their individual ones to demonstrate concepts, jot down notes, and solve problems.

Speaking of large whiteboards, this AmazonBasics version is affordable and magnetic, so you can use it a variety of ways. I propped mine up on a windowsill to teach while the kids gathered around the kitchen table. Instant classroom!

For kids learning to write the alphabet, a magnet stylus pen that lets you "erase" with your finger makes writing "A" to "Z" much more fun. These are on the expensive side, but will stand up to years of use by multiple kids.

This workbook by Evan Moor is a one-stop shop for pre-K students, so you can't go wrong with this choice. It teaches "SMART" skills – science, math, art, reading, and thinking.

With my limited knowledge of homeschooling four different grades so far, the biggest challenge is planning. Almost every night, I found myself scrambling to throw a lesson together for the next day, and it was exhausting. Save yourself the stress with this pretty homeschool planner for the 2020-2021 academic year. It's specifically designed to help you put together weekly lesson plans.

You may feel that remote learning and homeschooling already rely too much on screens, but even so – this kit from Osmo is worth your consideration. It transforms your tablet into an educational tool that can bring learning to life for your little ones. The kit comes with a tablet holder and plenty of hands-on learning resources that will ensure the screen is just part – not the entirety – of your child's learning. There's also a compatible kit for Fire tablets, so Android users can get access to this as well.

Um, what day is it again? Lately it can be easy to lose track. This classroom staple will help your kids (and you!) identify days of the week, the months, and the weather – and offer a fun way to start the day together.

Anyone else remember this handwriting workbook from our childhood? It's a classic for a reason – it's simple, straightforward, and makes learning to write pain-free for kids. This version is best for kindergarten-age children.

Bob books start small to encourage confidence in new readers, then gradually build their way up. For example, the first story only has four letters in it, making it easy for new readers to grasp. Eventually, vowels and three-letter words are added – keeping pace with your little one's learning and making reading fun, not stressful.

Sure, regular pencils will get the job done, but these are oversize and triangular-shaped for little hands, and feature a graphite core that's perfect for drawing, tracing, writing, and more.

You never knew an easel was a piece of workout equipment, did you? But when children work at an easel, it builds muscles for fine motor skills, like writing on paper. This all-in-one easel has a magnetic whiteboard on one side, a chalkboard on the other, and a refillable paper roll. Bonus: The reusable paint pots keep messes to a minimum.

All those masterpieces your kids will create on their new art easel will require a lot of paint refills. This six-pack is a smart buy for craft time.