Preschool Supplies {Home Preschool 101}

Preschool Homeschool Planning Printables

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If you’ve just recently decided to homeschool, or have just gotten started with preschool at home, it’s easy to feel a little overwhelmed with the multitude of options for preschool supplies that are available.

Fortunately, with preschoolers, you won’t need to run out and buy a whole lot as, at this age, they’ll learn best through play.

There are however, a few home preschool supplies that we like to keep on hand since we use them so often.

With just a few minutes a day and some basic supplies, you can teach your preschooler everything they need to know, right at home! This home preschool supply list can help get you started!

Home Preschool 101: Preschool Supplies

Laminator

Toddlers and preschoolers love matching games and other fun printable cards, but after spending hours making some fun activities for my own preschooler, I found that the pieces just didn’t last long in those little hands.

Now, everything that can be used multiple times is laminated for durability. This easily allows me to reuse printable items from year to year with multiple children as well as gives us the opportunity to use dry erase markers for some of those activities. Just erase and use again!

If you’re looking to add durability to your printables without adding the cost of a laminator to your budget however, simple clear contact paper works just as well.

Card Stock

Another must for us as it is one more way to add durability to printables when dealing with little ones, card stock is just a thicker, stronger paper that is perfect for preschoolers.

It holds way more paint than paper without ripping and is fantastic for laminating.

Do-A-Dot Markers

These have quickly become one of our favorite school supplies! They are super easy to use, strengthen fine motor skills, and they’re a lot of fun for both toddlers and preschoolers.

You can buy books with Do-A-Dot pictures in them, ready to be painted, or you could just do a quick Google or Pinterest search for free Do-A-Dot printables; there are TONS of them out there for just about every theme you can imagine.

Check out our Do-A-Dot Printables Pinterest board for some great ones!

Manipulatives

There are a lot of different options out there for preschool math manipulatives. Counting Bears and pattern blocks are probably some of the most widely known, buy you really could use just about anything.

Look around your house and I’ll bet you’ll find plenty of small objects that can be used for counting practice, patterns, and so much more! Everything from Popsicle sticks to small glass gems and pom poms. Really feeling the DIY bug? You can even make some of your own to save yourself a little money!

Just make sure you keep an eye on your child if they still like to put things in their mouths.

Construction Paper

It just wouldn’t be preschool without sheets of brightly colored construction paper. This really is one of the most versatile school supplies.

Arts and crafts, cutting practice, drawing, whatever, it’s always a good idea to have some construction paper ready to go.

3 Ring Binders

This supply is mainly for the teacher :) 3 ring binders make it so easy to keep everything organized and in a single place. If you plan out your preschool themes ahead of time, binders make it simple to keep all of your plans together and easily accessible when you need them.

We also use one for artwork that we don’t want thrown away. While we don’t keep everything, (who has that kind of space?!) if there is something we really want to hang on to, we use our 3 ring hole punch on it and stick it in our art binder. This makes saving those little masterpieces a breeze and we don’t wind up with stacks of paper littering our table.

Ziploc Bags

Another organizational supply for the teacher! These plastic zipper bags make organizing things like those manipulatives, busy bags, art supplies, and other preschool supplies, quick and easy.

We have a bin that holds multiple gallon sized bags and these contain art supplies and busy bag items that we use throughout the year, pieces to matching games and file folder games that we’ve made, and the parts of our calendar board that we’re not currently using. With this method, all of these items can remain readily accessible without turning into a gigantic unorganized mess.

Art Supplies

This one is pretty self-explanatory but plays a huge part in our home preschool year so it definitely makes the list.

Glue, crayons, markers, paint, scissors, glitter, colored pencils, pom poms… This list could go on forever but we’ll leave it at that :)

Exploring and creating with various different materials is a wonderful way for your preschooler to learn. Hands-on projects and crafts are a great way to get your little one excited about learning as well and having a big box of art supplies ready to go when you are makes the process even better!

Puzzles

There is nothing quite like seeing the look of accomplishment on your child’s face when they finish a puzzle for the first time. At this age, puzzles teach your child a multitude of skills including critical thinking, problem solving, and will even help strengthen their hand-eye coordination.

Books

Last, but certainly not least, are books. No list of preschool supplies would be complete without them.

Whether you buy them to keep at home or borrow them from your local library and rotate through a list of books throughout the year, reading to your child as they’re learning to read is one of the most important educational moves you can make.

You can find tons of amazing book lists online to go with just about any theme you can think of and instilling in your child a love of reading from the very beginning of their academic career can set them up for a lifetime love of learning.