This week the
{Not} Back to School Bloghop is featuring school rooms, so I have decided to follow suit and showcase our Schoolroom. I have just spent the summer organizing both curriculum and our new Schoolroom (formerly our formal living room which sat untouched). The room we are using is right inside our front door.
It is the first room people see when they enter our house, but I think we can keep it neat and not scare everyone off. Linebacker is snooping out the window as usual. It was important to me that we have lots of natural light and can see outside, but we live on a court so there won't be too much traffic to distract us. It is also separated enough from the rest of the house to eliminate other distractions. Here is a view of the whole room from the entrance of our house:
As soon as you enter our room, we have our Homeschool Vision posted on the wall (and apparently we forgot to put the plate back on the switch).
My husband and I sat down and answered some questions and then came together to compare answers and that is how our vision was put together. I wanted to hang it somewhere to remind us, as we enter/exit the room, of why we are doing this....especially on those challenging days.
In the middle of the room sit our desks. I wanted something where we were all together since my kids aren't readers yet and independent work is a few years off still. At the same time, I went with separate desks so that, down the road when they are working more separately we can move them around to different areas of the room.
. The kids each have their own desk, and until Boy Wonder needs his, I'm using it. We have these
desks from Ikea (got them on a sale promotion, woohoo!) The
chairs are also from Ikea (again, price reduction FTW!). In the main drawer on their desks is their daily learning binder, Dude's geo binder (didn't fit in the cupboard) and their pencil cases.
In the smaller drawer are their Bibles and handwriting binders:
and in the cupboards are their subject workbooks. Dude's cupboard has his Math U See on the top shelf, Bible colouring book and then dry erase board on the bottom, Strawberry has her Bible colouring book, cookie tray and dry erase board in hers.
Opposite the window is a built in bench my husband made a few years ago. We have made it a reading nook of sorts. We used dog beds from Costco as cushions since it was much cheaper then actually getting the real thing.
In this area I have Strawberry's All About Reading Uppercase Poster, All About Reading progress charts, our World Map, a poster I made for reading comprehension, and the ABC character cards that go with The ABCs of Godly Children.
On the long wall I have 2 big shelving units. One is a Martha Stewart Collection from Home Depot and the other is the
Expedit from Ikea. These shelving units store every else we use, or will use, or just have. Our Bible and commentary collection alone take up 2 shelves ;) and that's without the 4 in our desks.
On another shelf is all my teacher's manuals that are currently in use, and beside them are the student books that aren't used everyday but are used quite a bit.
These shelves also store all of our "busy bag" style materials. I found these great containers at Target (again, on sale one week) to store everything in.
On another shelf is more of the All About Reading stuff. This one features our review and cards boxes as well as Ziggy!
These shelves are separated into categories (I'm a bit of an organization junkie) and are the extra and complimentary resources for some of our learning. One shelf is math, another Language, Bible/Preschool, and Science/Geography.
On top of these shelving units is where I have our Betty Luken's Bible in Felt resources (they are big and just don't fit anywhere else).
Beside the shelving is where I have some wall storage, and things we hang up. I have the workbox schedules:
Independent worksheets and activity pages:
I have them stored in file envelopes I picked up at Costco last year and then in a
wall file pocket chart I got from Scholar's Choice a few years ago. They are sorted by type: Patterns, Numbers, Math, Counting, Alphabet tracing, etc.
Under the window is Dude's All About Reading/Spelling tile board:
Under the other side of the window is our workbox carts, I'm not sure exactly how we will use these yet, but I think I'll be putting in the daily supplies for activities and books they need to work on that are not in their desks already.
On the last half wall we have our morning learning book activities and the whiteboard and chalkboard for copywork.
Well, that's our schoolroom. I can't wait to get in here in a couple short weeks and get going, the kids are eager to start to. I just have a few last minute details to organize and we will be ready to go!
For His Glory!
I am linking up with the
{Not} Back to School BlogHop, check it out!
