Welcome to our schoolroom..............let me show you around!
I'm sure we'll be learning all over the house (and out of the house!), but we've designated one room for our school area. This is where our supplies and materials will live and where we will most likely work on things that need to be done at a table or desk. This room was formerly our "computer room". It is a bright, sunny space with a big window and a skylight. I am excited to spend lots of time here with the boys each day, living and learning.
The above photo shows one corner of the room. We had the "stage" built when we moved into the house to cover a bricked area that used to hold a wood-burning stove. This is where we usually put our Christmas tree, but we may have to find another spot for that this year. I am hoping to get some cozy pillows and a rug so we can make this into a reading nook. We can also use the stage for dramatic reenactments of all the things we learn!! SC already loves to sit at the school desk and do projects, so I'll bet this will be his spot of choice for school work this fall. Hubs hung a magnetic whiteboard (from Hobby Lobby) on the wall here. In the photo below you can see that it's been all set up for LG to use for his All About Spelling program.
This really tall bookshelf holds all our non-fiction books as well as some of our paper supplies. I'm sure we could quickly fill another shelf this size because the books are pretty tightly packed on this one.
On this wall I've placed a table with chairs on each side for the boys. They also each have their own shelf on "their" side of the table. Their shelves were from Wal-Mart and I think were $16 each. I had bought the shelves for use in my Montessori classroom and they are perfect for this set-up. We already had the big posters, but they were downstairs. I had them laminated and am so excited to have them in our learning space for easy reference.
This side is SC's side. The canvas bin (Wal-Mart) holds all the manipulatives for his Right Start Level E math program. We are going to use a modified version of the workbox system for organizing our work, so each boy has two 3-drawer containers for holding materials from the various subject areas. Other shelves on each side will fill with everything else they need to stay organized.
This is LG's side. You can see the balance from his Right Start Level B materials. The closed container holds all the remaining materials from his Right Start math program. He also has the "workboxes" along with some other things I know he'll be using such as number and alphabet stamps. The divided metal buckets on the top shelf hold colored pencils, markers and other writing utensils. I bought one for each of the boys at Hobby Lobby a while back.
This rolling cart is also being upcycled from my days as a Montessori teacher. Previously it held office supplies in my office at work. Now the drawers will hold all the teacher's manuals I need for the boys' different subject areas. On top, in the canvas bin, I've placed all the Five in a Row books we currently own. The blue box on the floor is another organizational tool for me, the teacher. Since we'll be using A World of Adventure for the basis of SC's curriculum, and it's divided into six 6-week units, I've used this box to organize other materials that I've found online that correspond with the units of this curriculum.
Here's a close-up of inside the box so you can see my system.
This shows what is currently inside the "Ancient Egypt/Deserts" folder. I've printed off several topic-related books for each boy from Reading A-Z which I'll use to supplement. Also in this file box are lapbook components I've already printed that will go along with the various units we'll study.
That's our space! Hope you enjoyed your little tour. Thanks for visiting!
