I'm not sure I've shared our school room since moving into our house 2 YEARS ago.... crazy its been that long!!! We are entering our 3rd year of working in the school room and I am just thankful for having this space.
When we went house hunting, we KNEW we wanted schooling space. A place to school can be just about anywhere, but each home and model was judged on whether there was a good space to for us to use for schooling. We needed 3 bedrooms and a home schooling room:)
One of the BEST features about our house was the finished garage:) Yes, totally finished... with carpet and crown molding! And so when they placed our house on-site, they raised the garage to be the same level as our main house and voila... a perfect school room. And the door to the school room is heavy duty, too... so the room is great for the kids to play loudly in, too!!
Yes, I said "play"! Our room doubles as a playroom which means often it looks like this:/
Yes, even the whiteboard gets "hit" during playtime!!
But then Mom gets in there and works some magic:) And bans the kids from re-entering until I get some pictures of it clean to PROVE it does get cleaned!
The Play and Pre-School Side
The arrangement of having the school room and playroom co-exist has been good. Some are still learning some self-control by having to complete work before playing! But overall it's worked out really nicely to have Nate playing in the same room so I can keep an eye on him, help him and guide him to clean up. And he's also listening in and picking up some of what we're learning;)
We only have a few toys in the room, mostly building, educational activities and pretend play.
Nate's work for the day is in the colorful trays. He works on those activities with me and then plays with "quiet toys"... usually puzzles, LEGOs, Play-Doh... which are stored on the shelves.
Jack (our dog) usually isn't allowed in the room because he loves to chew the kids' toys (and he'll steal pencils, too), but since it was clean we invited him in for a bit;)
The School Side
Actually school takes place all over, like the kitchen for experiments, living room for computers and videos, the couches for one-on-one reading, or bedrooms for nightly reading together! But the school side of the school room is where everything is housed and where most of the book learning takes place!!
Besides the big front windows, my favorite school room pieces are my wooden table and our whiteboard. Our table was purchased through Craigslist, given some TLC and new cushions and is used for hours every.single.day!! The whiteboard is a piece of bathroom laminate nailed to the wall and then edged with thin, simple molding (like totally under $20).
This is the middle of the room!! A pulled out couch for reading (or a napping Nate!), a freezer and a old dresser that houses the kids' LEGO projects!! I really, really fought the freezer being in the schoolroom but we really had no other place for it. About the time we were getting a freezer, I was looking for a big magnetic board for Nate! LOL!! Not pretty, but it works:) And doubles for a drying rack for painted projects, too!
Our large white cabinet was a "damaged" item that we found deeply discounted!! It's a work horse for us;) It holds all the craft supplies (markers, crayons, paper, paint, etc), math and science manipulatives, games and preschool boxed activities.
I know there has to be a better way to organize it. Here is what the inside looks like today!
And last year we discovered that the inside doors make some excellent "wall space". We can have extra places for some visuals that won't clutter up the walls:)
The top is also used to house the laminator and extra school supplies that the kids don't need to be reminded that I have... like new markers, crayons,etc that I like to "save" until ours need to be replaced.
No home school is complete without a bookshelf or more:)
The shelf on the left is one that we've had forever!! Brian got it while in seminary and it was cream, then I painted it green for Chris' room when he was a toddler and now it's white;) It houses our binders for finished work, free reading books an activities and then my top row of Momma helps (my guides and binders)!
The pair of shelves on the right were made by Brian when he was in high school!!! They are very simple and I just love how they match our table! These shelves hold our reference and resource books by subjects... our Science, History, nature guides, Bible, Art, Music, Language, etc!
Finally, we come to the kids' cubbies! We were given the little white shelves and they have been a perfect place for the kids to store their books.What they need each day is very accessible!
Last year, we moved the printer in the room with us! This is a much better arrangement since most of our printing is done for home schooling purposes;) And along with the printer came the black table;) It holds our paper supplies, clipboards and personal whiteboards.
We do really love our school room!! It's all mismatched but it allows us to have a great learning and messy space!!
We are participating in School Room Week @ iHomeschool Network!
When we went house hunting, we KNEW we wanted schooling space. A place to school can be just about anywhere, but each home and model was judged on whether there was a good space to for us to use for schooling. We needed 3 bedrooms and a home schooling room:)
One of the BEST features about our house was the finished garage:) Yes, totally finished... with carpet and crown molding! And so when they placed our house on-site, they raised the garage to be the same level as our main house and voila... a perfect school room. And the door to the school room is heavy duty, too... so the room is great for the kids to play loudly in, too!!
Yes, I said "play"! Our room doubles as a playroom which means often it looks like this:/
Yes, even the whiteboard gets "hit" during playtime!!
But then Mom gets in there and works some magic:) And bans the kids from re-entering until I get some pictures of it clean to PROVE it does get cleaned!
The Play and Pre-School Side
The arrangement of having the school room and playroom co-exist has been good. Some are still learning some self-control by having to complete work before playing! But overall it's worked out really nicely to have Nate playing in the same room so I can keep an eye on him, help him and guide him to clean up. And he's also listening in and picking up some of what we're learning;)
We only have a few toys in the room, mostly building, educational activities and pretend play.
Nate's work for the day is in the colorful trays. He works on those activities with me and then plays with "quiet toys"... usually puzzles, LEGOs, Play-Doh... which are stored on the shelves.
Jack (our dog) usually isn't allowed in the room because he loves to chew the kids' toys (and he'll steal pencils, too), but since it was clean we invited him in for a bit;)
The School Side
Actually school takes place all over, like the kitchen for experiments, living room for computers and videos, the couches for one-on-one reading, or bedrooms for nightly reading together! But the school side of the school room is where everything is housed and where most of the book learning takes place!!
Besides the big front windows, my favorite school room pieces are my wooden table and our whiteboard. Our table was purchased through Craigslist, given some TLC and new cushions and is used for hours every.single.day!! The whiteboard is a piece of bathroom laminate nailed to the wall and then edged with thin, simple molding (like totally under $20).
This is the middle of the room!! A pulled out couch for reading (or a napping Nate!), a freezer and a old dresser that houses the kids' LEGO projects!! I really, really fought the freezer being in the schoolroom but we really had no other place for it. About the time we were getting a freezer, I was looking for a big magnetic board for Nate! LOL!! Not pretty, but it works:) And doubles for a drying rack for painted projects, too!
Our large white cabinet was a "damaged" item that we found deeply discounted!! It's a work horse for us;) It holds all the craft supplies (markers, crayons, paper, paint, etc), math and science manipulatives, games and preschool boxed activities.
I know there has to be a better way to organize it. Here is what the inside looks like today!
And last year we discovered that the inside doors make some excellent "wall space". We can have extra places for some visuals that won't clutter up the walls:)
The top is also used to house the laminator and extra school supplies that the kids don't need to be reminded that I have... like new markers, crayons,etc that I like to "save" until ours need to be replaced.
No home school is complete without a bookshelf or more:)
The shelf on the left is one that we've had forever!! Brian got it while in seminary and it was cream, then I painted it green for Chris' room when he was a toddler and now it's white;) It houses our binders for finished work, free reading books an activities and then my top row of Momma helps (my guides and binders)!
The pair of shelves on the right were made by Brian when he was in high school!!! They are very simple and I just love how they match our table! These shelves hold our reference and resource books by subjects... our Science, History, nature guides, Bible, Art, Music, Language, etc!
Finally, we come to the kids' cubbies! We were given the little white shelves and they have been a perfect place for the kids to store their books.What they need each day is very accessible!
Last year, we moved the printer in the room with us! This is a much better arrangement since most of our printing is done for home schooling purposes;) And along with the printer came the black table;) It holds our paper supplies, clipboards and personal whiteboards.
We do really love our school room!! It's all mismatched but it allows us to have a great learning and messy space!!
We are participating in School Room Week @ iHomeschool Network!
4 comments:
i love your school room :)
That's a great room! LOL about the freezer, but it works! We have 2 in the basement. However, if we didn't have a basement, I have no idea where it would go. Good idea to use it as a magnetic board.
I enjoyed your school room tour. It's fun to see how others's space works for them and get ideas that may help improve my own space.
Looks great. Love that table, chairs and bench!
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