Our Schoolroom 2012

It’s just about time for our new school year to start.  I haven’t made many changes to our schoolroom since I last posted a couple years ago, but I am forever reorganizing and the room is just about ready to go!

We are blessed to have a finished attic space that we use as a schoolroom and playroom.  It’s one long open space.  The stairs come up in the middle of the room.  As you walk up the steps, the school area is on the left and the play area is on the right.  The stairs have a landing that is an awesome space for bookshelves, as well as hanging posters or schoolwork.

My Stuff

Where better to start than with my book nook?  The tall shelf holds book resources:  1st shelf – language, 2nd shelf: Bible and character training, 3rd shelf – math and high school electives, 4th shelf – science and history.  The filing cabinet holds excess book resources and file folders of resources I’ve collected over the years.  I keep everything organized by subject and grade.  For instance, in the history drawer all the ancient resources are together, followed by middle ages…

The shelf to the left holds our science related books.

Homeschool resources

I also have a planning table that’s supposed to stay this clean all the time.  Um, usually you can’t see the surface.  At any rate, it’s where I do most of my planning for the weeks ahead, where I work with the kiddos when they are struggling with a lesson, and where I pile endless stacks of stuff.

Homeschool Planning Table

The Work Spaces

Each of the big kids have a desk in front of a window.  And, beside each of their desks is a bookshelf that holds various resources – like artist study books and cards, history themed literature, or reference books.  On top of each bookshelf sits a crate that will hold the week’s necessary materials.  The books to the side of the crate are the various books that will be used during the year.

homeschool books

Trying to be Organized

Since we are studying early American history this year, I have gathered all related literature and organized it in the order it will be studied.  This will make lesson planning so much easier – and help me know whether or not I need to check at the library for a certain title.  (You can’t imagine how many times I checked something out at the library, only to realize I already had it sitting on my shelf!)

American history

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These are the bookshelves on the landing.  I used them to house our art supplies, many of the math manipulatives, most of the science kits and excess notebooks and folders.

Homeschool Art

Kindergarten Spaces

The school supplies on top of this bookshelf are for everyone.  The supplies out at all times include a box of colored pencils, a box of markers, a box of crayons, scrap paper and a box that holds glue sticks, liquid glue, pens, pencils, erasers, bookmarks, scissors and rulers.

The books on the shelves are high-interest living literature for Eli’s kindergarten age.  Once he begins reading, I’ll place a special basket of easy readers in that open space on the bottom shelf.

School supplies

This bookshelf holds all the early elementary manipulatives (as well as chapter books.)  I like to have the manipulatives out so I can grab them easily during a lesson, but more importantly so they are accessible for Eli if he gets the urge to “play” with them.

Preschool homeschool

This is Eli’s toy shelf.  I try to change out toys every so often to keep them fresh and try to make them as educational as possible most of the time.   The purple basket on the left holds several bagged activities ready to grab to put in his daily work box.

Preschool toys

Oops, the kindergarten game shelf is still a little messy!  All the “big kid” games are in a downstairs coat closet, but I wanted the early learning games to be in the school/playroom so they could easily become part of the daily work box.

Preschool games

One More Cool Thing – Landing Posters

While visiting a local science museum, I was very lucky to stumble across an entire series of nature posters showing plants and animals specific to our state of KY.  I think there are eight or nine posters lining the walls of the landing  – which seems to have become our new nature nook.

KY nature

The school room organization only lasts for a moment, but it’s a nice moment.  Now we can start school.

This post has been linked to the 2012 Not-Back-To-School Blog Hop.  Go check out all the wonderful school room ideas!

Not Back to School Blog Hop

23 Comments

  1. Keri Brown says:

    What a great space you have, Cindy, and so well-organized to start off the year! We’re studying early American history this year too. I love the idea of pulling out my related books in the right order — definitely stealing that tip from you! And I’d love to have a set of those nature posters, since we share the same home state. 🙂 Is there a publisher listed on them, or can you share exactly where you found them?

  2. I LOVE what you’ve done with your room! You are so organized. I’m going to have to keep looking at these pictures and see if there’s anything that we can do to be a little more organized.

  3. Boy, am I trying this year! ;o)

  4. Keri,

    I found the posters at McConnell Springs in Lexington last year about this time. They have an indoor learning area where all of these posters were displayed. When I asked about where I could get my hands on some, they told me that had no idea. It turns out there were a few extra posters hiding in a storage closet that the naturalist gave me. The only thing I can find on the posters for identification is “Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives” and “Accuprint Printing”. I hope you can find some!

  5. Love all of your books everywhere!! We have books in so many different places all over our house. I am trying to get them all organized but not sure if they will stay that way. 🙂

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  7. LOVE LOVE the posters…I don’t have a lot of ‘wall’ space…..so, we don’t have many posters….looks like a fun place to learn!

  8. What a lot of fun stuff you have! You and your children are going to have such a grand time this year!

  9. I love the colorful posters 🙂 Have a great school year.

  10. GREAT space! So many wonderful books! Thanks for sharing!

  11. Jenni Gallegos says:

    What a great, organized space! And so many books…love it!

  12. Thank you for sharing! I am the same way, even though I don’t have that many books, I eventually need to organize and hopefully get matching bookshelves. Happy Homeschooling!

  13. What a lovely collection of books you have!

  14. Patty @ Coming Up Roses says:

    Can I come play?

  15. It looks great! Especially the posters.

    I’m laughing about your covered-table comment – we often do our seatwork at the 12-seater dining room table and some days – ok, often- you can’t see any of the table’s surface!

  16. Love your nature posters!! Such a great space your kids have to learn in!!

  17. I am so envious of your attic space! I would love to have an entire floor to devote to homeschooling. Although, we do tend to take up our entire basement with our homeschooling items. 🙂 I especially love your KY posters! We live in KY too and I would love to get my hands on similar posters. I will have to be on the look out.

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