Remember just a a few days ago?
This was my school room. But I’m so grateful that I can say (with school set to begin in just a couple of days), that our school space is complete! Voila!
My school space has downsized from a full room to a corner cabinet. But I really love the space, and the lessons the Lord is putting to the test: namely, learning can happen anywhere.
We will be doing a lot of our actual work at the kitchen table. Praise the Lord, I had spent tons of time brainstorming ways to streamline our homeschool to make it ready to move. God knew! Both the kids’ daily lessons and my teacher materials are all ready to go in easy to transport containers.
So, are you ready for the official tour?
Our new home is 2-stories, something the kids were super excited about. Apparently, the stairs are the main attraction at our house. And it just so happens, that this cabinet at the top of the stairs was the perfect spot for homeschooling. Though most of the actual work will happen downstairs, I’m leaving a chair upstairs for when one of them might need just a little more peace and seclusion (i.e. Oldest).
The kids each have their own bin that includes a couple of key workbooks and their week’s worth of lessons. {Read more about how I organized their daily assignments.} The bins are grab-and-go ready; their pencil bags, dry erase boards, and other essentials are stored underneath a handy space saver that I used to use for my dishes. (Totally upcycled!)
On the other side are my teacher files and a basket of books for our year. Again, my file includes daily-use items {read more about my amazing teacher file—I love it!}, and the books we can easily grab out and place back as we need them. But, by storing them in this basket, the books didn’t take nearly as much space as if I’d lined them up library-style.
In the middle is our calendar-time charts. We’ve been using these same charts for about three years now, and the kids still love them. The calendar on the right is an A Beka Book product from their homeschool charts. The chart on the left is totally homemade to teach days of the week, chart the weather and seasons, etc.
Of course, inside the cabinets are manipulatives, curriculums, supplies, flashcards, and other fun activities.
On the wall is my magnet board and a Martha Stewart adhesive pocket. The pocket is where the kids turn in their work to me. We used this system last year, and it worked really well. Plus, it takes up way less space than a paper tray.
We magnetize our mapwork, making our map labels with cut up index cards and adhesive magnet tape. Oldest loved learning his maps this way, so my challenge was finding a magnetic place to put his maps. This was my board last year, but I sacrificed it—for the cause, you know.
Our last feature upstairs is our cork board and posters. Nothing super impressive here, beyond the fact that it is all hung with command hook adhesive. That’s right—no holes.
Oh, and here’s my favorite part of all, folks. This last picture is the view of the upstairs from my couch. Notice what you can see of all of our homeschool stuff.
Nothing! We are totally invisible, flying under the radar. No posters, cork boards, books, nothing. Which means when school is over and stored away for the day, I sink back on my couch with my cup of coffee, look up and say, “Ahhhh.”
The 2013 school year may now happen. I’m ready.
