My husband and I knew that when we started homeschooling that the children would need a place of their own to learn to climb their own mountains and have their own adventures. A place where finger paintings can be laid out to dry and train sets can be left up until the next day without interfering with the rest of the household. We are very fortunate to have this space. I know many would not consider to do this, but it has been wonderful for us in so many ways, including not stepping on legos in the middle of the night when tip toeing in to check on the kids in the night. We have two rooms available for the boys and it was our desire for them to have a room for sleeping and quiet time that was devoid of too much stimulation and a room for learning and play. The addition to that was the small "loft" hall way that is a great overflow for oversized toys and our reading nook.
This is where we have our morning meetings. You can't see it, but I have little carpet squares for the boys to sit on during this time.
This is our bulletin board, born out of necessity it is on our folding doors that go to the closet. It really gave me the space I needed without having to move furniture. The theme is oriented around the stories and books we will be reading. We will be displaying work on it as it its completed.
The view from the hallway door. The abc's along the top were from dollar tree, but they aren't super pricey at the teacher store and the apple tree numbers on the adjacent wall are from Confessions of a Homeschooler
The other side of the room. The posters on the wall of the continents are from Spell out loud
Here is our trusty white/magnetic board ready for writing practice, word making and math fact practice. Our basket full of magnets is just a hodge podge collection from over the years. You could easily find these at the dollar store and at yard sales too.
the listening center
trusty art easel on the other side of the doorway
the sensory bin (filled with hard wheat)
And our new writing center, where writing, drawing and coloring supplies are available.
The Reading nook outside the door of the classroom. What you can't see in the picture is further down the walls is the large toy overflow.
So did you notice what isn't there.......workboxes. I decided to do away with workboxes. They were a lot of work that overwhelmed the kids and me and they also occupied space I didn't have in the first place.
I have decided to switch to a folder/binder system instead. It allowed me to save on space and taper how much "stuff" went into our learning. I put a weeks worth of learning into my binder and then stuff four folders for each kid each night before school. Jacob has yellow folders and and Benji has orangie-red ones. When they are done with their folders they place them in their bins with their names so I can check their work.
