Our School Room #Homeschool #HomeschoolRoom #Organization

So, we have this large room downstairs that is dedicated to homeschooling, yet, towards the end of last school year we really stopped using it!  it’s become a big mess and it was hard to keep things straightened up down there, and it was a distraction.  So, it has now become school storage room! 

I have moved our workboxes up stairs to the living room, where we were doing school anyways! 

The nice thing is the laptop is up there, so I can be there to help with computer assignments and other assignments.  It is also away from the toy room, which is great, because the MESS in there always got me off on the wrong foot every morning! 

Since it’s our living room, it gets cleaned up every night (as opposed to just the door shut).  It’s been really great so far, and  am think it will continue to go well.  

The only issue is bringing stuff up and down the stairs for the younger kiddos workboxes, but that’s only weekly, so not a HUGE deal.

This is our set up:

Workboxes for the older two, I color coded them this year, the two bottom boxes (different color) are just supplies.   On top are books they need for the subjects in the boxes below (mostly my oldest son), a magnet/dry erase board for spelling and a device charging station.

Workboxes for the youngest two, on top are supplies and resource books.  To the left of the boxes are books and supplies for upcoming units, I have since moved this next to the bookshelf in the living room.

This cart from Ikea, has teacher manuals on the bottom, circle time materials in the middle and on top is a file box to file work for their portfolio.  The baskets on top are places in front of the workboxes each day for them to place finishes work for me to check.  Of course, there is the laptop there at the desk too!

It’s very plain and simple.  I also just purchased a few lap desks to share, and the kitchen table is just around the corner, should they choose to work there (most of the time they do not though). 

I love how simple the set up is, and how there is no clutter to stress me out (until I go down to the school room to get something, YIKES!). 

I have the workboxes for the older 3 (K, 2nd, 5th) assigned by subject.  So they do not change much, and for my almost 3 year old, I do change up the activities I put in there (see more about that on our curriculum post). 

So you don’t really need a big homeschool room (unless you are like me and have WAY to many supplies!  I REALLY need to sort through that stuff!).

We do have A LOT of bookshelves not pictured here, there are 2 in the Living Room, and a lot more downstairs.  Most the stuff dedicated to homeschooling, however, is in the room formerly known as the school room.

Our Homeschool Room #Homeschool #TOSReviewCrew #HSConnect

In all seriousness my homeschool room is in complete disarray!  I usually have it well organized before the new year, but with 4 kids, one of which is a tot that is into EVERYTHING, I have a hard time keeping things organized these days!  Ugh! 

So here is the room in all of it’s glory (NOT!)

Just outside the schoolroom is the play room (I managed to cut out most of the toys all over the floor!)

and the TV area/book shelves on the other side of the room

I REALLY need to get it more organized down there!  I just can’t bring myself to do it, even in all my OCD tendencies, I think I’ve just completely given up hope!  ha!

It’s turned into piles, piles and  more piles!  I ordered a bunch of containers and items to make tot boxes for K….they are in piles.  I think it all boils down to having a serious book/curriculum/materials hoarding addiction!!  Anyone else with me???

We moved the white desk out b/c it didn’t function as I had hoped, it’s now in the toy room housing the keyboard….it’s also where I send kids that need to work away from the rest of the group (either they can’t concentrate, or the other kids are bothering them somehow).  The table can seat 4 around it, plus there is another desk in the school room for sitting.

The shelves in the school room house current curriculum items/books….the shelves out of the room hold all other books.  I would like to start rotating books but I’m torn about it.  I think we have too many, and they typically only have a few favorites they read most frequently anyhow.  This will be a future project.  I just got rid of a bunch of baby clothes, which freed up some bins I could use. 

The workboxes still work well for us, they are not going anywhere!  The cabinets have been filled with junk that I need to sort through also.  My husband also says I have a container addiction, I need containers for my containers.  HA!  Maybe so.  I use to be so organized and neat….see what children have done to me!

Anyhow, I thought you guys might appreciate a REAL look at our school room.  I did have it organized and neat at one point. Maybe some day I will again!?!?

Problem is I have 3 boys in one bedroom, and hubby and I were discussing how to arrange them, we may need that room downstairs… oh where or where will we put everything???  Sigh! 

I’ll be sure to post pictures if/when I get it together…..but I’m not promising anything any time soon! 

Also linking to

Our Homeschool Room

Okay, Okay….we have lived in our new house for almost a year now.  I promised school room pictures after the first of the year, and here they are!!

I’ve been busy working on getting it organized and presentable, and well…it’s almost there.  I figured though that it’s never going to be perfect, because, let’s face it, we use it every day! 

It’s a good size room, and once we have older kids and not so much school ‘stuff’ (will this ever happen?) it will be turned into a bedroom for the boys.  (right now they are squeezed into a really small room, all 3 of them!). 

In the cabinets I have art supplies and manipulatives.  The plastic drawers are more manipulatives, sensory materials, etc.  Behind the ABC chart is all my crafting stuff, and I also store our past units back there on shelves and in bins.  The workboxes are the colorful drawers.  The bookshelves have curriculum items, consumables, materials, books, etc…  (I have more bookshelves and games outside of the school room).  Next to the ABC chart is our science shelf…it’s got rocks, shells, bones, etc… fun stuff! 

There use to be posters on the white cabinets, but the ticky tack didn’t hold up.  I have to rehang them. 

I’m slimming down some of our materials.  But, it’s so hard to let go of things…I mean I do have 2 more that are coming up through the younger grades. 

It may be a bit messy and overcrowded, but I love our space….and I love it even more that I can shut the door!  HA!

Review: Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of your Day! ebook (TOS Review)

 

I really enjoyed reading the book for this review!  Circle Time:  Plan the Best Part of your Day! from Preschoolers and Peace.  Having been a preschool teacher, circle time, is no foreign concept to me, however, this ebook shines new light on the concept!

It is a quick and easy read filled with lots of ideas to get your gears turning, and questions and answers to help you implement circle time in your own homeschool, regardless of how young or old your children are!  It also has printables to help with planning.
I have to be honest, since implementing circle time, our homeschool days have changed – and for the better! 
My kids are 2.5, 4 and almost 7.  With suggestions taken from the book, I was able to implement a circle time that works for all 3 of my children (though sometimes my 2.5yo wanders off before we are through, but that’s okay). 
We have been doing circle time at our Kitchen Table.  I set up a circle time wall, everything was stuff I already had but was under utilizing (or not utilizing at all). 

Here is a picture of my kids enjoying circle time

Our circle time starts at 9am and can last from 45-60min.  It consists of the following:
1.  Spiritual Song of the Month (coincides with our Family Home Evening lesson)
2.  Prayer
3.  Pledge of Allegiance
4.  Calendar (day of the week, date, weather)
5.  Virtue
6. Scripture of the Week (coincides with our Family Home Evening lesson)
7.  Art Appreciation (from Fine Art Pages)
8.  Read a story from Friend Magazine (LDS publication)
9.  C reads a story from the Storied Scriptures, Old Testament (LDS Publication)
10.  Chinese Song and Story
11.  Science – Read a story to go with science theme, 2 days a week we will do an experiment or lab.  We may watch a short video that goes with the topic.
12.  On the non-lab days, we have more time, so we will usually check out the video of the week on BrainPopJr.com or the video of the day at BrainPop.com 
13. If they are still interested, we will go ahead and do History, listening to SOTW, while they draw or color a page to go with the topic.  Otherwise just my oldest and I do History. 
At the start of the new school year I plan to institute calendar notebooks for each child, the youngest just doing a ABC color page. 
The Circle Time book is only 33 pages long and cost $4.99.  It’s in PDF format and is downloadable instantly.  It really is a great read, an awesome guide to organizing your own circle time and making it work for your homeschool.  I highly recommend it!  I am not exaggerating when I say it has changed our homeschool!  Days run so much smoother when we start this way!

Getting Organized: Homeschool Room

So we have made a few changes to our Homeschool Room.  Really we only use this space to store the curriculum items, C will sit at his desk for his independent work (less likely to be bugged by his brothers). 

Left side – books in order, fish tank, teacher supplies, workboxes, shelf with continent boxes and other ‘observation’ items.

Right side – Items we use that need to be Xeroxed, printer, more books, paper and art supplies. 

We are lucky to have so much storage space in this little space.  Though about half of the cabinet space is actually food (canned and boxed goods), I also have math manipulatives, and other items stored in the them. 

Getting Organized: An Eclectic Curriculum

This year my goal was to eliminate the weekly Seek and Find, and the forgetting about resources. 

Using curriculums heavy in literature means LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of books, and then with netflix and other videos, it is just hard to keep track of everything. 
Then you add being eclectic into it, and well you just have lots and lots of stuff! 

So this year, I arranged all the books we will be using and put them in ONE place in ORDER of when they will be used.


I then utilized sticky notes!  I put sticky notes with the science and the history to make note of any additional resources I wanted to use (ie videos, lapbooks, additional books to the CORE curriculum).

Then I have a milk crate (I used this system last year as well) with hanging folders numbered 1-36 for each week.  The number system allows for flexibility!  I put the printed lesson plans (from ebooks) and any other printed items I have for that week in these file folders.  I use this for preschool items too.

I used the Schoolhouse Teachers ‘Big Mama’ Planner to personalize a few weekly planner sheets.  This way I can plan what goes in the workboxes each day for the week, and what we will cover in circle time each day.  I can also make note of any supplies I will need for the week, and have it all in ONE place, easy to access.  This sheet will go in that weeks folder.

I use pinterest as a HUGE organization tool.  I pin ideas throughout the year, and then as I plan out the week, I reference my pinterest boards.  I’ll make note of the ideas on the weekly plan sheets, and print off any materials I’ll need, which I store in the weekly folders. I spend Sunday evenings setting up the workboxes for the week, laminating and cutting out printed items, etc. 
What to do with those printables we’ve used in the past?  As you can see on my blog, we use printables each week, especially for preschool.  I laminate them all so that they are reusable, topics are revisited on a normal basis.  To solve the clutter issue, and to make them easy to find in the future…I decided to put them in manila envelopes and store them labeled in a bin.  All easily accessible for future use.

I used milk crates bought at Wal-mart and these magazine holders to organize the books and files:

matching document and cd boxes are also available. 
Now I just need to finish putting my Preschool Curriculum together! 
Linking up at Weekly Wrap Up – Curriculum Edition

Getting Organized: Your Homeschool Bookshelf

I have struggled with this over the last two years, and I think I have finally found a system that will work for us!  The hardest part was getting the kids (and the husband) to put the books back WHERE THEY GOT THEM FROM!  So now everything is labeled, including the books, they can’t go wrong!
The books we will be using for the current year are kept in the school room, in  the order by which I will use them.  After use they will get their own baskets on the main shelf.  Books for future use I have in the storage room (only because I have no more room on the main shelf). 

Each label has a color coded sticker, and each book in the bin has the same sticker. 
What I used:

and some small milk crates purchased at wal-mart for ~$1each
You can find the labels I made HERE, or make some of your own.  I recommend you laminate them for durability.  (it didn’t upload in tact, so you may have to cut and paste a bit, sorry).
I did not categorize picture books or board books…we just have WAY to many.  Ideally, at some point, we will have a separate book shelf system for Homeschool books and regular ‘everyday’ story books. 
And another cool thing I found to use the mini milk crates for:

ART SUPPLIES!!  I put 4 recycled containers (plastic jars and cans) inside the crate, filled each with color pencils, markers, pencils, glue and then hung the scissors with rings that can open. 

Getting Organized (part 3)

New Workboxes!! 

The ones on the right hand side are for C and are labeled by subject, and there is another label if it is something he is suppose to do with me, no label means he can do it himself.  The ones on the left side are for Z.  They are stowed away in a pantry type cabinet that doesn’t have a door on it (our landlord had extra cabinets that he placed in one room that has become great for homeschool storage!)  The only issue is it was a tight squeeze to get the boxes in there, so the drawers do not come out, you can open them, but cannot remove them.  On the top I put two empty Ikea trofast bins (from our old workbox system) in here will be group projects, like art activities, or snacks. 

I had printed these strips when I first started using workboxes, and then shy’d away from using them, I think I am going to have him remove the subject card from his box after completing and putting it on the strips so he can keep track of what he has done, and what he has left to do.

If you want more information about workboxes, visit my How and Why Workboxes post.

Stamps and magnets – I had bought one of these fishing storage boxes for my moveable alphabet (which I still have to make)…then I went and picked up 2 more for the magnet tiles and alpha stamps.

Chair pockets:

Old Workboxes = more storage!
the bottom half will be bins for the littlest tot (c), and the top will be supply
storage.  One bin is labeled Library books, and I have our library bag hung on the side of the cabinet.  (Bag is from Thirty-one Bags)

Our Week’s Activity Calendar:
I made this to change up each week, so the boys can see what is planned in lieu of field trips, karate practice, etc…

New additions to our schoolroom

Just wanted to share a few additions that I added to our schoolroom/home.  I also purchased some plastic containers with lids to try and get a bit more organized!  My ‘craft’ room is a crafting/homeschooling supplies disaster!

I added a new shelf to our schoolroom, this shelf has a music and an art bin at the top.  The cubes each hold different topic themed items, that they can use at their own free will.  There are dinosaur items, US State items, and FARM items.  I’ll change these as the themes change.  I need to pick up 2 more cube bins, in these bins I store manipulatives and other things I use for their work boxes.

The Pantry – I moved their plastic ware, cups, bowls and plates to a bin on the bottom shelf of the pantry, with their snacks as well…this way they are easier for them to reach.  It better allows them to help themselves to things.  My oldest likes to get his own breakfast in the morning (he has been doing this for over a year), and in the past would get a chair to reach the bowls.  Now he can more safely help himself! 
I would like to buy a small pitcher for juice in the fridge too, so they can more easily pour their own.  We buy the big Costco size bottles, so when they are full they have difficulty.

Our Homeschool Room

So here are the pictures I promised of our home school room. It's pretty much set for the school year. Storage is hard to come by in these small Hawaii homes (though I will say ours is larger than most, we lucked out)...but our landlord had some spare cabinets and asked if we wanted them in this room. Heck yeah! So it serves as some food/pantry storage and some homeschooling. It's perfect!! I have some maps to laminate and hang from the door frame which will close of the space, but will be easily removable when not in use. I got the idea from a blog some time ago and I can't remember which one.




This last picture is of the chore chart I mentioned and linked a few posts ago. It's really working out well for us so far. I need to make a few more cards to add to it...pick up room and practice karate!

I almost forgot our reference library shelf that is part of our bookshelf wall in the Living Room. Quince said I had to much time on my hands. But I got the idea from a homeschooling blog (again forgot which one...possibly Confessions of a Home school Mom). The top shelf is curriculum that we are not currently using, as well as Home school Reference books for me, the next shelf is Reading books (easy readers and read aloud), the next is divided into Math, social studies and history, with a container for activity type books, and the magazines of Appleseed and big backyard. The next shelf is science. On the shelf to the left are Gospel books, and the bottom two shelves on two more bookcases, and the bottom of one other are all kids books...I'm a book aholic and unfortunately homeschooling gives me an excuse to feed my habit!


(don't mind the mess on the shelves, we are still getting settled in from our move).