We homeschool throughout the house and yard. My house is small but I came to the conclusion that even if we had a school room, we wouldn't use it much. We have a whiteboard in the kitchen and most of our supplies are kept in an amoire. Recently we have moved some things around in the garage so we can start using it for science projects and geography. We can use it for other things too, I am sure. I have needed a place to hang maps for a long time. For a while they were in our living room. Now they are in the garage.
LOL The only reason we have a school room is because I put both my daughter's in the same room (we only have the two girls). They don't seem to mind sharing a room (for now anyway) so it works. I have pictures on what we've done so far on my blog. Let me find the link . . . Here it is. http: //macsmommy03.blogspot. com/ It's not a big room, but I think it will work. I'm still in need of a bookshelf, storage for the closet which is where we'll store supplies and a work table for the middle of the room. I do have another desk for my daughter on the wall where the TV is sitting on the floor, it's just not in the pictures.
To encourage all the writers in your family... Decorate with banners and posters and sentence strips of words. Words and phrases. Words and phrases from their favorite stories, their own writings... Write them colorful, write them small, write them large, write them curvy or fluffy. Make a potted plant that will grow with words.
I have a few pictures in my blog. I think most are on the second page. We did rearrange the classroom the other day, but the walls are the same. We have a bookcase, and lots of shelving. Shelves are a MUST! I also have a closet that I store the art supplies and file folders. I hang a lot of things up. My children LOVE to see their projects hanging on the walls. It makes them proud, and gives us an opportunity to take them down and review them regularly. Someday I'd like to paint it, but the idea of taking everything down and out, keeps me from doing it! http://periodichappenings.blogspot.com/ (I think most pictures are on second or third page)
We have a loft space upstairs that we use - that way the kids can easily read in their own rooms and have easy access to the art supplies. I just redid all the book shelves to clean it up and get better organized so I it is a bit of a work in progress. I need to take down old posters and decide what to do for next year. This year we did Ancient History and earth science so we had a lot of posters for all that up. I also have a large wall map that we can write on with dry erase markers that we have up, on one wall, and we did a cloud science project that we actually hung from the ceiling like clouds. On the wall opposite the map, we have Several mis-matched bookshelves lined up, starting with a 6 foot one down to a little three shelf on end, then some stacked crates in the corner. My hubby want to make me "real" bookshelves, but he is so busy, and I am a firm believer in making due with what I have, so there you go! I also organized it, putting all the Language Arts stuff on one shelf, Science on another, etc, and gave our literature their own shelves. This makes it MUCH easier to find stuff when we are working of when I need to make lesson plans! The I used Tabbed folders I got at staples to make shelf labels, so even the kids know what shelf to find stuff! That was my big moment of brilliance! In the corner by the map there is a recessed area (Like if we wanted a small closet in there) so we put a small computer desk with computer there, since my ds (age 12.5) does a lot of writing on the computer for school. It helps a lot, then I just email it to myself, and open the email at the downstairs computer to print. In the middle of the room we have a 6' table that starts under the window and come out so everyone can sit around it. Near each kids' chair they have a small, two-shelf wire shelf to hold the books they are currently using, notebooks, pencils, etc. That way they don't have to keep getting up and down just to get a workbook or something. Then against the stairway, we have a empty space and we use that to put up our large timelines. Since we lost our camera, I will have to wait to take pics, but I want to get the room finished before I do that anyway! Thanks for posting the links for the library-organization software - I'm going to check that out now!
We are blessed to have an extra bedroom in our house that we use for a home office and classroom. This will be our 3rd year to homeschool and I've learned a little about organization. We started with cheap garage sale finds, such as a tall bookshelf and a cabinet. They worked out ok for the first year, but we quickly realized that more storage would be essential for the next year. Since we live near an Ikea store, we found some great bookcases that are made to go flush against the wall and are secured at the top to keep them from toppling over. There is one corner shelf about 15" wide and a 35" wide shelf on each side, creating a "built-in" corner shelving unit. It's perfect for us. A couple shelves are filled with books for leisure reading (at the children's height), another shelf has bins for library books (each bin has a child's name on it and there's one for library returns). Then, we have shelves for math manipulatives, curriculum, games, and so on. The shelves are more than 6 feet tall, so there is lots of storage. (Of course, it never seems like enough!) Since I'm new to this site, I'm not yet authorized to post a link to my blog where I have pictures of the room posted. I'm not sure how long that process takes. ?? We don't have a ton of wall space since the bookshelves consume some of it, closets fill one wall, and we have two full-length windows on another wall. Between the windows, we have maps - one US map and one World Map. We have a bulletin board & large calendar above the desk (for now), and we reserved the remaining wall space for artwork & other class projects. We also use the back of the door when needed. Not ideal, but it's ok. Another thing I find handy are magazine file boxes that stand up on bookshelves. We found a pack of plain white ones at Ikea that we label. We have one box for math, and one box for MFW & English. Other books are stored on a shelf. The boxes are also great for keeping catalogs, field trip info, and other oddball homeschooling materials. I just purchased another package of them so that I can separate materials by grade level. (I've picked up books at dollar stores & forget about them when they are not organized.) Binders are a great way to keep each child's school work together. Each subject is separated with a file tab and history had a binder of its own last year. This really helped at the end of the year when we got our assessment. Everything was already organized and all I had to do was grab it and go! I also keep a planning binder for myself, with tabbed sections. This year, I did something different. At the end of the year, I wrote out a review of the year and goals for next year. I printed the reivew to put in the binder and the goals will go in my planning binder. It was actually fun to write and made me realize how much we accomplished over the course of the year. Lastly, we keep a chalkboard in the room. The one we have right now is an easle and it's ok. I'm trying to figure out how & where I could hang one on the wall. I have some chalkboard spray paint that I could make one myself but I'm not sure how I'll fit it in. Again, if I could post my blog, you could see pictures and possibly give me suggestions! =) We prefer a chalkboard over dry-erase. I hope some of this helps you and gives you some ideas for your room. I'd love to hear how it turns out. Best wishes to you in your homeschool adventure! Lisa
we put up posters that help in learning process, like the sentence hamburger, blends and digraphs etc, plus of course a map of the world or US depending on the year so we have the right one for our learning lessons.. We put up things that go with our curric, posters or what not and have a bulletin board to put up lesson plans or schedules , extra special work etc. I usualy start out using this a lot and it dwindles as the year goes by, lol We also make sure the study space is free of clutter at the beinging of the year, and have pencil case/holder with all that is needed.. etc.
A bookshelf and a desk with comfortable car is a necessity. Do not paint the walls white. A CD player playing some quiet ambient music can help a lot of students too.
WOw! Iwant a desk with a comfortable car too!Where do you find that one? Sorry I had to laugh cause I make more typos than anyone I know! This was too funny!
I thought the same thing!!! Be sure to send me one, too! Maybe Kris will pick up a bunch for us in her pink jet and deliver them all!
Jackie we could get so much more done if we had a car and desk together> I mean really! I am really enjoying this post, I am attempting to move school to our den/office as well this year since I have just the one left home and the ideas here are really helping me to think on what I need to move in there and what not.. I think maps will go right where they are next to the computer desk, in tv room for now, so we will ahve two /3 rooms for our school still.. but condensed areas will be helpful for different subjects too! I liked having stations when I started out, we had science area display, and History area, and Math, and english. each area had things assosciated with it and thats where we did the work ,
I meant chair. Talking on a car forum and homeschooling forum at the same time causes these things to happen.
