We’re blessed to have a nice-sized homeschool room. I spent some time this summer getting shelves cleaned off and bulletin boards put up. I also fine-tuned our workboxes. Here’s a peek into our families little learning space at its cleanest. WARNING: If you visit my house, it will never look this good, unless you come on Saturday (a.k.a. cleaning day).
The kids do most of their work at this table. The shelf behind it holds their workboxes nicely. Each child has 9 workboxes, except the 4 year old who has only 8. She probably needs 32 to keep her busy for the day! I printed off some of the box numbers and schedule strips from the free samples done by digital scrapbook designer Melissa Renfro. The others were all done in Photoshop Elements from the templates she gave. The kids love having such unique and very different styles to their numbers and schedule strips. I created a calendar bulletin board to incorporate some calendar and counting skills into our mornings. Our timeline will go on the blank bulletin board when it arrives. We’re using the beautiful figures in the “Creation to Christ” packet from Homeschool in the Woods with a timeline strip from Rainbow Resource which is on the way soon.
I am still trying to make the workbox system my own and figure out what will help streamline this system of organization for me. I have a notebook on top of that shelf titled “BOX,” in which I created a tab for each child, with numbered tabs one through nine for each drawer they have. I can easily fill the notebook for a week or two which should make loading the boxes faster. Also, several drawers include workbooks with a Post-It tab and directions (“Do 2 pages). My ever-organized almost 10 year old daughter has taken on the task of filling the 4 year olds drawers each day.
I saw a clock like this in a Scholastic teacher’s book and loved it! Can’t hurt the learning process!
My ‘teacher desk,’ as I call it, has everything I need, except a bottle of patience. This year, I got a great shelf to store all of my teacher’s manual and binders. We’re doing Illuminations 1 this year and they use several great resources. Mystery of History is the ‘spine’ of the program, and all the great read-alouds and read-alones tie in with our history study. It also incorporates Christian Kids Explore Biology, English from the Roots Up, The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide, Winston Grammar and Natural Speller. You can choose which aspects of the program you want to use or replace them with your own. I think I finally found a program that likes the same curricula I do! It’s VERY well done and the literature guides alone are worth the price, in my opinion. I decided to cut all the spines off my books and put them in 3-ring binders. Then I inserted any more teacher’s information from Illuminations in that binder and I’m good to go. Did I mention the awesome tweakable schedule? Soon to restore some progress and sanity to my life!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
You have a lovely homeschool room.
Thanks for sharing your blog. I plan to visit again.
You are soooo organized!
You've done a great job at putting it all together and making school so workable. I know it will help the kids to stay on task more easily. Enjoy the journey!
This is wonderful! I am so glad you were able to use the templates to customize your cards for your family. I love that clock idea, I am going to do that one too! I love it. Thanks for sharing.
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TedCo Software
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love the organization in that room! can i ask? is that room in a basement? do you school down there, too? or does it feel "basementy" – we've got a great basement, but i fear the winter months and no natural light.
and…if i do set up our basement – i'm using that clock idea. love it.
To answer your questions, it's not in a basement, although the room doesn't have windows in it there are 2 skylights. We live in a 1950's house that has been added onto in this century, but also lots of things still in need of remodeling. This room was actually the original kitchen! IT was gross and we gutted it the first week (as there was a nice new kitchen). We have an office just to the right of the flag that is a separate room with big windows. And the room just before you step one step down into the schoolroom is a large family room that is totally full of windows. But if I had a basement, I'd do something to make that work. Does it have any of those little basement windows? Remember, necessity is the mother of invention : ) Where there's a will there's a way. And you wouldn't have to do ALL your schooling there, but would sure be a great place to keep lots of stuff. Lots of layers/levels of lighting could help….ceiling, some task lighting and some lamps. And maybe certain types of bulbs would make it feel more natural.
Well I'm just dying to know more about that pencil holder in the middle of the table! Does it have styrofoam in it?