Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Homeschool Room Organization

One of the things on my plan for the summer was to redo our schoolroom.  Princess has moved into "middle school" and wanted to have a school desk, rather than a table for her daily work.  We searched quite a bit and found these adorable and customizable school desks online.  The best part is that they are adjustable in height, so they work for both kiddos, and will grow with them even through their high school years.  I also ordered matching chairs from the same company, but they were shipped separately and have not arrived yet.  

The kids LOVE their new desks, and so do I!
We continue to use our workbox system, which we love.  This will be our 3rd year using it, and I wouldn't change anything about the way we initially tweaked it to fit our family.  The only change is that this year, Super Tot wanted to move away from his Tot Trays and start having Preschool "Sissy Boxes".  Princess works her boxes in order and removes the number as she completes a box.   

 Super Tot's boxes will be more like his Tot Trays have been in the past.  I will simply be using the boxes, rather than trays.  Each box will contain an activity that Super Tot can do in any order (and as many times) as he wishes.  They will not be numbered, and they will be out all week, as before.  The only change will be how they are presented/displayed. 

This is what the boxes look like for Princess.  You can read more about the system here
Here are a few more photos of our new set-up.
 Super Tot's area showing his desk, workboxes, etc.
 I have had these drawers for many years, and they were purchased at The Container Store.  They no longer have units with the wooden top, but these are similar.  I use these to store various supplies for Super Tot's schooling.  
The top of the units hold coloring books and various resources I use for Super Tot's school.  I have a milk crate with various activities sorted by letter that I use for his "Letter of the Week" lessons.
 This is the front of our school room.  The crate below the calendar is for library books.  They go in the tote bag when they are ready to be returned.  We go to the library every Monday.  The bookcase under the white board contains various Bible resources, as well as general resources such as dictionaries, our thesaurus, etc.  The cubbies have white board & calendar supplies, as well as other misc. items.
 Another new thing I am implementing this coming year is calendar time.  I am very excited for Super Tot to start each day with Bible time, followed by calendar time to discuss the days of the week, months, seasons, weather, etc.  I used several ideas I found online and combined them to create our own personal calendar.  
I am blessed to have an incredible teacher space in our current home.  All of our texts, teacher manuals, and my planning items for this year are on my built-in desk.  This is also where I have my daily quiet time.  Our family computer is on a small desk in the corner.  
I often receive e-mails inquiring about how I store my various Tot School/Preschool supplies.  I have a closet in our guest room that I use for school storage.  It contains two large metal shelving units.  They may not appear to be very organized, but each shelf and container contains a different theme, skill or type of supply.  
 We have various bookshelves in almost every room of our house containing our personal home library.  They are not organized as well as I would like, as we have moved shelves in a hurry and just placed the books back on.  Reorganizing them is still on my agenda this summer.  We also have baskets full of books in several rooms.  Here are a few of the shelves containing most of our school resources.
 Our homeschool space isn't perfect, but I feel so incredibly blessed to have the room and resources that we currently have.  We expect to move into a smaller urban home in a couple years, and I know that will mean a much smaller school space.  I feel confident that the organization of our current space will make that transition and downsizing easier, and I know that we will be able to make our actual work space fit into whatever home the Lord provides.  

12 comments:

  1. you are such a motivation and blessing to me!!!! now come on over to TN and help me get it in gear at my house. I have a PILE of tot school stuff all over my kitchen table and counter!!!

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  2. I love it! Everything seems so neat and simple! If I am blessed enough to be able to homeschool someday, I will definitely be stopping back for set up tips!
    Kaysha
    Http://memorizingthemoments.blogspot.com

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  3. Thanks for sharing this - I'm on the front end of setting up our first room for homeschooling so I enjoy seeing what other people do :-)

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  4. Beautiful and so well thought out! Thank you for sharing this with your followers. I especially liked that you shared your Tot School shelves -- it made me feel much better about how I am organizing that material!

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  5. I have been working on our homeschool area all today! Love using your page for a reference. I love the piece from Ikea. We are definitely going to get one of those.

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  6. I love your school room! All of our school stuff is currently in the front room and the kids do their work on the table or on the lap desks. Hopefully next year we'll have a more dedicated space for homeschooling.

    I wanted to ask you about your calendar and how you came up with the design for it. I want to put one together for homeschool this year and I am just stuck on how to do it. Did you design the elements yourself? What were some of your inspiration?

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    1. Hannah, if you will send me an email to theprincessandthetot @ gmail {DOT} com, I will send you all the information!

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  7. What is the estimation jar next to your calendar? I cannot read it. Your room looks fabulous by the way!

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  8. The colorful plastic totes on top of one of your shelves that have the days written on them--where did you get them?

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    1. They were purchased at Lakeshore Learning. Lakeshore has some brick and mortar stores, but also catalogs and a great website www.lakeshorelearning.com

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  9. I am also interested in your calendar design. I already have printouts for each month, I just need a main calendar with squares and then I can change the numbers around for each month. which is what it looks like you have.

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    1. Calendar (Fantastic quality, as I've been reusing the same exact one for 10 years now):
      http://www.carsondellosa.com/products/610047__D-J-Kids-Calendar-Bulletin-Board-Set-610047?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=610047&CAWELAID=120176460000010194&CAGPSPN=pla&catargetid=120176460000018178&cadevice=c&gclid=CNb48dnasscCFQ4paQod9MgLog

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