I love having a school room and would have a very hard time going back to not having one. I know lots of people who have school rooms still end up working all over the house, but we actually do most of our work in this room. I think having a good sized room, a large table where we all fit, and a couch to do our reading makes a big difference. I like that it's separate from the main part of the house because it keeps me from getting distracted by other things (laundry, dishes, etc) I would worry about if I was looking at them the whole time.
Our school room is an upstairs bonus room. After you come in the door, there is an small area and then a step down. That's where this picture was taken.
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A little closer to the main part of the room.
My hubby made this table because I couldn't find one as big as I wanted. It has shelves for legs so we can store extra pencils, crayons, colored pencils, etc. I painted a lazy susan and added metal pails (from Target dollar section) for the middle of the table to hold things we use often.
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This is taken from the table and is the opposite side of the room. The door is on the left side of the picture.
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Right side of room
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Left side of room
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I'll start to the left as you enter the room and go around. This the only area in the room that doesn't have the angled walls so it's where the bookshelves had to go. Everything on these shelves is divided by subject.
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I love this little reading area and the kids were excited to go out and choose beanbags for it. The shelf on the left has picture books and the right one has easy readers and chapter books. On top of the right shelf are file folder games and library books (in the B bookends). I'm planning to get a basket or two to hold more library books.
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Next is our little science area. On the left are a container of magnets and a magnet book, a wooden box with treasures the kids have found outside, and some bug containers. On the right are some ocean themed items. The basket has frogs on a log along with science and math workbooks that go with them for Molly to use when she finishes and is waiting for the rest of us.
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Art and Writing area
You can see our art work display line coming across the science area and into this. There's a small table for the girls with some journals on it and a roll of paper. Above that are containers with markers, crayons, colored pencils, glue sticks, and decorative scissors.
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Gutter shelves to display books that go along with what we're studying or if it's just something I want the kids to notice. The basket in the corner has pattern blocks, tangrams, and books to go with them. This couch gets lots of use for read alouds and often when the kids are reading on their own.
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Close up of the cork board that's behind the couch. This is where I put up which artist, music (instruments right now), and state we're studying.
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World map, president poster, beginning of our time line, and math box. I don't know if you can see it, but the yellow sign says "look what I made" and has 3 clips for hanging things. I shortened our timeline this year and just included from the late 1500s to now. In history, we've almost made it to the 1800s. The math box has all our RightStart manipulatives divided into the drawers. The box on top has cards for the math games.
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This is where I keep the books we use almost daily. Each of us has a cubby and there is one for the girls' science, Colin's science, state study, unit study or holidays, subjects we do together, their lapbook notebooks, and 2 for history. The containers on the bottom hold some of my supplies. The kids each have one under their cubby for whatever they need to put in. The bins on the top hold their art supplies (the good ones that I want them to take care of and be responsible for their own). On the left is the girls' workboxes (5 for each of them). On top of that is SWR phonogram cards. The right side has Colin's workboxes.
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The green container to the left has file folders to hold printouts and whatever else for things I've planned that we'll be doing soon. The white drawers hold all different kinds of paper with the printer on top.
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Just outside of the room is our craft closet. It's in need of a lot of organization right now. I just wanted to hurry and get the boxes unpacked so I'll be working on it soon.
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We also have another closet down the hall outside the playroom for games and puzzles.
Check out this blog hop to see where other people are doing school.
