Our New School Room & A Freebie!

Welcome to week 2 of iHomeschool Network's Not Back to School Blog Hop. It's School Room Week. 

After three moves in 2 years - yes you read that right - we are finally settling into our 'forever' home out in the country. We have 3 1/2 acres of our own, but we live right next door to a 100 acre farm. As I type, I'm watching the pretty little soybean plants billowing in the breeze along the hill out my window. After all the insanity we've endured, we are so blessed to call this place home. The best part.... our finished, walk-out basement has a large bedroom that has become our new school room. It even has a nice, big window and a walk-in closet. You bet I was drooling when we walked through this house!

So let's start the tour.

The view as you walk in.

My 6th Grader on the left; My 3rd Grader on the right.
My 8th Grader chose to work upstairs in her room to help her concentrate.  

Each of my children have their own computers. They are completely antiquated boat anchors, but still run most software and websites. But, at $20 a pop, they were a steal and we won't complain. Unfortunately, this year has some challenges as we have limited internet data usage out here in the sticks. That means any streaming is out of the question :(  So now we've become the phycho people at the library watching videos and downloading like mad instead of just casually perusing all the books. Honestly, it's a little embarassing.

Our center wall with all the great helps as we cover World Geography this year.

Our crates of books for My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures

Ok, the rocking chair may be a bit much, but I've had it since I was pregnant with my oldest and  I've rocked all my babies here. So I just CANNOT part with it. Since it didn't have anywhere else  to go in the house, a yellow pillow from Target was my attempt at making it fit, hahaha!  

click here to get this freebie!

The sign on the wall above the chair says "Our Book Explorations" to go along with our geography theme and I've included this a freebie for all of you! I found little book-shaped cut-outs from the dollar store as well. When the kids finish a book throughout the year, we will write it on the 'book' and stick them up on the wall so they can see all they've read. I just find the 'Date/Title/Pages Read'  reading logs a bit tedious. This is my attempt to keep it more visually motivating. 

 Also hanging from the shelves are some tools we use to expand on our reading skills. Story Elements Question Fans from Runde's Room have some great questions about Character, Plot, Setting, etc. And for my 3rd grader, we use Bloom's Buttons from Colleen Alaniz. She also has Bloom's Buttons for non-fiction now as well! I LOVE the look of these! I have my son choose two or three buttons from the jar (without looking) and we choose a question with the corresponding colors. It works kinda like a game, so my little guy is actually excited about answering questions about our reading.

Daily Schedule on the left and we have our white board up - FINALLY!

My desk with my Teacher's Manuals separated by child on the shelf above.

I am so thankful to be out of cardboard boxes and finally in our home. We are loving it out here and enjoyed our first week back to school. I can't wait to make some awesome memories learning together in our fun new room.

 

Our (almost) Secret Homeschool Room

Many of you have amazing homeschool rooms that I pin and adore. I have had designated rooms for school in the past, but we have turned out to be one of those families that just always seems to wind up in our main living areas. So, we have just adjusted to that! Ah! the beauties of homeschooling.

So while I don’t have a separate room in my house all duddied up with posters and bulletin boards, I have transformed our open-concept great room into a somewhat “secret” homeschool room. Why a “secret” room you ask, well I’m just a little OCD and I really don’t like clutter. Ask my friends, organizing is a sickness for me that I just enjoy WAAAAY too much! I hope this will offer some inspiration to those of you who also just don’t have that extra whole room to dedicate to schooling!

First off is my 2nd grader’s more obvious schooling corner. I found an old school desk at the Salvation Army for $20. Ugly, but fixable.

Before

After


So below is the desk in it’s cozy little corner at the back of our great room. (click the photo below to see more clearly) The white paper on the front is a cutout of ants since that’s what we’re studying in science this week. The awesome, huge pocket chart was a $3 garage sale find – can I get a whoop whoop!!! I use these Word Bits for our phonics studies. The little blue pocket chart is from the dollar store, the book shelf for our monthly author study is from Ikea ($3 spice rack), the wooden crates behind the desk were purchased with 1/2 off coupons from Michaels and they hold geography books and games (bottom) and our Math-U-See blocks in the teal toolbox and hot dots (top). The picture frame holds our weekly schedule so I know just what’s coming up next.




We use All About Spelling, and these little buckets hold the blue consonant and red vowel magnets we use every day. I found these were easier to use for single letters than the tiles. Pulling down one at a time, and then putting them all back -in the right spots- each day got tedious. This is working much better for us! We still use the tiles for the blends and digraphs.









Across from his desk is a whiteboard I use for teaching. I have magnetic clips to hold posters and graphic organizers which are stored behind the bookshelves you see here. (another hiding spot, hehe! Also peek under the end of the sectional – there’s a pocket chart hidden under there too)




Our home library consists of many, many books from library bag sales. Others are just those we needed. The bottom shelves are organized historically by color tab in 50 year increments. This means that I won’t be covering a history topic from the 1850’s and have to try to find all the books I own that represent that era! So helpful! The top left holds all the classic chapter books from The Penderwicks, which we just finished and highly recommend, to Little Women and Tom Sawyer. The others are arranged by topic (even science books are color coded to coordinate with the cover colors of our apologia science books – see I really do have a problem!)



So Mr. Man’s little area is to the right of the fireplace. On the left is Mom’s favorite spot!!! This is where I read our group Bible lessons or read alouds. Even the kitty likes to cozy up with us when it’s cold and we get the fire going! My 5th grader uses this spot for her silent reading spot as well. Can’t say I blame her! My other two take either end of our sectional to do their reading.



Now for that sectional. And my secret weapon… the coffee table. LOL! Underneath, you can see the Wii board (not school related, just a good spot to hide it) My Proclick (you so have to check out my earlier post about this little doodad) and my paper cutter.

 

Now for the secret part.



Surprise! More goodies! I LOVE review games more than quizzes! We have some we’ve adapted, downloaded and some we’ve just made up, but that’s a whole ‘nother post! We are using See The Light’s DVD-based art curriculum this year. It only requires simple supplies that are stored for each of my kiddos in here, right in front of the TV all ready to go. Our science lab supplies are kept in the last bucket and can be used on the coffee table or run right over to the kitchen if it’s gonna get messy.
Now let’s swing around to the TV wall. The shelf on the right holds our art DVD’s, Magic School Bus science DVD’s and our Liberty’s Kids series. On the left, the middle shelf houses my history books, while the bottom shelf is our home for library books. (Sometimes this has to overflow to the other bookshelf as well. What can I say, I love books!)

 

Tada! Another hiding spot! I also have a glass-door cabinet where I house all my currently-not-being-used curriculum, a cherry armoire in our dining area for my computer and home office that closes completely to hide everything, and a buffet cabinet in my foyer that holds all of our extra school supplies. So now you’re in on my little secret. Shhhh! Don’t tell our guests that coming over for dinner is really coming into school!

Where we learn at home

Week two of the Not Back To School Blog Hop is featuring school rooms. Now, I have to confess, try as I may, mine is still a HUGE work in progress. We just moved about 7 weeks agoand my schoolroom is now in our unfinished walkout basement. You know, great view, but not a whole lot to work with aesthetically :(  But we're making the most of it and I think it's coming together?  

Now to get a little real: So as I'm collecting photos to post, my new Nikon camera decides to completely die. I mean gone! No problem, I grab my oldie but goodie Kodak and flash, flash away! But darn it all, my oh-so-troublesome laptop won't recognize the memory card. AGH! How to get these pictures posted? Undaunted, I drag my poor daughter downstairs (in the dark) and have her shine a light at each area as I photograph it with my cell phone. Ok, those look waaaaay worse that reality. So I patiently wait for morning and hijack my hubbie's iPhone and snap away only to find my internet down all morning. Ok my friends, apparently this is all I can do so.... anyhow, here goes.

I found the cutest collection of scrapbook supplies from Heidi Grace at Joann's called Tweet Dreams and even found some coordinating accessories at Michaels to use as well. I used these and some coordinating scrapbook paper to decorate my room for about $20.

See here are those cute letters titling my Classroom Rules board. Now I know your children come to school time with a bright-eyed sense of eagerness, enthusiasm and wonder each and every morning. My crew however, needed a few gentle ground rules to keep them in check. I created this list and my wonderful husband printed this off as a poster-size document and it looks so great!  If you like this, I've included it as a freebie (minus the heading) so just click the picture below to download it if you'd like.

Here is our word wall (words yet to be added) made from those same scrapbook letters! So fun!

I spray painted this famous IKEA tins and decorated them with the stickers from JoAnn's and the flowers from Michaels. I think they look adorable!

The whole room, kind of. We hung white pom-pom "clouds" and yellow sunflowers to liven up the space a little.

Our Books

Our computer area that needs a whole lot of sprucing up!

This is my desk area. Wow, this looks so much less hodge-podge in person, honest! I use the Tic-Tac-Toe pocket chart for quiz games and review and the new Boggle chart is for those times when they are waiting with a question while I'm helping someone else. They can pull out a sheet of paper and keep a running list of words. Great for spelling practice and keeps them occupied instead of frustrated while they wait. 

I found this "Cookie Mouse" and Peter Rabbit at a local Salvation army for a quarter a piece. Love that! So I displayed the characters with their respective books and then put a book ledge underneath for easy-to-reach choices. The bins underneath the bench are sorted into categories (yet to be labeled) so we don't complete a unit only to find we forgot to read a great book that would have gone along so nicely!

And our favorite reading spot: the family room. Who wouldn't want to read here in front of crackling fire on a crisp fall day. So can't wait!

And for recess....drum roll..... our new playset!  We just got this earlier this week from a neighbor who was moving. They graciously gave us a steal of a price and we thought this would be indispensable in the coming months to burn off some of that excess energy.  

  

For nature studies, we have some wonderful new friends here on our property. We are in the middle of the city - no more than 10 minutes from all major shopping - but we're tucked away on nearly 5 acres and absolutely LOVING IT!  We have a family of groundhogs, bunnies, and here are some sweet deer that like to come by most every morning. Maybe someday we won't run to the front windows to watch them, but for now - yep, we do!

Some newer friends began coming last week. On this particular day, we had 8 turkeys in our front yard.  And while one of my kiddos mentioned that we'd be all set for Thanksgiving this year, I for one am thinking it's totally worth the money to have that turkey come naked and frozen!

Well, that's it for our schoolroom. We are all so excited for our new year! See you next week for Student Photo Week and the scoop on our first week "back to school"...once I get a camera to work, that is!

Turn your Dining Room into a Homeschool Room

How do you squeeze all the kiddos, their books, all your supplies and you into a small room?  I thought this layout was such a great use of a smaller space. It looks like this may have been a dining room which, for many families, are rarely used. Considering I have three kids, I may steal this idea someday!