Our Library Area

I have looked high & low for shelving or some kind of cubbies that would fit under the windows in our library area.  Nothing would either fit or match our bookcases, until I found an IKEA hack on Pinterest.  I purchases 2 of the tall skinny Billy bookcases & turned them on their side.  Pinterest get’s major props for this one! 

This one is all geography related & is sectioned by:  World geo, basic geo, & US geo.

The other one is for some of our favorite short stories & themes.  I also have a few quiet activities for the boys to do while I read aloud.  I don’t really love the colorful bin assortments, but it keeps them organized by theme until I find something better.

All this gave me a lot more room on my other shelves – which meant I had to totally rearrange the shelves – YIKES!!  This was a bit of a challenge & very time consuming, but here is was I came up with:

 

The shelf on the left holds all our history books.  The top shelf is for Ancients (we haven’t studied them in-depth yet, so there aren’t many), the next shelf is Middle Ages & Renaissance & the rest are American History (our current study).

The middle bookcase holds all our science & nature books.  The top shelf is astronomy, airplanes, & anatomy, the next shelf is ocean, then snakes & frogs, below that is nature books & botany, then there is a bug shelf (the black thing is going to be our bug collection), then next shelf holds all our varies animal books, and the last shelf is ALL our horse books.

The corner bookcases didn’t change much.  The one on the left holds our reading books.  I organized this mainly by reading level.  I put the easies on the bottom (so the little boys could reach them) & the more difficult books on the very top.  The other bookcase holds our art & music appreciation books, then our character & Bible study books & the last 2 shelves are for Pre-K & Kindergarten specific curriculum.

I found the cute little wagon at a garage sale & it holds all our Five in a Row books (& a few other favorites).

There are also 2 new additions to this area in our schoolroom.  First – the rug.  I found this for $50 at a flea market & I debated on getting it or not (I really wanted the entire US map rug), but I am so glad Big Daddy talked me into it.  The boys LOVE it!  They set up their forts & have battles – they each have a “territory”.  It melts my heart when I overhear them playing & one says, “No, Texas & Mexico are my territory!”  LOL

Last, but certainly not least is our new easel from Lake Shore Learning.  First, I want to say – I LOVE IT.  THEY LOVE IT.  IT IS WORTH EVERY PRETTY PENNY IT COST.  *I had to sell our pocket chart stand, A LOT of books, toys, curriculum, etc. to help pay for this.  I also had a 20% off coupon – which helped quite a bit.  I surfed the internet for hours looking for a good set-up for All About Spelling.  Most of them were dry-erase boards on the ground (which is where ours has been in the past).  This is a problem with a crawling baby & a mischievous 2 year old on the loose.  I also needed storage for all their boxes & go-along materials.  So, I bit the bullet & I am so glad I did.  Originally I had our AAS set-up on the unlined side, but the boys were getting a little crazy with their BIG & small writing :)  On the other side is Truman’s set up.  The bigger boys use it every once-in-a-while for pocket chart activities & I also store their sight words at the top.

Our Language Arts & Art/Drawing Centers

The more independent Tyler becomes, the more work he is doing on the computer.  The past year we have really struggled with finding him an area he could spread out comfortably on while using the laptop.  We looked at several options & decided on expanding out Expedit section.

The top section holds each of the boys’ binders, our dictionaries & thesaurus’, & writing materials.

Beneath are computer CD/DVD’s & craft bins.

To the right is our printer/copier, laminatorz, preschool packs, FIAR printouts, etc. 

On the other side is our art/drawing center.  I had little cubbies (from Big Lot’s) that fit perfectly inside to organize everything.  The top 2 shelves have drawing books, paper, & notebooks.  The bottom shelves have paint & stamping supplies. 

 

 

 

The other cubbies are mostly language arts – letter activities, phonics, & thinking skills, etc. 

I still have some organizing/re-arranging to do in this area, but at least now Tyler has plenty of space to spread out & get his work done.

Just a little rearranging & small changes in our school{barn}. . .

Something about our school{barn} just wasn’t flowing, but I just couldn’t pin-point it.  After giving it some thought, I realized it was the “centers”/toys.  The Lego’s & building area was on one side with the play kitchen area & the other toys were on the other side of the room.  The boys were scattering all they “treasures” all over the room.  I decided to move things around & this is what I came up with:

ALL of my boys love this table I got from IKEA.  However, it just wasn’t wide enough for all of them to sit at at the same time so I purchased a second one to give them more space. 

I also decided to moved my desk & Tara’s playpen around.  I keep checking Craig’s List for a better desk, but so far I haven’t had much luck, but for now this will work. 

I thought about cleaning my desk off, but I think I’ll keep it real for ya – this is how it looks by the end of every week.  A fabulous DISASTER!

    

On a side note:  Tara loves to play in her playpen!  She is my first baby to actually stay in it without screaming fits.  Eventually, I plan to fill it with plastic balls for her to play with, but I am waiting for her to loose interest in the current toys she has in there. 

She is all over the play now – crawling & getting into everything – so I moved her play mat to the back of the schoolroom where there are more appropriate things for her to “discover”. 

Our Building Center

Since we don’t use our IKEA Trofast bins for “workboxes” anymore I decided to use them to organize our building center (mostly the Legos).  I found these cool labels at (Yellow Mums), but I need a couple colors that weren’t included in the FREE download, so I messaged Laura at her Etsy shop - she was super sweet & not only made me the extra colors, but also custom labels for the rest of our building center.  (*You gotta visit her Etsy shop!  She has some VERY cute printouts!!)

The top half is devoted completely to Legos.  Each of my boys have 2 shelves for completed projects & their own personal bin for their “work-in-progress.”  We spent an entire day sorting Legos by color!  One of my friends warned me that it would not stay this organized, but I have to tell you – they do a great job (on their own without any prompting) keeping it organized.  In addition to the color coding, we also made a bin for instructions, Lego people, & Big Legos (for Truman; however, he his very close to needing his own bin as well.)

The bottom portion of our building center includes:  gears, super structures, trains, tinker toys, wedgits, blocks, drill set, pegs, & lincoln logs. 

This center is by far their favorite & most chosen 99% of the time.  They spend hours in the floor building & creating & playing with each other.  Priceless memories!

Calendar & Morning Board

Are you ready to see all the changes that have been going on inside our school{barn}?

I just fell in love with this set-up in the Pottery Barn Kids Catalog. 

But they were $100 . . . EACH

I really didn’t need a cork board & I have a HUGE chalkboard – It was the dry erase calendar board that caught my eye.  I loved the old barn wood look, but still – $100?!  I couldn’t do it.  I really wanted to though.

Then I went to Canton Trades Day.  And found the coolest frames! 

I knew right away what I wanted to do with them.

I measured the frames, had Home Depot cut some dry erase boards to fit, did a little begging, pleading, & bartering with Big Daddy to put the dry erase boards inside the frames (not as easy as I imagined) & then I contacted Jessica who has an Etsy vinyl lettering design shop, Say It With Style.  I sent her my ideas & a couple pictures & she did her magic.  I however, did a lousy job applying the calendars – so I have to reorder another set to try again, but I could wait to show you. 

But wait.  It gets better.  Wait for it . . . THEY OPEN!!

Inside the bigger door is our school store list on laminated poster board – fit perfectly.  I haven’t decided yet what I am going to do on the smaller door ????

I LOVE THEM!

And they were not even close to $100!!!!

WARNING: Disaster Area!!

I mentioned that I had been spending A LOT of time organizing my school{barn}…

      

I wasn’t lying when I said it was a total disaster area!

U.S. Maps

Our school{barn} has had quite a few changes lately.  One is this geography section.  I fell in love with the pin maps at Montessori Print Shop. The first one on the top left is flags of the states, & the second map is the state names & capitals.  I want to make the third map “animals of the U.S.” but I haven’t found any pre-made flags & haven’t had time to make my own yet.  I just can’t help it - I have a small obsession with maps :)

A Splash of Pink

Now that Tara is getting bigger we decided she needed her own little area in our school{barn}…

OUR SCHOOL {barn} 2011

Today, July 5 marks the first day of our 2011-12 school year.  It has been a crazy, very busy past few weeks of preparing curriculum, schoolroombarn recovery, & lesson planning.  Lot’s of late nights for this mama!  But it has all paid off because our schoolbarn is no longer in recovery mode!!  Wanna see what I’ve been up to?

Our schoolbarn hasn’t changed a whole lot since last year, but there are a few changes.

I did a little re-arranging & got another Expedite from IKEA (love that place!)  The 2 bins on the end are the Itso large bin’s from Target (*on sale last week for $7ea!!).  The 2 middle ones are from IKEA.  The left side is for arts & crafts (paint, stamps – things I don’t want Truman in!!!), the bottom left is supplies for future science, history, or Spanish projects & the red bag holds art supplies – drawing books & such.  The right side is our writing/grammar side.  It stores writing materials, HWOT manipulatives, & references.

*The blank poster above will be our grammar/writing cheat sheet.

On top you will find…

 

 

 

 

 

Paint Caddy (from Target w/ a little DIY touch), I have this blue caddy to hold markers & crayons (inside an old basket), & the red bucket (I think I got at Target) just holds glues, scissors, & rulers.  You’ll also notice the glass jars.  One holds the kids (color coded) dry-erase markers, the other pencils (all of my kids use a different type of pencil & none of them keep up with them very well).

The little blue cubby that used to hold our arts & crafts is now part of our new “command center”.  On top is our Family Rules, If-Then Chart, & Brother offended me list (framed) & our timer.  Inside each cubby are my teacher guides.  The top holds guides I’ll need for morning activities together, next to it holds afternoon guides for group work.  The cubbies below each hold guides for Tyler, the other for Tucker & Trevor.  It was way too small to hold all our supplies & boxes/bins would not fit in it.  Which caused a MAJOR problem with my WILD Lil’ Buckaroo who is into EvErYtHiNg!!!  Most of the time is was turned backwards to keep him OUT – & was not exactly easy for any of us to get to!

Another semi-addition to our “command center” is the info board.  Last year the kids did AWANA & the memory verses took up the entire board, but this year our church is doing a different Wednesday night program, so I decided to make the chalkboard our information board.

 

The information/titles that won’t change are written in “chalk paint” (washable) – it is so stinkin’ cool!!  I love it.  The weekly info I wrote in regular chalk to make it easier to change each week.

I slightly rearranged our workbox area to make room for the new Expedite.  On top stores the kids binders (totally color coordinated) & some personal supplies.  Each kid has their own timer, dry-erase board, eraser, etc.  I am not currently using the workbox system the Sue Patrick way.  I have read the book & implemented it as it was designed.  But the daily updating task got old.  The daily “work” is not a problem for us – it is the extra that is the issue.  So I put extra fun activities inside the boxes weekly.  You’ll find doodle pages, geoboards, magazines, drawing pages, etc. inside.  When the kids need a break or are waiting on me or a sibling to move on I rotate them between our centers & workboxes.  It works for us!

 

The other areas are pretty much the same.

Our library area hasn’t changed much – other than the AC/Heater & a little rearranging.  *There was a HUGE issue over the AC.  Big Daddy wanted to put it in the middle of the room (right where my Grammar/Writing Center board is) & I was having major issues with that idea.  I really wanted it cut into the wall (right beneath where it is).  A window was NOT either of our first choices, especially because the view is so beautiful, but it was our compromise.  At least it isn’t permanent!  My next IKEA trip I will be adding an Expedite section under these windows & maybe a few more small Billy book cases in the corner to the right. 

The bottom left pix is our pathetic history/geography area.  I know the bucket says “comics & magazines, but it really holds our geography books.  I just haven’t changed the label.  Big Daddy hasn’t finished the walls on this side of the room, but I’m planning on hanging our U.S. map over here (soon!)  The bags you see are our “book bags”.  Since most of our books are in the schoolbarn, I made these bags for the boys to transport free reading books to & from our house.  I pick a few & they add their choices as well.  I try to make sure there is a variety of reading – magazines, short stories, biographies, etc. 

 

My desk area is still a slight disaster after all the planning that has been going on.  My absolute favorite is my desk apprentice.  It is just amazing.  Last year the files were for daily handouts & subject files.  This year we have quite a bit more hand-outs with our curriculum, so I made weekly files for the first half our school year.  The hanging files are just from Walmart & I used the already #ed stickies from Stapples – much easier than using the traditional file lables.  Plus the colors are pretty :)  The sides of my apprentice hold dry-erase markers, favorite pens & pencils, highlighters, & permanent markers.  I REALLY REALLY want a 31  file bag like Sam’s.  *In fact, if any of you are Thirty One consultants let me know – I’d love to order from you.

Since our schoolbarn is not attached to our house, snacks & drinks can be a challenge.  Each of the boys have their own little “saddle bags” with snacks & I got the little mini water jugs from Walmart & used paint pens to right their names on them.  They are a huge hit with all the boys & super convenient. 

And that is it.  My sweet homeschool haven.  I LOVE IT!