School Room

I am a chronic rearranger so I change this room quite often, to give it a new feel, or often, because our situation changes and the current configuration is not working for us. Currently, I've had to rearrange a lot due to a mobile baby who loves to eat paper!

I have always loved "kid spaces", the kids area at the library always seems so cheerful and homey, so I enjoy creating cozy and fun spaces in our own home. I also love reading and think picture books are an art form, all of which is evident in our play/school/learning room.

Here is the view walking in. I like to display books I hope will catch the kids' attention for free reading, and the side of me that likes order, loves to put books out in themes. Right now I have a space theme and additional books related to my 10 year old's and 9 year old's american history studies, and my 7 year old's ancient history studies.



Turning to the right. I put our American and Ancient history related posters here by the white board in our reading corner. I have to say it looks awfully busy in this picture, but we like visuals, and my 10 year old, especially, has had his interest sparked by a poster, which leads to an entire study.



Here is the rest of that wall. Our bulletin board says "Word Wall", my dd made the sign for it. This is where I'm trying to post vocabulary words from our reading that are new and interesting to us, then we'll make it into a fun game of seeing who can use the most new words in sentences. Then we'll switch them out. Please ignore the lens that's in the way on the table, and our recycle can, I should put that in the closet. Especially since Baby likes to fish around for paper scraps to eat in there.



Continuing to turn around the room. We have some nature posters, presidents, and a poster about the branches of government by the closet, and some posters on the doors to the room. (Okay, I admit it, I have a poster problem). Then teen ds sits at the long table by the reading tree- that mess on the table is all his papers and books. The kids and I sit on the other table with that ugly caddy on it. I utilized what I had around to make a portable pencil, crayon, and other writing utensils caddy. They were on the art shelves before but weren't being returned, so I tried this to see if it would keep things neater.



Here is the rest of that wall and part of the East wall. Please pardon my crooked picture.




And you can see their desks and our art shelves here.



I turned our Expedit case upright in an attempt to have less stuff for Baby to access. The top left cubby has my instructor's guides and things I need; next to it is one of the kids' cubbies, with a bin for their stuff; same for the next two cubbies down. They can slide their bin out, take it to a table, then put it back when they're done. I had their stuff in Ikea Trofast units, but Baby kept getting into it. Under the bins are cubbies with books for our history reading and the very bottom cubbies have science kits and books. I anticipate Baby getting into the 4 lower cubbies, but haven't figured out where else to put things yet. I could put them in the closet, but it's tiny, lacks a light, and things are always getting lost in there. I have walls of bookcases in the living room where I used to keep a lot of our school reading, but it's easier having them upstairs in the learning room.




After that we're back to the front of the room.



Here are old posts of what are school room looked like in 2009 and 2010.