Thursday, January 14, 2010

A Peek at Our School at Home

Just as homes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so do our work spaces for school at home. Whether it be the kitchen table, the extra room, the basement, the couch, or the car - opportunities for learning and teaching are everywhere! This is precisely why I have stuff everywhere, lol!

I do strive to keep things organized, and most of the time I can locate what I'm looking for (which one may attribute to organization, memory, or a little of both), either way I aim to have things accessible because I tend to be an "out of sight, out of mind" person. So with that said, I thought I'd share a few pic's of our designated and communal areas that we utilize in our learning adventures.

This is our main area (a.k.a the kitchen :) where we have a good size table, wall length book shelf, and a large magnetic whiteboard from Staples (LOVE THIS!). After endless searching and not finding what I had in mind, I designed this shelf to fit my needs for this particular space and my dh graciously put in the hard work to bring it to fruition! (Go honey, you rock!)





This is a secondary area in our small "resource room" in the basement. It houses our manipulatives, extra items, additional shelves and another magnetic whiteboard. . .




These table and chairs make-up a craft/work area in our resource room. . .



These are a set of 3 wall mounted bookshelves that we have in each of the children's rooms. I opted for this style to make them visible and accessible. They were built out of pine and brush painted white. (I aim to decorate them someday :)



This is our game shelf. After years of having them strewn all over the house and stuffed in various closets, this has been a huge help for keeping them organized!



Now I want to add a disclaimer. . .I did a little (okay, a lot) of picking up before taking these shots and made an extra effort to blow away a few dust bunnies that had taken up residence. A lifestyle of learning can be messy sometimes, so remember to keep the main thing the main thing, and don't sweat the small stuff!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am SOOOO jealous of all those wonderful bookshelves!!!!!

Greta:)

Silvia said...

Tina, your kitchen red paper looks beautiful, and I absolutely love that white shelf in particular, though I have to say the kids shelves are wonderful, as for the games, well, if we were neighbors I'd love to go to your house for game day with the kids!

*~ Tina ~* said...

Thanks ladies! I'm very fortunate that dh is so handy and willing to go along with my crazy ideas! The shelves he built have been so helpful in keeping somewhat organized!

Sylvia, I love that wallpaper too! It's been up for about 6 years though, so in the spring, I plan to redecorate :) I use to change things up every couple of years, but the older I get, the less energy I want exhaust on those tasks, lol!

Joanne Laufenberg said...

It's all fun and games, chuckle. Thanks for sharing this with us, especially the disclaimer about dustbunnies and picking up. Needed that. :)

*~ Tina ~* said...

Thank you Joanne! Funny thing about those dust bunnies. . .they always come back, lol! I was just out "deep" cleaning the kitchen this evening and pondering that "stuff" that sneaks in and somehow becomes part of the decor :)

On that note. . .I better get back to the broom!

Denise said...

Love the bookshelves too! I am now following your blog and look forward to reading more posts.

lori said...

So much to love; the bookshelves, whiteboard, games, and books! Thanks for sharing.

Sparklee said...

Wow, someone actually has more board games than we do? I'm impressed!

Your homeschooling spaces look awesome--so cheerful and fun!

Anna P said...

Love the bookshelves in the kitchen and the ones mounted on the wall! I am afraid my monkey boy 2yr old would try to climb them though...maybe in a few years =)
Thanks for sharing your space!

Anonymous said...

I love your room! Very clean and organized! Have a wonderful school year!

Stacy said...

Tina,

You are such a blessing! You help me put things back into perspective. Thank you!

God bless,



Stacy in WA state
Basically Beechick online pal

HeatherLee said...

I love the bookshelves on the wall. I am tempted to make my kitchen more hs friendly. We do have a cabinet for science and art supplies.

*~ Tina ~* said...

Awww. . .thank you all for all the sweet comments! I must have missed some of these as they were posted and just now read several that were new to me! This post is a good reminder that my "stuff" is in need of attention. Lots of "piles" growing around here lately :)

iphonealaska said...

How are the books organized? Are they by subject, title, author? Also, how did you decide which ones would go into the baskets vs. shelf?

*~ Tina ~* said...

The books aren't particularly organized, they are more like "lumped together", lol! I try to keep similar categories "near" each other, but haven't done any purposeful organizing as of yet :) The ones in the baskets are typically the ones were use more frequently or access daily.

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