Monday, August 10, 2009

School Area Photos

It is School Room Week over on the Life With My 3 Boybarians Blog Hop. I'm participating, even though I don't technically qualify. We don't have a school "room", we have a school area in our dinning room/family room. First, here is an overview photo.
To the left of the shelves is the door to the garage, where the washing and dryer are, and the door to the right in the photo is the door to my daughters' bedroom. To the right of the All About Spelling magnet board is the sliding door to the backyard. Opposite everything here is the dinning room table and beyond it is the entrance to the kitchen. My laptop is there because we use Homeschool Tracker Plus right on the computer for our daily assignments. No printing and wasted ink and paper for us.

Now for a detailed close up of my school shelves. Click on this one to go to a larger version of it, as I wrote right on it what every thing is.Now, as to why we don't have a school room is simple. We've had them in the past and for the most part they don't work for us. I need schoolwork to take place within sight of the kitchen and within hearing of the laundry area. We have lived in well over 10 different houses, condos, duplexes, and apartments over the years, and some of the time we were able to have a dedicated school room. But guess what? The school stuff ended up in the living room and on the dinning room table every day because that is where I was and the kids needed to be near me. The little ones would not even play in the school room if I wasn't there, but would rather bring their toys or puzzles to where I was. That meant stuff strewn from one end of the house to the other. No, now that we are in our 8th year of homeschooling, I have found for us it works much, much better to have a dedicated school area right in the middle of our living areas. School, and puzzles and such, stay where they belong and I still get my stuff done too. It is the best arrangement for us.

We just moved into this house at the tall end of June, so we are still getting settled. There are some changes I would like to make in the short term and in the long term to our school area. First, we having wall files waiting for my husband to hang for us. They look like this to the left but deeper and I hope to hang 6 of them where the pencil sharpener is now and move the sharpener over to the right of the All About Spelling magnet board. Each of the 5 children and myself will have one. The littles will keep things like their crayons and Sunday School papers in them, while the biggers will keep things like their Math books, and I'll keep things like my pocket notebook in it. My pocket notebook, shown right, is what I use to hold a single week's worth of the Sonlight Instructor Guides and other stuff so I don't have to handle the big binders more than once a week.

I hope to get an alphabet chart for the blank wall above the table as my 1st grader is very visual and I think it would help him to see the entire alphabet in order. Also, I would love to have a single shelf along the top of the entire wall extending from the top shelf of the current shelf unit over to even above my daughters' bedroom door. Such a shelf will allow me to have all of my Sonlight books out of boxes. As it is currently I only have 3.5 Cores worth out (some of Core 5 plus all of Cores K, P4/5, and P3/4).

Lastly, some day I hope to have a beautiful wall unit for this wall. Maybe something like this. Although I'm not sure what I'll do for a school table then, but at this point this is pretty far down the list of furniture and improvements we want to do so I'm not worried about details yet.

17 comments:

Dustine said...

I love how you explained your shelf. I thought about that but, I'm just not that computer savvy. Thanks for sharing.
Blessing on your year. :)

Kara said...

Robin! I had somehow missed your blog...I know you from SL! I loved seeing your school area. I am ITA with you on having a school area adjacent to the main areas of the house rather than in a separate room...we've come to the same conclusion as you, for the same reasons.

Stefanie said...

It is so nicely organized!!! One day I hope to have a shelf that large.

Sandra said...

We too do not have a school room but areas of the home where we school. Even if we had the space for one, my kids would end up in the family/living room.

Jamie {See Jamie blog} said...

We don't have an official school room either. And this reminds me that I need to take some photos to jump in and share about it, too!

Tracy said...

You qualify! And I hope you get your shelves someday!

Missy said...

What great organization! As you saw on my blog, I don't have a school room either.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Becca~CapturingSimpleJoys said...

Love it! I've often thought we should bring things down to the kitchen table more for so I could get things done in the kitchen. Sounds like more overall work would get done that way:)

Sarah said...

It's true most work stops if I leave the room...love your area!

Kathy said...

love the organization!

Kristenph said...

I agree with you about having a school room. Not that I've ever actually had a dedicated room... But I love having everyone near me and the kitchen and the laundry. Great pictures. I've got plans for book shelves that go around the corner in my basement.Someday.

www.homeschoolblogger.com/kristenph

Sisterlisa said...

that book shelf would be perfect for you. :O)

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

WOWEE is that organized! I'm just putting all my stuff in about the same pile. :]

Unknown said...

Nice! I love how organized your shelves are. The wall folders are a great idea.

Our "schoolroom" is the formal dining room and it connect to the kitchen and the formal living room which we use as an office. As soon as you walk in my house you see our life! But that's what works for us! I, too, like having our school stuff right in the middle of everything.

argsmommy said...

I love your school area! The wall files sound like a great idea.

Kellie @ Blue House Academy

Anonymous said...

It looks so nice. Simplicity is how I would describe your school area.
We currently moved into a 700sq.ft house. I miss my schoolroom we use to have but seasons change.

Thanks for sharing. I love getting ideas on how to organize things. I would love for you to come to my house and help me get things in order. I'm so bad at it. I try but it just never seems finished.

Linda<><
www.homeschooling6.com

Cindy said...

Your bookshelf is so organized! I'm trying to be proactive rather than jealous! ;o) (It's hard with a busy 2 1/2 year old boy running around!)

Cindy
http://OurJourneyWestward.com
http://ShiningDawnBooks.com