Tomorrow (Tuesday) we start our new school year. This year brings a few changes and keeps some tried and true things we’ve learned along the way. Princess begins 2nd grade (sort of) and Drama Queen begins Kindergarten (sort of) and Little Prince starts coloring-drawing-playing-reading-whatever-i-can-do-to-keep-him-busy. 😀 I don’t know what possessed me to try to do this while he is awake, but I have. God help me. No, really, I mean it – God, help me! *mini-panic!*
Okay, I’m better now. God provides. He always does. And if it doesn’t work, we’ll adapt. We always do.
Today we finished getting the school room ready. Wanna see it? Cool!
First, there is the little table by the door, it is here that I hope to occupy Little Prince while the girls sit in their desks. Above it is the chalkboard (with CRAYON on it – any suggestions for cleaning?) and the beginning of the alphabet border that runs around the whole area. Above the border are three plastic placemats with the US Map, the US presidents and the US flag and pledge:
The bookshelf in the corner holds all of the girls books. I purged and reorganized a LOT to make grow room and limit the size of the mess they can make. 🙂 On top of the bookshelf are books that are useful for education, reference books like My First Dictionary or My First Animal Encyclopedia, the Leap Pad and a satchel holding all the books and cartridges, and there is room for library books here, too.The bottom shelf holds Activity books and pads, stencils, spiral notebooks, etc.
The desks sit along the wall between the bookcases so they can easily access anything they might need. The tall bookshelf serves many purposes. On top sit their two plastic boxes that hold their daily school supplies. These are out of reach on purpose! There are other crayons and scissors and glue available for crafts, but I want these to remain available and intact for school. The top shelf holds teachers manuals, textbooks, and supplementary workbooks mainly. The two middle shelves are currently vacant while I decide how much I want to keep out. Previously, little baskets held flash cards and glue sticks, etc. But these are the things they were most prone to dumping on the floor. I need to purge and re-evaluate.
On the bottom of the tall bookcase, I used to have some small baby toys but he is big enough to get into the toybox now (literally) so I moved his basket of board books over to this bottom shelf. I hope (I hope!) that by physically distancing them from the girls’ books, I can teach him which ones are his to play with. Or at least encourage him to play with his more than theirs? 😛 I wouldn’t mind so much except that he is in a coloring phase. 🙂
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the shelf above the books, but I think I might use the three bins I have to put some of Little Princes toy collections with small pieces here. For example, all the Little People and animals in one, etc. Well, hey, if nothing else, an empty shelf means I have options!
On the wall above the desks, I have a free poster I received in the mail (one of the things I found on mysavings.com). It is a poster of Nesting Ground Birds and some other small animals native to america. At the bottom it has a picture of Laura Bush and a little message from her about wildlife conservation. Since our science this year will focus on plants, animals, and the human body, I thought it was a neat (and free!) addition to the school area. I also have some posters about forest conservation and the life of a forest but I haven’t put them up yet.
On the wall opposite the desks, I’ve hung a Texas map. Yes, it was free too! It came with a free Texas Guide Book. I thought it would be neat to use the guide book to look things up in different parts of our state. I think we might do something special with the map, too, like mark places where friends and family live. We shall see if we actually do either one of those. 😉
So, that’s our school area. The other half of the room is crib and toyboxes. 🙂 I think this might actually work.
But before I even finished taking the pictures, I noticed something that might be a bit of a problem:
Think he’ll willingly give up this desk tomorrow?
It is really neat that you have a room for school desks, etc. We just have to use the table mainly and a small desk in the kitchen. Our 2 yr old is making homeschooling a little more difficult than I had anticipated but I know it will get better. We are praying it does at least! We have learned over these last 7 years to be very flexible and adapt as needed.
I know! School today was a little…unkempt as I tried to occupy the little guy. However, it was a little later than planned and he soon needed a nap, so it might be better if done at the right time. The school room is actually the other half of his room. The two girls in one, the boy’s room/play room/school room in the other. It’s something of a squeeze and a sacrifice, but worth it I think. I’m kinda hoping that he’ll play with his toys that are right there or watch a Blues Clues in the living room and… Read more »
I love your room! It looks great! Have fun starting school today! I hope it all goes well for you!
Thanks! School was a little crazy, but good. I mean, at least we got it done. 😛
that is just too cute! and- No! he won’t, but maybe DQ will use the table? Love and kisses!
[…] My current homeschooling set up is thus: Half of Little Prince’s room is school area. It’s actually a decent spot. There are two little desks, a small table and two chairs, our bookcase of books and tons of wall space with posters, maps, a calendar, etc. (It’s been rearranged since then, but here are pics of our school room.) […]