School Room....sort of....

Well, I'm back to share my 'School Room' for the Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop 2012!

We don't really have a 'School Room' in our house.  Our entire house is a school! With two elementary teachers, we have more books than any one home should ever have. ;)

I wish I had a week to re-organize my entire house, but that will never happen.  So, my OCD organizational methods shall only be used in corners here and there throughout my house.  

We tried to use cute little metal buckets last year for our crayons, colored pencils and markers but it was a disaster.  Every two seconds someone was knocking the top-heavy buckets all over the table.  So, I'm trying a new idea this year.  The buckets will only have glue, scissors and dry-erase markers, which can be pulled out individually to be used.  Coloring materials are in baskets and shouldn't topple over on the table. So far I'm liking it!

I found these pencil holders at the Dollar Store.  I got them thinking of my two older kids who need a set of highlighters for their Character Quality Language Arts curriculum.  There is a side for pencils and an eraser and the other side for the highlighters.  We had major issues with pencils being lost last year.  Even with assigning everyone their own color and keeping all the pencils in the middle of the dining room table, I still had a child almost every week who had lost all three pencils I had given them.  Annoying.  So, this year they are responsible for their own and have to pay me to buy replacements.  So far, it's helping them keep track of them.  

But, we are only on week two.....

This is the drawer system I used last year for the kids' school books, right next to our dining room table where we do most of our schoolwork.  Sid the Science Kid's is missing because I still have it in the office near his school desk.  Boo Boo didn't have an official drawer, as you can see.  I didn't like the digging, so these are now their artwork boxes.  You can see their old artwork boxes to the right.  Those I'd like to pitch get rid of as soon as possible.

Here is our kids' bookshelf.  The top shelf is writing paper, folders, notebooks, their school binders from last year and some lapbooks/History Pockets that we've done. They still like to show these off to people who visit, so I keep them out.  Plus, we are covering some of the material again this year and they will be good resources!  The second shelf is for my 5th grader, third shelf for my 1st and 3rd graders and the bottom shelf is for my PreK kids, and the 1st grader still enjoys most of these books.  I have three, large, overfilled bookshelves in the office to swap books out often.  Us teachers...I know....

This is my homeschool bookshelf (also in my dining room).  The bottom shelf is where all of my teacher's manuals are for math, language arts, Tapestry, spelling, etc. These are organized by student.  The middle shelf is all my homeschool magazines, parenting/homeschooling books I am reading (or want to read), extra curriculum I'm deciding on incorporation this year or next that I need to look at when I have a moment (art, Spanish, etc.), and lots of character training resources I'd like to work through this year.  The top shelf is my Bible resources I use daily and a couple to-do piles.  I'm currently working on putting together the curriculum I created last year for my own kids for a good friend of mine.  If it's not out to remind me, I'll never do it!

This is my schooling corner.  Yeah, it's at my dining room table and it's not real pretty, I know.  But, there really isn't a good place for all this stuff if I want easy access to it.  The first basket (under the table) is my science picture books for the first 10 weeks of school.  We are using God's Design for Life: Plants and I have added a book (or two) to almost every chapter so my kids have more visuals and my younger kids can enjoy science with us without being lectured to with just the textbook.  The second basket is all my teacher texts that I teach from daily: All About Spelling/Reading, God's Design for Life: Plants, Vocabulary from Classical Roots, First Language Lessons, etc.  I'd like to eventually get these onto my top homeschool shelf when my to-do piles disappear.  The third basket is my Tapestry of Grace books that I'm using for the next month.  I have another basket in my office for future weeks.  Books, books, books!  On the table is my bucket of highlighters, markers, pencils and pens (I don't spill my bucket), my teacher binder with lesson plans and other lesson paperwork.  My stuff is ready to go all day long.  My biggest worry is spilling drinks at lunch or dinner, but I pretty much sit at my chair for meals so that no one is near my stuff.  ;)

This is Sid the Science Kid's school desk.  After getting distracted a lot last year, we made a space for him in our office to do his schoolwork.  He does much better behind a closed door.  To the right on the floor, sandwiched between Myra's medical supplies, is his red drawer of school supplies.  His incomplete work stays on top of the desk, and as he completes it, he puts it away in his drawer on the floor.  When the desk is clear, his school work is done!  On the wall you can see his name tag (for fun) and his weekly checklist.  This tells him exactly what needs completed daily and I can see exactly what he's done at any point in the school day.  He is actually a very diligent worker and I'm proud of his efficient, accurate work most days.

One of the benefits to having a husband be a public school teacher is all the fun 'school' stuff my kids get that I normally wouldn't bother to buy.  This year they all have name tags from left over years my husband taught 1st and 4th grade.  The kids thought they were fun and the math charts will come in handy.

This is the girl's school corner (1st and 3rd).  It's actually in the corner of my kitchen, right next to our piano.  LOL, our house isn't a show home by any means!  I wouldn't put the girls near each other, except they will probably never be at their desks together.  I work with Angelica Pickles between 8 and 9 and Princess Pea from 9 to 10.  So, any independent work Angelica Pickles might have will definitely be done by the time Princess Pea and I are done at 10.  We got these desks from another homeschool family and I honestly didn't think I would ever put desks in my house.  But, with two doing a lot of independent work and having a PreK and 1st grader I'm also teaching, I needed a place for my older two to do work without distraction. And if the older two have a desk, you can bet the younger two wanted one, also!  The girls each have a little space for all their school books in their desk, too.  That keeps things nice and tidy throughout the school day.  You can see on Princess Pea's desk to the right (3rd grade), her weekly checklist is adhered to her desk.

And, of course, Boo Boo had to have a desk!  He doesn't even have a chair right now.  If he wants to be at his desk while I'm schooling at the table, then he pulls a chair over from the table.  You can see our color words on the wall and on the left wall is all the kids' All About Spelling/Reading sticker charts.  I need to find a new place for these...

Our window sill in the dining room is storage for math games/manipulatives, Bob books and kid Bibles. It's usually our display shelf for projects, too.

Our dining room wall has always been a large display board.  This is the only wall you can see from our living room, and for a time I tried to keep it clear from homeschool stuff.  But, it's just too large a wall to not use!  Currently we have the names of God and the Lord's Prayer up from last year's bible lessons and we have up our Tapestry timeline, family rules, books of the bible poster, 10 commandments poster and a science project displayed from these past two weeks of the 2012-2013 year.

I think that's pretty much it.  Our poor dining room is our classroom.  No formal dining room here!  All my other school books are on five large bookshelves in the office surrounding Sid's school desk.  Wish I could create a fabulous space, but until we get some more room, that's not going to happen.  I am content with what I have.  ;)

Looking forward to drooling over other school rooms at ihomeschoolnetwork.com!