Our New School Room

Well, after months of moving things around, we have finally completed our new school room.  We are all so excited, and a little tired I might add.   My Mom and I finally finished yesterday.  Yeah!!  We still have a room upstairs that needs organizing, but other than hanging a few things on the wall, the school room is complete!  I can't tell you what relief I feel.  I get very stressed out when things are out of sorts, and between cleaning out rooms, adding the school room, and our backyard work, you could say that I have been a little more than stressed out.  I am down to the last room, and since it is upstairs I don't have to look at it for most of the day.  I was able to move the cubby system from upstairs into the new school room, this allowed me the capability to bring all the reading books downstairs and organize them in the cubbies.  I love this concept!  It was always a challenge to bring books downstairs for reading time, and then somehow nobody knew how to bring them back up during cleaning up time.  Now there is no excuse.  Everything has a place.  I also was able to use the cubbies to store all of my supplies.  All of our school stuff is now in one room.  I am hoping this makes for less mess in the kitchen area as well as being more efficient during lesson time.  I also moved the big craft table from the playroom into the school room.  I wanted to give Buddy a place to work that was nice and big so he can spread out.  I will also use this table during craft time for all the kids as there is enough room for all 3 of them.  The girls each have their own desks in the middle of the room.  This way they can have their own space, but be able to use any of the resources on the wall.  I am planning on getting one more write off board to put on the wall by the big map. We don't use the board very often, but there are times that it is helpful, especially during math lessons.  I can't wait to get started in our new room.  There is a lot to be said for the environment in which you learn.  My hope is that the kids will love the new room as much as I do and have a good attitude during our lessons.  I know, I know that is a lot to ask, but I have faith.  HaHa!  Below are pictures of our new room!

Picture 1:  This is looking in from the door, the table in the back is Buddy's work space.  I am planning on hanging the board on the wall and changing the look as we change themes.

Picture 2 is showing one side of the cubbies, this side is used for my supplies and reference books for the kids.

 Picture 3 is showing the shelving unit behind the doors.  I use this to store books that correspond with the different grade levels.  These are items I use, just not everyday.  I also store Tay's art bucket on this shelf.  This way she has easy access to it and will be able to grab what she needs.  In the pull out buckets from Ikea, which I love, I store math manipulative, pattern blocks, and such.  I love having this all in one place.

Picture 4 is showing the other side of the cubby system.  This side stores all the kids reading books.  On the bottom in the blue bins are Buddy's books. He can pull a bucket out and explore.  In the cabinets I am storing things I don't want the kids to get to.  Mostly paper, scissors, and office type supplies.  I figure out of site, out of mind.  We will see.

Picture 5 is another shot of my shelving unit.

Picture 6 is showing Buddy's work space.  He will be able to still be apart of the school day, but not be so disruptive to the girls during the lesson.  He has his own space, with his own learning tools.  I think this will be a big help for us!

I still am planning on adding to the walls.  I have much more to hang, but for the most part we are done.   

Since we are doing Astronomy for science most of the wall decorations on the cubby wall is space.  I plan on changing all this out as we move through the curriculum.  Thank you for taking the time to check out our new room.  I am so very happy to finally be finished.  Now we need to get to learning!

Blessings, 

Kimberly