we have moved our schooling areas around in the house a couple of times, but i think we're finally all settled (until i get the urge to redo something...which i don't foresee happening anytime soon). our extra glass-walled room now has a working a/c and heater (hallelujah!), so it is so much more inviting and not sweat-provoking or jacket-requiring! and, i've gussied up our front room into an inviting reading place.
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here's our school room:
on the shelves are school-related games and necessities, my books, idea magazines, their work boxes, crates holding supplies they cannot use without me and a folding file with items we'll be using for various weeks this school year, and (on the bottom right shelf) are plastic containers containing each of our subject work that we do every day. the world map hanging on the wall is dry-erasable, and on the back side is the united states map, also dry-erasable.
here are their work tables and dry-erase board (with our timeline event cards already up there for the week's study). i also have a little book shelf back there with just Bible books and phonics readers. that tv is there just because we don't know what to do with it (i have trouble parting with things that work just fine)...maybe i'll show some magic school bus episodes on it. and our CD player is below that, already loaded with our Classical Conversations CDs for review time.
and this is our school tools caddy.
i picked up a lazy-susan from ikea and cleaned out some empty cans.
every tool is in its place!
the girls just grab the can they need and put it back when they're finished.
and this is OUR reading room:
(i say OUR because i read in here too - my novels, my Bible study time, etc. it's so cozy.)
i've put a brown wicker basket filled with free-time library books next to the book shelf. the girls choose from it for bedtime reading. and when i do read-alouds related to school studies, i've placed some colored pencils and lap desks with paper in them on the floor so they can draw if they can't just sit still and listen
(ahem, SugarBee).
next to the couch is my blue library book cart. when we finish reading a library book, it goes in the cart. i LOVE that thing. i check out sometimes 25-75 books at a time, so this thing is awesome sauce.
also, i've been putting up some of the girls' artwork in a hodge-podge way on the wall above the couch. and someday i hope to cover the whole wall above the couch. it makes me happy to look at it. ah, happy place.
that's SugarBee reading her self-made books.
so those are our designated education spaces. of course, we flutter all over the house and outside, too. but, i'm trying to get organized as much as possible, and that means getting these two areas in order. i liked how they've turned out and look forward to all the fun we'll be having in them this year.