Hi everyone! This week is School Room Week with the IHN Not-Back-ToSchool Blog Hop!
We’ve stuck with a similar room setup this year, with a few fun additions! The above picture is an overview of our room, and now we’ll get into the nitty gritty of our setup!
Along the big wall in our room is an Expedit 17”x15”x72” shelving unit and an Expedit 31”x15”x58” shelving Unit. I keep specific phonics and math manipulatives on the top two shelves. These are things we use often and I didn’t want them to get lost in the rest of our things. The shelving unit on the right houses all of my teacher’s manuals. They’re separated by student, so top left is Strawberry Shortcake, right is Turbo, next row is Tinkerbell and Teeny Tot. The bottom shelves are teacher’s manuals for subjects we do as a group.
Next to the above shelves is our new reading bench. This was a new addition this year that we love! I purchased an Ikea Besta shelving unit with adjustable shelves plus Besta round legs. ($50) We made the cute pad specifically for the bench. Stop back by tomorrow and I’ll share a tutorial on this super easy and cute bench cushion tomorrow!
The next shelving unit is the Expedit 25 cubbie shelving unit. The top row are all of my LOTW binders and our school work binders. I keep all of their finished worksheets in their annual binders, then at the end of the year, they go down to the basement for storage.
The next row of blue bins are books, lapbooks, then some other miscellaneous games and activities. Mostly for the Teeny Tot. The Blue Organizer Bins are from Lakeshore Learning.
The next row are one of my favorites. They are Small (10×11) Clear Document Cases from The Container Store. They house all of our manipulatives, math links, alphabet tiles, color cubes, lacing buttons, wooden shape blocks, etc, etc.
The bottom two shelves are miscellaneous games, etc. Then the bottom is full of DRÖNA Boxes ($4.99) that house puzzles, wooden blocks, coloring books, etc. If you’re curious, each cube is 15” deep x 13” high and 13” wide, so there is a LOT of space in these!
Here is the whole wall for you to see, or as much as I could fit into one photograph!
Here is the wall to the right of the shelves. It has our Alphabet Palm Tree, calendar time bulletin board, and All About Spelling board. Along with a few ducks my husband hunted.
Another new addition is the Micke Desk in white ($69.00). I needed something for the kids to do typing and piano on, plus a workspace for me as well. This one was a great addition because it’s not super deep, but its long.
On the desk is a Bosch pencil sharpener, one of my favorite things! It sharpens like nothing else and at record speeds!
We also have the Mala Tabletop Paper Holder ($6.99) which is awesome! Drawing Paper Roll refills are are $4.99.
We kept our Ikea Desk setup. It survived the whole last year and still looks great! Whatever it’s made of is really easy to clean and has held up well. There are some dents on the sides of our swivel chairs just from banging into the table tops, but otherwise it’s held up really well and I’m very pleased with it! I will have a detailed post on how this is put together tomorrow!
Here is a close up of my Vika Alex Drawer Units $79.00. There are only 5 drawers in these, so right now we’re putting two subjects in a couple of the bottom drawers.
Each of my kiddos has an Expanding Acrylic Drawer Organizer in them with all of the supplies they’ll need. This keeps them from getting up a thousand times during class to get something!
In the center of our desk is this super cool Making Memories Caddy was one of my old scrapbooking items. I dumped out the supplies and filled it with markers. Yep, you know you’re a homeschooler when you start sacrificing your scrapbooking supplies in the name of school.
Where’d I Get that?
- Making Memories Caddy (I purchased mine at Michael’s Hobby Store)
- Alphabet Palm Tree on wall
- 10 Drawer Workbox Carts (I purchased mine at JoAnn’s Fabric Store)
- Giant Whiteboard (Check www.craigslist.com I found mine for $5!)
- Blue Organizer Bins on Expedit Shelving
- Seasons Calendar Poster (This is held onto a cork board with small thumb tacks. Click here to see a closeup of our Calendar Activities)
Did ya do away with the workboxes? We are new to homeschooling this year and I wa thinking of ordering the workboxes like yours…
No, we’re just using our Ikea desk drawers this year. I actually prefer the JoAnns rolling carts, but my kids wanted to use their new desks so we are. Unfortunately I have to put 2 subjects in each drawer to fit it all in. They are deep enough to do that, but I prefer the other ones.
Ahhh, do i MISS homeschooling. Last year was the first year all four of mine were in a B+M school and it looked like a couple of them would be back home this year, but alas it does not seem to be in His plan.
Thank you SO much for the link to the reading “bench” – my 10 yo has ALWAYS wanted a window seat and we don’t have one, so I saw closet turned reading nook and told her we’d do it! Your product is just what I had in mind and now I have seen it in action and have to source to get it!
May your challenges bring you all some of your best lessons and may your joyous blessings be many during the upcoming homeschool year!
You room is incredible! Love the furniture and organization. One question: HOW in the world did you ever get your wall to exactly fit the reading nook and book shelves to the smallest millimeter with no gaps? They look like custom built in’s.
I just looked up your last three classroom set up’s and it is great to see your school room evolve over each year! This years is my favorite.
1.) http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/08/our-homeschool-room-2010-2011.html
2.) http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/08/our-schoolroom-on-ikea.html
BTW- the link to the Ikea Expedit 31”x15”x58” actually goes to the taller 72″ shelving unit, and thought you might want to switch it?
You room is incredible! Love the furniture and organization. One question: HOW in the world did you ever get your wall to exactly fit the reading nook and book shelves to the smallest millimeter with no gaps? They look like custom built in’s.
I just looked up your last three classroom set up’s and it is great to see your school room evolve over each year! This years is my favorite.
BTW- the link to the Ikea Expedit 31”x15”x58” actually goes to the taller 72″ shelving unit, and thought you might want to switch it?
Love the reading bench
Oooo! All of those organised folders 🙂 *swoon*
OH My WORD…. seriously Erica! 🙂 hahahaha I could so just live in your school room! 🙂 HAHAHAH Its fabulous! I love all the books, the organization! 🙂
I have got to admit when I see this I think ” I could never be a good homeschooler”. And it is our plan to homeschool our child. He is four and I have been working with him with work books, library visits and going with teachable moments in our life. I guess for someone on such limited finances I see what and awesome room and organization you have created, I can’t help wonder if it can be done for us, without all the awesome tools you have been able to provide???
Stephanie,
Most of us don’t have such elaborate rooms and so many supplies to use. We converted our living room into our learning room and it was created using things we already had in the house as we are also on a much more limited budget. I don’t have photos up yet on my own site, but hope to later this week.
But, honestly, if you are doing workbooks, reading stories, spending time at the library and making the most of teachable moments, you are already a great homeschool mom!
This is the same Sallie who commented above. Here is a peek in our learning room.
http://sallieborrink.com/our-homeschool-learning-room/
I agree with Sallie! I am thankful that we have an office space that we can use as our room. I know lots of people who do school in their kitchens, living rooms, and all over!
We do as well for a change. Sometimes we’ll do it by the fireplace in winter, in the kitchen, or fill a bag with all of our work for the day and head to the library :o)
Homescholing isn’t about the room, it’s about the heart ;o)
and to that I whole-heartedly agree! But I do declare, you inspire me!!! Your room is fabulous 🙂
Love it! You are great! I am still a newbie at HS. So I’m having issues with my kids (5,3 yr olds) continuing to get into their school supplies (i.e. crayons, scissors) in non school time area to surprise me with art or etc. However, they are not always making it back to the supply spot….thus, I am constantly requesting pickup, etc. Any suggestions? I like their creativity, but not the constant loose supplies?
Hi Jenny,
That’s a struggle here too! I just do my best to reinforce that they put the supplies back. I guess you could give them a consequence the next day of not being allowed to use the supplies they didn’t return. I’m always picking them up too though!
Hey,
Silly question, but I wanted to make sure before I purcased. The expandable organizer I am assuming fits your 4 sets of drawers in the big square table/desk. They say they are 13″ and my drawers are a titch smaller.
Thanks
HI K’Lyn,
the organizers are 11.5″ when shut completely, so they’ll probably still fit provided your drawers are at least that wide.