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Homeschool Classroom Video Tour

When I initially shared that we were finishing off an area for our homeschool classroom a year and a half ago, I posted a short video clip of the ‘in progress’ work. Since then I’ve shared pictures of the room, but many of you have asked for a video tour. Sometimes pictures are helpful, but a video can really help give you a little more perspective.

Each video will have short blurbs telling more about the pieces and there will be links at the end of this post as well. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments!

Would you like a tour? This is the closest that I can give you to a personal visit right now, so grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and spend some time with me. We love our schoolroom and are glad that you are here for a visit.

Come on in!

Homeschool Room Tour {Part 1}

 

Homeschool Room Tour {Part 2}

 

Things You See in the Video {in order seen}:

Note: Ikea keeps changing location on their links, but names are provided for the various items we are using.

Other Helpful Posts

Phew!! If you stuck around for it all – let me know if you have any questions!! Leave a comment and I’d be happy to answer you!

 

Weekly Homeschool Planner ‘Get Organized’ Sale!

weekly-homeschool-planner-buy-now

Need a little mid-year organizational help for your homeschool day? The Weekly Homeschool Planner is on sale for $12 {that’s a savings of $8!}! Just use the code ORGANIZE13 at checkout. Click the “Add to Cart” button at the end of this post to take advantage of the sale price from December 27, 2012 to December 31, 2012.

Already purchased the Weekly Homeschool Planner? Then become an affiliate so you get a 25% commission using your affiliate link when you share the planner with others!

Can you help spread the word? Tweet about it, post about it, and share it on Facebook with your friends ~ hurry! The sale ends at midnight on Monday, December 31, 2012!

Homeschool Planner coiled

Grab the pdf editable Weekly Homeschool Planner for $12!

Add to Cart

* This is an editable pdf file that you can save to your computer and use year after year. To learn more about the Weekly Homeschool Planner, click HERE.

 

Simple Snack Basket Help

Snack basket - a way to save time and track portion sizes for kids

I’m not sure how things go in your family, but typically when one {or more} of our kids disappear to get their mid-morning snack, they tend to meander around the house and sometimes ‘forget’ to return {ahem}. With our schoolroom being a bit away from the kitchen {and out of earshot}, I put together a snack basket that we keep in the schoolroom near my desk – keeping the snacks {and the kids} handy.

Snack Basket Idea-1

This may also have helped cut down on two certain little boys {who shall remain nameless}, from digging into the various boxes of snacks and cereal…or the s’mores marshmallows that they find in the pantry. It’s also been really helpful in teaching our kids what REAL portion sizes are – as in, you don’t eat half a box of something and think that’s ok.

Snack Basket Idea-2

Each week I load up the basket with a variety of snacks that the kids like: trail mix, crackers, pretzels, fruit, a special treat, granola bars, etc… The snacks are bagged in the small snack-size Ziploc bags or a Tupperware container. We reuse the bags and containers each week, but this has saved me a HUGE amount of time during the week.

Just a simple idea, but I wanted to share a little something that has helped us out these last six weeks. What timesavers and helps have you found to help your week run a little more smoothly?

 

Monthly Menu Planner ~ editable calendar

monthly meal plan calendar  Main Dish Menu Planner editable
 

Keeping my meals, recipes and grocery plan on track is something that I rather enjoy doing, but every now and then I need a little encouragement or ‘push’ to get me excited about it. Just so I don’t get stuck in a rut and all.

A little while back I shared the Main Dish Menu Planner that I put together and use to keep track of our favorite meals and how it’s helped me out tremendously. Today I shared an editable Monthly Menu Planner on my other blog, No Ordinary Moments. Both are editable pdf files and you all are more than welcome to click over and download some copies to use yourself!

Enjoy!

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Our New Homeschool Room

Updated: If you would like to, please take a video tour of our homeschool room – I’d love to show you around!!

Homeschool Room

We’ve officially been in our new homeschool room  for 2 weeks now and it has truly been such a blessing to have everything we need in one spot and organized! While we still have a few things that need to be finished {trim work and securing bookcases to the wall}, we’ve been putting it to good use.

Since our room has some odd wall angles, I measured and re-measured and did a lot of online planning to make sure that pieces I was considering would fit in the room. Almost all of the furnishings are thanks to a day-trip to Ikea and the patience of a wonderful friend who helped talk me into {and out of} a few things. I went with a list in hand, but still managed to forget one thing ~ a Trofast shelving unit that is supposed to hold the bins between the kid’s desks. Oops.

Maybe you all remember the disaster of a space when all the books, supplies and what-nots were moved from their various hiding places all over the house and into their permanent learning spots. Yikes! But, it finally came together. I’m not kidding when I tell you I had blisters thanks to the little Allen wrench and a whole lotta screws.

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Pictured above: a big, fat mess

I have to tell you that the color of paint in the room {Benjamin Moore Stem Green} scared me to DEATH when I first saw it on the walls ~ before the furniture was in the room. Thankfully, my hubby and good friend were right when they told me it would all be ok {and talked me out of repainting}.

Ready for a little tour of the new schoolroom? Here’s the view from my end of the room {when you come up the stairs from the garage}.  We have a larger table area that all of our chairs fit around when we are working together for some subjects {history, Bible, etc…}.

New Classroom-1

The table {Ikea Norden} also folds down so we can slide it to the side of the room if we want a little more space. It also has 6 handy drawers where we keep some of our extra supplies like paintbrushes, some art supplies, card games, etc…}.

New Classroom-6

The view from the other end of the room where you come in through the upstairs {via the girl’s room}.

New Classroom-2

There are two desks on each side of the room ~ we split the kids up boy/girl on each side. They are SO excited to have their own workspace {and I am so happy to not hear ~ “Move your stuff out of my spot!” ~ just sayin’}.  Kaleb and McKenna are on one side of the room. There will eventually be a shelving system in between their two desks {the one that I forgot to pick up on the trip}.

New Classroom-3

Pictured above: Desks – Vika Amon birch tops w/ Curry legs and red Snille chairs. Pencil rack is Bygel rail with blue Bygel containers. Bins from the Trofast system.

Kaleb’s desk area is something I’m just loving. I know it’s a little more busy, but he has all of his ‘stuff’ around him and is so excited about it!His desk area has posters from his All About Reading program, a place to hang the ABC crafts he completes and a space beside his desk for his workbox system.

New Classroom-4

Pictured above: ABC posters from All About Reading, trofast system from Ikea, Bygel rail with blue Bygel containers and 12” square corkboard tiles.

The boys’ desks are closest to my end of the room so that they can pull up their chairs to the other side of my desk if we need to work together. I got a swivel chair for myself ~ just because. :)

New Classroom-5

 

My desk area holds all of the main text books {all the teacher’s guides, etc….} along with all the fun stuff too {a.k.a. the laminator and all the teacher supplies}. Top shelves are all of the books we’ll need for this year, shelf level with the desk holds the day-to-day things, and lower shelves hold all the ‘we use it at sometime’ stuff. We had to rig the top of the shelving system because of the slant of the walls. Instead of the top that comes with the system we screwed a white shelve to the top to hold it in place {shhhhhh!}. That way it can sit flush against the wall and things won’t fall out the back.

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Pictured above: My desk is Expedit bookcase and the Expedit desk and Snille swivel chair. The file boxes are Lingo boxes along with green Kassat boxes {to hide stuff}.

One of my favorite parts of the room is the bookcase setup around the window at the end of the room. I LOVE the little window seat area that we were able to create with the bookcases. This has been one of Laurianna’s favorite places to sit and work during the day. I also love that the bin under the bench pulls out to store the kid’s coloring books and such.

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Pictured above: Bookcase setup includes 2 Expedit tall shelves, 2 Expedit bookshelves, and a Stuva storage bench with red chair cushions.

All of our Calendar and Morning Board things are set up in one of the corners of the room {you can read more about our Calendar setup here}. Our All About Spelling board leans up against the wall so that we can move it around if we want to. :)

The bins on the bottom shelves of the nearby bookcases hold some of our day-to-day things: calendar supplies, our All About Spelling teacher manuals and cards, and also our science curriculum. The  kid’s easel is folded up and between the wall and the bookcase.

New Classroom-7

Pictured above: Our monthly calendar pocket chart, We Choose Virtues poster, Calendar and Morning Board, US Wall Cling map, and our All About Spelling board.

The shelves on either side of the window hold all the rest of the ‘stuff’ we use during the year: games, history books, Bibles, early readers, chapter books for the girls, puzzles, and just general fun stuff.

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Pictured above: Bins are Kusiner green/blue and red book bins from Really Good Stuff. Tabletop paper holder from Ikea. Chair is the Guidecraft Nordic rocker.

So…that’s it! We’re in and almost settled. My hubby is working on the trim and hopes to have it finished soon!! Most everything is linked to underneath each of the photos, but here’s the short list:

Where Did it Come From?

I would love to also see your classrooms too ~ wanna share? The best part of putting our room together was gathering ideas from all over the web! I’ve included a linky below for you all to join in and include a thumbnail image of your room.

Planning Your Homeschool Year

As you get ready to plan for the upcoming homeschool year, here are a few ways that we organize our things and plan in our house. Just a few ideas to get the ideas going in your head!

~ Inside My Homeschool Binder ~ I print off my planner each year and store it in a 3 ring binder along with a bunch of other helps.

~ My Weekly Homeschool Planner ~ the planner that I use and love. :)

~ How We’re Using the Workbox System ~ we use a grid with picture cards rather than strips. Lots of links and free printables for you all to use!

~ Organizing School Paperwork ~ here’s how I organize our yearly schoolwork and sort it

~ Calendar and Morning Board ~ a little hands-on learning to start our day off

~ Mini Office Lapbook ~ a one-stop place for the kids to have some of their easy {and repeat} questions answered

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