Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

dy•nam•ic constant change, progress, activity

Homeschool Space

My School Area + Learning Area

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At times I wish the boys were little again so I could have matching desks and learn your shape posters hanging on the wall.  Just for a moment though, because some of the best times we have had are now when they are teens.

I do want to share the little changes I made this year that has made a big difference already in our area.

First, one organizing tidbit to share with you. When organizing your school area try not to get caught up in the hype that you have to have it all done by August. Hear my heart. You waste less time when you school some, then decide final set up on your school area. I start school and work our way up to more of the subjects we will be doing.  Then take off a few days to decide where *things* are going to land after we finish for the school day. That is why this post is coming to you in September and not August. I wasted less time because I did not set it up, then decide where things were going to be stored, then switch it around again when it’s not working.  I started first, realized what was going to work and what my *needs* are for the year and sat the area up in one try.  No switching. Just one time setting it up please. Patience in the beginning pays off for more time and less energy wasted in the long run.

So here is our learning area slightly updated from last year.

The very first thing I did was to add a lamp to one corner of the room that can be dark. Even though we school by a large front window, the area behind it can be dark. The lampshade on the lamp I had was drab and so not fab. I had this wall stencil and sitting outside by the pool I gave the lampshade an update with some paint. It took just one hour.  I know,  I know, I am not a crafty person but I do love to organize and make things I have to look at every day pretty. Even if that means making it a diy job.

What do you think? I am so pleased with how it turned out. Of course I am still on an orange and pink crush .

Here it is in the new area I changed around. The boys’ drawers were in this corner last year but we needed more room to store reference material like our atlas, encyclopedias, maps and science reference books. Charts for math, grammar or really any subject chart we tend to take with us to our seat. I do not need to hang many things on the wall anymore, but I did need a place to store them. So now we have the clear container, which is actually a table top hanging file organizer, to hold all of our reference material. It is labeled charts and reference and sits right on top of this cheap inexpensive wall unit I put together. Too, I swooned over my new bookends {coral, lemons, oranges and white mustache} this year and am still giddy about them.

Then last year I had changed around some of our history curriculum and added Tapestry of Grace {TOG}. Sorry TOG, the binders are just not that inspiring to look at every day. I don’t need all the years printed off but I did print off a couple of the ones I wanted and put them in the binder.  I took time to find binders I heart with lots of color. Adding in  History and other Teacher’s Manuals to the binders gave this area the pop of color and inspiration I needed.  I had some cute bulldog green and yellow clips {I go insanely crazy over tabs and binder clips that have color, it’s a sickness} and because I don’t like to put tape on my binders, I just clipped the label on. I am pleased with how this top area of my shelf turned out for my teacher reference area.

Then the bottom part of the shelf I used magazine file holders to hold some of the teacher’s manual that I don’t want to take apart. Also we have history magazines we use a little less often than the reference material and this keeps it handy for us too.

Here is how it looks together. I am just tickled pink over being able to finally get them sorted how I wanted to this year.

Then the middle part of this cabinet, where my youngest can reach, becomes a shared area with the boys again. This is the right side and I have the same clear containers from last year but labeled them so my youngest can keep straight what goes back in here.

This is the left side where they are storing their art and there are hardly no small scissors around here anymore.

At the very bottom we store our science supplies, extra school supplies, games and timeline material. Since we take this out once or twice a week and not every day, then it can be in closed storage. Again, label everything so your kids know what you expect.  I am pleased with how this middle unit turned out too.

The on the other side of the middle unit is another orange unit tower of drawers and pink tower. The orange unit of drawers was needed because we really wanted a place to store our unit study material that was accessible by all of us. It also holds our extra paper and art supplies too.  The pink drawers I needed for storing my office supply things. The pink drawers I only use but I labeled the orange unit because the boys use these too.

Also I needed a place, besides inside my planner, to hold some of their work for the week that I find online or create.

The table top file has hanging folders labeled Monday through Sunday and one for me as Teacher. This allows me to plan a week ahead of time and put assignments I want them to do in here. It is my work area. Also with going back and forth at times with hubby to the doctor as he recuperates,  I can leave *special* work for the boys to do that is not in their drawers or regular books. Labeling one for Sunday helps too because when hubby feels a bit sick, we stick around here close and we may do a small assignment on Sunday. I just need that flexibility this year and have it now that the files are labeled. I will mostly use the Monday through Friday tabs, but I have the weekend too if I need it.

I moved the boys set of drawers to the opposite wall. Again, for this year the system with one drawer per subject still works best for us. It allows them to store their pens, books, paper, DVD player and headset in the drawer.  The orange basket has the dry erase markers and it is labeled too. Tiny loves to carry the basket around and it is easier getting to than the cabinet that is closed storage. This is also the best place for our globe because it is pick up and go too.

The orange table top file folder system is for Mr. Senior 2013 who has more deadlines this year with both high school and getting college credit. He really needs his own tracking system. He too has labeled all the days of the week because like me, he won’t leave hubby on Sunday if he feels bad. We will make use of the day around the house. So he put something to do *extra* on Sunday for a backup if we have to stick around the house. Again, he will probably use most of the Monday to Friday tabs, but he has a system to track his deadlines.

I went ahead and put a label on the outside too so it helps him to remember to use it for deadlines or just for planning his own week of school.

Overall, I am so happy that everything we changed this year turned out like I wanted it to. You can see the whole thing with the doors open here ….

……and here it is with all the  doors closed and everything put away.

I am still swooning over orange and pink and our new school area was the little lift I needed after we had a rocky start to this year.

Maybe you saw something that may spark an idea or two in your area.  Would you like to know where I got some of these things from?

I will share where I got some of my items at in the next post.

I hope I inspired you just a bit to heart your school area and make it dynamic.

Hugs, you know I love ya,

Cop an Attitude about Organization

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Copping an attitude is not just for our two year olds. If we want to be successful at organization we need to cop a positive attitude about it.

A positive attitude affects what we want to achieve and sticks with us longer than any negatives we keep bringing up about our lack of self discipline or lack of consistency. Until we visualize the kind of homeschooling life we desire, we won’t get motivated about it.

What motivates me won’t motivate you. So how can you be determined to stay motivated? It comes from having a very clear picture of what YOU want.

In our August workshop, we encourage you to WRITE DOWN your goals and what brought you to homeschooling. Did you do that? Did you include how you do not want to be unorganized? It is your MISSION STATEMENT and your personal vision. This is different than a plan. Plans (or curricula) on how we achieve our personal vision will change, come and go and they should, but not our vision.

What you have done is set very clear expectations for your journey. You have determined your success.

So what do you really want? Do you really want to live in a chaos free household or stress free ? True, we know there are no guarantees as "life happens", but when you remind yourself daily of what you want, organization can be achieved.

Overcoming organizational hurdles like how we balance our time each day and clean our home can be reached through routine. Routine and organization do not stifle creativity, spur of the moment responses or cause boredom.

A consistent routine allows time for creativity and taking advantage of spur of the moment decisions we want to make in our day because our time and home are relatively uncluttered. Time to respond to the moment and live carefree are so much more exhilarating when we know we have kept our routine. We can savor the freedom.

Routine can be defined as "ordinary and regular". It is a blessing to have taught children and it is accomplished through "ordinary and regular" days not boring days.

Establish a routine that works for you. Teach the quality of orderliness to your children.

Blemishes are part of homeschooling. Our houses are our "hearts" and our hearts are not perfect. Strive for clutter free homes with some blemishes. That is realistic and not extreme.

No amount of articles and books on organization will be of any value unless you have attitude.

Attitude affects EVERYTHING, do you have it? :o)

©Tina Robertson

School Room Tips!

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Not every year have I had a school room. I know I mentioned it before, but if I was told once I was told numerous times that I would never use a room. That was far from true.

What I have learned is that opinions and advice come from “perspective”. Don’t they all? :o)  Look at some school room tips!

Homeschooling from the beginning, I can say that a designated school area went a long way to training my toddler and preschoolers to sit down quietly for a few minutes.

school room tips

It kept crafts, toys and books to one area thus helping me in keeping my house more organized while the children were young and I had minimal help. I did not ruin them by thinking that learning only happened in “one” room. But it might have ruined me…lol if I had let messes be ALL over the house.

Now. that my newborn is 10 years old, we do school at the dining room table, however, I STILL have a designated area of the house where all of our curriculum is kept.

Here are some of my school room tips:

1.If you have space, consider having a school area and train the children to put things back.

2. The best stores that had great storage items through the years were Target and Ikea.

3. In the spring time, look at the hardware section for children. I use bright plastic colored buckets available at spring time for supplies. Kid size lawn chairs for them to sit and read in was a big hit.

4. Not all ideas of public school are bad. The best thing that worked for me is a kidney shaped table that was adjustable. Myself and all the kids could sit around it and do crafts and write.

5.If your children are all very young, consider “stations” in your room. One table was crafts, one table was “writing” and another was file folder games. This allowed me to work 1:1 with one child while the others were in the same room with us.

6. Clear plastic containers from the dollar store with a screw lid was the best storage items when the kids were young. We could clearly see what was inside, it was safe for my toddler but yet they couldn’t open it so I could keep it down on lower shelves.

7. I bought a small forward facing book shelf (the kind use too in public school) that was child height that I could switch out classical books each week on. I would choose some from the library and some I had and I would give my young children “choices”. The point here is that I could still guide them to good literature but it allow them to “think” they had freedom. In their free time, they would choose a book.

8. My husband put up a clothes line and attached it almost to the ceiling for me. He zig zagged it back/forth so I would have more than “one” line. I attached all the art work with clothes pin and hung it from there.

9. When my children got older, I also used a “bar height” activity table that had drop down leaves on both sides. My space was limited in that room so the activity table was perfect.

Chairs were important then because I needed chairs that had bars for their feet to rest on since we were sitting up real high. So be careful not to pick just any barstool.

The activity table was purchased at a huge furniture store and was intended for an island in the kitchen but was PERFECT for our limited space. It had TONS of storage under it. It had two shelves and we put away our curriculum under it. When the leaves folded up and extended, we pulled the chairs up to it.

10. If you have room for bookshelves think: some closed storage and some open storage. Closing off and not seeing messes goes a long way for sanity.

Also, for cheaper versions or even more sturdy shelves look at Automotive Shop stores that have brightly colored shelves that are aluminum. Some roll and some do not. I used those too. They are cheaper but still nice if you can get them in black or red as they do not intend for them to be used in the home. They are sturdy, have plenty of storage, cost less and even lock. I used steel hooks to hang items off the side of them. They are great too for storing small items like lapbook items along with sewing containers.

Hope you are inspired to try out a designated area.

Hugs

©Tina Robertson

Homeschool Organization + {Storage,Spaces and Learning Places Part 3}

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I got a little eye candy for you today. I have two other parts in this series that I started last month. I will link them for you at the bottom. I really like this series because there are so many different things and rooms we can look at to get ideas for our learning area. The ideas are endless once you step outside the box. You do have to take several ideas from many different types of area to make a unique learning place.

This is the time of the year most people get the itch to organize or set up a school area. I get it ALL year long but end up making little adjustments this time of the year. So I made a slight tweak to our school area and will share when I am finished with it.

This first picture I like because besides the colors being gender neutral, I have been swooning over that map on the wall.

Source – Censational Girl

This is the playroom of Kate at Censational Girl. Even though it is not a homeschool area, it is pretty close to being one with a few changes. For a younger household, I would make the couch a love seat or rocker recliner to free up some room. Then shelving would be sorted by boxes for each child. Also add a smaller desk for mom to keep her teacher goodies. Though I have sat on many a small kid’s chair while homeschooling, it is nice to have my own desk when the kids were young. The tushy will thank you later on that one the longer you school.

There is so much natural light you may need to worry about lighting which is another huge concern in a school area. This could be a WOW school room with not much effort. She shares her before and after picture and her budget of about 800.00. Still swooning over the map…on to the next one..

Source – Joyfilled Family

Even though I love play areas, I like to keep it real and that means seeing other real homeschool rooms. I love this area because, like a lot of us, she turned a formal dining area into a school area. Another tip for hanging storage, like she uses in her school room, is fishing line and clothes pin to show off arts and crafts. A good example of mixing a learning area with furniture used for everyday living too. Above her storage units she has a week at a glance system for all the members of the family to see.

Source – Homeschool Creations.

Keeping it real in this next homeschool room I love Jolanthe’s new up do last year. She really changed the area into a beautiful learning space. Besides the beautiful color, I love the fact that each child has their own work space which gets to be important as they get older. You have some kids that need an organized desk before they can think clearly and others that can put up with a little more left out. This pleases all learners.

Source – Learning with Charlotte

This room takes a Charlotte Mason learning approach in her set up. I have to admit I heart dark wood. I love the look of bright white wood but something about popping color in dark wood gets me to pause. Too, I think heart things old fashion, timeless and precious. Incorporating her solid wood bookcases into her living area just looks cozy and warm.

Source – Satori Smiles

Also do not forget all the other myriad of ideas we need to use to create unique areas. This one I love the reading wall and area set up for an all day reading day. There are some benefits to homeschooling an only and you have so much room to create beautiful spaces.

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I love this arrangement, though not a homeschool room, it easily could be. Using the center of the room frees up wall space but too this is so creative grouping several work areas together. This would work well for older children or teens if you can keep them busy enough from fighting talking to each other.

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Built-ins are nice if you can have them too. Again, here is separated learning areas. If you can do it that way from the start, then it minimizes your budget. There are some subjects like math and some language arts that are better learned by having each child having their own table or desk. A lot of subjects can be taught together and when the children are real young, one table does the trick but you out grow that in a few short years. It is good to start with that when they are young just keep those purchases to a minimum because they will use individual spaces longer. Even if it’s a not a separate desk in your school room, it could be their bedroom with a desk or learning area.

Source – New Life on a Homestead

Though I love color and want a homeschool area to be beautiful, budget is a real factor these days for most folks. These pictures are timeless because they show what can be done a modest budget and how bright a homeschool area can still be.

I want to share one “set up” tip that I did notice about this room in this last picture above which is why I put it here. See how high those days of the weeks and numbers are? That is too high for a preschooler or elementary aged child to be engaged with them. Setting up a room should be not only age appropriate but HEIGHT appropriate. You want an engaging interactive place. A child wants to feel those numbers, see the days of weeks and interact with by either using a pointer

Source Source Source

or just being able to see them. We don’t have to abandon everything about the set up of a public school. Have you noticed how their rooms are set up for children and the adults desk is there incidentally? We do want to take that to our home school room. One chart is height appropriate but otherwise the child can’t see all the beautiful learning tools she has. It is not easy because, like me, you may have a monster sweet toddler who loves to tear and shred when you start schooling. After the “new” has passed on the school area, most of them won’t bother it anymore.

Source Gennine Art Blog

Don’t forget to make desks unique as well. Often times I have used flowerpots for pen,pencils and supplies. You can find them less expensive and sometimes more colorful than pencil holders. Here she used bright flower pots from Ikea and the desk from Ikea.

Source – A little Busy

Again, a very simple but cheery school area. The shelves are unique and reachable by the youngest learner.

Source – BHG                                                                      Source – BHG

Source – Something is HIding in Here

Do not forget nooks, crannies, moving storage and what you have just hanging out as trash around the house can be turned to treasure making your own organization bins unique. From top to bottom, left to right, Magazine Holder on the door, potato chip containers wrapped in pretty paper creates unique storage, a mobile desk on wheels if you don’t have room for a teacher desk, old paint cans turned fabulous storage and then making your own unique storage system by using peg board, hooks and is that plastic cheap inexpensive glasses? Swooning again….

I hope you were a little inspired for your school room. School areas do a lot to brighten and bring harmony to my day and are just as important to me as choosing the right curriculum. If you have not created a place yet, take time before you start school.  Remember, you have to look at it every day and it counts.

Small changes count too. I know I must have homeschool-itis {is that such a word?} when I go crazy over a small thing like file folder change. Do you have any changes you want to share?

As promised, here are the links if you need to continue your homeschoolitis. Click on the pics.

I was inspired by this today as I get ready for my school year and because I want real things around me that are beautiful too.

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

~William Morris~

Hugs and you know I love ya,

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Homeschool Organization + {Storage, Spaces and Learning Places Part 2}

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When you homeschool ANY length of time you find out that you have to take ideas from every different type of room like an office, craft, sewing and playroom to combine and get what we need to make a cozy learning place at home. I have some more favorites to share. If you missed Part 1, go here to drool over some more places.

 

Homeschool Organization part 2

 

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Though this is set up for use as a craft area, I find parts that could be used at home. First that desk just looks like something that could be bought inexpensively and redone to be smokin’ hot. Those stands on the floor I believe are umbrella stands and could be used to rolled up masterpieces of art.

There is not much room taken up horizontal, it is all vertical. Great idea for a teen who likes to be in his room for school  or if there is a small area to work in. LOVE the color choice to brighten up the room.

Contemporary Kids design

I have my school room upstairs that has roof slant like this room and though I have all clear storage there now, I have been mulling over the idea of having something like this. Even the center part that has only two drawers, could have more drawers for more closed storage if you wanted.

The room on top can store, globes, lapbooks and even a microscope. The tv screen is a great addition to a room for group science videos. As much as I love how open it is, I think that one part of this unit though should utilize more wall storage by going up higher.

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Don’t you love to actually see homeschool rooms like this one? These next couple of pictures come from Suitcases and Sippy Cups. What I like about this is that she just incorporated their school into their everyday life. When I first started homeschooling and had a newborn and a toddler, a comfortable couch in the same room we were learning in was a must. I could nurse there, change a quick diaper and just rest as my oldest son worked at the table.

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Here is another actual home school area. I think some of the best use of spaces is a built in or diy project . And that is what Cha Cha at the Heartfelt Home did for her school desk. She explains on her blog how it was built. This is a clever use of a half wall or center wall. Though there are three chairs, I see this working better for two students if they were older because of the need of space on top to spread out books.

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Here is another true homeschool room that I love. I love the fact that even though the room is small, she utilized it to the full. She has closed storage using the boxes and kept the seating in the center and kept the light by using a smaller shelf area.

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I find this photo inspiring because it used a u shape space with built in seating. So much again in a small space.

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Then I wanted to share a few creative nifty finds. I heart Murphy beds when you have limited room. Why not a Murphy desk? Great for traveling and schooling, or just to have a another work area for a laptop. I lived in a small log cabin when we first started and this would have worked ideally.

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I spend so much time telling New Bee homeschoolers and even those not so new to move away from public school and don’t copy it, but hey some things we just should. These lockers make great storage and add that element of school to our room.

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This next idea is so creative and I could imagine some really bright colored fabrics to make these crate seats. These crate seats only have 3 steps to make AND you have a seat and instant storage. Check out how this public school teacher made these and they so could be used at home.

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This next group of pictures I heart because it is a Montessori inspired learning environment that is organized so that a young child can easily explore and learn.

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I love how colorful caddies are used to make the area bright and cheery. And I love that low lying art line.And one more thing I heart……

This adorable owl art line from Etsy. would look so cute hanging on a wall.

 

Just a few things I heart today, anything inspire you in a school room?

Hugs and love ya,