Sunday, September 04, 2011

2011 Schoolroom

Here are some pictures I took when I finally got our "Homeschool Room" ready this year.

First, some perspective (because my photos don't include every part!). The room is in the western portion of our house, and there are no windows on that side. It used to be a 'family room' with an entertainment center and all that. Not anymore. :)


The brown rectangles are 'built in' shelves. The long shelf along the eastern wall of the room isn't pictured. It's our "barnwood" shelf, truly made from parts of an old barn and fence posts. I don't mind that, but it's also fairly cluttered; books, jam, boxes, gallon jars, etc. The strip of floor from garage door to back door, along and under the shelf is vinyl; the rest of the room is carpet.


Above you can see (most of) the west wall of our homeschool room. We got this huge (heavy!) chalkboard when our church moved out of its former building last month. It was the grassy green of chalkboards, but I painted primer on it, then followed that with homemade 'chalkboard paint' to match what I did on both doors, and the side of my computer cabinet (you can see part of it at the far left of the photo). The short bookshelf on the left holds a stereo thing (on the right, high up is a speaker. I can plug this in to my computer and we have some nice sound in the room for listening to mozart, etc!). The picture on the chalk tray is "A Young Girl Reading" by Fragonard. I bought it for $2 at a garage sale in July, then found out Fragonard is Ambleside's term 1 artist this year (I didn't even know who painted it), and this painting was on the list. The white board holds vocabulary words out of one of Big Sister's reading selections this term. These are the words I thought she might not be familiar with. Along the ceiling is our timeline. I moved it, hence the broken parts. :)


This is a view towards the right of the chalkboard, and is the 'kid area'. Rocking horse (and rocking elephant, but Big Sister is sitting on it) The shelves hold games, lincoln logs, story and picture books, board books, dolls, stuffed animals, boxes of miscellaneous toys, play food, wooden puzzles/stackers. Lamb Chop (butchered when I was tiny) serves as the hearth rug. We do refer to him by name, and always have).


This is the view of the South wall, and a piece of the garage door on the left. We have a couch, the other speaker, and two bookshelves. The first was found in the basement of our first home (I only got around to painting it 2 years ago), and the short green one I got last year at a garage sale. It was hideously primary colors, and poorly done, but is well built. The color is what I used on my kitchen cupboards 8 years ago. I finally re-glued the southern hemisphere back onto the globe after Organique tore it off in pieces last year. The maps are National Geographic, EXCELLENT price (less than $20 for the pair) from Christian Book Distributors. They are laminated - and REALLY ARE laminated - and we love them. The white shelf holds, from top to bottom, Mama's political/parenting/homeschooling books, then Little House on the Prairie mixed with How to [farm, raise chickens, butcher turkeys, milk a cow, make cheese, build a root cellar, weave a basket], and Natural Remedy type books. Third shelf is classics like Austen, Anne of Green Gables, Story like the Wind, an old set of James Whitcomb Riley, and some spiritual books. Fourth shelf is mostly theology and bible study resources. Fifth is supplements to The Great Books, and an old Childcraft set, and the bottom holds tall things - Encyclopedia of Country Living, binders, baby and wedding books, and a basket of magazines. The green shelf is still a mess, but the top houses my paper trimmers, linking cubes, big wooden beads, then we have some MathUSee manipulatives , and current reads and resources (Handbook of Nature Study, Usborne Geography, field guides for bugs and birds. Next is some James Herriot (not sure where he needs to live, but for now he's there) and "non-twaddle" free reading books for Big Sister. Below that is some of Baby's toys, and other tall things. Lastly is Really Tall Things, some of which can't even stand upright. Castles of Scotland, Bible Atlas, Saxon teacher guides, etc. You can see the beginning of our timeline at the upper right of the photo.


Here's a corner perspective in which you can see my little corner spot. This was once a set of wide, big shelves, but two years ago in the Great Room Redo, I enclosed them, took out the 2 bottom shelves and installed a shelf at 'desk height.' I also put folding closet doors on it, but I don't usually close them very often. :\  The shelves hold various things; my printer copier, extra supplies (paint, pencils, pens, erasers, crayons), flash cards, Brain Quest things, the rest of the Math U See stuff (and we don't use their curric), page protectors, rubber bands, sandpaper (?)... Behind the upper part of the cabinet is a narrow 'half shelf' which holds some old treasures, the stamp collection my Granny helped me with, etc. The File cabinet LOCKS, and therefore holds scissors, glue, dry erase markers, and much more. :) Little Artist has her desk here, and her chair, and... a bar of soap? I guess that could be handy.. The rug here is an outdoor patio-style rug, which doesn't protect the carpet so much as it hides it. 


Here's a little more of the kids' corner. You can see it's 'hemmed in' with a coffee table (basket of baby toys, basket of schoolbooks) and Big Sister's desk. On the right you can see the window fronted by a sturdy 6-drawer dresser (holds mostly old pictures, tissue paper/gift wrap, and other things that are no-nos) topped with a dollhouse. You can't see the round dining-style table in this corner (or the myriad bits of cut up paper that usually serve as floor beneath it) or the back door, but they're there. :) 

So there we are! I do wish DOING school was as easy as the planning and preparation! :)

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