Our Homeschool Room and Playroom

I’m busy reorganizing this room!  I originally posted this last August [Edited to add:  I finished it!  You can view the reorganized room here!], but I thought I’d post it again.  Here is a little tour of our school room as it was last year:
We have learning times in many different places.  Art times are at the kitchen table, to keep the mess on a floor surface that can be easily cleaned.  I have individual tutoring times with each child on the couch.  These photos are of the area in our finished basement where we keep all the books, toys, puzzles, and other learning activities.  We also have a sewing corner down here and an office (not pictured).
The little wood table and chairs were purchased 12 years ago when our oldest child was a baby, for $10.00.  That was the best $10.00 we ever spent!  Little children love to have a table and chairs just their size.  This table is used for pretend tea parties and other pretend eating times, drawing, looking at books, putting puzzles together, and so many other activities.
We have a little play kitchen area with all the play food.  This is a favorite spot for our two youngest, who like to “cook” food for us.
This old school desk was found by the side of the road for free.  Someday I’d like to refinish it.  Sometimes a child sits here to work on a workbook or drawing activity.
Our whole basement is full of bookshelves.  I didn’t photograph all of them.  This little wooden rocking horse was a gift we were given for our first baby.  Probably the favorite baby gift I’ve ever received!
We also have a couch in this room where I sometimes sit to have reading lessons with a child.
Well, that is a tour of part of our homeschool area.  For more on our homeschool, see this page.
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So, that’s what our school area looked like last year.  We did end up at the dining room table more often than not, though.  I realized that the reason we didn’t use this school area as much as I had hoped, was largely because there wasn’t a suitable work area.  We found a nice little table at a used furniture store several months ago, and it has made all the difference!  Now we all have a place to sit.
The canvas “drawers” on the shelves contain books arranged seasonally.  This has made it so much easier for me to just pull out the appropriate basket for each season, to fill the book basket upstairs.  I have lots of plans for this room (that I’m working on right now), and I can’t wait to share our reorganized school room (with lots more pictures!) in the next month or so.
I’m also redoing our schedule.  It seems that I need to do this regularly as our family grows and needs change.  We never follow our schedule exactly as written (because days are unpredictable), but it’s nice to have an idea of what to do next sometimes.
In addition to the schedule, it seemed that the chore system was needing to be redone as well.  I’ve been busy working on that, too.  So many things to work on!  We finally seem to be finished with our previous school year, and I’m glad, because I need this time to focus on re-doing all these things.  The children have enjoyed the freedom of playing outside first thing every morning, playing in water, cookouts, special family trips, birthday parties, and craft projects.  They are also so proud to have their own little garden spot this year, and it is starting to produce tomatoes!  We’re enjoying the long (almost) summer days while looking forward to the coming school year.Hopefully I’ll be back in the next few weeks with an updated school room, schedule, and chore system!

***Edited to Add:  You can view our reorganized school room here!***

13 Comments

  1. Oh it looks wonderful! I have also been in the process of moving things around and trying to get it a bit more streamlined for our kids. I moved a cabinet into our living room so that the kids could have puzzles and educational type items at their finger tips! I still have much to move around but at least I'm working on it. :o)

  2. Thanks, Tanya!

    I'd love to see your reorganized schoolroom!

    That's funny that you used to have the same bird clock. Ours recently broke, so we don't have it anymore. I was sad, as it was given to us by my mom and I liked it. It fell off the wall, the glass broke, and then the rest got broken. 🙁

    We haven't started our new school books yet. I was hoping to start next Monday. I hope I can be ready in that time! Lightening struck our air conditioning and it's been in the 90's and tomorrow is supposed to be over 100 (with very high humidity). We've been camping out in the basement together. It has kind of thrown things off for me. 🙂

    Blessings to you,
    Joy

  3. I use to have a desk like that!! 🙂

    Lovely school room, I've recently reorganized our schoolroom and will have to post pics sometime soon. 🙂 My youngest daughter would love your kitchen area. 🙂

    We also use to have a bird clock just like yours. 🙂 I also see many familiar books on your shelf. 🙂 Have you started back to school? We are planning to start again next week. 🙂

    Blessings friend!!

  4. Hi Joy,

    I can't balive I won the giveaway!
    Thanks so much….I emailed you my info.

    Your homeschool room looks wonderful.
    I bet the play kitchen gets lots of use!
    I love bookcases! Every room in our house has one…..we just have many small rooms.

    Peace,
    Georgiann

  5. Hi Georgiann!

    Congratulations on winning the giveaway, and thanks for your e-mail!

    We do get lots of use from our play kitchen area. What I love about it is that the bookshelf was given to us for free, and we found the little wooden cupboard at a flea market for $10, I think it was. It would be fun if it had a sink in it, but they still like it anyway.

    Hope you have a nice day!

  6. Thanks, Deanna! We have books all over the house, too (upstairs they're mostly in baskets)–but finally, in this house, I have a dedicated space to put all the bookshelves. I just hope the basement never floods (been there, done that!). 🙂

  7. Mom of 5~
    Thanks! I enjoyed seeing your space, also!

    Sarah~
    Thank you so much for your sweet comment! I think I'd have fun perusing your bookshelves as well! It seems we have similar tastes in books. 🙂

  8. I love it, Joy! Everything is so homey and so nicely organized. And look at all those books! It sure would be fun to peruse your bookshelves. 🙂

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