Pictures of Our Updated "School Room"

I know these are long overdue, but as things get crazy I forget to take pictures, then it is a mess and I don't want to take pictures.  But alas here they are.

This is where we put more bookshelves.  These are only part of the kids' books.  They also have many in their rooms, and downstairs in the living room.  Also a couple of the new cabinets, which I LOVE!  They hold their centers, educational toys, puzzles, craft items, and any other learning material I or they can think of.  The space on top also holds crafts in progress and centers that are often changing.

More with the cabinets and drawers.  They can now get their own paper, crayons, puzzles and stencils.  I can also get to my laminator, three hole punch and post it notes so much more quickly and easily.  One drawer holds their educational videos and tv games, as they call them.  Another holds their cds and listening center activities.

Here we have our fire safety posters, an amazing Coral Reef Food Web poster, thank you Megan! and a center I made to introduce them to money, showing most of the American coins and bills. 

Our new calendar, thanks to Tiffany, who always finds us cool stuff at Staples.  We write up our appointments, keep track of the weather, and what our special projects/themes are for the week and individual days.  This helps keep me on track.  On the small gray board I wrote everything we try to do daily: alphabet, counting, writing our names, coloring, calendar, practice our phone number and address, etc.  Whatever we feel is really important.

This is our rotating nursery rhyme center.  I took this amazing book of printables out of our library called kindercenters, and they are all kindergarten skill centers based on nursery rhymes.  I change them every two weeks or so, and it is a great independent activity for them.  This one is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and it focuses on patterns.  The kids love it.

So that is our new and improved work space.  I have spent a lot of time organizing it in a way that is easy and efficient. I find it is so much easier to teach and learn when the space is conducive to it, and all our materials are easy to find.  We have been getting so much accomplished since we improved our space.  I also love having several independent and educational activities at hand for the kids whenever I am busy making dinner, doing laundry, or any other things that require my attention.  It has made a huge improvement to my ability to manage lots of things at once, as all us moms need to.

I have on my to do list this week to post pictures of the school room and update.  It has been crazy lately.  I have been doing a lot of reading about homeschooling and sort of figuring out where to go from here.  I realized why I hated teaching in public school, because it doesn't teach children the way it makes sense to teach children.  I love being able to adapt our learning to the styles and needs of the kids, and encouraging independent learning.  It is sort of like a mini Montessori.  I am so thankful to have the ability to do this, and to feel like the whole reason I went to school for teaching culminates in my confidence to teach my own children.  Teaching license isn't needed to teach your own kids, but for me it really made me feel like I could do it, I really had the confidence to make the attempt.  Best decision we ever made!  More later in the week on pictures and specifics of what we have been learning.  :)