Homeschool/Playroom Tour 2013

This is our homeschool room and playroom. I've been working hard to organize it and finally today I can say it is nice and ready! Although I know it won't last long I want it to share it with you before my kids "attack" it tomorrow!

It is a small room and it is not easy to store all the materials we have and display

all the materials I'd like but I am happy I have this space to dedicate to my children's learning journey.

My husband made the red shelving unit and we use it to hold the following subjects: math, language, zoology, sensorial and geography. Umi uses it the most.

To the left is Umi's desk I got from a thrift store for only 15 bucks!

This is to the right of the door. This shelf is mainly for my Little Princess. My husband made the blue picket fence shelf that is above the brown shelf and it holds all the paints and some of the art related things. The other art supplies, paper and more things I store them in the red art cabinet you can see to the left.

This is an Ikea trofast unit and I use it to store the circle time activities, flannel stories, puppets,  building toys and other toys.

Here is where I store the music instruments.

This is a close up of the art shelf

This is what we currently have in Little Princess shelves.

This is the magnetic black board my husband made for us!! 

Right above the black board is going to be a dry erase whiteboard my husband is currently making.

The North America box is ready!!! Is the Ikea box with the polka-dots. To the right is the sensory bin I made. 

 Video tour of our homeschool room.

Thank you for stopping by!!! See you soon!

Montessori Style Workbox System

 So I came up with a system using Sue Patrick's workbox system idea. It helps to make sure that every day they do an activity by themselves and also that it gives them something to do when I am busy or want a break. So the way I set it up is that they both have one daily activity. So on Monday they'll be doing at some point in the day Monday's activity. And they cannot choose another activity from a tomorrow but can choose one from yesterday, but only if they finished the today's activity. So on Wednesday they finish Wednesday activity then they can re do Tuesdays and/or Mondays.  This way I make sure they get a variety of activities. Saying that I am not totally strict. If they REALLY want another activity we can switch. It hasn't happened yet though. They always seem happy doing the activity of the day. They only get one activity per day.

I homeschool in Spanish as much as I can. So I used binder clips and tape to write the days of the week in Spanish and I placed one clip per space and one on the top ones for their names. I choose an activity that they can do on their own unless I know that that day we'll be home and we are not homeschooling.

Here is a close up of the activities we have. I print some things from Confessions of a Homeschooler and other resources that I find online. But mainly I use if for Practical Life activities, art, and math. 

What's on the trays this week:

Umi:

Monday: ice cube tray with cotton balls and a tweezer.

Tuesday: Number tracing printout from confession of a homeschooler (COAH)

Wednesday: Letter A dot-a-dot page (COAH)

Thursday: Pattern activity also form COAH

Friday: Math-U-See math

I am still working on setting up Little Princess workbox. I only have now paper cutting. She loves using scissors!

I use it for both of my children. Little Princes has her spot next to Umi's. You can see in the picture above . The rest if the spaces are for papers and dry erase boards. 

Montessori is about letting them do things by themselves by fostering their sense of independence, and self discipline. That makes children feel empowered. I think this workbox system does just that. They have activities that they can do by themselves when they want to without anybody telling them how and when. 

Do you use workbox system at home? Does it work for you? 

Homeschool Room

This is our playroom or homeschool room. As you may see it is small and a bit crowded for my liking but it is what we have now. I am happy to have a room I can dedicate for Umi's montessori and homeschooling materials and for him to play.

This is his desk. Inside he has some activities. Next to it it is the music instruments. Inside the blue dresser are musical instruments like maracas, shakers, recorder and more. The bottom drawer has tapes and a walkman where he can listen to music and stories I recorded for him. On top of this dresser is his drum and underneath the record player.

This is our shelf unit that my husband built. 

This is the language shelf. On the left we have the Spellable game. It is great since it is in

English and Spanish, the only down side is that it is in uppercase...Inside of the blue tin box we have 

rhyming words cards that I printed and laminated. Next to it the sandpaper letters. Then Brain Quest cards. They are for a 5-6 years old but Umi (3 years old) can do them easily. 

This is what we are using for math right now. I have the spindle box but it seems that he still needs to learn the correlation between the numbers and quantity.

We left this space for seasonal activities like in this case Easter. When there isn't a especial holiday

I use it for sensory, geography or practical life.

This is where I store things like paints, papers, etc. My project with this is to

cover the glass doors with pictures.

I have all the maps, control maps, and other materials that soon will come out of hiding but as far as today this is what we have on the shelves.

How I am setting up the prepared environment

I am getting organized which is taking a long time. I will post pictures later of the way I set up the environment for my children as we set it up. But for now this is what I did.

- I have a small children table with two chairs where he can sit to eat if he wants to or do his activities and art.

- I got rid of all the plastic cups (saved a few for when we go in the car).

- He never slept in a crib, neither my baby daughter because we co-sleep.

- He has a bookshelf that my husband made for placing his materials.

This is an older version I will post the new one soon. The only difference is

that next to the cork board there is a drying rack that my husband made and that the easel is in another place and that where the easel is BB has the art/food/work table.

- We also have another bookshelf my husband made out of Mahogany wood. And he is currently working in two more bookshelves like the red one shown in the picture above.

- He chooses what clothes he wears and puts them on by himself. So he is just 2 and he can dress himself from head to toes!

- He drinks out of glass cups and uses ceramic plates. Also he has his own set of  steel silverware. No plastic!

- I am currently working in setting up his school room. Since I have a hard time telling him that he can go there only during "school" hours and it is the room where he and sister have their clothes I give one step forward and two steps behind.

Here is a link on how to create the prepared environment.