Homeschool Room

After much hard work this summer, I'm finally ready to start school with Reagan on the 22nd. (I asked her if she wanted to start earlier and she said 'no, thank you, she'd rather take that extra week of vacation.' Ok. Maybe that's not exactly how she put it, but you get the picture!)

Our plan for this year is to work through My Father's World K, along with quite a bit of add-ons from various blogs (Thank you to Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations and Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for all the hard work they do to provide us with items to teach our little ones!) and from various other curriculums. We're also sending Reagan to "preschool" at a local Church twice a week in the afternoons so that she can have some social interaction, along with music and art. Unfortunately she is still too young to be involved in the homeschool group music and art programs.

I think we're going to have lots of fun this year and I'm so excited! I'm going to try to remember that it's more important that she learn about Christ than anything else, and that she doesn't need pressure--this first year should be lots of fun. I'm extremely serious and competitive so this is hard for me to remember, but I'm going to pray everyday that Jesus guides us, NOT ME.

Oh-just a side note: this week I'll also post links to specific materials from other sites that I'm using AND a full list of our curriculum (and links!). But this post is getting much too long to do it here.

Alright, for those of you who are interested, here is our school room. (Technically it's one half of Reagan's playroom, so if you see a completely naked baby doll or tons of toys on the floor in parts of the pictures...just go with it! We also recently installed new UV ray blocking doors to keep the room cooler (as it was formerly a garage!) so you'll probably see installation foam still peeking out as we haven't installed the trim yet!) All that to say--well, this is it.

When you first walk in from outside, you'll see our wire rack full of puzzles and games--a great blocker between the toy side and the school side and keeps all her fun games close at hand! By the way, I get most of her puzzles and games from garage sales-a great place to find lots of homeschool activities!

Next up is a bookshelf with all of our weekly curriculum on the top shelves, msc. items lower and then tons of reference books divided into subjects on the lower shelves. (I prefer to keep these on the lower shelves so Reagan can get to them if she just wants to look at something she happens to be interested in!) We also have tons of craft supplies up top in bins.

Here are my 'filing cabinets'--I use that term loosely! More curriculum and household files here, as well as lots of Learning Packs! (Link to Homeschool Creation Packs and 1+1+1 Packs)

Here's our activity station with 'break' items (ie items in between workboxes--such as working on our number puzzle, working on screwing on and off caps, play dough, listening station, etc!) (The table and chair(s) were another garage sale find!)

Bulletin board that has our 100 chart, the map to color in of the States and our reading list--to keep a record of books Reagan reads (on her own) during the school year. The back has a cork board so I can tack up sentence strips, sequence cards, etc.

Workboxes and another activity bin (this is for smaller paper games and motor skill activities!)

Flag and Pledge of Allegiance

Dry erase board (with spots for color, number, letter and State of the day)

Calendar



Weather/Seasons and Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday pieces of the calendar board

And attachment pieces..

Songs for Calendar Time and our A-Z Bible Verse Book (to go with the RRPS program that I am using from 1+1+1)




Our schedule strip for our workboxes:



Our tree which I purchased from a teacher's supply store--we plan to hang our Biblical truths from our MFW K package on here.



Reading and Alphabet oversized books (I am in love with the DK big books--I need more!!!!)

Our RRPS Board and school table.

Recyclable storage--hidden under the table! (Can you say crafts?!)

Bottle caps to use for spelling!

And finally one last picture of the room--it's not as adorable as some photos I've seen-but it feels like home :) and that's the point isn't it?


*****Remember, if you see something you are in love with, I'll be posting links later this week to those specific printables from some very talented homeschooling moms!