Back-to-Homeschool Day 5: Classroom Tour

Oh boy! Did time get away from me or what? I'm so sorry at the lateness of this post, but sometimes life happens and must be lived. Am I right?

Onto our tour!

Our class room is setup pretty much the same as last year, so be sure to check out my 2013-2014 classroom tour post. This year I'm going to show you the  changes I made to the setup.

The first & most obvious change was the addition of Baby Boy's desk. He picked this out and paid for it himself using a gift card he received as a Christmas gift. He was so excited to get it in and help me put it all together!

The other change I made removing the color discipline chart. It just wasn't working out, and I couldn't figure out why until I read this post by Teaching in Progress. It made total sense, especially in dealing with Big Boy's behavior issues. He was so defeated by the end of the day that he wasn't on "blue" that he just wanted to give up. This year I'm trying to take a different approach that I've had a bit of luck with using the concept of "stealing school time". I'll do a post on that later to explain my full approach, but I will say it has seemed to work so much better than the old color system. In it's place, I'm working on getting another large world map to use with our zoology studies.

Those were really the two only changes I made. I'll occasionally bring in Baby Girl's bouncer if she's awake. Most of the time she naps on her activity mat in the other room (but still in clear sight). I'm also trying to do a better job of utilizing the room just off the classroom as a preschool playroom for Baby Boy when he is finished with his work. This both keeps him busy AND in sight!

Well, off to get myself some lunch before the two little ones wake up from their naps!

Our New Classroom!

I've always had a very hodgepodge classroom (when I've had one) up until this year. I really wanted something a bit more cohesive and fun for my kids. I'll admit that Pinterest had a big influence on this desire!

Of course, Big Girl wanted princes or Monster High or something equally girly, but Big Boy wasn't having any of that! He wanted something that was all boy. I told them we needed something both boys and girls would like. Mickey Mouse was our compromise, and I think I may have gone a little crazy with it!

Much of the big aspects of our classroom stayed the same. It's still set up much like a traditional classroom. I tend to do better keeping the kids focused with this set up. 

First up is our alphabet strip. We had a really nice one last year, but it just didn't go with our phonics curriculum. It was hard for Big Boy to remember his key words for sounds and letters with nothing matching up. Also, Big Girl is starting cursive this year, so I wanted something with cursive letters.

Look below the alphabet strip to the left, you'll find our 100 number chart. We had one that came with our curriculum that I've used for a few years now. It is on a 12x12 sheet of paper, and with my poor eyesight, I wanted something bigger.

Below our number chart is our attendance charts and family birthday calendar. Each day when the kids finish up with their workboxes, they take a sticker and place it on the appropriate day of the calendar. This helps me track their attendance and make sure we meet that 180 day requirement for the state.

Below the charts is our bookshelf of this year's school items. I keep my teachers manuals, student portfolios, student dictionary/thesaurus, box of math manipulatives, library books for the week, and a coloring books for Baby Boy. The Celtic cross on top is both a nod to our faith and our heritage!

Moving right, the next thing you see is our whiteboard and math meeting space. Our white board is used for pretty much everything. The rest is math specific. We use Saxon curriculum, and after writing and re-writing everything on a daily basis for a few years, I was tired. I made up all of our stuff and laminated it, so it could be done with a dry erase marker. You'll see spaces for our pattern of the day, number of the day, problem of the day, calendar activities, our Mickey bank for practicing money counting, and (not pictured) a clock for practicing time. There is also a weather component built into the curriculum, but we don't do this because we tend to hold daily weather discussions when choosing our attire for the day. I see no point in duplicating that just because a curriculum tells us to do so.

Just above our math meeting board is our writing space. I found these great graphics of step-by-step Mickey drawings and thought they'd make a great visual for the steps in the writing process!

The kids' desks sit facing the big wall for easy visibility. You can see my teacher chair and workboxes in the background.

Moving further to the right is our workboxes. Each kids have a set of drawers for organizing their daily school work. Each drawer is labeled with a subject and they work through from top to bottom doing our group subjects first. I printed off labels in the kids' favorite colors with letters in the Disney font to match the rest of the room. Their pictures set on top of the appropriate set of drawers.

As we continue around the room to the right and pass the staircase, it's our fruits of the Spirit display. Big Girl studied these last year and colored a fruit for each one. I thought she did such a great job with it that I decided to put it up in our classroom. I am probably going to make a big label for this wall with the Bible reference before the end of the year.

Next is our Tapestry of Grace map of the humanities. It's honestly not something we reference very often, but I like having it up. For a while my ILs were very concerned that we had spent so much time on world history and none on American history. I found that being able to show them this map, they could see exactly where we were going with our history studies. It has really helped to ease their minds about their grandchildren's education.

Our second map is a large world map because really what classroom would be complete without one! MIL is a librarian and had a couple of these sent to her. She graciously passed one along to me for our studies!

Next we come to my desk, but honestly it's still such a mess I didn't take a picture. Not only does it function as my teacher desk but as a household command center and Big Girl's and my sewing table. It also houses our seriously awesome color laser printer! I thought we wouldn't be able to afford one for many years but hated how much ink we were going through with the old inkjet we had. I'm seriously in love with this printer!

Last but certainly not least is our behavior management wall. The rules posted are basically our usual household rules. I felt that having them posted would help give the kids a visual reminder. Each day the kids start out with the Mickey/Minnie markers on "ready to learn" and are able to move up for good behavior to either "great job" or "super student". If they break any of the posted rules they must move down to first "make better choices" then "talk with daddy". Not only does this help them see how they are doing, but my husband doesn't have to ask how the day went. He can see it when he walks in from work.

So far I'm loving our set up. I know it's only been a week, but it really seems to be working out well for us!

Our School Room

It's week 2 of iHomeschool Network's NOT Back-to-School Blog Hop! This week is all about the spaces in our homes where education takes place.

I am very fortunate in that I have a large room that my wonderful husband has allowed me to take over as a classroom. Currently it is still in the process of getting all set up for this year, so I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures; however, I promise you that as soon as it is complete, I can overwhelm you with the visuals! *big grin*

Through my last several years of schooling my children, I have pulled ideas from everywhere for setting up a functional space. The most impactive of resources has by far been Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler. Seriously, if you haven't visited her blog, go there as soon as you are finished here!

My favorite aspects of our classroom...

Workboxes: With two full-time students each with a full course load, figuring out how to get it all done in a timely manner is difficult. These workbox stations have made it so simple, especially for Big Girl, who is an independent learner.

How They Work: I have little tags for each subject on each drawer and fill them with work at night for the next day. When we begin our school day, I go over any special instructions with the kids and then turn them loose. Since we will have many subjects together but with separate assignments, I can present the text/information before having them get the assignment out of the appropriate drawer. This also allows them to move on to reading assignments and other independent work without having to interrupt a sibling's lesson with mom to ask "what should I do now?"

Student Desks: I do have a traditional student desk for my kids to work at. I just find that giving them their own space to work helps cut down on the squabbling and distractions. I was able to pick these up very cheap at a going out of business auction for less than $20 each!

Teacher Desk: My wonderfully generous sorority sister GAVE me a huge executive's desk that came with the house she bought. She is a public school teacher who loves having a big workspace but already had two in her classroom. She knows that I like to spread out when I work, too, and thought this gorgeous approximately 6' x 4' piece would be perfect! She was so right!

In addition to being my desk, it is large enough that I've also made it mine and Big Girl's sewing station. There is just enough of a lip on the front that our legs tuck nicely under. Plus our space is big enough to have two sewing machines sit side-by-side with plenty of room to work on our extremely beginner projects!

Other Stuff:

As I said our room isn't quite done for this year. I still have things to put up on my walls and furniture to move around once we sell a rather large piece - a twin size bed. Yes, last year we had a bed in our classroom, and it was wonderful! I just found it to be too big for our space, so off it goes. I'm glad to be blessing a friend with it since she is expecting #3 and desperately wants to get #2 out of the crib and into a "big bed".

I can't tell you how disappointed I am that my room is not ready. We have been met with many challenges this summer, including my computer blowing up on me. (My husband has graciously lent me his on his days off to allow me to get back to blogging and do things that my phone doesn't quite handle.) I have lots of wall stuff to print and get put together, along with getting some desk organizers into place just help things run a bit more smoothly. Not to mention that if I'm being perfectly honest here, I still have projects from last school year that need to come down.

So before I hyperventilate all the things still to do, I better send you on your way. Check out what other homeschool spaces are out there by clicking on the pic below and don't forget to come back by for my updated school room tour!

Hope to see you all next week for Student Photo Week!