Ready for the New Year

School Room Pictures for the 2011-2012 Year

After lots of planning, cleaning, straightening & reorganizing, we’re ready for the new school year!   We school year round, July-June, so that we can enjoy a more relaxed pace.   This year I’ll be trying out a new schedule of (mostly) 4 day weeks, 6 weeks on/1 week off.    Our first day of the new year is Tuesday, July 5th.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL PICTURE for the 2011-2012 Year

Mary, 7yo, second grade
Nathan, 6yo, first grade
Savannah, 3yo (almost 4), preschool

Our History and Literature books for the first semester. I still need to order second semester books but at $390 it will have to wait a bit!

The binder has my lessons plans, another copy of our curriculum & quarterly goals, all the map print outs for the entire year, science materials list and my classical music guide. On top of the binder is my (homemade) record book. I don’t do lesson planning in the traditional way- I simply write down what we do each day in a record book.

SCHOOL ROOM PICTURES

Our school room is our bonus room over the garage. It faces North so has a lovely, indirect light all year long. When you walk in to door, this is what you see:

To the left of the door:

Continuing around the room, left to right. The little door is one of our side attics. On it is our perpetual calendar & a map of the United States, since we will be studying US History this year. Then one of my two toddler/baby areas with baskets & shelves of quiet toys to play with.

On top of the toddler/baby toy shelves is one of our globes, the telephone & two baskets. One holds books for Mary & Nathan to use during read aloud time & the other holds the children’s main logic curriculum- Bambino LUK for Savvy and Mini LUK for Mary & Nathan.

Reading area. The loveseat came from…. storage, of course! (As did the secretary & the book holder to the left of it). The small stand has a red bin that holds homeschooling books that I am reading. Then the other stack of books holds most of our non-History read alouds. All of my poetry books, children’s Bibles & devotions, study guides, etc. A timer for Mary & Nathan to read out loud for 15 minutes each evening. The wall shelf holds books that we read aloud on occasion but not daily or weekly. Also reference books such as the Rose Book of Bible Charts and Maps, etc.

The baskets on the floor in front of the secretary hold all of Savannah’s preschool books and some baby toys for Lyra to play with during our read aloud times in the afternoons & evenings.

Small piece of artwork on display- it’s on the cedar chest that we use as a window seat.

These bookshelves hold most of our Geography, Bible, History, Literature & Science selections. Past that is a smaller shelf with a tv. We originally used it for our Math-U-See lessons but since we have stopped using MUS, we never use the tv. On the shelves below is my second area for toddler/baby play.

White board- for drawing, spelling & vocabulary words, etc.

Our extra large table, I believe it is 8 feet x 4 feet. Now that I’m schooling three kids this year, I really appreciate being able to spread out!

These two baskets hold all of our non-History & Literature curriculum- phonics, math, geography, grammar, spelling, writing, handwriting & science.

Goals to keep us on track:

This rolling bookshelf also came from storage. The top two shelves hold our current or recent History & Literature read alouds. The third shelf holds our Science books and the bottom shelf if for miscellaneous books.

As you move past the big table there is another small attic door. Then our little “fireplace”. Over it is the medicine cabinet made by Uncle Karl & Aunt Harriette’s father. The rug was made by my Aunt Polly or her mother- it is at least 80 years old. My mother’s rocking chair and an antique quilt she gave me.

Then shelves with toys for the two oldest children to play with if they finish early. In the corner is a bean bag & pillows for reading. Savvy’s preschool puzzles are on top as well as a curio display case and the Fisher-Price farm.

Next is my desk. This holds all our files, office materials, my all-in-one printer, our large skeleton, books on homeschooling. The left hand cabinet holds most of our science materials. There are logic games on the middle shelves and on top is the Playmobil Western set, which I will get down in a few weeks when we get a little further into our study of the 1800′s.

Now we are back to the door! I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of our room. It’s nothing fancy but we really enjoy it.