Updated "School Room"

At the beginning of our school year I had a "new" set up. I blogged  it. After 8 weeks, I changed it! So here is the NEW " and much improved "school room". 

When you walk in the front door you can see our school shelf. Under that shelf is a cabinet full of more school stuff and drawing books. It is also where the kids keep their large double three ring binders that they have all of their notebook pages in plus any other unit study pages they are working on. We have all of our readers and reference books on these shelves, plus we many of the novels that we will be reading this year. I keep my teacher's books and planner on the bottom shelf.

To the left of that shelf, right next to the front door is our "office" center. We have a b/w laser printer and a color laser printer/copier/scanner/fax (but we don't have the fax hooked up since we don't have a home phone anymore.) The school computer is under the bulletin board. (I have cards and homemade gifts and pictures from my kids and friends plus pictures on there.)  We keep our large hole punch, electric pencil sharpener  and CD player there, plus lots of extra printer paper. During the day we keep the blinds open to light the room without electricity to save money. When we are done we shut them to keep out the afternoon heat.

Right next to the bookshelves is my "desk" area. I have Pandora on my phone so at the beginning of the day I play praise and worship music on it. I have a small set of speakers that I hook up to it right next to my chair. Our daily Bible reading is on the chart  above the globe along with our weekly memory verse that they use to practice their cursive handwriting daily. Once we finish our morning devotional time, I put on movie sound tracks. In the white containers we have our math manipulatives, and Duplo and Lego blocks. 

After eight weeks of school using lap desks and having problems with the kids wanting to either sit on the workout equipment, lay on the floor or go into the kitchen to do handwriting, I decided it was time to change things up a bit. We moved this table into the room and expanded it to full size.  It works GREAT! The kids have room to spread out and work and I have room to put my teachers books on the end without getting in their way. Our large laminated wall maps of the US and World are behind the large table. They fit perfectly. We have a light in the corner when we need to do work after dark. They each have a dictionary, a datebook and calculator. There are colored pencils and reference books in the middle of the table to share.Their 3-ring binders stay on the floor behind their chairs when not in use to keep the table space less cluttered.

On our magnetic dry erase board are more reference items. There are lists of both Old and New Testament books, a list of writing tips, a small US map, a prayer of commitment, and some Spanish words and phrases cards that I made myself. I also have some pretty butterfly clips to hang other things if needed.

On the far wall is our workout equipment. Our cross cultural workers prayer board is at the end of the treadmill. John has this verse printed out and framed above it ...and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? Romans 10:14.

I am really happy with how the room turned out. I worked on it a little at a time during school and while they had lunch. I moved the big table into the room before school started so they had that the entire school day. They helped me move the maps and heavy furniture when needed. They did very well staying on task today. There wasn't a problem of wanting to lay on the floor or getting distracted by workout equipment because they had chairs to sit in and a table to work at. I am able to get up from my chair and stand at the table to assist them without having to lean down or sit on the floor with them. I love the height of the table because of that reason. I am always looking for ways to make things easier and more organized.


That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.