Homeschool Room Tour //
Hey, friends! So… I’ve been wanting to do this post for a lonnng time! I was hoping to have our homeschool room completely finished before sharing pictures with you all… but that hasn’t exactly happened. Like all of the other rooms in my house… it’s a work in progress! I still have dreams of getting the perfect velvety reading chair in the corner of the room, hanging a school house clock over the bookshelves, adding a fabulous rug, and doing some more personalized art projects with the kids. Hopefully over the summer we can put some finishing touches on the room!
What I do like best, is that it’s an eclectic space filled with things we love! Most of the time, my motto is ‘less is more,’ but not in this case! This room is brimming with art work, garland, and pops of cheerful colors… plus lots of natural light! It has proved to be the perfect spot for school work, board games, and art projects! It definitely has become our favorite room in the house!
I started researching school room setups this time last year {just prior to our move}. I stumbled across the wonderfully informative site, Confessions of a Homeschooler, where I got the inspiration for the Ikea desks. I loved that it was easy to build… and quite affordable! The desk is a 5 foot x 5 foot square, which seats four. It’s comprised of 4 sets of file drawers and 2 table tops! It has worked out very well for us this year! It’s super easy to clean — as long as you get the glossy white table tops!
Our bookshelf is the Kallax Shelving Unit from Ikea. It has 16 box openings which works out great for keeping the kids’ books and learning games/manipulatives separated. The chairs were quite a find! I love the industrial modern look! I found them at Target {they come in sets of two}! My kids literally stand on them, jump from them, and abuse them further by flipping them over to create trains, forts… you name it! They’ve held up beautifully! I LOVE these chairs!
On to my favorite felt garland! It’s from Land of Nod. I could go crazy in that store, you guys! In fact, nearly every time we make a trip to Orange County, we stop in there! I could furnish and accessorize our entire school room, kids’ bedrooms, and shared spaces from there and be FOREVER HAPPY! The darling curtains are also from Land of Nod.
The maps, grammar, and math posters are all from my favorite learning supply store… Lakeshore. I wish I had them laminated prior to hanging them up… but I was impatient. The cute chore charts are a random find from Cotton On – Kids. {Not only does that store have cute clothes… they also have the most adorable notebooks and pencil cases!}
The ‘READ’ letters were also a Land of Nod find. {Love!} They are made from basic brown, light-weight kraft paper that we gussied up with bright pink dot stickers! Do you see the little turquoise Ikea cart? I’m sure you’ve seen this before! I use it to hold extra paper and dry erase materials. It’s actually a kitchen cart on wheels… but it’s so versatile!
To hang the kids’ art, we simply purchased the wire line and clips. It’s hung on just one wall, high enough so it’s out of the way, but still visible for all to enjoy!
The small white book shelf, from Ikea, is functional and sturdy. The numbered cube bins and striped ones are all from… you guessed it… Land of Nod! I adore their fun storage containers! The striped bins contain extra chapter books for the kids to read, math manipulatives, and anything else that has a difficult shape to store alone on the shelves. The numbered bins house extra work for each child. They each have their own number where they have age-appropriate educational games, flash cards, and knick knacks.
So, this room’s main purpose is as a school room; however, I do have an active toddler! While teaching the oldest three, Mr. Finn is always close by playing. {Part of our school room had to function with him in mind.} I have educational games for him in his numbered bin, as well as lots of picture books on the shelves, and his favorite board books in a metal bin on the ground near his rocking horse.
There is also a basic easel {a steal from Ikea} where Finn draws in the corner of the room.
One of my favorite pieces, we found for the room, was from an antique store on the mountain near where we live. It’s the vintage globe! It actually lights up! We hope to collect a few more antique globes… both big and small! The lovely giraffe was hand carved by my grandfather for my son Seth… who happens to love giraffes! I cherish that special piece… in fact, we all do!
The math manipulatives are perfect for Sophia who has been in Kindergarten this year… but also for Finn to practice his counting and sorting.
We have extra markers, twistables, and sharpened pencils in pretty glass jars on top of the book shelves.
We have a keyboard {that we bought years ago at Costco} in the room that the kids use for their piano lessons! We are so lucky that our piano teacher actually comes to our house each week!
Inside the closet, we have lots of puzzles and toys that are easily accessible. Finn typically sits on the ground and plays quietly while I teach the others… or I focus on teaching two, and the other child plays with Finn to keep him happy and entertained!
We have dress up clothes, and bulkier toys {stored in tupperware containers} like wooden blocks, train tracks, and wooden castles on the other side of the closet. We use the cute wire basket for recycled paper… however, Mr. Finn has many different purposes. He likes to dump the recycled paper out, and use it to play basketball in the shower of the bathroom nearby! He also has a ‘thing’ for cutting up rubber bands right now. I find countless cut-up rubber band pieces spilling out of the basket’s holes! Ha!
I hope that you’ve enjoyed our homeschool room tour! Practically everything cute and major in the room was purchased at either Ikea or Land of Nod — so easy! It’s a simple space… but it’s filled with love and learning!
I’d really like to see your homeschool rooms! Leave the link in a comment below if you have a blog post dedicated to yours! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Also… I plan on doing a post soon with my favorite curriculum from the year… and learning activities that your kids can do over the summer to keep them reading, writing, and doing math in fun, creative ways! 