We start Kindergarten in 5 days!! AHHHH! Where has the time gone and how is my first born old enough for Kindergarten?!
Our homeschool setup is kind of sad. We don’t have the space to do anything spectacular, nor do we currently have the funds for it. What we have is functional, though, and that is really the important thing. I didn’t want to put tons of work and effort into it because it may change soon. Please don’t judge me for that. There is a GOOD reason for it, not just laziness. I am not at liberty to share that part of our lives yet. 😉
Here is our school calendar. I wish that I had bought one with “first day of school” and holiday pictures. The hanging folder organizer is for extra papers for the girls to do. The bulk of her school work is in workbooks that don’t tear out, so this will be for all of the printables that we do. There are five pockets, so I can organize one week at a time.
Here is our shelf system. There is a blue basket on top that holds all of her workbooks and our read-aloud book. I am sure that this will change as we get going and find things that work better. For now, it keeps everything together. The tubs on the first shelf have the girls’ crayon boxes and small maker boards to practice writing on. There’s also a folder to hold their work for the day (so they can show daddy all of their hard work) and a dry erase pocket that will allow them to trace over a word or letter many times over. The middle row of shelves has extra workbooks that have been picked up over the years. The bottom shelf has puzzles and board books that Harper can get in to while we are doing school. If anyone has suggestions for keeping a one-year-old entertained while doing school with older kids- I am all great big ears….
I also have a large marker board to write their memory verses on, along with the usual use. (Ours is a Board Dude with black frame from Target) It is mounted with command strips so that we don’t put tons of holes in the walls of the main living space. And, I can rearrange if I need to.
This is quite possible the most depressing part. My sister found these great kids’ desks at a thrift store in her area. She snatched them up for me and had my parents deliver them. I have been racking my brain to figure out a way to make them more fun. For now, it is against the wall on the opposite side of the table. I can move it out when we are doing school work, and then tuck it back against the wall. I love this desk because I remember using them in school. There is also a smaller leap frog desk that is for Addison. It is in the play room right now while I figure out what the heck I am doing here. I am trying so hard to figure out how to get it all together somehow.
I thought about making the playroom into a homeschool room and weeding out a lot of the big toys. The main thing in the play room is a play kitchen and a barbie house. However, that would leave Harper roaming the rest of the house alone, or trapped in the room with us. Neither option seemed very good. Especially her roaming the house, as you can tell by the above picture. I think that this will be really functional, though incredibly disappointing to me because I have had so many great ideas for how to better set up. If only we could wiggle our nose and add on some extra square footage.
