Thursday, December 2, 2010

A Place For Everything

Our first schoolroom 2009
Was located in our “breakfast room”. Problem-too small.
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Our schoolroom this year
Moved to the dining room. Problem-stuff spilling into living room, and old schoolroom.
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New schoolroom
The old playroom. A giant open room upstairs that was cold, uninviting, and usually off limits because the kids liked to trash it.
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In my last post I showed the painting. :) So warm and inviting up here. Thanks honey!
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One of my favorite things in the room! These balloons we found over the summer when we visited Rick’s mom and dad in Mississippi. The time we actually made it. The numbers only went to 6. Perfect!
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We moved an old table we had long since lost chairs for, bought new chairs and I made some tooshie cushions for them.
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We moved the white bookcases in from the first classroom for supplies, and currently not used curriculum.
DSC_9481   These black bookcases are from the dining room classroom, and hold our current books, binders and curriculum not in the kids personal drawers.
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Here you can see the two glass desks and cool green chairs from Walmart. They give the older two a personal desk space from the younger kids, and computers for their Teaching Textbooks math program.
DSC_9485 The kids made some art for our new room the other day, with the room colors as a theme. Hannah’s desk has an orange lamp (above) and Christian’s has a green one (below).
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  Printer needs a new home..it’s wireless.
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Our calendar, storage cabinet and drawers for curriculum.
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Our reading nook. *sigh* I love it!
I started with this orange and green theme in mind, and then found this perfect fabric at Walmart to make a pillow for my orange chair, and hopefully a valance for the one window. The pillow has apples and cupcakes and cherries on it. The “art” above the chair is a Samantha original, featuring our new Bible motto. I only have the Bible reference there, as I want us all to know it by heart.
“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
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Our little nook houses the play kitchen, colorful and retro, from a few years back for Christmas.
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New toy storage. Cubicals from Amazon, 2 sets, with the bins from Target. Target also has the cubicals, but Amazon had free shipping. I have a Target nowhere around here. The bins were cheaper at Target.com. Tonight I will be making laminated tags for easy sorting, as the bins each have a separate kind of toy in them. (I’ll update later.)
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What do you think? We are so happy about the move, and are loving the room! We have already found ourselves coming up here when school is over as a family. We’re very pleased with the end result!

44 comments:

  1. Looks great!! I love the number magnets!!JK Great job!!

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  2. I think it is beautiful! I would love a space like this. We wind up in the dining room and the living room all the time. My oldest 2 are always trying to get to a quiet place and we really don't have any.I think you did an amazing job!

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  3. I agree Kate! I was going to have a picture of them, but my battery was yelling- I will get one! You can see them though! The kids pretend they are cookies on a cookie sheet!

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  4. Amazing, Samantha! Great job; I am in awe of your organisation. Your children are truly blessed.

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  5. Its hard to believe this room was virtually unused for 6 1/2 years! Your patience and diligence has been rewarded! ~S.

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  6. I love, love, love this room. I year for a school room and it's a top priority if we ever move from our current rental. Right now we do school at the kitchen table and on the couches and then I use a buffet table to "hide" our school stuff with milk crates in a corner. Not very decorative for company, but it works for now.

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  7. I am jealous,this is my DREAM area to school.we school in the dining room or in my room(computer is in here)

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  8. Looks great! Now I am off to finish cleaning my house ; ) Looking forward to hearing how you like Jillian workout. Shinnston's Turkey Trot went great. Maybe you all can come next year. We plan to have a kids fun run too.

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  9. it looks amazing! you did a great job - great idea, Sam!!

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  10. Love it, love it, love it!! Great job & creative use of space!!! BTW, thanks for stopping by my blog the other day :-)

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  11. Love this school room! I'm very jealous!!!

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  12. Sam it's amazing!!!! I'm so happy for you!!!! It's absolutely beautiful=)

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  13. This looks absolutely wonderful!! So nice and organized! Where did you get your fantastic calendar? I really need one like that, ours is a pain the numbers still fall off even after trying tape and magnets :-( Thank you!
    Have a great night!

    blessings,
    Jill

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  14. All I can say is 'WOW'! It looks wonderful!!!

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  15. you are one crazy organized woman, How is it you are best friends with me?- love it though! Buffie

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  16. That is so awesome! I'm super jealous of your amazing school space and extra storage and nifty bins! Oh, I like that calendar too! Did you make it or buy it? (and where?)

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  17. In case anyone else was wondering, here is the link for the calendar. http://www.amazon.com/Smethport-Calendar-Pocket-English-Spanish/dp/B002A2U8OO/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1291403664&sr=8-9

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  18. I wish that I could learn in a room like this! Or have one in my house:)
    Nicki
    Juiceboxes and Wipes
    www.juiceboxesandwipes.blogspot.com
    (Formerly Growing Blessings)

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  19. Thanks for the birthday wishes, Samantha! Your homeschool room looks fabulous!!! Great use of space!

    Lisa xoxo

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  20. You have inspired me to move our space. I had been feeling guilty because we put so much effort into transforming our garage into a school room... but it turned out we just didn't use it. After seeing this post I'm excited to move our HS room into the dining room.

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  21. Good for you April! Work it until it works for you! I am so happy we did!

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  22. Hi from the Homeschool Lounge. This is a beautiful place, I'm jealous (JK). You should feel proud.

    Danae
    Believing Unbeliever
    http://www.danaefarias.com

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  23. How wondeful! It is so nice having a classroom! We tried not having one for a while...didn't last long! I went crazy ;-)

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  24. I love your room! It has really inspired me. I'm trying to determine "where" in my home I'm going to locate our stuff. THis certainly gives me ideas.

    My son wants a desktop like ya'lls now. He likes your green chairs. I have a black one like that in my office.

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  25. Wow, great job on the room! It looks wonderful! I love the reading nook, very cozy.

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  26. I know this post was old, but I just saw it. I LOVE IT! So jealous :(

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  27. What a wonderful room! Love it!

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  28. I just saw your post after you linked it up on WTM, but I just wanted to let you know that I love your space! You've fit so much into it, and yet it still feels open and spacious. Thanks for all the great ideas. (I just became a Mom of six a little less than a month ago ... it's nice to see another homeschooling Mom of six!!).

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  29. Samantha,

    Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and directing me to your school room link. I love it! I was thinking of going neutral, but now I am certain that is the way to go. By having the neutral color on the walls, the other items stand out. I am so excited. Your school room is awesome! I really like your reading nook. I am happy to have found you and will be back often. Thanks for the help!

    Kimbelry

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  30. I just saw your post after you linked it up on WTM, but I just wanted to let you know that I love your space! You've fit so much into it, and yet it still feels open and spacious. Thanks for all the great ideas. (I just became a Mom of six a little less than a month ago ... it's nice to see another homeschooling Mom of six!!).

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  31. Hi from the Homeschool Lounge. This is a beautiful place, I'm jealous (JK). You should feel proud.

    Danae
    Believing Unbeliever
    http://www.danaefarias.com

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  32. I love your room! It has really inspired me. I'm trying to determine "where" in my home I'm going to locate our stuff. THis certainly gives me ideas.

    My son wants a desktop like ya'lls now. He likes your green chairs. I have a black one like that in my office.

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  33. Love it, love it, love it!! Great job & creative use of space!!! BTW, thanks for stopping by my blog the other day :-)

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  34. I love, love, love this room. I year for a school room and it's a top priority if we ever move from our current rental. Right now we do school at the kitchen table and on the couches and then I use a buffet table to "hide" our school stuff with milk crates in a corner. Not very decorative for company, but it works for now.

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  35. I agree Kate! I was going to have a picture of them, but my battery was yelling- I will get one! You can see them though! The kids pretend they are cookies on a cookie sheet!

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  36. I love your school room!  I wish I had the space, but at least we have an open dining/living room in our apt. so we can be in there.  As far as storage goes, I have a closet for supplies and a hanging, rolling file organizer for our current work.  I am thankful because my friend homeschools her 3 kids in the bedroom that all 3 (1 boy and 2 girls) share.

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  37. I would like to know your favorite curriculum too!

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  38. That would be tough! Having a school room is a blessing-but as you can see-we have been all over the house! 

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  39. We use Paths of Exploration-part of the Trail Guide to Learning Series. We adore it! 

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  40. Michelle NatureofgraceJuly 31, 2012 at 12:12 AM

    Wow! This is a great homeschool room! I just started a linky party for homeschooling rooms/spots, back to school fun stuff, etc. and would love to have you link up with us to share this spot! I plan on leaving the party open through the month of August in hopes of getting a nice collection of homeschool room links and organizing tips as a resource for myself and other homeschooling mamas! Please feel free to share this link and any others you think might be a good fit! :)http://www.thenatureofgrace.blogspot.com/2012/07/reading-spot-and-homeschool-havens-link.html

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  41. I LOVE, LOVE this room!!!  We have a loft also in our house and this has inspired me to try to copy some of the ideas here! I just started homeschooling this year for the first time ever and will be working with my 11 year old and 7 year old. 
    I gotta get organized!! 
    Where did you get the blue calendar? I Love it!! 
    Thanks for the inspiration! 

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  42. Thanks! Here is the link for the chart-it has held up wonderfully! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002A2U8OO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002A2U8OO&linkCode=as2&tag=samkelley97bl-20">Smethport Calendar Pocket Chart (English/Spanish)<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=samkelley97bl-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002A2U8OO

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