Our new classroom!

Yes, we haven't been home educating for long... Actually, I broke my toe and a part of my foot, so had to rest up, and basically all home edding stopped. It had pretty much already ground to a halt anyway, because I was finding it exhausting to run around after Addie with all the different parts of the curriculum in different rooms. Initially it seemed like a great idea, but after a while I started to not like it, and when Daddy was cooking, Addie always wrecked the classroom area of the kitchen. Not a good start, and not a good way to instill order! So, we took some drastic steps!

We have converted our small office into a single bedroom for when Nanny or Jay comes to stay. We have converted our dedicated classroom downstairs into a family room (well, both these rooms are works in progress). The major thing we have done is turned our big double guestroom into the classroom upstairs! I love it! It means we can be up there without distractions, and also without distracting Daddy from working, and also, we can make a slight furniture move and accommodate a blow-up double bed for guests (or we might get a sofa bed for the family room, who knows!)

So, here is our new classroom - I am starting again basically, and so some shelves don't have stuff on them, but they will be coming soon! This room is also so lovely because it gets a huge amount of light, even on a dull and dreary day, and has good lighting for when we need a bit extra. I also have a storage cupboard.

This is the view from the door of our lovely huge window and the field opposite where there are normally horses! The tour will start from the right hand side!

This is where I am currently storing the map cabinet (turned around so little fingers cannot get to the puzzle pieces yet), the continent boxes, a desk for an older child (nowhere else to put it!) and on it I will have a CD player and musical stuff. You can also see our calendar which will be kept there for the time being!

This is the reading corner where Addie can choose a comfy seat or a chair to sit on. She loves it here.

This is where I will put all things cultural. There is also a floor mirror, mainly for the new baby, but Addie really loves looking at her floor work in the mirror too!

This is the Practical Life area for non-wet stuff. Again, this is still being built up, and on the top I will have reading books etc when Addie is older. She also has a little table and chair against the wall (I will put some calming images on this wall). This is currently doubling up as the snack table until I can think of a better place for it! The 'wet' practical life activities will stay downstairs.

This is what we have in the corner behind the door! We have from right to left what will be language shelves, maths and sensorial (which will become more maths shelves in the 'elementary' (primary in UK) years if we stay here that long!). I have all my non-fiction books categorised on the top shelves, the next 2 shelves down are currently for storage of materials, with the bottom 3 being used for actual work. Eventually, it is the plan that all shelves will be used for work. On top of these shelves I have my albums and other materials stored. You can also see at the top right of this picture a glimpse of the other small window I have in the room. It is long, but not very high, but great for storing a few additional plus-size books and also my supplies.

 

Downstairs we have our dining room which will be for cooking, art, messy botany stuff like planting things and most wet practical life activities. As you can see there is a great blank board for our Autumn display I am making, and there are a couple of things Jay has made for his learning (based around the IB's learner profile/characteristics of learners). This is also the room I teach him in.

We love it. Hope you do too...