our {temporary} school room and a few tips from the teacher

Hi there.

Thanks for coming to class today.
I just wanted to show you around our new schoolroom in our temporary home...

it really doesn't look much different from our old schoolroom, but I'm gonna show you anyway...

We added individual desks this year. I like that they have their own place to work.

It really cuts down on the mess around time...like knocking each other's pencils on the ground, etc. Ya, they do that sometimes.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe they wrote that on the chalkboard...that is so sweet! :)

The school room is never this clean, just so you know. It doubles as a toy room too.

The closet is full of legos...so you can about imagine how clean that is.

As crazy as this sounds, I am seriously considering ditching our schoolroom in our next house. I feel like so many times we are dragging our books to the dining room table so I can fold laundry beside them or whatever. Maybe some functional furniture in the living room or hallway and we don't need to have a whole room just for school.

I don't know yet...we're here till summer so I have some time to think...and we need a house, so that's all something to consider.

We had a great discussion on my FB page, I love to hear what you think too!

So included for free in this tour is a few organizational things that I've done for a long time, and some I just started that are working great...

First my lesson plan book:

I get these planners every year at Target. They're the kind that go August-July.

I like them because they have the tabbed sides, a full calendar and then weekly pages.

So on the calendar page, I have our schedule, like ballet, church activities, etc. Then on the weekly days, I have our lesson plan. That way I can plan for a shorter school day if we're busy with activities.

Next is weekly folders.

I started doing this at the beginning of this school year and I really like it.

First I decorated 8 folders because I didn't want them to be plain ;) and numbered them 1-8 (one for each week of the quarter).

Inside each folder, I have separated papers for each day of the week. Monday thru Friday.

Also on the inside of each folder, I have paper clipped my book list for the week.

I filled these folders up at the beginning of the school year, then I do another 8 weeks at a time so all my copies are made and I don't have to think about that again...

This last thing I just added this week and I love it!

I don't know about you, but I get SOO sick of repeating things like, did you make your bed? did you brush your teeth?

Well, it's the same for school. Did you practice your cursive? Flash cards? Fact sheet?

So, I decided if the boys each had their own little checklist that maybe just maybe I wouldn't have to sound like a broken record.

SO, I made a list of everything that they can do on their own, with little help from me.

I had the list laminated at Staples and put it in a little basket with all their daily work, putting the list up front.

I love how it's been working. So when their ready for school, they can just go get to it and they know exactly what to do without me nagging reminding :)

So there you go...our schoolroom and some tips from the teacher...I have so much to learn about homeschooling. I love to glean what other hs mamas do and how they do it. If you have tips, please leave them in the comments section!

Thanks for reading :)