Kids’ {Home}School Bags

I love my school tote sooo much I decided to get one for each of my boys.

A couple of months ago Thirty-One offered a 31% discount after every $31 you spent.  It was the perfect incentive I needed to get this project in full swing.  Once I got their bags ordered (& embroidered in “their colors”) I made a list of everything I wanted them to have in their bags.  Mostly my list consisted of basic school supplies – which we already have in our schoolroom, but I wanted them to also have them in their bags to make it easy for when we are on the go or doing school at the house for whatever reason.  It also makes it very convenient for them to pack up & head outside to do their work during these beautiful spring days we have been blessed with.  Not to mention, the times I need to completely separate them.  In addition to all the basic supplies, I also got them each their own water bottle (from Target) & included the open top file box (the medium size works the best) & file folders like mine has. 

Each week I put whatever worksheets (typically math, handwriting, map work, etc.) in their daily files.  This helps so much when we have to go somewhere at the last minute or when they are waiting on me to get to the school{barn}.  Having their own bags & file folders has geared each of them to work more independently.  They also keep books they are reading & any activities they want to work on during free time – for example Tucker has a farm activity book, Trevor has a drawing book, & Tyler has his current reading book & a couple magazines inside their bags.

They typically keep them next to or behind their desk so they are not in the way at all.  Even little Truman has a a bag (which he is very protective of).  He gets rather upset when it is time for me to update his.

I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the Thirty-One Products.  In fact I love their products so much I keep toying with the idea of becoming a consultant.

Our Library Area

I have looked high & low for shelving or some kind of cubbies that would fit under the windows in our library area.  Nothing would either fit or match our bookcases, until I found an IKEA hack on Pinterest.  I purchases 2 of the tall skinny Billy bookcases & turned them on their side.  Pinterest get’s major props for this one! 

This one is all geography related & is sectioned by:  World geo, basic geo, & US geo.

The other one is for some of our favorite short stories & themes.  I also have a few quiet activities for the boys to do while I read aloud.  I don’t really love the colorful bin assortments, but it keeps them organized by theme until I find something better.

All this gave me a lot more room on my other shelves – which meant I had to totally rearrange the shelves – YIKES!!  This was a bit of a challenge & very time consuming, but here is was I came up with:

 

The shelf on the left holds all our history books.  The top shelf is for Ancients (we haven’t studied them in-depth yet, so there aren’t many), the next shelf is Middle Ages & Renaissance & the rest are American History (our current study).

The middle bookcase holds all our science & nature books.  The top shelf is astronomy, airplanes, & anatomy, the next shelf is ocean, then snakes & frogs, below that is nature books & botany, then there is a bug shelf (the black thing is going to be our bug collection), then next shelf holds all our varies animal books, and the last shelf is ALL our horse books.

The corner bookcases didn’t change much.  The one on the left holds our reading books.  I organized this mainly by reading level.  I put the easies on the bottom (so the little boys could reach them) & the more difficult books on the very top.  The other bookcase holds our art & music appreciation books, then our character & Bible study books & the last 2 shelves are for Pre-K & Kindergarten specific curriculum.

I found the cute little wagon at a garage sale & it holds all our Five in a Row books (& a few other favorites).

There are also 2 new additions to this area in our schoolroom.  First – the rug.  I found this for $50 at a flea market & I debated on getting it or not (I really wanted the entire US map rug), but I am so glad Big Daddy talked me into it.  The boys LOVE it!  They set up their forts & have battles – they each have a “territory”.  It melts my heart when I overhear them playing & one says, “No, Texas & Mexico are my territory!”  LOL

Last, but certainly not least is our new easel from Lake Shore Learning.  First, I want to say – I LOVE IT.  THEY LOVE IT.  IT IS WORTH EVERY PRETTY PENNY IT COST.  *I had to sell our pocket chart stand, A LOT of books, toys, curriculum, etc. to help pay for this.  I also had a 20% off coupon – which helped quite a bit.  I surfed the internet for hours looking for a good set-up for All About Spelling.  Most of them were dry-erase boards on the ground (which is where ours has been in the past).  This is a problem with a crawling baby & a mischievous 2 year old on the loose.  I also needed storage for all their boxes & go-along materials.  So, I bit the bullet & I am so glad I did.  Originally I had our AAS set-up on the unlined side, but the boys were getting a little crazy with their BIG & small writing :)  On the other side is Truman’s set up.  The bigger boys use it every once-in-a-while for pocket chart activities & I also store their sight words at the top.

Our Language Arts & Art/Drawing Centers

The more independent Tyler becomes, the more work he is doing on the computer.  The past year we have really struggled with finding him an area he could spread out comfortably on while using the laptop.  We looked at several options & decided on expanding out Expedit section.

The top section holds each of the boys’ binders, our dictionaries & thesaurus’, & writing materials.

Beneath are computer CD/DVD’s & craft bins.

To the right is our printer/copier, laminatorz, preschool packs, FIAR printouts, etc. 

On the other side is our art/drawing center.  I had little cubbies (from Big Lot’s) that fit perfectly inside to organize everything.  The top 2 shelves have drawing books, paper, & notebooks.  The bottom shelves have paint & stamping supplies. 

 

 

 

The other cubbies are mostly language arts – letter activities, phonics, & thinking skills, etc. 

I still have some organizing/re-arranging to do in this area, but at least now Tyler has plenty of space to spread out & get his work done.

Just a little rearranging & small changes in our school{barn}. . .

Something about our school{barn} just wasn’t flowing, but I just couldn’t pin-point it.  After giving it some thought, I realized it was the “centers”/toys.  The Lego’s & building area was on one side with the play kitchen area & the other toys were on the other side of the room.  The boys were scattering all they “treasures” all over the room.  I decided to move things around & this is what I came up with:

ALL of my boys love this table I got from IKEA.  However, it just wasn’t wide enough for all of them to sit at at the same time so I purchased a second one to give them more space. 

I also decided to moved my desk & Tara’s playpen around.  I keep checking Craig’s List for a better desk, but so far I haven’t had much luck, but for now this will work. 

I thought about cleaning my desk off, but I think I’ll keep it real for ya – this is how it looks by the end of every week.  A fabulous DISASTER!

    

On a side note:  Tara loves to play in her playpen!  She is my first baby to actually stay in it without screaming fits.  Eventually, I plan to fill it with plastic balls for her to play with, but I am waiting for her to loose interest in the current toys she has in there. 

She is all over the play now – crawling & getting into everything – so I moved her play mat to the back of the schoolroom where there are more appropriate things for her to “discover”. 

Best Days

Yesterday I loaded all 5 kids & drove to TN to surprised my mom so I could spend Mother's Day with her. We had a wonderful day today - full of surprises! We got her the new iPhone 4s, did a little shopping, & then had a fabulous dinner. Then my "baby" sister blew us all away when she surprised us with her version of "Best Days" as her gift to our mom. Tears . . . 

Our Building Center

Since we don’t use our IKEA Trofast bins for “workboxes” anymore I decided to use them to organize our building center (mostly the Legos).  I found these cool labels at (Yellow Mums), but I need a couple colors that weren’t included in the FREE download, so I messaged Laura at her Etsy shop - she was super sweet & not only made me the extra colors, but also custom labels for the rest of our building center.  (*You gotta visit her Etsy shop!  She has some VERY cute printouts!!)

The top half is devoted completely to Legos.  Each of my boys have 2 shelves for completed projects & their own personal bin for their “work-in-progress.”  We spent an entire day sorting Legos by color!  One of my friends warned me that it would not stay this organized, but I have to tell you – they do a great job (on their own without any prompting) keeping it organized.  In addition to the color coding, we also made a bin for instructions, Lego people, & Big Legos (for Truman; however, he his very close to needing his own bin as well.)

The bottom portion of our building center includes:  gears, super structures, trains, tinker toys, wedgits, blocks, drill set, pegs, & lincoln logs. 

This center is by far their favorite & most chosen 99% of the time.  They spend hours in the floor building & creating & playing with each other.  Priceless memories!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Truman is currently learning the letter C & our theme is “caterpillars.”  I have been so excited for this theme – we just love The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  I set up his little area in our school{barn} with a felt mat & some books.  He also has a few related books & activities inside his boxes.

I will be using Carissa’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar printouts, as well as several of the letter “C” printouts from Confession of a Homeschooler’s.  Not to mention the plethora of idea’s I have pinned HERE.

We will also be including the Mustangs in on this one.  For them I will be focusing more on number & color sight words, as well as the life cycle of a butterfly.  We will be collecting as many different caterpillars as we can find & observing the different types of butterflies they turn into.

In addition to the letter “C”, Truman will be learning the color green & the same of a triangle.  I have prepared a few trays & boxes for him: green rice, sand, & blubber (moon sand).  The next row is play dough, colored pasta sorting, shape sorting  transferring.  The last row is a color green activities, letter box, stamping, & painting.

Truman usually spends 2-3 weeks on a theme & I know the bigger boys will not last that long on this, so with them I plan to follow up with a bug/garden/flower unit. (more on that soon hopefully)