Chapter 2: In Which I Show You The Learning Space

As I may have said before, I love the style of the Shakers.  The look is neat and simple.  Most of the furniture in my home is Shaker style.  I love to be clutter free and I also love to purge.  Then there's the learning space.  There's something about school supplies and books and curricula that makes me a borderline pack rat.  For example, I don't want to throw away a scrap piece of posterboard, because we might need it someday, for something......

This just started when I began homeschooling.  I've accumulated quite a bit of stuff in my two years.  In my early twenties I did a major purge in my apartment and got rid of most of the books I owned.  (For some reason I kept a few paperbacks such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Little Prince; maybe it's the French in me.)  I'm hoping I don't someday regret tossing my Trixie Belden collection.

But back to the subject at hand...the Learning Space.  My solution for trying to give the appearance of elegant simplicity in the school room without getting rid of the stuff I may need someday, for something....is to keep everything extra and everything that doesn't look neat behind closed doors.  Fortunately, I have a large walk-in closet with a door and some great cabinets with doors.

Let me show you the lay-out of our school room.  Here's the entrance. (I had to get Sweet Pea in this post somehow.)

It's one big room above our garage.  Half of it is carpeted, and the other half is vinyl coated tile, like you would find in a doctor's office.  (Our church basement has it too.)

This is the carpeted side:

On the right, from the sectional to the taller bookcases, is our "Book Nook" or library.  Straight ahead, in the big dormer, is our atrium.  On the left is the preschool area and our music cabinet.

Here's a good view of the Book Nook.

And here's a view of the color coding project I've been working on.

The strips of colored duck tape on the book bindings identify the categories in which the books belong.  For example, red tape means easy reader.  I decided to move the picture books onto a shelf in my closet.  I'm displaying only our current read-alouds with the covers facing outward, an idea that stuck in my mind while reading Basic Montessori.  I'm testing it out anyway.  So far, it's helping the bookshelves; (they were already beginning to sag from the weight of the picture books) AND Helper's been bringing me displayed books to read to her.  Our extra board books are stored inside of the end table, which has a cabinet door on each side of it.

I have two large Van Gogh prints to hang in this area.  They are awaiting frames. 

And notice I'm displaying a small computer generated print from the 4real artist of the month.  Thanks Amy! 

Here are two photos of our atrium.  The first is of the Baptismal kit and our altar.

And here's our bookcase.

I plan to hang some religious artwork on the walls.  I'd also like to make these Marian shelves this year too.  (Probably in May)  I will gradually add more atrium materials;  and someday I'd like to have a prayer table and a comfy chair in here too.

The preschool area is made up of the creaky little table and chairs set I had when I was a preschooler, and two small bookshelves of preschool activities. 

Here's a close-up of the shelves:

 

I am displaying only what fits neatly on the shelves and will be rotating the activities in and out of my closet.

This computer cabinet has become our music center.

It houses our CD's, cassettes, books, stereo and basket of musical instruments.

Now let me show you the other half of the room.

One of my favorite things about this learning space is the natural light in here.  Since I've been going around counterclockwise, I'll continue this way.  Here's our geography corner.

On one side of the dormer is our drawing/writing center.  I plan to hang my childrens' artwork on these walls.

As you may be able to see, the always accessible supplies here are: a pencil sharpener, rulers, three-hole punch, tape dispenser, stapler, hole punches, scissors, crayons, pencils, pens, erasers, and colored pencils.  The trays are currently filled like this: small pads, story writing paper, graph paper, cutting paper, construction paper, plain drawing paper and how-to-draw books.

The stuff I don't want to be easily accessed are in the cabinets above the sink.

Things like markers, paint, glue, stamp pads, collage materials, playdough, etc.

Under the sink are: a drawer for current curricula,

a cabinet for my children's scrapbooking supplies,

trash storage,

and a drawer and cabinet for office supplies.

Here's our old kitchen table, which makes a great art & crafts table.

This blank wall may be for a bulletin board?  a calendar?  a future time line?  What do you think?

Those of you who read my kitchen story will know what this is:

If you didn't read the kitchen story, Bobby calls it the vac-pan;  but it should be probably be called The Playdough Sucker.

And finally, the closet that I organized for these pictures.  I want to thank Helen from Castle of the Immaculate for hosting the Fair of Elegant Simplicity in Learning Spaces. These Loveliness Fairs are a great way to set deadlines for yourself.  Either it gets done for the fair, or it doesn't get done for a long while.

The bins contain the rotated preschool activities.  The white plastic drawers contain rotated toys for the playroom.  I can't get the whole right wall in one picture, so I took two.

I'm excited about storing seasonal books on the top shelf.  I've labeled spaces for four piles:  Christmas, Winter, Spring and Fall.  (I guess I don't have many Summer books.) The Christmas and Spring piles are small right now because the Christmas and Easter books are still packed away.

The blue plastic drawers are filled with more craft supplies such as ribbons, tissue paper, felt, yarn, etc.

One thing I love about this learning space is that we can spread out and be in the same room together.  I love that we have places for everything.  We are at the beginning of our homeschooling journey.  I'm sure our space will be changing as we grow.  It may be changing soon, as Sweet Pea learns to crawl and cruise and walk.  Then I'll really be using my "behind closed doors" method for Elegant Simplicity. 

 

Comments

[Dawn]

Cheryl, your learning room is absolutely beautiful! What a joy to have such a wide open space and so much great storage! I love the cheerful colors and natural light. Thanks for sharing all your organizing ideas, too! :)

[Theresa]

WOW! What a wondewrful learning space you have! It is so light and airy and cheerful and spacious! You have done a super job of organizing it, too! Beautiful!

[Kristin]

A dream space, Cheryl! I LOVE IT!!! And you've done the most wonderful job of setting it up and organzing it! Three cheers for you!!!

[Krisann]

Simply gorgeous!

Blessings,
Krisann

[Jenn Miller]

What a terrific learning space! Just like your kitchen, so light and airy and spacious. I love what you've done for organization! Thanks for the peek into your homeschool!

[Angela]

Absolutely amazing! Please, please, please come organize my home!

Blessings,

Angela

[Anne]

Can I come learn at your house?? :) Inspiring-- thank you!

[Anne]

Can I come learn at your house?? :) Inspiring-- thank you!

[Alice]

This is what I would call an ideal learning space--bright, cheerful, spacious, perfectly uncluttered, yet filled to the brim with everything a child could ever need.

[Heather]

I found your website by searching for preschool writing center photos on google. I LOVE your classroom! It's so bright and organized.
Something you might be interested in for displaying books is a gutter shelf! They are great. Just buy a gutter from home depot, cut it to size, screw it to the wall, and put end caps on both ends. They are sturdy and hold lots of books with the titles facing out so that kids can see them.
For pictures you can check out my classroom photos.
http://firstdiscoverieschildcare.com/wst_page4.php?idx=3&file=images/new_daycare_toys_068.jpg&&ID2=oxB9H3

[Alice Gunther]

Revisiting this fabulous post!!!!