Our Classroom

We have just finished reorganizing and getting our "classroom" all set up for the new year. Granted we don't intend to spend all day every day slaving over books in this room; we will probably do a lot of our reading on the couch in the living room, and might take art projects to the dining room table where we can spread out a bit more. However, we, ( especially the kids!) wanted to have an area set aside, where they could sit and do work, a separate area where they wouldn't be distracted, and they wanted to be able to go to a "classroom, where they could hang their projects, and keep all of their "school stuff". I find it nice to have an area where I can keep all the school items organized, and make a little classroom, that encourages the kids to be creative. I always had all these great ideas that for classrooms and I like being able to apply some of those ideas to my own kids, and give them more individual attention than they could receive in a class of 30 kids.

Here are some pictures of our classroom, which is done for now, for the most part, we might add a couple things in the next few weeks before we really get started on Sept 1 ( if we can stand to wait that long!)

If you notice random green paint in some of the pictures remind me to tell you about the great paint disaster of 2008.. we have yet to fix some of the damage.. so until then we strategically place furniture to make it easier to ignore! :)

From the doorway:

Our classroom computer set up:


The cubbies for each person:
My planner:
In addition to a page dedicated to overall goals for the year, and a calendar, each week has 2 pages, where I can organize my thoughts and plans for each day (in pencil of course!).


In the drawers:
The top drawer has most of the text books we will be using, and supplies used often:
The middle drawer has extra notebooks and dividers, as well, as art supplies:


The bottom drawer had some teachers manuals, texts that wont be used till later in the year, and some other random supplies:



Next to the printer is a little set of shelves that has printer paper on top, school supplies in little boxes, and a shelf I'm keeping the kids portfolios on:


I'm actually not required to keep formal portfolios using the option I have registered with the state, but I like to anyhow, both as a little keepsake, and to stay organized in case anything happens and I suddenly need a formal record of the kids work.
Inside I have a divider for each week, where I will put work (other than what is in their notebooks for some subjects), any pictures we take of projects, and a copy of the lesson plan schedule for the week.


Finally here is our board that has our beginning of the day items on it. We will talk about our goals for the day, practice days of the week exercises, and mark off our calendar, as well as putting any important items on the calendar. I also plan to talk about the weather forecast for each day, and read a scripture of the day together everyday.
Yay! I think we are just about ready to go!

Our Homeschool Journey

Hello big wide world!!

Although we have been homeschooling for a couple of years, we have seen through tireless research that the blogs of other homeschooling families has proven to be an invaluable resource information, encouragement and inspiration. Thus we decided to start our own blog dedicated to our homeschooling experience, and other adventures we undertake. Our goals are to regularly update what we are doing, and have the kids help with their own entries as much as possible.

This year the kids are starting the first grade, and we have quite an array of ideas for what we want to do. We have purchased a curriculum items to use as our backbone to have structure in covering subjects required by the state and make sure we don't leave out anything too important! We also are going to have several times during the year when the kids will be able to pick topics that they want to learn more about, and be able to work on projects in that area, regardless of if it is related to anything in our planned curriculum.

We also belong to a local home school support group, which not only provides us with awesome friendships, but also with opportunities for amazing field trips, co-op classes, and activities such as science fairs, Arts night, field day etc.....

I (mom) have been taking classes online for the past 3 years to finish my degree in Communications, and thankfully will finally be done with it at the end of October. That will be nice to have accomplished... but right now I am more glad to be able to have more time to devote attention to the kids, and other aspirations. It seems that my school has taken over my life almost every day for so long!

Stay tuned to some more posts very shortly which will tell you more about what we have planned for the 1st grade, our activities, and getting to know us more!