Our Transforming Classroom

Pin It While the "totally turq" room was not our actual first learning space, it IS the first room that we referred to as the school room. This room used to be Madelyn's room. Before that, two other bedrooms and the dining room took turns serving as play and learning areas when the kids were younger.

 When it was time for a "school room," we started with this:

The problem with this space was that the desks did not allow me enough room to sit and work with the kids if I needed to. They ended up not getting used very much, and the dining room table began serving as our school area.

However, I still wanted to get use out of this room. After seeing the school room post at Confessions of a Homeschooler, I basically decided I would just copy that (minus the swivel chairs-- after buying the 2 red ones, I quickly learned swivel chairs are a bad choice!) rather than trying to come up with something original lol. I loved her ideas!!

COAH has details on what and where to get this furniture. I STRONGLY suggest buying the craft storage thing for the middle of the table because those table tops need something good and heavy to hold them down. If not, and you don't have the drawers positioned right, they will fly up and cause chaos (screaming children).

We all loved the new look of our room. If it wasn't being used for school, the girls would sit in there and color. The table and craft holder was also a big hit with their friends. The change was good.

Then we had to move. Our current home doesn't have a 4th bedroom or extra room, but it does have an unfinished basement where all the white furniture is now set up. The kids do play down there and still use the table, yet the unfinished basement feels too much like a jail cell and very little like a pleasant learning area.

This year the dining room will be serving as our school room. It's a work in progress, and I won't be doing much to the area because this is a temporary home. We still aren't sure where we want to end up permanently. What I DO know is the next house we buy will have a separate room for our classroom...we want our white furniture school room back!

 My Thirty-One bag serves as my classroom on-the-go. There's a file folder and binder inside to hold everything we need. I LOVE the pockets around the outside for extra storage. I'm not sure what I'm putting in the fabric bins yet, so they aren't labeled.

 Our Sonlight readers!

 This is my planning area...one of my favorite spots of the house :).

The Staples Desk Apprentice is awesome...and huge! I'm still deciding whether to break out our workboxes again this year, or just use binders. Decisions, decisions...


There you have it. Our classroom is always transforming to fit our needs.