As we are gearing up for our first official homeschool year (preschool & kindergarten) I am working my way through our get done before back to school to-do list and I finally feel like it is shrinking! Yay! Our daily routine is planned out, curriculum picked, morning calendar binder-ready, and today I am excited to share a look at our homeschool space!
The first thing I did when we decided that we would full homeschool this year (due to COVID), is hop on Pinterest! I started browsing all the beautiful homeschool rooms (AMAZING) and while I absolutely LOVED so many and even thought about redoing our little den (currently husband’s workspace) to make our very own room, I stopped myself and reconsidered…
We have always done our activities right in our living room. We read stories cozied up on the couch, the girls create crafts and play in sensory bins on our living room floor, they write in journals and complete learning activities at their little table or the kitchen table, and sing and dance to videos right on our living room rug. This is normal for us. This works for us and we don’t really have a ton of space to do things differently. So why change it?
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This year our homeschool space will continue to be right in the middle of our main living space and I’m excited to share how I’ve made this work so that it still feels like school and home too.
First up, the table area!
I wanted a set tablespace that felt “more like school” to begin our homeschool block each day. A small table, chalkboard, school supplies, and the mini calendar does the trick! In fact, we’ve always had a small kids table in this space, a table that was just for them, but we did get a slightly bigger one because well, both girls are growing so fast!
This magnetic chalkboardis home to our daily schedule (FREE here) and I see it being used for morning messages, word work practice, letter review, thinking maps, math lessons, and MORE! Right next to it sits our little Melissa and Doug Calendar that we will use with our calendar binders to kick off our homeschool block each day. And that’s pretty much it!
So the next part of our homeschool space I LOVE because it can be totally hidden if I want it to be, BUT actually is the bread and butter of our homeschool block! Plus it feels like “school” and that makes this teacher mama happy!
I call it the homeschool closet!
When you open it up you’ll see our homeschool cart filled with everything we need to get our learning on! This 3-tier cart is AMAZING and jam-packed with math and literacy supplies, curriculum books, art supplies, and MORE! All of our go-to staples that we use often! You can read my “what’s on the cart?” post here! The great thing is, IT ROLLS! When we start our homeschool block out it comes and when we are done in it goes. We can roll it by the kids table, the kitchen table, even down the hallway. You have no idea how excited I was to have it FIT in this closet (hubs had to make a few cuts to the shelf behind, but it works).
CHECK OUT MY WHAT’S ON THE CART POST HERE!
Behind the cart is a small learning shelf. Yay! This 6-cube shelf will be KEY this year in helping me manage our homeschool block time with both girls. This shelf is our learning shelf. It will be home to various themed activities each week that can just be pulled off the shelf and explored. I plan to house all of my preschoolers’ activities here. When mama is working with big sis on some focused kindergarten lessons, my youngest can come to her shelf, pick an activity and GO!
Related Post: Our Curriculum Picks for 2020-2021
The themed activities on this shelf will be a mix of activities from my pre-k themed setsand just other various hands-on ideas. There will always be a sensory bin and books too! The great thing about these activities is that my incoming kindergartener can use them too! Guys, remember kindergarteners like to play and explore too! Keep things fun and hands-on! For my kindergartener, the activities here will be great for review, independent center time activities, and just play!
The door of the closet has a small pocket chart that is currently filled with sight word cardsfrom Lakeshore Learning. Below the pocket chart I used command strips to hang various learning posters that are hole-punched so that we can switch them out and use for various skills and concepts.
The shelf above is home to learning games (our favorites are by The Learning Journey), Usborne beginning readers, and some additional teacher and kid workbooks.
Lastly, our media stand ( a few years old from living spaces), has a few independent activities that the girls can pick out and play when they want. We have puzzles, blocks, books, a few loose part activities, and electronic alphabet toys. I also added cookie trays to the doors for magnet play (saw this idea on Instagram from @littlelilacpreschool).
I’m pretty excited about this space and my girls are too! I love how it has a school at home feel, but also how it can all be tucked away so it feels just like any living room. I can’t wait for all the learning and play that is to come in our little space and hope you have found a few ideas that you can use to make your home learning space just that, YOURS!
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