[Aeress]

Tell me how you organize your homeschool resources...I feel like I am swimming in stuff. I have a playroom for toys, an art area, and two shelves with supplies but I feel like i can never find the things i am looking for.
Help!

 

[gargirl]

Well, I may not be the best person to answer this one... our whole house is our homeschool room and we don't do anything like classroom learning.

I have a small 2 shelf book case with a few reference books and atlas type books, lots of poetry books, science books etc. They are roughly divided by category but they get mixed up a lot. We also have several other book cases filled with all the stuff hubby and I read for pleasure and information that the kids are welocme to peruse. Each kid also has their own book shelf too.

 

[MyLittleWonders]

We have stuff all over the house, but I try to make sure I know what is where ... We currently have a "play" room with our old/small kitchen table as an art table. It is pushed in a corner so the two older boys can both sit on one side. Under it is a bookcase with puzzles and some manipulatives. On top is a tub of paper, some crayons and a bunch of stickers, as well as a little shelf with some wooden puzzles. We also have two other bookcases with tubs of different toys (wooden train, marble run, matchbox cars, little people, musical instruments ... those kind of things).

In the kitchen, we have a cupboard above the pantry. For now, that is where I keep art/craft supplies. That cupboard is getting over-run, though, and either needs a new home or needs serious cleaning.

In what is supposed to be the dining "room" (though it is way to small for a table/chairs - one day we might put in a built-in bench/table thingy), we have a bookcase with picture books (all fiction) and board books for the baby, plus a cushy arm chair.

The hallway (our main hallway from the front room, past the kitchen, back to the living room is extra wide), we have two big Ikea bookcases filled with curriculum binders, a couple cubbies with the Stockmar crayons/pencils we use for specific stuff as well as the boys' recorders and cds/dvds from our curriculum, and then tons more books, though this time almost all are non-fiction picture books and beginning chapter books.

(Later if I have the ambition, I can take pictures if you want visuals.

)

 

[frogguruami]

I have pics of our school area here.

 

[Aeress]

Frogguruami- do your kids pick out what they want to do during the week and then post it on the magnetic board?
(great idea)

I think I need a small cubby type thing. I would like to organize it into a section for math books, science, language/literacy, etc. O.k need to measure and figure out where to put it.

I have a small downstairs closet that is basically full of junk...time to clear it out for homeschooling stuff.

keep the ideas coming

 

[UUMom]

I keep all the art supplies in a large cabinet in the kitchen; paints on one shelf, collage items another, various clays another shelf, markers, pastels, etc on another. There is a shelf for all sorts of tape, staples, glues etc. All the games are on shelves in the living room, and in our book shelves, I have books sorted by genre. The fantasty fiction is together, the historical fiction is togther (in chrono order), the history books are sorted by timeline and continent, the world religons books are together, art books are sorted by period and artist, fairytales and folktales are together, books about space are together, etc etc I am the least organized person you want to meet-- I lose my keys every day, fi. But this has been soemthing that I have found helpful over the years. We have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of books, zillions of games, lots of manips, art supplies etc. It was really important to get them in some sort of order early on so we could use them with ease. (Not to mention I find sorting books especially thrilling. Seriously. I do.

)

My kids can find anything they need pretty quickly. That's important to us.

 

[poisonedapple]

a mess. I need to reorganize it, I haven't in a while.

I have a bookshelf that holds:
library books
a bin for holding paper/artwork the kids want to keep (we clean through this and keep only the really special ones, the kids pick what they want to keep/toss).
all my books, magazines, and anything else that I thought was a great idea or a book, like my science experiment book.
Our atlas
File Folder Games

Then I have one of those shelves that is bins, picked it up at Target.
This has everything else, since it has bins, they are all separated by their use, like art supplies.

Works well, I just need to keep ontop of it, or the kids' artwork takes over and ends up on the dining room floor.

 

[clane]

Ok...more pictures please. I'm a junkie when it comes to seeing how people organize & store books, etc.

I will post ours once it is done and not "scary" anymore. (Local folks must stop laughing now!!)

 

[frogguruami]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brendon Frogguruami- do your kids pick out what they want to do during the week and then post it on the magnetic board? (great idea)

That is our daily schedule. We have little magnets to place over each item we finish. With the exception of field trips and outings we keep the same schedule each week, so that minimizes the moving of magnets!

 

[MommyMichele]

This reminds me of a funny story. One of the guys who came to clean our carpet a couple of weeks ago asked me about homeschooling. I was surprised but figured my daughter had told him. Then he referred to my "homeschool room." I said we call that room the "office" but I realized how he guessed that. I have an alphabet strip, the very same one I used in my classroom when I was a teacher, stretching across the wall, as well as maps, posters, and lots of books. This is a "bonus room" over the garage, so it's big. However, we unschool. We don't have one room designated for learning.

I have organized a bit, and am continually trying to get more organized. We have most of our art/craft/science materials in our pantry in clear plastic shoeboxes. [I don't buy a lot of packaged food anyway.] Those activities tend to be messy and I wanted to keep them in the kitchen.

I'll be reading this thread with great interest for more ideas. And I'll share more of my own when I'm more awake. I'm about to go to bed now.

 

[Aurora]

We do not have a specific "school room", we learn in all of our home. In the living room we have 4 huge book cases and are getting 2 more next week(we have tons of books!). In the kitchen we have a smaller book case filled with art supplies. In the kids' room there is a big book case filled with books and we also have a book case in the living room filled with board games/card games. We have a big Rubber Maid tote in the living room for all the library books.

 

[UUMom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aurora We do not have a specific "school room", we learn in all of our home.

And those of you who do have rooms where you store childrens things, do you rush them into that room if they happen to be learning and discovering in a room other than stuff room? "Hold that thought honey, you're not in 'the room'! Whoooosh!

Sometimes when someone posts this question, I make a wager in my own head how many posts if takes for someone to say this.

I won myself an ice cream cone later today.

 

[clane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UUMom And those of you who do have rooms where you store childrens things, do you rush them into that room if they happen to be learning and discovering in a room other than stuff room? "Hold that thought honey, you're not in 'the room'! Whoooosh! Sometimes when someone posts this question, I make a wager in my own head how many posts if takes for someone to say this. I won myself an ice cream cone later today.

LOL! Enjoy your treat! I just like having a "home base" for books, manipulatives, art supplies, etc. I had it started well before we really considered home schooling. I also keep family files, bills, etc in the room, along with my craft items. It's also in the room without carpet, always good for storing paint, ink, clay, and so on. I keep a baby gate on the door so the wee one doesnt get into stuff she shouldn't.

We have books in the old dining room, the family room and all of the rooms upstairs. I would love to have a room of wall to wall shlving to store it all in one place someday. Of course, by then the kids will have grown and moved off on their own.

 

[Aeress]

No, I pretty much let the kids learn where ever they are but at the same time, I need to know where stuff is, so i try to keep it in one or two places. I try to keep the art stuff to an area that is more easily washed than others.

I think it would work better for me to have everything in one space and that kids don't seem to mind. I do keep things in centers but I don't make a fuss when it gets moved. When it is clean up time, we put stuff back where it goes or if it is an extended project, we either block off a space or move it so it doesn't get ruined.

I'll take pics when I am done cleaning.

 

[UUMom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clane LOL! Enjoy your treat! I just like having a "home base" for books, manipulatives, art supplies, etc. I had it started well before we really considered home schooling. I also keep family files, bills, etc in the room, along with my craft items. It's also in the room without carpet, always good for storing paint, ink, clay, and so on. I keep a baby gate on the door so the wee one doesnt get into stuff she shouldn't. We have books in the old dining room, the family room and all of the rooms upstairs. I would love to have a room of wall to wall shlving to store it all in one place someday. Of course, by then the kids will have grown and moved off on their own.

That's exactl;y what I mean! I always wonder what people mean when they say 'We don't! We learn in our whole house!". As if having places for things, even if in one room (horror!), precludes such a thing (learning all over the house, and maybe even outside the house! lol)

I meant the reply comment is what I wager will be said in short order, not the OP question about where we keep books and other supplies.

So, ok, it was a lame joke.

:

 

[oldermamato5]

We live in a big old house and the dining room is huge. Most everything is contained in this room except my kids rooms which have their personal things and always books on their nightstand.
We have 4 big bookcases for my book problem,um book needs

and a cabinet for art supplies. I've downsized over the last year so things are nicely organized now. I do keep games,puzzles,playdough and other non-book items on the book shelves also. It makes it easier to see what you want and need when things are visible I've found.

Our home definitely is a lived in child led place!

 

[lilyka]

a dissaster

and to make it worse all our crrent curriculum is in the dining room.

 

[Aeress]

Well mine look better. Grandma wanted a sleepover with the girls so dh and I had time to sort and clean. Much neater. I still feel like things are all over the house but at least I can find them.

Next week is my time to pull together stuff for the fall. I will have a new addition in oct, so I need to be organized this summer.

 

[Chinese Pistache]

We are just getting our stations together, but so far, we've got a computer station in the kitchen, a craft station in the dining room, paper and books in my office as well as the play room (lots of bookshelves in there).