Our homeschool room!

I feel like this summer flew by!! I spent it busily getting ready for school to start, having a yard sale, de cluttering...and getting our new homeschool room all up and ready for the big day! (August 4th)  My main goal of this project was to repurpose what I could in my house (hence the de cluttering). I also didn't want to spend a pile of money we did not have.  The first questions people ask me when I tell them we are homeschooling is "Are you out of your mind?!" "Is it expensive?" My answer is always "It's as expensive as you want it to be" and I honestly believe that.


Keep in mind, all of my materials that you will see in all these pictures have one thing in common... I did not spend a fortune. I feel like I keep typing this over and over in my blog posts (homeschool does not have to be expensive). I got all the posters, decorative stuff, craft items...from the Dollar Tree. I got most of my curriculum, books, games, "fun stuff", quiet time activities and the like at thrift stores, the Dollar Tree, yard sales and re purposing stuff we already had around the house.... Homeschooling is not expensive.  The only things I have bought brand new (and not for $1 from the dollar tree) are a few curriculum books (like math, health, reading).  Every piece of furniture you see in the pictures was re purposed. I didn't buy one piece of furniture for this room. I will however, have to buy a table for the room. What we have now is a janky used table I used to make soap on. It will do for now until I can find one.

If you are homeschooling your children and want to buy a boxed curriculum, I say "more power to you". I personally do not have the money to do that and also, I find that a few books I thought were going to work for my child...they just don't. They might be boring, or not eye catching or just not "on his level" of where he needs to be yet... I personally couldn't go out and spend a pretty penny on something I wasn't sure that we were going to like.  Some people find that buying a boxed curriculum is reassuring. It's like an all in one box of school.  I am taking more of an eclectic approach to schooling my boys... I am picking and choosing different curriculum that will work for different subjects. For instance, for science I am using a McGraw Hill text book. I LOVE the pictures in it! They are stunning. It's a National Geographic issue and the boys love looking at it. The information is perfect for a 6 and 4 1/2 year old.  That's the beauty of homeschool...everyone does it different. You decide what works for you and what doesn't.

So here's our new school room. I am pretty excited about the way it turned out. This is definitely a work in progress. After week one of homeschooling, I realized that some things needed to be moved and rearranged, but for the most part, this is how it will be for a while. You can tell in some of the pictures that they look different in the same areas. I rearranged and took different pictures.

I tried to separate the areas of the room into "centers" of sorts. Each area is used for something.

Here are the doors to the room. I found some cute little window decals at the Dollar Tree of the numbers and stuck them on the door. My little one likes to sit at the table and count them.

When you walk in and look to the left, this is where our "math area" is. This is where the calendar, schedule, our master schedule and the 100 numbers chart is. I plan on making this "prettier" in the future. Like, I don't know, adding numbered days to the calendar. :)

I made this from an old magnetic dry erase board, a pocket chart, those lined strips (cut into sections) and magnetic strips. All but the magnetic strips were purchased from the Dollar Tree. I found the magnetic strips in my craft supplies.

This is the top part of the book shelf (that I re purposed from my husband's home office). The left part holds the curriculum books we are currently working out of and our Hooked on Phonics (which I got from a homeschool friend's yardsale, score). The middle basket is my little ones books, flashcards, supplies and the left is our 1st grade books we haven't started on and I plan to use later in the year.  On the very corner is our dry erase lined handwriting boards.  All this was purchased at the Dollar Tree, thrift store, yard sales or re purposed from other areas of my house.

This second (top) shelf is where I keep our supplemental books (like the Discover the Human Body book, the I Wonder Why books and our "crafts" books). The white tub is for extra supplies. Under the white tub I keep our trillions on manilla folders (thanks Mom) for Lapbooking. The folder holder to the right was literally made out of a box. I cut it to hold folders. It holds our lapbooks we are currently working on, completed lapbooks, file folder games etc. I plan on decorating the outside by wrapping it in decorative duct tape... I just haven't found any yet that I like.

This is where I keep all our math supplementals.  The very top of the stack are colored counting cubes I got at the Dollar Tree. My oldest uses those for addition help when he's working on his math problems. I took three and wrote a "+", "-" and "=" sign with permanent marker on them. They are a hands on learning tool he likes to use. The Leap Frog math rummy game and dominoes games were both purchased at yard sales. The white three drawer tub was re purposed from my soap making days. The basket to the right was taken from my oldest son's old nursery. It holds "Quiet Time" activities for Luke such as a magnetic Mr. Potatoe Head game, Hidden Pictures Magazines, Magnetix, lacing cards, etc.

This is where I keep our math games. I have dominoes, Fruit Numbers (My oldest son's FAVORITE game, the cubes with the plus, minus and equals signs (so they don't get lost) and an addition popsicle stick game I made my son.

This is the drawer I keep our math flashcards and supplemental books that I got at the Dollar Tree.  These are great for days when we don't have math scheduled, but I want to get a little math in the day.

Time Bingo, big paper coins, Magnetic Weather outfits, a huge paper clock with working hands, rulers etc. in the bottom drawer.

The area next to the bookshelf is our Science area.  This is one of my most favorite things I have purchased! I got this magnetic Organs of the Body with all the organs at a used curriculum sale for $3. I was so excited. I just hung it on the bookshelf with some command tape. For the box that holds the organs, I used an old cereal box and covered it with constructions paper and hung it with the command tape.

This is our Science center. For now, it's a little bare, but eventually it will be nice and full, considering science is our favorite subject.  I used to use this shelf as a book shelf for my boys in their playroom and I re purposed it for our room. The bottom shelf has our Microscope (yard sale), Triops set (my husband and I purchased it years ago pre kids for us...lol) and the blue basket has a bunch of droppers, magnifying glass, thermometer etc. in it.  I used it under the winder because we have a lot of projects coming up that use the sunlight.

The art center....oh the art center....  This cabinet is chock full of stuff... Markers, crayons, melt and mold factory, playdough...you name it. It's in there.  The shapes on the front were from a poster I got at the Dollar Tree and mutilated.

I used an old coat hanger and my husbands ratty t-shirts for smocks. The black cart (from my scrapbooking days) holds paper of all kinds. I separated them with the hanging file folders that came with it. There's a rack on the bottom of the cart that holds magazines and  a tub full of smocks.

For the hanging art center I used binder clips and nails. That's it. 

Here's my white board... I used ribbon and a hot glue gun to embellish it a bit. The sign I made with stencils and a laminator (oh... I love my laminator). The shelf is from my grandpa. He made it many years ago and my mother gave it to me the last time I was visiting her.

I took construction paper, a huge pack of scrapbook paper, glue and went to town... Oh and some repurposed jars I had lying around the house.

To the right of the white board, my desk sits. My sad sad little computer desk. it's OLD... I mean OLD. It was in my husband's apartment when I first met him. At least it has held up well. haha.

Above my desk is where I keep my lesson plan.... Remember that scrapbook cart from the art center? Well it had two of these holders on each side that slid out. I took this one off, embellished it and had my husband securely fasten it to the wall. I am not allowed to use power tools around here. Bad things always happen.

I moved the map under the white board to put a colored scanner/printer on a little table between the reading area and my desk. The reading area, to me, is so fun.  The top shelf has our library books, our CD player and our tape player (both were free by the way). We use those for our Hooked on Phonics. That's about the only thing they are useful for.  The second shelf has our Leap Frog reader which my kid won't let me get rid of even though he doesn't use it.  On the right are some puzzles, games and phonics flashcards that I got at either the dollar tree or yard sales.  The third shelf has our books. (I have yet to bring all our books downstairs).  The basket holds our early readers and our Hooked on Phonics Readers.  There's our Alfie Robot game as well for Lucas. We got it 2 years ago for Christmas. The bottom shelf is just storage right now. I have my information books on homeschooling, foam letters, colored bunnies and a tub of miscellaneous cards/stationary and extra felt.

That's it! That's our homeschool room! I apologize for the length of this post, but I hope that if you are trying to get a room/space together, you realize that it doesn't have to cost a fortune and you can make a cute room really easily. Thanks for sticking around to see it all.

Enjoy!