Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Our Schoolroom

I realized recently that I've never posted pictures of our school room before, so I thought I'd take a moment to show you a few pictures of it...though it's changed (been improved) a little since I took these pictures a few weeks back.

Actually, I'll do a 'before and after' series of pictures.  Some of the 'before' pictures are kind of embarrassing, because, for a time, this room was a massive dumping ground for everything that had no home.  Besides, who doesn't love a good 'before and after'?

Here are the 'before' pictures...actually, these are the really before pictures...when we built out our basement two winters ago, and built a school room onto one end of the basement.

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This is Geoff, one evening two winters ago, just after we'd hauled in some of the drywall to put up walls.  The large opening behind Geoff's back is now the double door entrance to our school room.

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This picture is taken from almost the same vantage point as the one above; here you can see the painter working in the school room.

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Here's the painter in the school room.

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Though the school room walls are painted here, and the closet doors are in, this room became the repository for everything in the rest of the basement while the rest of the basement was being painted/carpeted/finished etc.  So this soon-to-be schoolroom was a complete disaster by the time I was ready to start preparing it to do some actual school work!

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Another view of the mess I cleaned out.  The classroom flooring didn't go in until late last year, so in this shot the floor is still full of paint splotches.
We painted the walls a soft white, with the idea being that we would add enough colour to the room with other stuff that I thought we'd have a neutral background.  In hindsight, I sometimes wish we had painted it a soft colour (yellow maybe??), but as the room is now filling up with colourful things, I'm ok with the white.

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One last shot of the mess, before we get the better 'after' pictures!

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OK, so finally we can get to some of the 'after' pictures!

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Here's that same entryway that you saw when the basement was under construction...it's the entrance to our school room.

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Open the French doors and here's what you see.  My desk is straight ahead against the wall, though these days it's looking much fuller, with binders and work materials organized on the surfaces.  I can't believe how often we use the wall maps that I put up (one world map, and one of Canada)...they factor somehow into pretty much every day at school.  On the right wall, you'll see that I put up two white boards - one for my height, and one more at the kids' height.  The floor is 'just' a vinyl, but I love it - it's a textured bamboo design that is super easy to clean, looks great, and feels good on the feet.

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When you enter the doorway, this is what you see to the left.  
The alphabet stickers are from Peel Monkey, and I love them - the stickers were not hard to put on, and I think they look great.
I bought the two school desks online from a Texas wholesaler because they were pretty inexpensive (about $20/desk).  I wish I'd bought one more - but back then (in our pre-referral adoption days) we had just opened up our child request to "one or two children" and I thought for sure we'd receive a referral for one child!  So for now, Lizzie sits at a child's IKEA table, which is perfect for now because she does mostly crafty stuff for school work and takes up more space than her brothers with her craft supplies.   

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At the far end of the room, I put in a cozy reading area.  Most mornings, to start school off, I read stories to the kids (sitting on that cozy chair straight ahead) while the kids play lego on the carpet, or draw at their desks.
I have a huge, shelved closet with double doors on the far wall that holds all of my supplies, and there's a toy caddy on the right wall that is now full of toys that the kids have gradually brought down to play with while I'm reading to them.

Also, on the left wall, you'll see a low-ceiling area with a small rocking chair in it (from my childhood).  This is our 'book nook,' where the kids can climb into and look at books. They love being tucked away in here to look at books, and it adds a little variety to where they can be while other kids are doing school.

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I took this picture while I was reading to the kids one morning two weeks ago.

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Here's the only picture I have of the book nook...it looks better these days, although I'm still looking for the right size carpet to put in here.  As it is, the kids have now stacked about eight pillows in there so they are able to lie comfortably when they're in there.  Lizzie loves to sit in the rocking chair and look at books.


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Here's a view from the other end of the room.

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At last, it was time to get school started this fall.

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This was in our first week of school in mid-September, when all three kids were working on something. I gave each child his/her own plastic see-through box on the fist day of school, and filled each of them with markers, crayons, pens, pencils, an eraser, a pair of scissors and a pencil sharpener.  They loved receiving their own 'supply box.'

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Matthew.  You'll notice the green bowl on his desk...that's for the popcorn or sliced fruit that the kids regularly eat while we're doing school...chewing on something seems to help concentration, for some reason.



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After tracing a few of my letters, Seth managed a few "A's" on his own.  Lizzie was sure to critique his ever line!

If I'm working with one kid on his/her own (usually Matthew), the other two kids can play in the rec room on the other side of the entrance doors, which is very convenient.

And that's it folks...where we spend a chunk of most of our weekday mornings!


6 comments:

  1. We just did a school room too...we have the same Ikea table as you:) Don't have room for a couch though...maybe that's a good thing- to tempting for me to lie down and put my feet up!!! Looks like the kids like it!

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  2. what a great space- I love the book nook! :)

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  3. Awww... makes me wish I home schooled! Very nice!

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  4. That a great room, Ruth! I especially love the reading corner and the book nook and the wall with the maps and letters! It looks like a perfect space for learning, having fun, and making memories!

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  5. What an incredible space! Pretty sure thi room is bigger than my whole house :)

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