This is what our "homeschooling room" looks like…for now

When I started homeschooling my daughter last year I decided to clear out our dining room and install a shelf and a bulletin board.  I felt like everything needed to be neat and organized.  The bulletin board would be refreshed every week. And, of course, we would start at 8:30 and work diligently through the day.  Just like school, right? Yeah, no. It felt completely separate from where we "live." She felt like everything was forced.  That was one of the big reasons I wanted to keep her home. 

Last year started like such but turned into something much different.  I took a very laid back approach.  We played games to practice sight words. We read lots and lots of books.  Worked on math here and there.  The more I learned about unschooling, the more I stepped back and just watched learning going on.

With her entering the first grade this year, I still wanted to let learning happen.  However, I also found that learning is inspired when I set out different books, materials, or pictures.  I ended up moving our bookshelf and bulletin board into our living room.  (The bulletin board still sits for weeks without getting an update).  I also cheered it up and put all of our learning materials, art supplies, books and some toys in this space.  Pinterest not only gave me lots of ideas, but it made me feel like I could do something that was inviting and functional.  I loved looking at homeschool rooms that people put together.  Without further adieu, here's where we are right now.

This is our Reading Nook.  Lots of books, a little wooden puzzle, some music instruments, a globe, an illustrated picture of my family that I drew, and a multimedia painting I did that reads, "READ and WRITE/EXPLORE the WORLD/LISTEN to MUSIC~DANCE.

Here's our Art Wall.  I stained some railings that the builders left behind at  our house.  Then I screwed in eye screws at each end, strung some gauge wire through and used mini-clothespins to hang their art.  I love the flexibility in this.  They can change out what they want displayed whenever they wish.

Some toys. These entertain the small ones, but my big girl likes lego and a Magna-Doodle too.

                          

A bit of life and whimsy is important to me.  Plants with various creatures lurking keeps the kids entertained.  They like to move them around.

Here's what is on our bookshelf this year.  Messy, maybe.  But I love it! One shelf has a microscope, magnets, a dissectible human body, some salt dough fossils we made.  The top two have books, games, cuisenaire rods, supplies. One shelf has random objects to lend themselves to discovery or math (scale, pipe cleaners, different beads, measuring tape, shells, rocks). The bottom shelf has a lot of puzzles, MagnaTiles, sewing cards, magnetic toys.

                        

 




And this is what is looks like when you step back and are just chillin' in our living room.



I hope this helps someone on their journey to creating a friendly, comfortable, learning-friendly room.

xoxo,
Carolyn

Happy Chinese New Year!

Initially we were not supposed to be home during the day to ring in the Chinese New Year.  However, my little one came down with a fever and that kept us in.  It also allowed for us to do some activities that we probably wouldn't have done otherwise.  Here's what our day looked like:

First I thought it would be fun to make a Dragon Mask since they are a huge symbol in China (helps ward off evil spirits).  My daughter didn't like the idea at first so she decided to look at some books.

Yes, The Boxcar Children & Vincent VanGogh have nothing to do with the Chinese New Year but they were on our table that morning.  The bottom two were sold to us by a door-to-door salesman when our daughter was first born.  Now they are a hit! One is a book about traditions in countries around the world and the other is a sticker book related to it.  Chinese New Year was a subject in the book so I left it out and the children did their thing.  (That's how they love to learn.  Something just happens it's way onto the table, thanks to me, and they show interest in learning about it…so much easier than forcing it down their throats.) The paint on our cardboard box dried so we got started on our Dragon Mask.

Glue, pom poms, and various geometric shapes made from construction paper.  (I have a big bag of these shapes that I cut up our first year of homeschooling and they come in so handy)

I didn't take a lot of pictures while we were getting started because I just refuse to take too many minutes behind the camera.  The only other things we used, other than the supplies shown above, were a paper plate, two large goggly eyes, a little more construction paper for the tongue, horns and teeth, plus a yellow gift bag with the top cut off for the mouth.  Here's what it looked like:

The kids drew the teeth and we glued them to the gift bag.  They also made some tubes for the horns and cut some frill into those too.  My favorite part was the awesome abstract art the designed on the side of the dragon's head to create the scales.  This happened so organically.  They also did a pattern with the pom pons on the dragon's head--awesome!

Here's one side:

 After it was complete they decided it was time to dance around while wearing it.  And, my daughter insisted on wearing her authentic Chinese dress.

One is under the mask, and both are under the blanket.  It's "PARADE TIME!"

The next craft we did was a different take on Chinese Lanterns.  I dug out some little jam jars, but any jar would work just fine.  I added some water to red acrylic paint.  I had no idea what was going to work, so you just have a find the amount that will stick to the jar but also allow a candle to glow through it nicely.  The kids only painted the inside of the jar and then they were able to decorate the outside with yellow puffy paint, glitter, black sharpie marker and some stars.

We ended the day with ordering Chinese Food from our favorite local place (also happens to be where the hubs and I met). Here's my New Year fortune:

HMMM…

After dinner, dad got in on the Dragon Mask action.  Had a little dance party and then relaxed by watching Mulan 2.  Which, by the way, has some great messages for young girls.  Here's the most hilarious part of our day:

Gong Hey Fat Choy!

xoxo,

Carolyn