Hanson's Ridge
We recently read a lovely picture book called This is My Home, This is My School by Jonathan Bean. It's a little boy giving a tour of his "school" at home, introducing the teacher and lunch lady (Mom) and the substitute and PE teacher (dad). It inspired me to do a little tour of our school.
There's an awful lot going on in this photo! The black bookshelves are home to most of our grownup books. The brown shelves hold all the kids books, with some overflow to the bottom of two of the black shelves. It's also where I keep most of the school supplies. You'll notice the overflowing school supplies on top. Working more on organization. From left to right: paper crafts/school supplies; empty weekly work boxes; a box of books to be rehomed; subscription boxes; AYOPS monthly boxes. On the bottom right, you can see a basket of poetry books. The doors open up to the living room, but we decided to keep the sofa against these doors to keep the living room more open. The white bookshelf is our new bookshelf! It's holding my antique books, which have been pared down slightly. I did discover a set of My Bookhouse books and a GA Henty novel in the book boxes (both beloved by homeschoolers). There are also quite a few classics and histories, which are interesting to study for changing perspectives. I'm rehoming a fair number of old books as well. You can also see my loom, and on the wall besides the loom there are more crates of supplies that I use for AYOPS. Photobombing AW! To be honest, I thought about cleaning up before taking this photo. But that wouldn't be real! The kids spent the afternoon playing playdough and DC worked on the lacing cards. So the area around their work table usually looks like this. The cube shelves hold activities they can work on independently, like coloring, puzzles, and easy games. This is the "teacher" table where I keep basic supplies. The boxes in the left are going to a good home! The kitchen table is where most of the actual school takes place. Since we didn't school today, it's still set up from lunch. The kids are now drinking from monogrammed pewter cups, which sounds really fancy but is actually extremely practical. They are harder to knock over and because they are initialed, no one fights over cups or complains about the color. You can also see a small pitcher. We are working on pouring as a life skill, so there is always a pitcher of water on the table for them to help themselves. The placemats, with place settings printed on them, are from IKEA and easily wipe clean. I love them! This is our big time school wall in our living room. On the left is our school crate with notebooks and materials for morning time. The clear plastic bin holds all of Logic of English (our reading program). The right black crate holds library books that I'm doling out with guidance. The blue basket is full of books for Poetry Teatime (more on that soon hopefully) and the cardboard boxes are the Ivy Boxes we are currently working on. Above, you see artwork. I hang things up all month and then take it down for storage or trash at the end of the month. This is my favorite part. It's the kids' reading corner. The colorful pocket bookshelf is for library books. I rotate out the books on the brown bookshelf and in the baskets. This is the nature wall for the kids' treasures. Right now you see rocks, a lump of coral, the shell that was home to one of our chicks, feathers, pretty leaves, and shells gathered on a recent hike to a freshwater pond. The painted rock is from the local rock club (we've been painting and hiding rocks too). This is the "teacher's desk" AKA our kitchen counter. I have my planner, a basket of basic supplies for the kids, and a supply caddy for myself as well as the computer.
Well that's it for the tour! I can guarantee it won't be as tidy in the middle of the school week, but I'm determined to bring it back close to this point each weekend. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good for me. And as the decluttering purge continues, it should get better.
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AuthorHi! I'm Stephanie Hanson. I live with my husband, Himself, on Hanson's Ridge in Virginia. Archives
September 2017
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