A Detailed Look Through the Learning Spaces
*NOTE* This post reflects our learning spaces in 2009. Since then we have remodeled. You may be interested to check out the new learning room here.
The first pictures are just some whole-room pictures…stepping waaaay back and looking in so you can get an idea of the overall. I think I’ve said this before, but this is our dining room…re-purposed for our learning spaces.
You can get an idea of how deliciously sunny our space is in here. It is quite warm and inviting which I love. I moved my desk back to the sunny side of the room. I moved to the other side of the room for a few months, but decided that I really, really missed the way the sun danced across my desk in the afternoons…I’m much happier on the sunny side of the room!
Tucked in the corner next to the window is a small workstation for me. It is nestled between the art center and window. I keep my laptop on top of my file center. In the top drawer I have things like CDs with my favorite Notebooking Pages, Blackline Maps, and some of my other educational CD collections I’ve collected over the years. I keep a medium sized journal with a pink quilted cover and a collection of favorite stationery in there as well. Lastly, a small collection of post card sized art prints for seasonal displays round out my top drawer.
In the bottom drawer is my collection of files for the year. I keep them organized by month. Each month gets two folders – one for seasonal plans and one for liturgical year plans. I keep themed material in my files – artwork for the month, craft ideas, prayers, field trip ideas, picture book themes that coordinate with a season, holy cards for saints feast days, etc. in the appropriate files. Then, when that month arrives, I pull out my files and I have plans in hand for the upcoming season as well as art for the Feast Table display. I do have extra individual files for each of the liturgical seasons of the year because some things just make better sense to organize and keep that way. In the back of the drawer there are some files containing masters of various materials I want to keep. I keep my favorite Peterboro file basket (side note I bought my basket on sale and don’t see it on their site anymore, but if you’re interested it measures approx 14″ L x 8″ W x 7″ D) on my desk to hold the monthly or weekly files, record keeping files, ideas and brainstorming files…delicious files. It works well to have a file system for organization as well as a more immediate and at-hand place for living out the ideas contained there – the basket on my desk is my solution.
Now, on to the…
Art Center:
I did a lot to overhaul these spaces. They were working for us to a degree I suppose, but when I asked the children about the art spaces, their one comment was that it was hard for them to find what they needed, and if they didn’t see it, they tended not to use it. I’ve seen several of you use glass jars for storage, so I got out my collection of Mason jars. The children and I are so thrilled with the result. It is a visual feast, and everything is right there to see and choose from.
I made use of another lovely glass storage item found very inexpensively…the desert glass. They are perfect for holding smallish art supplies like oil pastels and tiny markers…
The bottom of these small desert glasses allow for easy grabbing, lifting, and transporting to the table. Perfect!
I’ll start describing some of the items I have on my art shelves:
**Beeswax for sculpting projects (edited to note how much the children are enjoying Prang non-drying modeling clay
**Lyra Aquarelle Gel Crayons
**Oil pastels
**Fibracolor fine tip markers with stand
**Rexel Derwent Watercolor pencils
**Prang color pencils
**Lyra color pencils
**Prismacolor watercolor pencils
**Prismacolor sketch pencils
**Prismacolor dual tip markers
**Set of clay shaping and working tools
**Collection of paints – Lyra watercolor set
**Paintbrush collection
**Basket of glue (Modge Podge
My set of inspirational crafting and activity books:
**Papier Mache for kids
**Pioneer Crafts
**Mothers and Daughters at Home
**Traditional Country Needlecrafts
**Victorian Family Celebrations
**Tea and Luncheon Manual
**Tea and Cake with the Saints
**Child’s Play
**In His Image
**Mondays With Mary
**Little Flowers Girls’ Club – Ecce Homo Press (not specifically a craft book, but has many craft ideas so I keep it here)
**Little Flowers Girls’ Craft Club Companion
**Pilgrims of the Holy Family
**Fun Physical Fitness for the Home
Not pictured:
**Learn Lacecraft
**See and Sew
**Sewing With St. Anne
**The Anne of Green Gables Christmas Treasury
**Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts
Next to my craft books I keep a collection of some of our more frequently used craft supplies in clear plastic bins. These are by no means the entirety of my craft supply collection. I have here:
**yarn and string
**felted wool
**sculpey clay
**holy cards and religious image cards collected and used for liturgical year projects
**ink stamp pads…of which I have an embarrassing amount…but little hands love stamping! 🙂
**paper punches
**a toolbox full of different wooden backed stamps for ink stamping (this is just out of picture) – I have learned that children love stamping images and coloring them as part of decorating a card or an art project…so pull out all those nice stamps that you never have time to use anymore and set them on your kid’s art shelf. They enjoy them so much!
Now on to the shelf below with more art supplies…
I’ll describe what I have set out moving from top to bottom, left to right:
**small basket containing inset paper and our favorite “how-to” book of drawing and sketching (more on that below!)
**3 boxes – one for each of the drawing age children. They are labeled with their names and contain the square inset paper sketches very nicely.
**carousel of fun scissors
**basket containing erasers and sharpeners
**beeswax crayons
**our favorite electric pencil sharpener (a Panasonic Auto-Stop, Model #KP-310…I can’t find them anymore
**a HUGE stack of scratch paper from Grandma’s volunteering at the pharmacy. This paper is slightly larger than the inset paper though still square. It’s a good size for little hands.
**blue bin containing a few favorite coloring books and sketch books
**watercolor papers of different sizes
**transparent papers for paper folding projects and a tray of origami papers with instructions
**bin of wool felt sheets
**cutting board for projects
**bin of stickers
I’m certain I’ve mentioned these favorite papers before, but just in case…the Metal Inset Paper from Montessori Services is one of the best all-round GREAT supplies for us. We make mini books out of them, use them for our sketch lessons with Bruce McIntyre’s Drawing Textbook
So, that’s the art center! It’s quite cheery to look at, and the children have already involved themselves in many art projects since it has been rearranged. That tells me I must have done something right!
On to the…
Nature Center
This area has been so usefully set up this year, that I left it pretty much alone. We love using a shelf as a seasonal display. I set up a small seasonal vignette on one shelf – a few beautiful autumn leaves, a collection of painted wooden eggs with our bird collection, anything seasonal. I always keep The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
All of our nature journals and science and nature books are above the seasonal display. I keep them organized by topic so they are easier to set out in display by theme as we study.
Below the seasonal shelf is the shelf I set up to coordinate a science theme or topic of study. We’re jumping around a little this summer. The main theme is COLOR – we’re talking about the breakdown of colors – primary, secondary, and tertiary. Along with COLOR, we’re discussing prisms, and everything rainbow.
Below our primary study of COLOR, I’ve left out some books on Astronomy as we’re still finishing up that study…or at least I’d like to think we might finish it up. Or, maybe I’ll just set it aside until next year. 🙂
And, for the Peanut, it seemed the appropriate time of year to set out seeds and plant picture books.
Of course, Doodlebug’s puzzles, block baskets, and basket of silks are down lowest.
New this year is this display shelf that you see above. This is…ahem…a shoe organizer unit. I removed one of the dividers so I could stand up taller books. There were some science and nature study resources we were accustomed to using regularly, like our field guides, the Bird Identiflyer, and binoculars. Those tiny little niche’s below seemed custom made for some of our favorite Folkmanis puppets, so I’ve added them so they can peek out. They are a favorite of the Doodlebugs! And, who could resist yet another display surface???? 🙂 Can you tell we love our birds?!
Geography Center and Doodlebug’s Spaces:
This area is still under construction somewhat. Those are Doodlebug’s shelves and activities there on the left down low. My geography center with our continent boxes, maps, and globe is here. The baskets on the shelf above contain the older two children’s reading and work for the summer. I’ve started setting some of Sparkly’s work for next year here so I can do some planning in the next couple of weeks.
Math manipulatives are on the shelf above their books and my idea was to put some more shelves in that big empty space you see there (3rd shelf up that has only the one wicker basket on it…horizontal surfaces don’t remain free very long!!!) to create some storage for our golden bead Montessori material that the Doodlebug definitely doesn’t need access to.
I’m sorry this picture isn’t so great, but these are Doodle’s shelves. She has a few Montessori activities set out that she loves – some pegs and Lauri pieces, a basket of wooden HABA toys, a wooden box with different closures on it (she loves this!), magna tiles, and soft, squishy blocks in the bins down low. I’ve been changing the things out on her shelf in here regularly. It makes a big difference in how “investigative” she is in the other parts of the room! 😉
Peanut’s Space:
Isn’t it lovely? I love creating little spaces for my little fella! And, he loves to investigate them!
I’ll start with the shelf on the wall and then move to his little table.
The big basket there on the left contains a myriad of picture books. This basket is just a collection of books that I’ve pulled together to do a little planning – I don’t **plan much for Peanut at all – we’d rather just read what strikes our fancy most of the time, but he’s starting to ask for a little more, so I’m just considering gently all these fancies…
**He loves his collection of little wooden animals – and I keep them set out for his use. We love to set out the little squirrel from this set when we read Sara Squirrel and the Lost Acorns. This is one of our favorite picture books, “…a tasty mushroom, a crunchy leaf, a juicy berry, and acorns for me.” And the collection of wooden animals we enjoy adding to from time to time.
**I keep a small stack of the colorful inset paper on his shelf for him.
**I keep his devotional/read-aloud books there in the corner on the right. These are a part of our morning inspiration basket time. I’ve just been gathering the morning reading books for next year here for now as I consider my planning. Always featured are the Angel Food for Boys and Girls series by Father Brennan.
**On his table for the summer we’re focusing on counting and numbers so I have set out 1 is One
::Summertime in the Big Woods
::Summer Story
::Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the New Dotted Dresses
::Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Strawberries
::Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Big Red Hen
::Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Three Kittens
::Blueberries for Sal
::Make Way for Ducklings
::Small Acts of Kindness
::Diary of a Spider
::Diary of a Worm
So that’s it for my little guy. Doodlebug is joining him more and more in the little chairs there…so it will soon be time to consider her as I place things about on the little table.
Storage for the Learning Spaces:
I really wanted to show you my storage cabinet. It is a very valuable item in here. Because I’m in a dining room, there is no closet for storage and there are some things you just don’t want taking up space on your shelves! For all those items, I’ve found a home in here:
We bought the cabinet at Lowe’s a few years ago. Rob built it and though it is quite sturdy, he anchored it to the wall with L brackets – it’s goin’ nowhere! I’m opening the doors for you for the first time….
Sheesh…what’s NOT in here??? 🙂 I like keeping my copier in here, as well as the CD player. There are lots of school supplies in here – pens, pencils, paper, folders, more paper. The bottom left contains all my other crafting supplies. There are often tiny collections of this and that. I purchase very inexpensively small brown paper bags – like you’d pack a lunch in – and put the little groups together in the brown bags. I write the contents on the outside of the bag. You could certainly use ziplocs, but brown bags was what I had on hand, and I sort of like the look of paper. Ziplocs are useful, but they seem to look so cluttered once you dump them all together.
Hanging a map with little wallspace:
This challenged me FOR YEARS!!! If I have shelves on my walls, I don’t have room to hang a wall map, which I practically cannot breathe without. I am certain this is not the solution my husband would have gone with, but he’s pretty easygoing about it! So here’s how I did it…
First, I used 2 laminated maps – one of the US and one of the world. Rob cut two small strips of lathing (is that how you spell that?? it’s a little strip of wood about 1 1/2″ x 1/2″) the length of my maps. I covered the edges of the top and bottom of the maps with white duct tape to give them some extra strength and rigidity and then used the staple gun to staple the two maps to the wood strip. I covered the staples with another covering of white duct tape so that the staples don’t show. Next I used self-tapping cup hooks to screw into the top of the wood strip – one at each end. Measuring carefully, I screwed in 2 more cup hooks in the wood trim of the opening to our room. Voila! Hanging maps that can be easily turned for display and removed when necessary! Detailed picture below…
Now, I don’t always leave my maps hanging in the door. So, it’s handy to have a place for them to go when they’re not in use…like in the summer months. I solved that by screwing drawer pulls to the bottom of one of my shelves. The nice thing about the drawer pulls is that you can use those metal booklet rings
Whew! Is it possible that anyone is still reading this ridiculously long post at this point???? Helllllooooo??? Anybody out there????? I promise not to post anything this long or picture intensive ever again if you’ll come back. 🙂 If you’re still there, I hope you enjoyed this very long peek into our spaces. It really was fun snapping pics in the sunshine for all of you to see. As I sit here, the early afternoon sun has just started making its way in through the window and I’m enjoying seeing it move across the room. Hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine in your spaces!
Came Before this Post: The Learning Room Set up for 2008/09
Follow-up Post: A Reality Check and a Few Answers
Follow-up Post: Organization of the Day – A Mother’s Rule of LOVE seeking HARMONY
Follow-up Post: Refreshing the Learning Spaces (June 2010)
Follow-up Post: A Little February Check-Up and Freshening in the Learning Spaces (February 2011)
Follow-up Post: When our home was remodeled (fall 2014), we actually converted our learning room (the room pictured in this post) back to a dining room space. Curious to see what our learning room looks like now? Our New Learning Room: Reveal (March 2015)
This is fantastic, Jen! If I ever have a room just for homeschooling, I'm using yours as a model.
Thanks for taking the time to put up these pictures and the descriptions – it's amazing and inspiring.
Very nice!
I stayed up way too late last night moving our classroom from the basement to our main floor sunroom. It is smaller but so bright and cheerful! Now we just have our art, music, library and play toys downstairs.
I will try to post pictures on my blog in the next few days…life is busy with 2 little ones!
What an amazing learning enviroment you are providing for your children. I love it!
Wow!!! I am inspired!
Thank you for sharing all the pictures! What a beautiful space. Definitely inspired to improve on our learning space!
Lyra oil pastels aren't available anymore??? I'm glad I still have some!
As usual I will probably print this one out for inspiration :-). After working so hard for the past couple weeks my energy is flagging, but I think you've just given me the pick-me-up I needed! (I still have a lot of work to do.)
I just have one question… where did you get the calendar on your supply cabinet, or did you make it? (You may have posted something about your calendar in the past and I am just drawing a blank.)
Thank you all so much!!! I'm so glad you enjoyed this lengthy post!!! lol!!
Angela – the calendar on my storage cabinet was hand sewn by one of the teen girls in our homeschool group several years ago. It's easy to make. First, you would need to print up the cards (dates, Feast days of the year, short prayers, liturgical season) on cardstock and measure them. The wall pockets are made from a sturdy cotton twill. It's a lot of straight sewing. It is wonderful for the children to keep up with the date and liturgical time of year!
Thank you for taking time to post the photos. I have a homeschool room, but it's just not felt right. The task this summer is to make it work for an 11-year-old and 6-year-old, and still be baby-proofed from a toddler. The photos of your shelving and how you've organized them are particularly helpful. One quick question – is the room limited to homeschool stuff only? Where do your children keep their other toys?
Thanks!
Oh my goodness! I want to come and be home educated by you! I feel that, within our own limitations – I suspect our home and budget are both much tinier than yours – I need to try and make home ed a more beautiful and inspiring option for us. You have very blessed children to have such creative and motivated parents sharing such a gorgeous learning environment with them.
Just beautiful, Jennifer! Thank you for sharing it all – long and picture intense is just my style when it comes to this stuff! 🙂 Wish we had this kind of space!
What an inspiration to all! And I thought I was organized??? Wow! Thanks for the wonderful post, explanation and pics! You are an inspiration! +J.M.J+
Just beautiful Jen, you've totally inspired me to clean up my act, our space is needing some TLC and this is just the push I needed. God Bless your long post 😉 You are so kind to let us have a glimpse into your beautiful spaces!
Absolutely beautiful Jen! Thank you for posting. I am working on mine (very slowly – one shelf at a time) – maybe you could visit? please!!! – ANOTHER good reason!!!
Once again you are an inspiration!
Thank you, thank you! I just finished reorganizing my school room (supposed to be the master bedroom…) and I was still struggling with my maps! Problem solved! Thank you!
Thank you for sharing all of this with us, it's so wonderful to be able to take a peak in your school room!!
Mattie
That is a magnificent space, Jen. Thank you for sharing. You certainly have a gift for organization. Your children are truly blessed to be educated in such a place.
Wow! A truly inspiring post! Thank you.
Now I'm ready to get started on overhauling my school room!
I am 100% still here – you could go on and on about your learning room and I would soak in every last detail.
Dozens of women here will be inspired to start the next school year with clean, organized spaces! Beautiful!!!
Question (for future house hunting) what are the dimensions of your room?
Mine is only 11×11 or 12×12 and packed to the hilt.
Hi all….you're all so kind with your words!!! I'm so pleased that you enjoyed the post. 🙂
You've all asked so many GREAT questions that I'm planning a follow up post to answer them! Be on the lookout!
Your learning space is beautiful, and so well organized. I'm inspired. Thanks for sharing this.
I'm drooling, Jen. This is deliciously inspiring. 🙂
I cannot believe how organized you are! Talented, and creative. I can learn from you.
Cindy
Incredibly inspiring, Jennifer! I really love the shoe divider storage. Was it hard to remove one of the sections?
Breathtakingly beautiful.
I have never seen anything like this! Incredible!
This is so inspiring! What lovely spaces!
All very wonderful ideas in your wonderful space!!
Nothing like an organized classroom! I love it! You're ahead of me… My classroom is still a mess..My dilemma is that we rent, so my dh is leary of too many holes in the walls. Got my mind thinking though. Have a great summer!!
Simply gorgeous. Truly inspiring.
Thank you so much for sharing those.
this is lovely! My first time here, can I hire you to fix MY school room?! What an awesome post, thanks so much for sharing.
You have done such an AMAZING job! Wow. I love love love how organised you are – especially with all of your papers… & how well stocked your art shelves are. My children would drool over them! Thanks so much for sharing & inspiring us. You often see homeschool / Montessori rooms so full of things that they've lost their aesthetic appeal but your room looks so soothing (gorgeous wall colour & moldings too 🙂 & beautiful.
Can you tell I like it?! 😉
What a beautiful learning environment you have created!
Ahhhh…dear lady this is wonderful! I am overhauling the school spaces(which truth to be told are everywhere;) and I feel like this VISUAL mamma has something to work with. Thank you for the inspiration!
I love this post. Thank you so much for sharing. I just wanted to let you know that I'm linking to it, in a post of mine. Hope that's okay!
That map idea is fantastic! I've been struggling with this because I need the wall space for shelves but couldn't figure out where to put the maps.
My dining room is also my learning room but we had been getting away from there. I'd like to get back there. Thanks for the inspiration!
That was probably the most organized homeschool room I've ever seen…thanks for the tour!
Simply lovely and inspiring, Jen. I've got to send this to my husband. 😉
I think these pictures make everybody wish to be a homeschooling child there 🙂
Great!!
OK, so now I have to go to confession…I think I have a 5 by 5 spot clean in my classroom, that was just flooded by my hot water heater…keep inspiring!!! My kids said it is ok mom your expecting #12…too bad I wasn't that organized when I had one!!! +JMJ+
Very inspiring. I'll have to discipline myself to go to bed tonight and NOT try to organize my whole house and learning room before bed or I'll never get to bed. 🙂 But I will get to it. I promise. Maybe.
Wonderful, inspiring, inviting…I have taken so many wonderful ideas from your post and will use them!! Thank you for sharing!
Wow. YOU get the Pulitzer prize for best learning space ever! WHAT is that beautiful blue on your walls there? Do you happen to have a paint name or number?
God is so good! I asked and He has once again provided. You have no idea how many you'll be helping through your generosity. Thank you!! I can't wait to dig in!
I have been feeling burnt out with homeschooling since early spring and still haven't managed to pull it together to refresh our school room or even order school items for next year. You have inspired me to get back into the groove. Thanks for sharing this! Your children are so blessed to wake up and learn in this awesome room with such a devoted mom. God Bless!
Your room is beautiful, with lots of great organizational ideas in it. I love to read about organizing, so this post didn't seem long to me. I'll save this to read again when I'm ready to be inspired to work on our room. I have house guests coming tomorrow, so now is not the time.
Thanks!
Wow! What an awesome room! We just moved to a rent home that has a schoolroom space and I am loving it. Thank you for your ideas!
I am so grateful for all your kind comments!!!! I'm planning another follow-up post to answer a few more questions from comments and some emails I received. Hopefully I'll get to that soon!
God bless you all!
(sitting here stunned)
(also contemplating our dining room.)
(still stunned)
That is the most amazing school room I think I've ever seen!
I'm glad to have found your post. I'm just at the point of reworking shelves and organizing for this coming year. Thanks for your inspiration and ideas. I'm inspired by your art center. Think I'll look for some dessert cups and classes instead of our current shower caddy. Also thanks for the paper tip. I think I'll try those too.
Howdy,
I just wanted to let you know that I am linking this post to my blog; as I am concluding a series on homeschooling with inspiring schoolrooms. The post will be up around 3pm. I just like to let folks know instead of lifting their pix! Have a wonderful and blessed day!
Kyle
@Rooster Hill
http:/3psinatxpod.blogspot.com (incase this is not a blogspot blog)
Just Wow!
The learning room is absolutely beautiful! Even your cabinet for extra materials is so nicely organized. I personally found file organization so helpful. I have so much trouble trying to figure out how to organize all of the materials and ideas I find. Thank you for the filing organization ideas!
Thank you so much for taking the time to put this post together, I really appreciate this peek into your homeschooling space. We're just about to move into our new home (that we've been building for about two years!) and I'm so thrilled that we'll have a school room there! I've started thinking about my long term plan for this room recently and your post has been so timely and inspirational. Thank you again for doing this, I know how much time it can take to do something like this!
Jen – I have a few questions about hte book shelving I hope you can help me with?
How do you keep the books ont he shelf and can they handle a heavy load of books? I think that might be just the ticket for my much smaller and bookcase crowded learning space, but I can imagine that books would fall off the ends of the shelf? Of the shelf might bow forward from the weight of many books? Thanks for the map tip! I'm going to to that this weekend! And I'd LOVE details on how to make that calendar on your cabinet! Details for the very craft -challenged! Thanks again for the lovely looks into your home!
WOW WOW WOW, with a cherry on top! That is the most amazing and inspiring 'home' school room that I have ever seen. It looks like a REAL school room, but better than any real one I have ever seen. It made me wish I was a kid at your 'school'.
I'm just….wow. That rocks. You did a fascinating job. So glad I dropped in via my friend Paula's blog.
Are you kidding?! Please continue posting “ridiculously long” posts with lots of resources and pictures. Your ideas are fabulous. I'm considering homeschooling my toddler and need all the creative ideas I can get. Your homeschool set up is very inspirational. Thank you for taking time to write such an amazing post!
Lovely! I found this post via Ohdeedoh and am very inspired! I have an almost 3yo that we're planning on homeschooling.
You've received some wonderful comments about your classroom. And, while I admire your desire to offer the best for your children (and I know nothing more about you than reading this post, have no idea how many or ages, etc of your family, and really don't have time to look–a friend linked to this entry) I am sad when I see all this effort and money used to recreate a government classroom in a home.(Albeit a fancy classroom). As a seasoned homeschool mom. (married to a homeschool grad) I believe you've gotten sidetracked. Home education isn't about colored pencils in fancy glasses (do you have toddlers?) and a work station for each subject…the government schools can do that. It's about a lifestle of learning, about relationships and about allowing a child to be creative. Again, forgive me, and I realize I may be entirely mistaken. But I'll take my 6+acres “nature center” and kitchen table over what you're offering any day.
As another experienced homeschooling mom who is also married to a homeschool grad, with a MIL who just graduated her last student and two homeschooling SIL's I can assure you that home education looks different for every family even if those families are related. I would expect that a fellow mom who is dedicated to the nurture and care of her children at home would choose to support another mom in her quest to do the same thing in her own unique and beautiful way and not choose to anonymously insult her for no reason other than to cause pain and degradation. Charity demands it! The world is full of people waiting with claws bared to rip us apart and tear us down. Let's not help them.
Dear Anonymous,
Thanks so much for your comment! I love our 63 acre “nature center” as well! 🙂
In my post I was really just trying to illustrate examples of how I organize and address our learning spaces with an eye towards beauty and order. The spaces don't define us. I love organizing and finding unique ways to solve problems, and there are things to organize with this homeschooling vocation. Many asked what our spaces looked like…this post is an answer to the many questions I received! 🙂
There are just so many of us that homeschool in different, unique, and creative ways. I'm so thrilled that God has allowed such a lovely tapestry of gifts to unfold in different families and the way they live their learning adventures – whether that is at the kitchen table, or a table in the learning room, or among the majestic oaks in God's grand Creation!
God bless you!
I just found this via a link on TWM boards – thank you for your willingness to share how you've made your spaces work for you, and for not only posting pictures but putting so much time and effort into explaining them. It can be challenging to figure out 'where to put things' when we don't get to see many homeschool spaces in person. It is one thing to hear of a hanging map and another to see it. It's posts like yours that offer inspiration. Thank you!
This room is so inspiring. I can't imagine someone not enjoying learning in this space.
I keep popping back and forth just to get a good visual as I set up my learning room (in our dining room too).
Thanks so much for pulling this all together in such a neat and detailed way.
I cannot begin to say how “WOW'ed!!” I am!! Would you like to come to my home and help me organize?! Pax 🙂
Your room looks incredible. Our dining room is also our school space and it could use some serious reorganizing. One question, where did you get the cabinet under your globe? I definitely need something like that for storing posters not in use! Thanks for putting this up for everyone.
Katherine,
Thanks for stopping by!
The cabinet under my globe is map cabinet for Montessori maps. It has been one of the best investments we've ever made in geography or home education! The cabinet and all the maps came from Alison's Montessori. You can follow this link directly to the map cabinet. Hope that helps!
http://www.alisonsmontessori.com/Montessori_Materials_Geography_Map_Cabinet_p/f08.htm
God bless you,
Jen
Just wanted you to know how inspiring I find this post and the pictures are so helpful. I come back to it often for more ideas! Thanks for spending the time to create this post.
Hooray, I have finally found you again!! I saw this post months ago and forgot to bookmark it… so I am truly glad to have your blog again! What a wonderful 'Learning Central' you have. Great to see everything about your room is so individual, so creative, so inspirational. Well done!!! Definitely bookmarked you now 🙂
I just found your room via Montessori for Everyone and will be back over and over again to pour over it! I'm an organizationally challenged homeschooling mother of 5. With the new year I'm yearning for some beauty and order. Thanks for sharing your lovely space!
Amazing! I am inspired!!!Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for posting your beautiful room. We just made a last minute decision to homeschool our kids this year so I'm still trying to figure out our space. It's a dining room that we use but I can use some of your ideas to make it into a school room as well. I'm hoping to make an environment that they kids will feel is our “school” not just our dining room. Thanks again- it's amazing.
Kristen
So glad I found your site. Thanks for sharing so that the rest of us can be inspired 🙂
Just found this site through another, and I LOVE your homeschool space! I was just speaking to my husband about maps the other day and we were brainstorming. How wonderful that right after that I see your map solution, which I think can easily be adapted to our situation! I will also be looking for footed dessert cups very soon. Thanks for the wonderful ideas!
Absolutely beautiful! I am a natural light fanatic! and one of the reasons I love my home is because of how much light it has. The irony is that our montessori homeschool space is the garage and although I feel very happy with the size and all the work we've done to make it nice and functional, unlike the rest of the house this space has no natural light at all 🙁 You just gave me something to think about. Thank you 🙂
Wow, what a fabulous space! I've linked this to my homeschooling rooms post too today, for inspiration!
amazing space! I'm redoing my boys toy room so it's more Montessori like their school room, and I love love all the links for the art supplies.
great work!
Beatiful pictures. Thanks for sharing. Would you mind telling me where you got your kid-sized school table/charis? If I missed it in a previous post or comment, I'm sorry. I'm new to your blog and just found this post on the side-bar. God bless!
Just found the table details on another of your posts. So ignore my previous comment. 🙂
Reblogged this on Wildflowers and Marbles and commented:
This post is by far the most popular post at Wildflowers and Marbles and I can see {from behind the scenes} that many of you are following a {blogspot} link directed to the old blog in an attempt to find this post. Unfortunately, all the old links just take you to the new home page, and not to the new page with the post you were looking for. So, I thought I’d bring up some of my most popular posts based on the link activity I’m seeing from you. And, this time of year…we’re probably all freshening up those learning spaces anyway – so you may enjoy this post if you haven’t been through it yet! I’m not sure if the formatting will work out on this – we’ll see! Enjoy!
LOVELY homeschool space! where do recommend buying shelves for art supplies and geography center supplies? thanks!
Hi Colleen – the shelves are from the closet organizer section of any Target/Walmart – they are shoe organizer units that can be stacked. And the Geography Center came from Alison’s Montessori. I’m pretty sure both resources are linked in the post. This page links some of the items in my learning room including those shelves you were asking about. Thanks so much for stopping by!