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I have loved setting up our "official" school space (although learning will take place in all areas of our home, yard and beyond!). This is the landing at the top of our staircase through which one goes to enter both of our upstairs bedrooms. It had no official purpose other than to store my books before I made it into our schoolroom. I am so thankful for this space.
I had three main goals in creating our space.
1. Make it bright and colorful and fun.
2. Make it learning-conducive for little people.
3. Do it as cheaply as possible.
I hung colorful paper chains from the ceiling and painted the railing around the stairway pink and brown. Wherever color was possible, I used color! Who wants boring? Not me! And most certainly not kids!
Since the whole purpose is for little-people learning, I have books, games, puzzles, and art supplies (galore!) very accessible. I have a soft pink chair (free from my sister!) that is perfect for curling up in during reading or while we play a game of hang-man on our white board.
Since my school-room budget was pretty small, I purchased very little. And when I did purchase, I did it cheaply. I will discuss this more as we continue our tour.
The table and chairs were a Christmas present from my parents. Don't be afraid to ask for school supplies for Christmas and other gifts! The linoleum under the table is a remnant leftover from when we made our pantry.
These cute little art-supply caddies came from Hobby Lobby, where I got them 40% off. The crayon bucket was from the dollar-section at Target.
I found this cube shelf on a great sale at ShopKo. The basket and bucket on top were from my own attic. Sometimes hunting through your own stuff can yield the best finds. :)
This is where I have our curriculum, binders, and extra assorted books and puzzles. One of the bins contains notebooks. One is full of old magazines for cutting, and the last one has coloring books, paint pads, etc.
Under the window, I've got a trunk (purchased for cheap from an auction) that is stocked full of games. On either side are 3-drawer storage containers with various supplies in them. The blue container is from Target and is mostly full of art supplies like construction paper as well as stuff that just has no other place to go. On top is my laminator, which has been used over and over already!
These cute little buckets to hold our wet-erase and dry-erase markers are also from Target's dollar section.
This desk was built by my great-grandfather for my aunt. It has now been passed down to our family. The pink organizer on the desk is repurposed from a Melissa and Doug magnetic doll set. This desk is my place to sit and work on my laptop or grade papers or whatever needs done. The pencil sharpener (a Christmas gift from my brother) in the corner is one I highly recommend!
On the wall above the desk, I put some Command hooks and then hung bright-colored clips that I found at the dollar store. We'll be able to display and switch-up our projects as we go through the year.
I found this fun light at IKEA a number of years ago and had never used it for anything. I used twine to hang it from Command hooks mounted on the ceiling above the desk area, where light was lacking.
The alphabet across the top of our wall can be downloaded for free here.
On the back of a door leading into a closet, I hung a pocket organizer with various art and school supplies. I made laminated labels, wrote on them with wet-erase markers, and pinned them to the pockets to appease the OCD side of me.
This is our calendar and weather chart for circle time. We used this some in preschool. Since I don't have a good wall space for this, it works well to have it on a tri-fold display board that can be gotten out and put away.
In the corner right at the top of the stairs, I have a couple bookshelves, The bottom of the tall bookshelf has puzzles and games. The bottom of the little bookshelf has a bin for library books so as to hopefully avoid losing them! (I should mention that the tall bookshelf and its twin across the room were purchased for very little at an auction, and the smaller bookshelf is an old shipping crate from John Deere. Bryan cut the shelves out of the lid, and I sanded, stained, and varnished all of it.)
This bucket (from my attic again!) contains a variety of books that can be earned as prizes and rewards throughout the year or years. These all came from the Scholastic $1 book sale.
On top of the bookshelf is a picture puzzle of my paternal grandparents. My grandma worked in the school system for years and is so encouraging of my endeavors.
I made this reminder board and hung it over the stairway. The bulletin board belonged to my maternal grandparents, and I love that it is incorporated into our schoolroom.
All of this wall decor was free. You can get the skip counting here, and the short vowel printables here.
I hope you enjoyed your tour of our school space. I am so excited for all the learning adventures that will happen here!
If you school at home and blog about it, leave a comment to let me know where I can take a virtual peek at your schoolroom!
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