Our Schoolroom 2010-11

We moved across country this summer, so I had to get unpacked, get organized, and get my new schoolroom all set up. Our new house has an eating area off the kitchen and a separate dining room, so that became our new schoolroom. I changed our workboxes to the plastic drawer storage stands from Target to save space. You can read about how we use workboxes here. Enjoy the pictures!

The far left wall has shelves with learning toys and games. Our new workboxes are under the whiteboard. In the middle of our work table is a green bucket with different compartments for pencils, crayons, glue sticks, and scissors.

My 2-year-old, Brooke, was doing puzzles while I took this picture. The left wall is our new morning calendar wall, which I'll write another post about soon.

Our tall bookshelves on the back wall hold our curriculum, reading books, puzzles, and supplies for science, math, art, etc. On the right wall is my desk. Underneath and on the side of it are big plastic bins of other supplies, activities, and files.

Here is Joshua's new workbox stand. I stacked a 3-drawer stand on top of the 7-drawer stand so he could have more drawers. When he completes a box, he takes off the number and puts it into the box. The bin on top is his "done box" where he puts all his completed work.

This is Ella's workbox stand. Brooke has a stand too because I thought she might want to start doing Tot School for fun.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Favorite Homeschooling Websites: Math

This is the second in my series of posts to share my favorite homeschooling resource websites. As they are completed, they can be found in the drop down list (Favorite Websites) at the top of my blog. Please let me know if any links have stopped working or if you have any suggestions for the list.

Favorite Math Websites:

Math Worksheet Wizard: Make 1000s of free math worksheets!

PreKinders: Wonderful ideas and resources for teaching PreK.

The Math Worksheet Site: Math worksheet generator

Arcademic Skill Builders: Math and Language Arts online games

Mathwire.com: Math activities/games

KidZone: Math games and printable worksheets

Math-U-See: Our favorite Math curriculum

Math Is Fun

The following blogs have great Math Calendar ideas:

Homeschool Creations

1+1+1=1

Homeschool Highway

Mama Jenn

Favorite Homeschooling Websites: Bible

I am doing a series of posts to share my favorite homeschooling resource websites. As they are completed, they can be found in the drop down list (Favorite Websites) at the top of my blog. Please let me know if any links have stopped working or if you have any suggestions for the list.


Favorite Bible Websites:

Totally Tots: In My Heart-Songs For Saplings downloads

Danielle's Place: Crafts and activities (many of which are Bible-based)

Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry Curriculum: Bible lessons and coloring pages

The Homespun Heart: Fruit of the Spirit study for preschoolers

eBibleTeacher.com: Free Bible lessons with worksheets, activities, coloring pages, etc.

Mission Arlington: Bible curriculum for all ages

Simply Charlotte Mason: Scripture Memory System

Lambsongs Bible Story Books

Christian Preschool Printables

Bible Story Printables

Awesome Preschool Curriculum!

Erica from one of my favorite homeschooling blogs, Confessions of a Homeschooler, is truly a gift to the worldwide homeschooling community. She provides tons of ideas and free resources to help other homeschoolers, especially newbies like me. Just recently, she put together a Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum that includes valuable downloads of weekly lesson plans and all of her A-Z printable activities, worksheets, flashcards, reading lists (well you get the idea) for only $10! I love having everything already planned out for me! I just ordered and downloaded it and am so excited to get started for Ella's preschool this year. If you haven't already, check out her blog and see what all she has to offer. Be careful though, once you start, you won't want to leave without reading every post!

Our Curriculum 2010-11

I've created a page explaining our curriculum choices for the 2010-2011 school year. I know it's a little early to have it all planned out, but I've got a new baby and move across country coming up withing the next few months. We usually do our schooling year-round, so I wanted to have all my planning out of the way before we begin this summer. Just click on the tab "Our Curriculum" at the top of this page to get there!

Easter Craft

We recently read in Egermeier's Bible Story Book during our Bible time about Jesus' death and resurrection. So we did an Easter craft from DLTK's Printable Crafts of the empty tomb with the stone rolled away and the angel inside. We decided to color the paper plates with markers instead of painting them (because I like to avoid the mess of painting at all costs). Each stone was just a crumpled up brown paper bag held together by masking tape. These of course became fun indoor balls when they were all done. (Why do we even bother with store-bought toys?)

Can't Beat the Dollar Crafts

We went to Michaels for some craft items and I found these little wooden model crafts in the dollar section. Each kit included the wooden pieces, paints, glue, and sand paper (which we didn't use) to make the craft. The kids had so much fun painting and helping Daddy glue them together. Joshua had the longest attention span so he painted most of the pieces himself, but Ella and Brooke eventually lost interest until it was time to put it together. They enjoyed wearing their new craft shirts (Daddy's old white t-shirts) too. Joshua made a jet plane and Ella and Brooke made mini-birdhouses.

 The beautiful finished products!