Schoolroom Reveal aka My Office - Part 2

     So I decided to use my "office" (as seen here) as our new schoolroom.The office was atrocious. Please click the aforementioned link and take a look. I could've had a much larger school room in our basement but I knew that I would never feel like doing school down there as we get amazing natural light on our main floor. So I thought that instead, I would use a tiny room and see what I could do with it. Hopefully it's an inspiration to people who don't have a lot of space to work with in their homes. I also made a closet into a workspace for my older son for when he needs somewhere to work away from the girls and those pics are here. You may be wondering where I have moved my office and I will show you that in another post soon :)

 I decided to add some color and this red is also in my entrance and in my bedroom. I only did the one wall and I LOVE birch trees. This mural took maybe 5-6 hours and was WAY easier than I thought it'd be.

The baskets are awesome and I got em at Jysk for $3.99 ea but they don't have anymore :( I also got the white footbath tubs at Walmart for $2 something each. The green canvas bins were $5.99 each and also from Jysk.

These "rugs" are actually bathmats also from Jysk and they were $4.99 ea

The Artwork display

Logan's workstation and the secret mailbox - we will open it each day when the flag is up and see what special activity or book we are doing that day. (Sometimes it'll be a treat)

 

I use these for crayon, marker, etc storage

I often buy Classico pasta sauce and then wash and de-label the jars and use them to store things like clothespins, magnets, chalk, etc.

I love this one room schoolhouse picture :)

This is a darkroom timer that my mom had when she was young and we always used it as a timer when I was homeschooled so I thought it would be great to keep it going in my classroom :)

I found this pic online and added the chalkboard and cross on the front of the building and our school name and class times. 

And I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it!

I am going school shopping this weekend for most of our curriculum and some extras (I'll just have to find a way to fit it all in there!)

Again here are the links for Logan's study nook and What the office/school room used to look like.

Kindergarten Days 1 & 2

I wasn't intending on starting school this week, but my 5 yr old asked me at breakfast, "Mama, can you read me a Bible story?" and that kinda set the whole thing rolling. So there was no real plan in place, I just headed to Google (my good friend) and within a few minutes we were having a blast! Following are pics of Jasna and what we did, but Daisy participated, too. I'm just not yet allowed to post pics of her :( So I'm just sharing the Jas pics for now.

First we read the first couple verses of Genesis chapter 1 about God's creation of light and separating day from night.

I printed off Creation Day 1 coloring pages....Picture found here

This one was Daisy's :)

Then my friend Carla had this idea of dark and light monoculars made with toilet paper rolls (I cut one in half) and taped construction paper on the ends.

Then I made mini cupcakes (recipe at the bottom of this page) and colored some icing with black food coloring (from Michael's) and left the other icing white. They decorated each cupcake with popsicle sticks...

The candle represents Day 1 and Light

That was yesterday and then today we again read Genesis chapter 1, the few verses about God separating the water from the sky........

Coloring her Creation Day 2 picture (upside down) - picture found here

Creation Day 2 snack - light blue icing (food coloring from Michael's) for sky, blueberries for water, and marshmallows cut in half for clouds (I didn't have mini marshmallows)

They both really liked it :)

Letter A Do a dot - found here

 

Daisy's letter A do a dot lol She loved the bingo markers!

Jasna's completed A do a dot

 

Tracing A picture found here....this one is Jasna's 

and this is what Daisy thought of it - BORING lol

Apple match up shapes for Daisy - she loved this!

while Jasna glued apples onto her tree - found here

We read the following "A" books (most found at the library):

I LOVED this one and so did Daisy. Jasna enjoyed it, too, but it's a younger reading level. Each page says things like, "I have two arms" and shows a corresponding picture. I will buy this book. 

This one was ok. It interested the girls I think mostly because of the pictures, but overall I give this one a 3 out of 5

We own this one and read the two "A" poems in it - Alligater Pie and Anna Banana

This is the Bible story book we are using 

Another library one and we enjoyed it.

This book was delightful, simple, and old fashioned which was a lot of fun!

They snacked on vanilla flavored "A" cookies...

I bought them at Walmart

And I showed the girls that their names both have A in them

 We sounded out the 3 sounds for A and learned the sign for A.
I searched Google images for both of these pics and printed them on cardstock after cropping them.

Here's the recipe for the cupcakes:

2 cups white flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (shortening makes it fluffier)
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix and pour into mini or regular cupcake papers and bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes OR pour into a greased and floured 9x9 cake pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes (I think).

We are not going to be doing any school for the rest of this week, so the plan is to continue with the A theme next week and cover things like Africa and it's culture, animals that begin with A, an A scavenger hunt, A foods, more A books, etc. I can't wait!

Busy Bags

This is going to be my first year homeschooling more than one child. J is starting kindergarten/grade 1 and L is going into grade 7. Plus I have a 2 yr old and 2 babies, so I REALLY needed something to keep my younger ones occupied (and learning) while I am working with my oldest.

My friend, Sharla, just happened to bless me with some busy bags she had made since she had extras...and we LOVE them!

A busy bag is an activity that is stored in a large ziplock bag and has everything in that bag that the child will need for that activity. I store all my bags in a box and pull one out when I need one. You give the bag to your child and THEY DON'T HAVE TO ASK YOU FOR ANYTHING in order to do that activity. They are learning and having fun and staying out of trouble! And when they are done, everything goes back in the bag for next time. Sounds great to me :) Most of these are multiple time use, and a few are one time use. So I am going to share the ones that I've made so far along with a brief description and which ones we like best. (I'm in the process of making more, so I'll do another post on this soon!

Bug Catcher Kit - 2 clear plastic cups (Dollarama pack of 8 was $1), screen door mesh (had some on hand), rubber bands to hold on the mesh, a magnifying glass (had that on hand, too), notebook for documenting or drawing what you catch, and a pen.

Pom Pom Sorting - ice cube tray, plastic tweezers (you might be able to get these at Michaels), 

assorted size and color pom poms. Child can size sort, color sort, etc. Great fine motor activity. Daisy LOVES this one!

Snowflake Patterns - Any color felt or foam for the background, snowflake cards, and snowflake shapes cut out of foam or felt. (Felt is more fun to cut) Then see if you can make a snowflake to match the one on the card or just make your own. Click Here for the printable cards and shapes.

Water Painting. This one is super easy. Plastic cup, different sizes of paint brushes. Just add water and let them paint the deck or the sidewalk or rocks or whatever!

Geoboard Pictures. Geoboard ($5.99 at Education Station) and elastics (we got a large bag of them at Dollarama for $1). You can make shapes or designs or pictures....use your imagination!

Alphabet Sound Matchup - this one is my favorite. What you need: the alphabet (we used foam letters from the dollar store, but you could use letter magnets or just print off the letters of the alphabet on cardstock and cut and protect them with clear contact paper), and an object from around the house that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Then pick a letter and find the object that starts with that letter and match them up!

Bead Sorting - 2 bowls, a plastic spoon, and some beads (or other small objects). Color sort or just spoon the beads back and forth. I suggest using a tray under this activity (or a cake pan) so that the beads don't go everywhere if they are spilled. 

Counting Tiles - I had these foam letters left over from the alphabet set I bought and I had a bamboo placemat (also from Dollarama) that I cut up. I put the numbers 0-9 in the bag and 45 tiles.

Painting - small canvas (set of 2 Dollarama $1), brushes, paints, and an art palette (dollarama $1)

 I need to add a plastic cup for water to this bag. 

Sponge painting - Sponges from the Dollarama (pk of 6 for $1), tempera paints in containers (got these at the dollarstore, too), I still need to add the smock, paper, and plastic table cloth ($1 - Dollarama) to this one, but it wouldn't fit in the bag so I need to use an extra large ziplock bag instead of the large. 

Color Matching  - this one is so fun! All you need are paint chips and clothes pins and glue. You can either grab 2 of each paintchip (to have the extras to make the hearts out of) or you can cut your paint chips in half to make the hearts. 

The kids love this one. Beads and Pipe Cleaners. They love that the beads are stars and that they don't fall off the pipe cleaners.

Necklace Making - Plastic string, Buttons, straws, whatever you have on hand. 

Plate Sewing - plastic needles, yarn or string, foam plate. (I'm not sure where to get the needles, because my friend put this one together but I think maybe Michaels would have them)

Hang up Your Clothes! Clothing shapes cut out of different colors of felt or cloth, string, and clothes pins. Tie the string between to chairs and hang up your clothes :)

 Not sure what this is called, but it's tiny foam balls - the kids like it, so I decided to make it a busy bag.

 Paint chips and Paperclips - learn to put the paper clips on the paint chips or link the paper clips or whatever.

Lacing Shapes - Foam to make the shapes, a hole punch, and some plastic lace (or a shoelace). You could add numbers or letters and make this a dot to dot, too.

Popsicle Stick Puppets - Popsicle sticks and foam animal stickers.

Notebook and Stickers. I have a ton of extra stickers (REALLY cheap at the dollar store) to put in the bag when these run out. 

Wide Popsicle Stick Puzzle - popsicle sticks, picture and glue/or draw a picture on the sticks. 

There are many more to come, but these are what we have so far. I am so excited about our schoolyear! I'm gonna go play now, bye!