Our school room and supply storage

I am linking up with the Not Back to School Blog Hop hosted by Heart of the Matter Online. Last week we posted about our curriculum choices for the coming year. This week we are posting about our school room/learning spaces- wherever we do our homeschool activities!

Our school room (aka, the den) does not look that much different than last year but I wanted to show the few changes we've made. To see more about how we use this space and how it's set up, check out last year's post.

Here's how the den looks now:
The main difference is I brought up the kids' workboxes from the basement to the den where it is much easier to use them. Yes, I have to go up and down the stairs to fill them because most of my supplies are in the basement, but it has worked out so much better than having the kids go up and down the stairs all day. The best part is the workboxes fit right in the corner next to my desk.
Another thing I've done to make filling the workboxes easier is by using a plastic accordion file folder. I make a tab for each subject for each child and put in any worksheets they are going to use for the week, in order. Then to fill the boxes each night, all I have to do is take a sheet from each file folder and put it in the box. Saves time ripping pages out of workbooks or finding supplemental activities every day. I usually take part of Sunday to find all my materials for the lessons for that week and fill the file folder. I've also thought about doing it by day (have a file for Monday-Friday) but this works for now. Since the kids only use 8 out of the 10 workboxes, I use the bottom two boxes to store the larger supplies like flashcards and manipulatives for the coming week.

Click here and here for more on how we do workboxes.

Okay, the next few pictures are from last year's post but the spaces look almost exactly the same now, and I am too lazy to take new pictures. (:

We use extra kitchen cupboards to hold school supplies like art materials and extra books, music items, etc. It's nice to have that stuff in there closest to where we need it, since we do art at the kitchen table. (:
Art Cupboard:
Reading Corner in our family room:
These next pictures are of my "resource" area in the basement. I have a bookshelf that holds shoe box totes of small items and manipulatives, and a tall bookshelf for the idea books. Oh, and a recent pic of another shelf I set up to hold yet more supplies and the extra kids' books (not counting the two big rubbermaid bins of books stored down there also!).

Idea books:

More supplies and kid's books:
As for how exactly we use these spaces, it changes all the time. Sometimes we do all the schooling in the den, sometimes it's in the family room. Sometimes it's at the dining room table- which conveniently is across from the den so I can keep an eye on someone working in the den and in the dining room at the same time. I plan on doing this when I need to alternate working with the two kids. One will be doing independent work at the dining room table while I teach the other, and then they switch. Right now they both need my supervision (to stay on task and for help) so this works out great for us!

Well, I guess that's it! We are excited to get started! I am sure everything will not go exactly as planned- I always have to tweak things after a while- but at least we have a plan!!