Being a homeschooler and living in a small space can be frustrating at times. I pretty much turned my living room into a school room, then over time, a couch and love seat were brought in. I needed space but wasn’t sure what else could be done.
Recently while cruising a blog hop I found this blog and wow I am soooo thankful I did, so thankful for the inspiration. She had all of her storage bins in her coat closet. I went to work right away!
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Coat Closet StoragePlayDoh, Crafts, Books, Games and PuzzlesMarkers, Crayons, Chalk, Office Supplies
Oops I guess I forgot to take “Before” pictures of the closet and “After” pictures of the Living Room. :O)
My boys are crazy for Star Wars, they love it! I just picked up the box set of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi for them for Christmas. It was one of their lightning deals for only $22!
Recently, I came across a crafts section of the Star Wars website. They had a fun R2D2 craft made from felt. I had tons of foam squares so we pulled them out and the boys went to work…
R2D2 Craft
They used construction paper for his top part and colored it silver. They also used construction paper for his body. The rest was made from foam and they glued them onto a foam base. Elmers glue worked well.
They enjoyed it and I think they turned out really cute. Thanks Star Wars!
On a recent field trip to, we visited a new children’s garden play and discovery area. It has fantastic stations all around to encourage interactive play and learning. 2 stations caught my eye and more importantly, caught the boys eyes and kept ’em too!
Wood blocks, real wood blocks only they aren’t the kind we are all used to. These are more rustic and authentic and fun for boys. One set had big tree rings cut into chunks, the other set was Aspen tree trunks chopped into different thicknesses to stack. This gave me some great ideas for gifts and toys for my boys. The possibilities are endless.
We are always trying to find websites that have learning content rather the sites with games only. This has become even more important because lately our boys have developed an addiction to Super Mario Brothers, the old school version online. They explored all the learning websites and grew tired of them, so my husband had an idea.
How about creating a web page, with them for other kids to use. They started working on it a few days ago and have come up with 4 different interactive areas. Since we homeschool it has been an awesome opportunity to have our oldest participate in planning it and then putting that plan into action, our 4 year old also helped. Now the boys get to see their work on a real live web page and they love it!
Preston learning how to setup a page and insert pictures and text. He also learned how to add sound and effects and like most people he didn’t like hearing his own voice at first but still thought it was pretty cool. What a great learning experience! Hope you enjoy.
After checking out a ton of homeschool blogs this summer I was looking for an alphabet activity for Oliver to do, I came across an idea at totallytots.homestead.com. It is called Now I Know My ABC’s and it shows pictures of animals made from each letter in the alphabet. Here is what Oliver has made so far:
A is for AlligatorC is for CrabD is for DinosaurOliver's ABC Book
He is keeping them inside of clear sleeves in his very own ABS’s book… he likes it so much!
Earlier this week I joined the Not-Back to School Blog Hop, so many homeschoolers participated, it was inspiring! Who doesn’t love a peek into someone else’s life and home. After looking at other blogs I decided to share my room, in more detail, so that others can get ideas, the way I have been getting classroom ideas.
Two blogs that played a huge role in giving me inspiration for preschool activities, classroom ideas, preschool lesson plans, and more are http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com and http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/ – a huge thank you to Carisa and Jolanthe. They have helped me so much, hope this helps someone else!
Classrooom Ideas, Morning Board:
Color of the Day – Preschooler will need to pull cards from the color folder and choose the correct one, also locate 3 items with that color.
Bible Verse of the Week – I will write the verse out and I will use Dictation to have my 1st grader fill in Book, Chapter, Verse
Weather Card – Preschooler will have to find the correct weather card for the day and hang it, while the 1st grader checks temperature and records it.
100 days countdown – I will have them alternate coloring the days off
Today’s Date – I plan on filling one option in and having my 1st grader fill in the remaining ones
Color of the Day wall pocketColor of the DayPreschool Weather Board100 Days Sheet Morning BoardToday's Date
Hope this helps with your own classroom ideas. Enjoy your day!
After looking at this site and her ideas for a Calendar board I was completely inspired. Thank you Homeschool Creations for the wonderful ideas! Here is our Calendar board:
Our Homeschool Calendar ideas from Homeschool Creations blog
We have: Todays Date, with different ways to write the date, make the date in money, color of the day, weather for temp. (1st grader will fill in daily), weather for the 4 year old to use picture cards. We also have letter of the day and verse of the day. I will also be adding the skip counting pages.
For calendar I plan on having all 3 boys participate in one way or another. I have also been looking around for center ideas, things to keep the 2 little ones busy when I need to work with my 1st grader. Carissa has so many excellent ideas on her blogs. One of them is Tot Trays. I loved all her ideas and will be using them and creating more inspired by what I have seen. Here are some things we have so far:
Basket #1 (white) – for the 2 & 4 year olds, basket #2 – Base Ten set – 1st grader
basket #1 – Pompoms for sorting, pouring, gluing, scooping, measuring, tongs, ice cube try for sorting, clothespin centers (see below), poker chips to sort and stack, pipe cleaners, eraser center (see below).
I cut a square in the lid of a take n go container, then added erasersHe puts them and then tries to retrieve themDifferent games to play with these both toddlers and preschoolersBeads, funnels and bowlsPasta, glitter and glueFoil, Pasta and glitter
Still on the lookout. Excellent places for centers: the Dollar Tree, Walmart, Big Lots. You don’t have to spend a lot and your children will learn, play and love it!
