Mudpies and Make-up: School Room

"Moments spent listening, talking, playing, and sharing together may be the

most important times of all."

-Gloria Gaither

I wanted to post about how our school room looked at the start of this year. Mostly because I know from experience things will look very different at the end of the school year. It's so nice to start with a clean slate. Things are organized, categorized, and over all, very tidy.

We spend so much of our time in our school room. It's where nearly all of the toys are kept. It's where we read, learn, play. Putting the school room together was the best part about unpacking after our move. Before this, our school room was our dinning room and living room, with school supplies stored in nearly every other room of the house, wherever I could squeeze things in. It worked. For awhile.

Now we are blessed with a special place for our school. One central location to keep everything organized. One room, with a specific purpose. One room with a door that can close off the mess or distractions that pull at me every night - just one more project. Just one more craft. Just one more sweep to clean up.

The kids love their school room. But I think I love it more!

Everything is ready. Except I need to buy a table and chairs.
It's on my to-do-list. A.S.A.P

Most of our curriculum is stored here, in the two white pantry's. Wooden and magnetic puzzles in the two cabinets on the left, file folder games, tot/preschool packs to the far right.
The middle is storage for some toys, floor puzzles, and our "Circle Time" board.
The basket on top holds our puppets.

A glimpse inside. The left pantry holds our Bible resources and various media. The right has a shelf for each child's curriculum, with art supplies and Spanish tools on the bottom.

Here is our "Circle Time" board up close.
Included are the songs we sing about the days and months, color of the day,
the date, 100 days of school count-down, and the names of our family members.
The three white notebooks on the left are our calender/weather journals.

I recently moved most of our books into a storage
bin in the main closet. They are organized
by theme and topic. I am hoping this will make it easier for me
to find books, and will also allow a better rotation of the
material that we have.

All four bins, filled to the brim with books!

The small blue unit on the left holds our electronic learning tools, mostly Leap Frog stuff.
The TAG, Little Leap Pad, Leapsters, and various other musical/educational toys.
We also have a bins full of readers, wooden train blocks, and a few other toddler friendly games.
Next to that is our pocket chart, bookshelf, and easel.

Here is the back wall of the room. The built-ins are full of craft and teacher supplies.
More toys and books on the shelves to the sides.
I plan to switch out the books and toys on the counter to coordinate with our preschool/tot themes.
The kids' artwork is displayed above.

The rest of our stuff is kept in the closet. It spans nearly the entire width of the room. We were pleasantly surprised to discover built-ins, as it meant we didn't have to purchase storage shelves.