Sunnyside Schoolroom - a glimpse!

Welcome to our schoolroom!

I thought you might find it interesting seeing where we do what we do - actually I love seeing how other mums have set up their learning centers & so thought I'd show you ours. I grabbed the camera yesterday afternoon & just snapped away - as I look back through the pics I wonder why I didn't stop to straighten up the chairs/vacuum the rug/ pick up the paper aeroplane/ empty the rubbish....enough said - this is us as we are - nothing fake here (except that sometimes there are a few books scattered on the rug, but I'm trying (highlight trying) to train them to put those away!

This is our schoolroom - I know that I'm completely spoilt having a designated room - I know it's not essential, but we are spoilt for space. When we purchased this house it was a complete head thing - definitely not a heart! Don't worry we have plans for the floors/ walls & ceilings (& of course the outside door inside - I mean what were they thinking???!!!) - but the layout is great in general & it's well built!! - & of course the farm attached...

Looking from the dining area across the entry & into the schoolroom. I think it's important to include the dining table as that's where we start the day for devotions & where I teach Ellie her lessons. We also do extra-curricular lessons eg.art here. I love the fact that I can see through to Zai as he works but there is a basic noise buffer. (Maybe the glass door will stay....hmmmmm will have to come up with something!).

Now this is Zai's desk. The chart at the top is his "star chart". He gets a star when he finishes each workbook & passes the test at the end - if he gets 100% he gets a gold star!!!!

The chart down the bottom is where he (or actually me as he prefers I do it & I enjoy the chance to look through his work - as he gets older I'll get him to do it) writes the work he's to complete each day. ACE is a bookwork curriculum - we're finding so far it's excellent & suits my children, however it did take a good 6 weeks for them to get used to the quantity of bookwork each day. To the right is his set of little file drawers that hold the current workbook for each subject - it's a great way to keep it all organised (even for my son who's definitely an "off with the fairies" type of boy!!). Pencil tin & "froggy line" strewn across desk & rubbish from demolition of eraser - hmmm guess all home school mums understand.

To the left of the entry door is Ellie's desk (Zai's is to the right). Same set up - although she's only doing 2 subjects at the moment as the reading program is quite intense!

In the far right corner is their marking station. In Ace they require you to have a marking station independent of the students work area - somewhere they can stand up. This area has the answer books for the current workbooks & the child actually marks their work themselves. The black desk to the right is another desk in the room - this is handy as Eli & Jud enjoy working at it sometimes. It also holds our enormous box of scrap paper (thanks Grandad) used for numerous creations etc.

In the far left corner is our "library". This is an amazing gift from God - in fact all our furniture is answers to prayers. I hope it doesn't make the post too long, but I have to tell you....

About 2 months ago the children & I went to a garage sale in a nearby town. I don't know why I even scribbled the address down, but we were going into town that Saturday & as there aren't many garage sales on I thought I'd take the chance to take a look at this one. There wasn't a lot of things that interested me there, however they did have a lot of children's books. Since the children had been good all morning (we'd been running errands) I told them they could choose a little golden book each. (we love books). Anyway I got talking to the people there & they asked me to take all the golden books they had. Wow we were blessed - a whole box of golden books. But God didn't stop there. See I'd prayed about my dream set up of the room & part of it had been a library in the corner... Anyway the people also took my phone number in case they didn't sell any books the next day - they said I could have them. Well Sunday afternoon I received a phone call - they hadn't sold any of the books & wondered if I wanted them - wow what a blessing. Then the man asked if I wanted the bookcase they were on as they hadn't sold that either - wow another blessing. Finally he asked if I could use a desk that went with it as they had been a set & he didn't want to see them separated ( wow - you coulda blown me over). So that's how we got our dream library so full so quickly ( let me add that there was also a lot of special interest books & educational books included). - what a great gift!

Anyway it's not flash, but here's our library:

I added an old rug we had & sorted the books out. (I'm hoping to find a basket to replace the cardboard box - this holds all those little tiny books that are just too painful on shelves).The children spend hours (literally) here!! It's a peaceful corner to sit & read!

And this is the room looking back towards the kitchen:

Hope you enjoyed your visit to Sunnyside Schoolroom - we loved having you!
Stop by again sometime!