New schoolroom setup and system

Remember the post New Schoolroom Library from August of 2014 (2 years ago)? It's interesting for me to look back. We've since added a new bookcase on the west end of the bookcase wall. That meant shuffling some things around. We kept the couch in there until recently when it was decided that we needed a lot more room in our schoolroom. I've moved things around to work more efficiently, and put up new maps that are WAY more educational, and put up magazine files to organize the kids schoolwork. It works out wonderfully to have four cubbies and four magazine files Our oldest, W will be done with his studies at home by the time we get a 5th child into schoolwork. I figure the way we space our kids out we will always have four at at time. I think I can work with that. 

I'm quite pleased with the way things worked out in here. It's so much more open without the couch and there is plenty of room to walk around to get our books and papers and supplies, to come in and sit and read. 

We still have two nice comfy chairs on our east wall for those who do not wish to sit in a chair at the table. It is nice for reading, it's where I sit every morning to study my scriptures. You might notice our bookshelves need some organizing. Ha! It works for us.

My former system with school was to write all weekly assignments in a teacher planner I purchased from Amazon.com. I really like the book and the way it is laid out. With my former system, I also copied all the kids' work that they would need for that week and paper clip it to the front of the teacher planner. I also color coded the work with highligheters (one color per child) and when the work was finished we highlighted the assignment in yellow. It worked nicely. But with more kids doing more work in the mix now, it doesn't quite cut it. There isn't enough room for me to write, and I also find that it can get exhausting to do all that writing.

The NEW system:

A color coding system is still in place.

The magazine file holders are where the kids will put their finished worked each day. Each slot corresponds with their binders, so that at the end of the week they can easily hole punch (with our new auto hole puncher) their work and put it in their binders in order, by themselves. The bottom file slot has a small 1 inch binder which has their weekly assignment schedule and copied work for the week. This little binder will be their own little guide (which I will manage) for their independently-directed journey this coming year.

Here is an example of one of the kids weekly assignment schedule which will be in their weekly assignment binder

This cubby beneath the binder cubby is where all their study texts are located

Essentially, on this west wall, each child (student) has their own column of the virtual spreadsheet to manage their work with. The rest of the areas of the school room are shared areas.

I got these cups-on-little-rails from IKEA on a closeout sale. On this west wall under the window we keep pencils, colored pencils, markers, crayons, scissors, paints and paint brushes, glues, etc.

On this north wall with our book cases, we have our little whiteboard and clock. These particular bookcases contain all our study texts we've used and are keeping for new students, preschool supplies, math manipulatives, science supplies, scrap paper, etc.

On top of these shelves is my own workspace in this room. I've made a parent binder that contains the information as stated in the picture.

The following is a copy of the weeks Master Plan for all the kids. I'm happy to be doing this on the computer now. A couple of years ago I really didn't like the idea. I love writing things with my own hands and organizing that way as well. It started to get too time consuming, though. This particular schedule is a basic schedule for the whole year. This is just about how each week will look, the books to be studied from each day of each week, and the basic activities that should take place. If it changes I can easily change it and print it up again. The details of each assignment will be on the kids own weekly assignment schedule page in their little weekly assignment binder. (The specifics are not on the example of W's above because I haven't gotten that far yet. Let's just say that if he were doing pages 5-7 of Rod & Staff for Grammar on Monday, that's what it would say. If he needed to work a little more with Grandma or Mom that day on a certain subject, it would also say that as well.)

Underneath the parent binder is where I've decided it would be a great spot for all the teacher (or parent) manuals that come with some of the study texts.

The following picture is of the south side of the room. Our digital piano sits in front of the window and an antique student desk sits on the left. At the top of the wall you'll find our history timeline which I took from Latter-Day-Learning online. It gives a nice basic visual of the history of the world with an LDS Biblical perspective. I'd love to do a post more on timelines someday because I LOVE them. I think they are so cool. I'm a visual and kinesthetic learner, so I've been able to really absorb information through this timeline approach. Our oldest, W, will be making a timeline of his own starting this coming year, in a binder, with stickers. So each child will eventually have their own that they created, but this one on the wall gives a nice simple picture of things.

Being a homeschool parent, at this point, can seem like very much work. I have to say though, with the talent of being organized that my Heavenly Father gave me, it is not that difficult, once I figure out which curriculum each child will be using, and I put a system in place. If I follow that system and stick to the schedule, it all falls into place. I just have to get up and do it. That's what gets me. Sometimes I find myself getting busy with other mom and wife and homemaker things that getting to the school part is hard. Yes, thinking and being relatively smart is required. But I don't consider myself to be THAT smart. Just smart enough to help out the ones that have the ability to be smarter than I am.

I'm not much of a crafty person, but I did venture out of my comfort zone to make this little item that says, "Choose the right way and be happy". I chose that saying because it's one of my favorite. It's one of my favorite sayings (from a song) because I've learned in my life that choosing the right really does make me happpy. I put the Christus there because choosing the way of CHRIST is the only right way, and it will bring us the most joy. This is the first thing we consider when we decide what to learn.

I know that my children are suppose to be homeschooled. I've known this for 6 years, since W was 2 years old, and I've never looked back. I've never let naysayers question my personal revelation. I've also had many experiences where it has been whispered to me, "THIS is why you're suppose to homeschool." When I question my own abilities it doesn't even get me down. I know the Lord has directed this for us and I believe that He sent me kids with super abilities to learn and grow on their own. I'm just there to help.

Preparing for the next journey ahead.

It seems like as each new year of study approaches, a new journey of learning for me opens up. W is in his next stage of learning right now, the logic stage. I've been going through the initial journey of curriculum selection all over again. We've decided on Saxon Math Homeschool Edition instead of continuing with Singapore Math. We are also going to use a history curriculum instead of, as The Well-Trained Mind suggests, reading history compilations and exploring through Atlases and Timelines at our discretion. I'd like to be able to feel confident enough in my own ability to give guidance to go with this more natural approach of learning, but an actual curriculum is something I feel a lot more comfortable with. I can give guidance when there's a layout. I found History Odyssey through Pandia Press (same publisher as the science curriculum we've been using), that has history curriculum for each stage of learning, it is based off the Classical style of education. There were raving reviews I found for it online so I feel confident about it. We chose R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Level 2 Biology for W's science text. There is an evolution unit, and I think we will go through it, but carefully. We already have a plan of things to show him, have him watch, and what to read to negate the Theory of Evolution and prove The Creation. He will be in a stage of learning that is more self-led and I hope to discover that our choices in curriculum will prove to foster that, because we have a child entering her first official year of good study in all the subjects. She will need some full attention now, so hopefully W is ready to do a lot of work on his own and follow instructions in a book. E will be studying from the same books as W did in his first stage. She finished Singapore Math 1A and 1B this year. She's a smart girl. So she'll be on 2nd grade math. Everything else she'll be right on schedule for 1st grade. L will be 4 soon and she is a pre-schooler. We've tried to work with her a lot and I can see she's gonna need more patience in her learning. In order to make things a bit easier on me and my mom, who helps so much, she will be joining in on the lessons we give E in History and Science. Basically I just want her to be present and quiet, even if she's working on something else more suited to her amusement, and then color a picture. If E and L are on the same page with History and Science studies then it will be easier later as more children are added to Woodruff Hall. By the time E graduates on to the logic stage and starts History and Science topics back at the beginning but more in depth, then I can bring L back to the beginning if she's not quite ready to do things the same way as E, and by that time baby J will be right there with her. It will be interesting to see how this experiment works and hopefully I will remember to revisit the topic for an update at the end of the year.

The only selected curriculum I'm not too sure about is the Grammar text from Rod & Staff. It's Bible based and quite old-fashioned. I don't have anything against that, I just worry about it being too boring for W. It seems wonderful in my opinion as I've scanned over it. I just couldn't find any other Grammar curriculum that satisfied my desire for a whole and complete material.

I have a lot of reading to do with these new books. It's quite an exciting thing to me. W is also going to be introduced to a new subject with Logic. I am excited for my son to become a critical thinker. I feel like this is something that will put him above and beyond in the world. Logic is an interesting and fun topic to me. I even want to do the worksheets in his book. I hope he enjoys it. I think he will, because he is so smart and very intuitive, and when he is good at something he likes it. Not everyone is born with "common sense" in my opinion. W has it.

I've been re-organizing things at Woodruff Hall as well. A new system will be set in place. When we're all set to go, I'll post pictures and discuss why I've done what I've done.