Thursday, February 11, 2010

Our Playroom/ Schoolroom

I have to admit that over the years I have tried many, many ways to keep some form of order for the toys that seem to make a neverending beeline to our house!  I have tried different shelves and different containers trying to find the right system for us and by golly I think I finally got it.  I also have to admit that I have, in the process, driven my dear husband amost insane.  Every so often I go on a whim, as he calls it, to try yet again the find some other way to house the kids stuff.  I enjoy change and he well just doesn't.  Moving on...  I just wanted to share the "current" system that is "currently" working for us.


This is one of our 4 big shelves.  The top shelf holds our manipulitives for math and phonics, which I am glad to have out and easily accessible.  The top stripes baskets have craft kits, clay, stamps, ink, etc.  The 3 smalled baskets some instruments, card and logic games and group work for school.  The bottom 2 striped baskets have paper in one and flashcards in the other.




These are the kids bookshelves which I have tried to keep organized.  I have them organized by board books, letter and number books, dinosaurs, math books, readers, chapter books, art books, science books, and then we try to keep books in a series together.  One of my oldest daughters chores each week is to organize the book shelves.
 The table is for coloring, art and games, the occassionally do school there but most of the time we are at the kitchen table. 

These are the other big shelves.  I used laundry baskets from Target to store our toys in.  I have the bins labeled and most things end up in the right container.  I do a quick reorganized about once a week because I am, as my wonderful hubby says OCD : ).


As you can see I am a collector of games, all most as much as I am of books, LOL!  I love finding games, reasonably priced of course, for the kids.  I love getting games from yard sales, consinment shops, TJ Maxx and I do try to make sure we give them a few for the holiday.  I love being able to add games and puzzle into our studys just to add an extra bit of fun. 


Workboxes.  I think by now most homeschoolers have atleast heard of them, right??  Well, this is my 2nd, oh wait a minute, make that my 3rd attempt at using workboxes.  I have loved the concept of them from day one, except the large shelves that Sue Patrick recommends.  I have so much going on in the playroom already, I just don't have the room for those large shoe shelves.  Anyway, I first tried magazine holders and that worked for a bit.  Packed them up for a while and then a few months later I pulled them out again this time I actually used the schedule stripes, nope that didn't work for us either.  3rd (and FINAL) try, I ordered
the 10 drawer organizing carts from Joann Fabrics.  So far, love it!  I am really trying to just keep it super simple.  I fill their boxes with school work and a few extra fun goodies and off we go.  For some reason we always seem to end up at the kitchen table so I am glad that these carts are on wheels, the kids just pull their cart to the table and start their work.
(Please note:  these pictures were taken while the little one was napping and the 3 bigger kids were outside playing.  This play room only looks this way twice a day, once first thing in the morning and second before they all go to bed : ) 

3 comments:

EE said...

Wow! You are so organized! I am just now researching workboxes so that we can start them next school year. Have you thought ahead to when you use them for all 4 children? We have 3 children now, but probably more in the future, so space was a concern for me. Any thoughts?

Brandi said...

Thanks - I don't feel that way sometimes. Like I said the bigger kids were out back and the little one was sleeping during that picture seesion : )
I will probably just grab another 10 drawer cart, Lord willing. I have tried the magizine holders and just aone large box for each child and yeah that didn't work as well as this.
I TOTALLY recommend these carts. I used a 50% off coupon on each which made them more affordable. We also like that they have wheels, my kids love to pull them to the kitchen table and then roll them back when they are done.

Anonymous said...

Great organization. That is definitely a challenge area for me, especially as I moved to a much smaller classroom.

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