Organizing My Kindergartener's Home Learning Space

Kaelyn's desk and red pouches for her assignments.

In late March, I had cleaned out my children's rooms.  I had asked the girls to get rid of clothes that they had outgrown.  We had placed all the winter clothes in a plastic box.  My oldest son was ready for his own room so that meant some of the furniture and educational material would have to be shifted out of his new room.  I had to condense a few things.

Kaelyn's books are now within reach in her white bookcase.

I wanted to also make a few efficient changes for Kaelyn, my five year-old.  I had to move more educational material, like age-appropriate books, for Kaelyn into the girls' room.  I had a few challenges.  I had limited space in that room.  I had to think about putting things on walls.  I had the word wall to consider. 

I had to be frugal and shop within my own house for furniture.

There is one important fact I must confess: I stuffed the girls' dresser into their closet.  

Since the girls had less clothes, that freed up one side of the large closet.  That allowed the dresser to go in there.  I also removed a flimsy wood-colored shelf that was really for DVDs and replaced that with a white bookcase that I moved out of my bathroom.  It is white and sturdier for Kaelyn's books.  I wanted for Kaelyn to reach her books safely rather than have them fall on her.

White and light-colored furniture and accessories keep the room from looking too small.

It's better to see this lighter color.

 ...when you walk into a room than...

the objects against this wall, which are darker.

I placed Kaelyn's desk, since it is a dark color, next to the doorway so it wouldn't be the first thing you see when you walk into the room.  We already had the large bookcase that you see when you walk into the bedroom.  I saw some clutter there so I helped the older daughter remove it. We used baskets on a white wire roll away shelf.  The baskets include one for the DS game system with games and accessories; one basket has Kaelyn's puzzles; one has Iris' DVD collection; and the top one houses oldest daughter's special colors and pencils.

The blue wall has the calendar, vocabulary, and sight words.

The word wall also contains word family mini-books.

I decided to pin the blue word wall on a wall behind the door.  The word wall had been on a flimsy stand. The legs stuck out too much. This way, it takes no space at all.  Also, when the door is open, you cannot see the darkness and clutter of  Kaelyn's work.

I had to tweak Kaelyn's work containers.

I remembered that I had a red pouch organizer, which had many slots.  I had been having problems figuring out if Kaelyn had been doing her work.  I was now too far away from her to tell if she was doing her work.  Her desk had been placed in her room, too.  I already had my oldest daughter loaded with teaching Kaelyn; Iris couldn't remember to tell me when Kaelyn had finished a workbook.

This box was holding Kaelyn's work in condensed form.

Often, the folders nested too close to each other.

I pinned the red pouch next to Kaelyn's desk.  I found some neon green sticky notes.  I wrote the names of each subject.  I taped one onto each pouch.  I was then able to place each workbook and/or folder in their appropriate slot.

The red-pouched organizer allows one to see Kaelyn's subjects.  We had been working with three boxes for Kaelyn's work.  One was the plastic one for her immediate work (pictured above, which is now for the impending work).  Another one was a cardboard box for impending work and hands on material, like flashcards with sight words.  The last one was a cardboard box for work already finished and archived. 

It would often happen, with the old system, that Kaelyn would finish a workbook and then go a whole month without doing anything for a given subject.  Then, I would realize and pick up where we left off.  We had wasted precious instructional time for that subject.  Tsk!  Tsk!  

Misc., Chores, Calendar, PE, Math sections...

 and...

Science, Social Studies, Phonics/Spelling, Reading, & Language Arts.

Now, we can all see at a glance if she finishes a workbook.  She comes to me with the finished book.  I find a new one and place it in the slot for the given subject.  For example, she just finished a science workbook.  I found the manilla folder containing pre-copied worksheets.  We placed the old science workbook in the archive box and the new folder in the appropriate slot on the red pouches.  

Well, that's one segment of our spring cleaning/ reorganizing of our homeschool.  I hope I explained it well.  I am sorry that I do not have before pictures.  I was just happy to see my efforts have been paying off.  The girls' room feels more airy and purposeful now.

How about you, my readers?  If you homeschool, how do you organize your children's work areas?  Do you use cubbies, bookcases or desks?  I hope you have been rearranging whatever hasn't been working for you.  A more efficient learning environment leads to better learning.

My readers, may God bless you all with wisdom and peace as you organize your homes this spring.

This has been an entry for Thorough Thursdays.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Pocket chart organizers: (manipulatives can also be found at these websites)

Really Good Stuff website
 

Amazon.com search for pocket charts