A New Year, A New Look

Because last year was such a huge disappointment for me, personally, I decided to repaint and redecorate our classroom.  I searched high and low online for inspiration, and boy, homeschooling Moms do NOT disappoint! 

We opted to go for a teal/lime/orange theme.  It’s bright.  It’s cheerful.  It’s calming as well.

Here are some pictures (taken with my iPhone…not the best quality):

 

 

 

This next picture is of our “Science Tray”.  For each unit in Science, I will place relevant items for the boys to look at and study.  Our first unit is on “living things”, and they will study plants (among things).

 

One of the boys’ first assignments will be to name our skeleton (real X-rays of human bones):

 

If you look slightly to the right, you will find our learning area (read:  desks).

 

90% of our classroom is supplied by Ikea.  What a wonderful, amazing, crazy store.  Ikea…how I love thee!  The large bookcase contains:  Teacher Manuals, Student text books, Student workbooks, “fun” books to read, our Audio Reading Center, the Treasure Box, games, and supplies.

 

I found these (cheap) containers from Oriental Trading:

 

I decided to encourage the boys to read by getting these audio books.  I ripped the CD to an MP3 format, loaded up each of their MP3 players with the books, and substituted those awful ear-bud headphones with something a little more comfortable.

 

A quick word about those posters; I can’t recall the online company I purchased these from, but they were super cheap (like $6/each?).  I took the posters to Staples and had them mounted on foam board and laminated.  They turned out fantastic!

That’s all for now.  More to come as we near our First Day of School (August 13th!).