So about halfway through the year I decided that I wanted to have one room where
most
of our learning materials could be stored and displayed... a room that felt happy and inviting.
Our dining room was rarely ever used as a place to eat- we eat in the huge kitchen- so I shoved the dining room table against the wall and made John carry all the chairs out to the garage. And then I slowly began transforming the space. We love it now and the kids and I hang out in there a lot. It is cheerful and cozy- full of so many wonderful, enriching books, games, and learning materials.
It may look a bit busy but we like that- and since the room is so small it is difficult to have all the things we want out without it getting full. For awhile we had a teepee in there but it took up too much space so we adjusted and redecorated again. Much better now... the teepee can go up in the backyard for the summer. I know that as time goes by there will be more revisions but this is what it looks like right now and it works perfectly for us!
This is our BIRD BASKET. We have bird books, flashcards, stuffed bird friends, and binoculars in it.
We use this stuff A LOT. We LOVE birds!
This is a chair that my friend Amber gave me to sell at our yard sale this summer. I put it in the house for now- I may keep it in here, I may sell it and put a different chair here... haven't decided yet!
One thing is for sure- reading chairs get a lot of use in this room!
This little table holds all things related to nature. In fact, since I took this picture, the bottom shelf now holds specimens from nature- a nest, robins' eggs, shells, ect. We find things all the time and my mom is also THE BEST collector- she shared a bunch of her loot with us a while back and we've saved it all.
This is the butterfly section.
And this is the pond/general nature section(with the butterfly flip book thrown in. :)
Here is our other reading chair- I found it on the curb one day and left the cushions(they were gross). I bought what I believe is a dog bed at TJ Max last year to fit on it perfectly and just threw the pretend sheepskin on the back, as well as a homemade pillow and Mickey's ugly doll. I got the chevron ottoman/floor cushion at TJ Max last year too.
The basket on the floor next to the chair is currently holding all of our spring related books.
Above the chair on the wall is more bird-related stuff- posters and a good pair of binoculars(that were my Uncle Tony's- happily we use them all the time) and a bird call one of the boys got from Santa this past Christmas.
This white dresser was also found on the curb a few years ago. It still needs knobs and pulls and it's kind of smushed up in the corner of the room(probably should come out) but it holds quite a bit of stuff so it's easier to leave it there right now.
Jeffrey's keyboard lives in this room too(there's nowhere else for it right now) and besides we like listening to him practice! :)
Here is our poetry bin- I want to do a whole separate post on this another time...
we've discovered many great poetry books and Mickey in particular spends a lot of time reading, writing and illustrating poems.
This hutch was one of the first(if not THE first) pieces of furniture John and I bought as a married couple. It works well to hold art supplies and is also the perfect height for the
kids to look through the microscope.
Sometimes I think about selling it or painting it but haven't done either yet.
This wall displays some of Mary Beth's artwork from last year.
This basket is full of Egypt-related books and supplies. My parents put it together for the kids as one of their Christmas presents and we LOVE it. The kids look through it all the time and works on activities. And in the fall Mickey has a big lesson about Ancient Egypt and we will dive in even more.
I love organizing our books by category as much as possible. It just makes it so much easier to find what we are looking for and I find that the books get looked at way more this way.
Well, the tour isn't done yet so stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow!
