Our school room

The school room takes up the entire third floor, which means it's completely separate from the rest of the house. I love this aspect because not only is it away from distractions, but also we can leave our books and work out on surfaces without it making the rest of the house look messy. At the top of the stairs on the second floor, you walk around the railing and past a sunny window and up the stairs to the school room.

Then go up one more flight of stairs to the third floor...

... and here's the school room (my favorite room in our whole house).

Let me take you on a little tour.

I always knew that if we were fortunate enough to have a large school room, I would want to designate one space entirely to reading. I wanted to make a comfortable, fun place where Asher would want to be. I hoped I could create a spot that would encourage him to hang out and read (ideally for fun!). The room had a corner that was absolutely perfect. I positioned two bookcases to close in the space and make it feel cozy. Inside, I placed a soft throw rug and tons of pillows on the floor and against the walls.

Here's a close-up shot inside the reading area. I found a cheap side table to stick in the corner so we'd have a place for a reading lamp, Asher's timer, a CD player for audio books, and a few favorite photographs. I also decorated the wall with colorful maps and a few dry-erase, magnetic boards for fun.

Beside the reading corner is my desk. Here's where I keep my lesson planning supplies and all of Asher's current textbooks and notebooks.

Beside my desk is a huge bookshelf with lots of separate cubby spaces. I love this bookcase, mostly because it's red and glossy. Right now I've got a lot of various school supplies and random manipulatives in there that are easily organized thanks to all the separate spaces.

Beside the red shelves is my pride and joy: my double pocket chart stand! I love this thing. It makes the space feel like a real classroom. I've got our calendar on one side, and on the other side is a number chart. It's on wheels, so I can wheel it in front of Asher when we're using it, and then easily wheel it back to its home against the wall when we're done.

Finally, here's Asher's desk. I made sure to face it toward the big windows so it's bright and cheery. On his desk I have a small daily calendar, a pencil box, and a box of crayons. Asher's Grandpa gave him an old bell, so Asher likes to keep it on his desk to ring when our lessons begin and end.

Because we're on the third floor, the windows look out onto the tops of the beautiful trees and field that surround us. It's gorgeous.

I filled the window seat with pillows. Asher enjoys lounging on these pillows when we take a break or read.

Hanging above the windows is a sun catcher Asher picked out in Bermuda, just before we moved away. It reminds us of "home".

On either side of the windows are bookshelves. Really roomy bookshelves. Lime green bookshelves. Does it get any better? They're currently organized according to subject, and I'm working on entering them into a database on my laptop which will allow me to search for book titles based on subject. So when we're studying ancient Greece, I can type it into the database and it will give me a list of every single book we own about ancient Greece. It's taking forever to enter all the books into the program, but it'll be great once it's complete.

Looking left from Asher's desk are my giant maps. Asher absolutely loves these maps. He stands in front of them, noting the location and size of different countries and cities, pointing out names of countries we've studied or he's heard of. Almost every day he comments on how big a place Russia is!

Beside the maps is my easel. I originally had wanted a large one to hang on the wall, but then I found this inexpensive one from IKEA. It's got a chalkboard on one side and a dry-erase board on the other. The chalkboard isn't great, but the white board is perfect. We use this for copywork and math exercises.

I keep all our art supplies (everything from paints to glue sticks and construction paper) in the unit on the right. It's got wheels, so I can roll it out from the wall when necessary. The red shelves on the left hold all our math supplies. On top is something every homeschool needs: a laminating machine. Mine was a birthday present from a dear friend. It was something I never knew I needed until I got one! I use it all the time.

Finally, next is the baby's play area. We try to get as much school work done as possible during Asa's naptimes, but when he's awake, I put him in here while we work.

So here we are. I'm so thankful for this beautiful space, which my husband allowed me to paint and decorate exactly the way I wanted, including bright blue walls and lime green bookshelves around the windows. We lived in a very small apartment for 10 years, and my school room was actually a tiny hallway stuffed with books piled dangerously high on bookshelves. We did all our work on the kitchen table.

The first time Asher saw his new school room in our new house, all he said was, "WOW!"