We are so very blessed to have a basement where most of our homeschooling is accomplished and our stuff is stored. This leaves the upstairs to look neat and tidy, most of the time!
Would you like a tour of our basement? I didn’t grow up with a basement and this is very exciting for me!
At the bottom of the stairs are these lovely closets and room for Alex’s sensory items and puzzle drawers (there’s another drawer to the left on the other side of the closet). There was no pretty angle to take this picture! I was balancing on the stairs! My husband built the sensory table. The purple bin holds our Montessori sand tray and under the table is our light box with manipulatives.
‘Round the corner, my main kids’ school books shelf…past and future Tapestry of Grace, science, Bible books go here. Also, some reference books are stored here that the kids don’t use as often. The bottom shelves store some Color Wonder, Do-a-Dot books, magnet books, dry erase books, and Educubes.
Our “main” school room. Tori’s and Katie’s matching desks. So pleased to have these. They match the girls’ bedroom sets, so eventually they may fit in their room, or they can take the whole set with them someday (in a far off future!) I found them at yard sales. I also found the awesome table and chairs set at TWO DIFFERENT yard sales – totaling $35! I keep our theme books in the little gutter tray under our picture frames with our daily lessons. The bulletin boards haven’t been updated with our weekly Bible verse(s) or themed word wall yet.
The window is worthless because the deck covers it and it messes up my whole wall arrangement! Oh well, we rent, so there’s nothing I can do. I’d rather not see the window well and all the critters in there. Maybe I could just get a BIG white board and cover it all up.
The girls’ cubes (modified workboxes since they share) are on the opposite wall of the above picture. I also have their weekly word family wall above it.
Alex’s corner. I moved our calendar to his area since he’s the one who needs to work on it now. There’s a chair railing than goes around the ENTIRE basement – weird and it messes with my poster placement! grr!
Every classroom should have a fishtank, no? ack, it needs cleaning!
Our media center and choice vicinity of family read alouds. The TV is my husband’s dowry, lol. He really wants to upgrade. I suppose after 8 years, we should. The screen is pretty much done – sticky and written all over.
Behind the sofa, we have our reading center. The shelf on the left holds all of Elizabeth’s books that the girls are now inheriting – American Girl, Dear America, Royal Princess Diaries, Magic Tree House, some classics. The little shelf on the right holds picture books , among them our vast collection of Berenstain Bears, Magic School Bus, and Dr. Suess.
The light green cube on the left holds current unit/week Tapestry of Grace books for the girls.
The dark green cube on the right holds our living math books for Alex and the girls.
Here is Elizabeth’s cube system (in progress). One cube per subject – history, foreign language, Bible, math, science, LA. The striped basket holds her art books and supplies. The notebooks propped on the floor need to be gone through- old papers put into the portfolio, reorganized, etc. Liz likes to do her work upstairs (away from the little ones and I don’t blame her!) I’ve given her a letter try to turn in completed work for our conference. Her agenda and TOG binder and Kindle are on the left. In the magazine file are her minioffices with a big bunch of notebook paper.
We have a craft room too. Liz’s and my sewing machines are here (messy with mending piled up!) That’s my grandmother’s sewing basket on the floor!
Here is our new craft table! I need one more chair and the three girls can sit here and work together on projects. They worked here, decorating their math journals last week.
Back upstairs is MY domain and conference area. On the left, on the other side of the wall, is the piano keyboard and kids’ computer.
There’s also another bookshelf, just inside the doorway. These two bookshelves hold reference materials and “my” books on literature and Bible. I also have some nicer children’s books on the bottom shelves that I monitor so they don’t get messed up. Some were mine when I was a kid!
I know we’ll not have this much space probably every again, but it’s so nice to be a little spread out while we can!
See our curriculum list for this year here!
I like how you used your daughter’s cube system to sort each subject by cube. We have a couple of these types of units, I’ll may have to rearrange!
And you have quite a library! Love. it! Do you keep ALL the books in the school room? I keep relevant books in our school area, but plain reading books are in the kiddos rooms. Maybe I should re-do that, too.
Thanks for the pics!
One can never have too many books! I was an English teacher. I refuse to relinquish my academic books!
We’ve gone back and forth with books in the kids’ rooms, books in the school room, books all over the house, including the bathroom! Right now, the girls have a few in their room that they love and the rest stay in the school room (mostly). Some tend to walk around, I think. Alex is potty training and that boy loves to “read” while sitting on the toilet, so he has some board books in the bathroom! My husband’s only rule: no reading at the table while we’re eating. I’ll tell you: that one is hard for Elizabeth and me sometimes!
Great space!! Thanks for sharing! Blessings for a great year! http://lovinglosingliving.blogspot.com/