Hello Friends! This is my first year homeschooling my daughter and I have been just so nervous to start but now that we are over a few months into it. I realize I over thought so much of this. I know the veteran home school moms will say you don’t need a home school room and to not give the public school feel but I did for my sake, need a school room. A place to house my things such as the white board, printer, posters, books and all the little things. I have an extra bonus room that has been our playroom so since It is big enough, I turned it into our play/ school room.
I do have some Affliate links in this blog post, which just means if you make a purchase based off my recommendation, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you.
So first off, I do have a 3 year old and 6 year old. So I needed a place for him to play and not bother us.He most of the time watches Blippi and my daughter doesn’t care to much about him so she doesn’t pay attention. If he doesn’t want to do that, I’ll have some pre school dry erase books he can do or he will just sit and watch us.
For my daughter, it takes approximately 45 mins to an hour to do a full day of school work. She does reading, handwriting, Language Arts and Math.
So for starters, I have the couch in our playroom for the kids to sit on. I found it on Amazon and I thought it was perfect because each section lifts up and has storage. We have so much stored in that couch! I love it so much.
The next thing I have is a long table that fits behind it. The table and couch face the TV so I can still work on my laptop and see the TV and what the kids are doing. I got 2 chairs, one for me and her. I also have a double storage drawer to hold my printer, books, extra paper, Laminator, Extra laminator Sheets, dry erase workbooks, The Good and the Beautiful books as well as pencils, markers, crayons, and colored pencils.
I went to a home school conference last year called “Teach Them Diligently” and they gave so much great information and one of the things I wanted to do was a visual To Do List. I made it myself and have everything we do in a day. I made in on canva, printed it, and laminated it. All I did was cut it out and then got some small circle velcro strips to hang it on the wall. Certain days we have dance, art classes, co op, church and surprises as well as just everyday things such as chores, the work day and what she needs to do to get ready for the day and get ready for bed. My daughter is a list person so she loves to look on the board and see what to expect for the day.
Down below I have a white board, I just have it laying against the wall but we use it ALOT! It is great for hand writing and learning. She loves to be the one to write on it. I also have a smaller white board so we can do any white board actives on the couch or out some where.
I have lots of posters hanging on the wall. I found all of them at Hobby Lobby but I have The USA Map, Numbers Chart 1-100, multiplication table (Not necessary for kindergarten but won’t hurt having it up) I also found this large poster that looks like a big piece of paper.
The large Poster of the notebook is my personal most used poster. I look at that poster all the time. One thing I learned at the home school conference was loop scheduling. I use that method for lots of things.
What is a loop Schedule? It is a list of things in that topic you can do so it doesn’t get boring. Here are some examples…
Handwriting Loop
Tracing
I will get a piece of paper and let her trace it or a work sheet she can trace with a dry erase marker so we can use it again.
Pen Pals
We have a list of friends she writes letters to, makes them crafts and we will pick one person a week to work on.
Worksheet
You can find handwriting worksheets on Canva or online. I also use Dry Erase Books or Kindergarten workbooks you can get most anywhere.
Craft
There are lots of crafts they can do to help with writing and learning.
Typing
We have ABC mouse and she uses that sometimes on an old chrome book to help her know how to use a computer.
Bible Loop
Bible Music
It doesn’t take long, we may play, sing or dance to a good Christian song or Books of the Bible Song, we can even do this in the car.
Scripture Memory Verse
She learns memory verses at church but we go over them again and put motions to them so it can be more fun.
Bible Story
There are lots of quick Bible Stories we go over and read.
Reading Loop
Books
The Good and The Beautiful have 20 books for her to learn and practice.
Writing
One way we do both handwriting and reading is. I will tell her the word and she has to sound it out and she writes in on the board.
Flash Cards
We just started using these and she loves doing flash cards to practice her words
Booster Cards
The Good and The Beautiful has a book full of Words for her to learn so we just grab that and work on those words in the book.
Games
The Good and The Beautiful has fun learning games on their app for free to learn and play. She enjoys games and finds it fun.
They say they only need 5-10 mins of real reading time and most days, she enjoys it and other days she doesn’t want to do it.
Everyday
Math
Language Arts
Reading
Handwriting
These loops help me to know what we can do to not make the same thing every day.
The other thing I have up is a huge Bulletin Board. It is totally not necessary but I mostly had it to take some school pictures with. I do have the monthly calendar on it we change out as well as some things to change out about the days of the week, seasons and weather.
Rewards Chart
My daughter loves to go places so we made up a rewards chart. Everyday she gets a sticker if she did good in school. When she gets 5 stickers she can pick something off the rewards
We have all kinds of things on there such as sleepover at the grandparents, go to the playground, new game, movies, ice cream, as well as lots of attractions she wants to go to.
The final thing I have on the wall is her Chore Chart I call it “Now Hiring” When she wants some money, She can see how much she gets per chore.
We also have the Alphabet on the wall as well as a poster of the letters with a picture. She does look at the chart a lot since she does write some letters backwards.
Items we use in our home school room for Kindergarten
Curriculum for your subjects. We Have The Good and The Beautiful Language Arts Book, Kindergarten Math Book, Math Box, The Good and The Beautiful Reading Booster Cards and Books as well as the handwriting book
Printer
Laminator
Flash Cards
Colored Pencils
Dry Erase Board
Dry Erase Markers
Scissors
Handwriting Workbooks
Glue
Crayons
Pencils
ABC Poster
Numbers Poster 1-100
Calendar
I hope this Blog posts helps you if you are interested in home schooling.