SETTING UP OUR HOMESCHOOL AREA

So, for those of you who don't know me or my story, here it goes!

OUR DECISION TO HOMESCHOOL

I am an elementary school teacher, but I have been staying home with my girls since my oldest daughter was about 6 months. She is now five and ready to start kindergarten this year! Let me tell you....she is SO ready! She LOVES school and learning and she is so excited. Then Covid 19 happened and our family, like many, many, many others, had to decide what to do for the 2020-2021 school year.

After much deliberation and consideration, we have decided that I would homeschool Ellie for her kindergarten year, with intentions of sending her to public school for first grade. It was such a tough decision for me, one I never thought I'd have to make. Am I right? Who would have thought we would have to decide this kind of thing?

Anyways, after I accepted that this school year would be different than we planned, I got excited. I did some homeschool research and joined some local homeschool Facebook groups. I learned a ton! Even though I'm a teacher, homeschool is very different than your traditional classroom, and in a way, I have to retrain my teaching brain. Yes, my experience teaching will absolutely help me in homeschooling my daughters, BUT I have to retrain myself regarding how our days, lessons, objectives, etc. will look, especially for kindergarten.

I am so so so excited to spend this school year reading, exploring and building upon her interests, creating, writing, playing, and so much more. I think that of all years, kindergarten is the best year to homeschool. First, she has not really been in school (other than very part time pre-k, which she loved), so she doesn't 100% know what she is "missing. Second, when I was in kindergarten back in 1990 (if I did the math correctly!), it was play based. We learned through playing and exploring our classroom with our peers. Now a days, in my opinion, we push our little kids way too hard. They are not all emotionally and intellectually ready for such rigorous school days. Play is gone, or limited at least and I think that's sad. I am not slamming kindergarten teachers at all! It's quite the opposite. I think they are amazing and they have patience like no other! I taught second, third, and fifth grade throughout my time teaching, and I tell ya, those kindergarten teachers are amazing.

HOMESCHOOL FURNITURE

Anyways, moving on.......to start preparing for the school year at home, we had to find some affordable, sturdy furniture. After some searching, I ended up at IKEA. I love IKEA and always have had good luck with their furniture. I wanted to get a table for us to all work at and they have some great affordable choices.

Here's what I ended up with for our table! I really love this table because, well it's super affordable and quite sturdy! It actually wasn't too hard to put together either!

For the chairs, I wanted something lightweight, but also sturdy! I came across these and they are perfect! They didn't have any black at my store, so being the DIY person I am, I just spray painted them!

The last thing I purchased at IKEA for our homeschool area was a nice tall shelf with lots of space for storage. I actually just came across this on a display in the warehouse while I was looking for the boxes for my table. It was $20! We definitely needed some kind of storage for our supplies and it was such a great deal! I actually love the shelf so much and it wasn't hard to put together at all! It comes with black cardboard to put on the back, but I opted to leave it open. It also comes with hardware to fasten it to the wall so that it doesn't tip over.

With the table, two chairs, and shelf, I think I spent about $80! I wanted some decent quality items for a decent price....mission accomplished!

Our homeschool area is still a work in progress, but we have the furniture put together and placed! I also found some nice posters at Dollar Tree for my girls to reference during work. I don't like to add to much, as it gets distracting and overwhelming and I also like to create posters and with my "students" as we learn! Here's what we have so far! Stay tuned to see more!