< where we learn >

Since I've been working on getting the materials and space in order for the first day of school on Monday, I decided at the last minute to participate in the "Not Back To School" blog hop over at Heart of the Matter. This week's theme is "School Rooms". I have really enjoyed seeing how and where others learn, and I thought I'd share what's working for us right now.

Our house has an open floor plan... so the kitchen, living room and eat-in area are all open to each other. We have other bedrooms that we could use... but I love having everything where we live and spend most of our time each day, so we decided to use the eat-in space for a homeschool area. It's not really big (less than 100 sf), but it gets fabulous natural light and it overlooks our patio and backyard so we can keep an eye out for birds, bugs and the neighbor's goats. ;-) It also allows me to get things done in the kitchen while still keeping an eye on Jacob as he works independently.

We spend a LOT of time on this couch. Our curriculum is very much literature-based (which we love!), so we snuggle up with a couple of blankets and enjoy our history and readers/read-alouds.

And when the weather permits (and it hasn't here in Texas in months!!), we trade in the comfy sofa for this:

Jacob does anything that requires a hard surface here in his little homeschool 'nook'. The table and chairs were floor models that I scored on sale from PBK. I suppose next year he might be too tall for this setup, but it works for now. All of his books are within easy reach, and the backpack is always ready should we decide to take school on the road!

A mainstay of homeschoolers everywhere... the Expedit bookshelf from IKEA.

I'm going to attempt to introduce Jacob to the piano myself. Perhaps those 10 years of lessons will come back to me?

And that's pretty much it ~ thanks for visiting! If you want to see where others learn, go take a peek at the blog hop.