Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Homeschool Room and Indoor Play Environment Tour







Room update:

My twins have an all in one bedroom-playroom-homeschool room. They do very well with it this way. There are no issues with homeschool, with the way it is set up. All of their little friends really enjoy coming to play in their room as well! It is a very comfortable and calming room. Everyone loves being in it, night or day.  Just in case you're wondering, Rome wasn't built in a day here. This is several years of collecting items to create the room and what is in it.

You can see my last two room update posts HERE and HERE.
See more of the evening lighting in the room HERE.
See how we keep the room tidy HERE.

You can find nearly every toy seen in the pics below  HERE

Feel free to email me or inbox me on facebook with any questions.

Please excuse the rugs, they have some ripples/wrinkles in them.  They have been giving me problems lately.  If anyone has a solution for getting rugs smoothed out besides putting heavy books on them please let me know.

*Please read the descriptions under each photo!*  ;)

chalkboard is a bit messy, they were drawing and didn't fully erase it.
I am having issues with a couple of the rugs getting ripples in them. It's annoying, but I am trying to leave heavy items on them here and there to smooth out the ripples.
To the left you can see a glimpse of the Waldorf Playstand and the easel. 

kitchen, I added a lot of command brand hooks to it, for storage of the pots, pans, and cups.  ON top are some of our learning supplies. Two of our hot dots jr. sets are in the workbox carts.  Inside the doors of the kitchen are empty spice jars, wooden, and plastic play food, and a big pots and pans set.

book, game, magnet nook

books and one of our work box carts

magnet boards and some of the magnets, the rest are on the game shelf to the left.


you can see here how everything is in a nook or section.  Everyone loves it this way.  Excuse the messy chalk board.

view one of the block play nook/area

view 2 of the block play area


the two tables here are part of the block play area but right now Parker has placed blankets and some red material to create a really cool under table fort.  It is quite roomy under there.  Graham and Parker love it!  The table with the lights on it is the DIY mirror table and you can see more about it  HERE.



view 3 of block play area. The mirror was given to us by a friend who redecorated her living room and it did not match anymore. It is an awesome mirror and I am so glad I was able to get it for the block play area!


overview of the room, see how there is a ripple/wrinkle in the burgundy rug.  *argh*
Graham was spinning in circles in the pics, by the way.  ;)
Eventually their beds will come out of the room and be replaces with a cute bunk bed from IKEA.


another room overview, right side.  More of Graham spinning in circles again.  lol


left side of room, this is right next to the two tables that are currently a form  *lol* in the block play area.
The first shelf on the left has the marble run, the caddy that holds all pens, pencils, markers, highlighters, hole punchers, glitter glue pens, etc.  The second shelf down has the cork boards for push pin "school" activities. It also has their blue box of magnetic dress up people and animals, their fisher price digital cameras that were passed down from their older siblings, and all of the coloring books.  The bottom shelf has all play-doh and play-doh/clay tools and accessories. It also has the bendaroos(like wikki stix)

The middle shelf is all art and craft supplies as well as some manipulatives on the bottom.  The big brown shelf on the right is all the paper, construction paper, craft tape, post it notes, index cards on top shelf. The middle shelf is all the paint all the stamps and stamp pads, and all of the large foam shapes for arts and crafts.
Inside the doors are all puzzles.

you can see our rainbow window here, and I will be adding a post about it soon.


Their table for play and school work.  The activity on the tray is just tongs and marbles. You dump the marbles on the tray and then use the tongs to pick up the marbles and out them back into the jar,
It is a Montessori inspired activity.
The blocks with their names are just there because they were spelling their names with them earlier.

Our Waldorf Playstand.  When they want to use it to play store or post office or whatever, they just take the items off of the shelves and set up what they want.  Their Dad's old xylophone from when he was in 4th grade is on the shelf to the left inside the playstand. The stuff on the right bottom shelf in the playstand is their "office" play stuff.  It is an adding machine, an old phone and a box of play money.

view of under the light table. The boxes are filled with all of their action figures, people, animals, etc.... or as they used to call it their "mans".  lol

another view of the light table.  The large mirror was mine from when I was a kid,. It has survived for almost 30 years and it survived a move from PA to FL and then 7 moves around the Orlando area over a 20 year period. The smaller mirrors are unbreakable mirrors from discount school supply.

left side of the room by the light table and their big white table. This is next to the big brown shelf with the paper and art stuff on it. The toys on the shelves are both fun and educational.

another view of the toy shelves.

above the toy shelves

sorry it is not a bright pic but this is to the left of the light table and the box is our other work box for homeschool. They both have a purpose and have different types of activities in them.


another view of the game shelf in the game/book/magnet nook. Plus the overhead projector is there behind the two fluffy pillows. They get moved when we use the projector. 


this is a view of the left side of the room which includes part of the block play area in the left corner.  The white box on the floor is the perfect DIY "container" light box. It has become an awesome part of the block play area!!
Click HERE to see all about the light box and how to make it!!  The red star thing hanging from the ceiling was a present from my friend Natasha for my 30th birthday. I am 37 now.  lol

More twirling Graham and another view of the room.

the fort   haha

normally the mirro table is used for block play or anything else they want to play on it.  Right now it is part of the fort. The table with the scooby doo haunted mansion pretty much is the scooby doo table.  It houses all the scooby doo play items and the scooby doo haunted mansion, light house, and mystery machine.

a built in self that is part of the block play area, it is for the nature play items for block play.


another view of the larger work box.  The black filing tray on top is for finished "work". They are labeled with their initials too.  So they have their own tray. It works out really nicely!!

close up of the smaller workbox.  

two light table accessory caddies. They were from bed, bath, and beyond.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are q-ba maze, letter builders, cups for the light table, mirrors for reflective or symmetry play, and little boxes from the container store that are circular and square and open up.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are light table accessories/manipulatives.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are light table accessories/manipulatives.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are light table accessories/manipulatives and boon bubbles

close up of toys on the shelf.  
In the pic are all 3 types of Rory story cubes, crystal climbers, and crystal connectors.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are magna tiles, light table accessories/manipulatives, and zoob sparkle.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are Lauri pegs and accessories and light table blocks of many various types. The crystal cubes are in there too.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are all of the Lauri pegs and accessories for it.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are window blocks and wedgits plus wedgit translucent too

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are light table manipulatives/accessories including reusable plastic ice cubes of many shapes, colors, and sizes.

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are the window blocks again and the light table "lego's"

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are trays, tubation tube builders, bristle blocks

close up of toys on the shelf.   In the pic are bristle blocks and magformers


close up of part of the toy kitchen

close up of part of the toy kitchen this is the spice jar box and it is inside the fridge/freezer part of the kitchen

inside the toy kitchen fridge/freezer... the toy food.

inside the "oven" of the toy kitchen.  right now the dish rack and digital kitchen scale are in it.



inside the cabinet of the toy kitchen.  inside are pots/pans/dishes.

close up of their names on the drawers in the small work box.


close up of the mirror inside the Waldorf playstand and the "discovery bottles" I have made for them in the past few years. Our sea life bottles tutorial can be found HERE.

sorry this one is sideways, this shows the slime discovery and black light bottles in the window.



another light table manipulatives shelf view

another light table manipulatives shelf view

another light table manipulatives shelf view

on the toy shelves, close up of zoob sparkle and light table lacing beads.

on the toy shelves, light table accessory plates and bowls and light table learning playes *post soon for those*


close up pf the story cubes.

another toy shelf view

another view of the light table accessory caddies.

another view of the light table accessory caddies

another view of the larger workbox and work turn in trays

you can sort of see the initial sticks on the work box turn in trays

just a toy box that houses cars, trucks, planes, tall steppers, the rollercoaster bead maze, some bears and stuffed animals and the Montessori tactile discovery box. They like to use it for play too.

book shelf close up.








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