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Saturday, 11 July 2009

March Review

Daily Intro
We continued with poetry to follow the theme of our teaching reading some lovely poems about butterflies. We added doing a calendar with day, date, month, year and weather that we change each day.
Reading
At the end of March we completed the Jolly Phonics program and moving on to daily reading practice and word building games.
WWW.STARFALL.COM
This is a wonderful self-teaching website where children can choose from a selection of interactive stories to read. If they need help they can point and click on the individual words to have them sounded out. Alex begged daily to have computer time to read his stories.

WORD BUILDING TILES:
Alex enjoyed both free building words by sounding them out and using the activity cards to guide him in fill-in the gap style games. Jolly Phonics does not put an early emphasis on accurate spelling, instead encouraging children to first learn to sound out words which can generate some interesting spelling. After Jolly Phonics is complete Jolly Grammar begins teaching spelling rules and exceptions.
DAISY READERS:
Joelle kindly loaned us her Daisy Readers collection. They are excellent early readers combining early phonics and word repitition to encourage sight recognition. Alex enjoys the simple stories and bright pictures and read a new book every couple of days.
RHYMING CARDS:
Another game Alex enjoyed playing was matching up his rhyming flash cards. This led to almost daily renditions of "_______ rhymes with _________" as Alex started rhyming words free style for fun.
Math
After reviewing several math programs we decided to start a combination of Miquon math and Singapore math curriculum after summer holidays. While waiting for the text books to arrive from America via Grandma and Grandpa's visit in June I let Alex choose which things he wanted to work on. His big goal was to learn to count to 100 and so we explored place values.
HUNDRED BOARD
The hundred board is usually a small square board with tiles numbered 1 to 100 but we made a floor size model that Alex loved setting out as he learned the sequence and names of the numbers to 100.
PLACE VALUE CARDS
I made a place value box with cards from 1-9, 10-90, 100-900, 1,000-9,000. They overlay each other to make numbers, so 9,346 would be the cards 6, 40, 300, and 9000. Alex was very excited to be able to make "such huge numbers!".
COMPUTER TIME
A selection of math websites provided plenty of practice on basic addition skills.
Science
In addition to continuing our study of the planets we also explored the natural world around us. In observing that birds were eating the blossoms off of our plum tree Alex came up with the idea of making "scary aliens" to hang in the tree to scare away the pigeons. He selected materials from our craft box and came up with a great design. They worked so well the birds haven't been near the tree since we hung them.
Field Trips
We enjoyed a trip to the memorial gardens by St Giles church to look for bugs, observe what flowers were blooming and explore the grounds. Alex's favourite spot was the great oak tree that was reached by a hidden path.
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Summary
March was a fun month with lots of time spent outside doing nature walks and enjoying Spring first hand. Alex was thrilled to have his own log-in on the computer and selected a Lazy Town wallpaper for his background. I bookmarked a load of fun educational websites and he spent daily time self teaching as he moved from site to site which gave me time for some much needed rest as my pregnancy progressed.

Thursday, 12 March 2009

February Review

February brought much nicer weather with weeks of welcome sunshine and temperatures around 11C or for our American friends in the mid 40's F. We decided to indulge in the half term break and spend time digging our vegetable patch in preparation for spring planting and Alex learned about important things like compost, soil enrichment and chitting potatoes.
Daily Intro
We continued with poetry in our daily intro time and moved on to some space themed poems in preparation for our introduction to the solar system. Most needed some revision as they were all written before Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet. Here is the updated version of one poem that we are using to help remember the names of the planets.
Here are eight planets that we know.
Round and round the Sun they go.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars,
These are the planets near our star.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, too.
Neptune, so far we can't see you.
These are the eight planets that we know.
Round and round the Sun they go.

Phonics
We continued with the Jolly Phonics curriculum with plenty of opportunities to practice reading. I was very proud of Alex for having perfect recall on his phonics book which now has over forty phonic sounds.

I CAN SPELL THREE LETTER WORDS: This is a great flip book with three sets of letters, A-Z and then a single object picture for the child to spell. Once he has spelled it out with the flip letters he can turn the page up and check that his spelling is correct.

RHYMING WORDS FLASH CARDS: After having studied poetry for just over a month I introduced these rhyming cards as a matching game. They have pictures and words on one side and just words on the other. Alex spent time with sets of mixed up cards reading the words and then matching them to their rhyming partners. For days afterwards he would just come out with sets of words telling me which ones rhymed. He seemed quite impressed with the concept :)

LETTERLAND PUZZLE: I picked up some great puzzles and activities on a trip with some friends to a recent NCT sale. The letterland puzzle is 27 pieces and Alex as able to assemble it on his own without help. At the end of last year the concept of how to assemble a puzzle seemed to elude him but his brain made one of those fantastice developmental leaps and he suddenly got it. He now frequently asks to have various puzzles brought down to assemble on his own. I was surprised the first time I walked in and found that he had neatly divided the pieces into border pieces and centre pieces and was expertly assembling the "frame" of border pieces into which to fit the remaining centre ones. It had seemed at the time when I showed him this concept that he wasn't listening but it obviously stuck in there somewhere and came back out later when he was on his own working.

FREE WRITING: This is not a structured activity just something he has started spontaneously doing. After struggling to form the shapes of letters, even with an example in front of him, and months of doing worksheets that had dots to guide his writing, he suddenly just started free writing. We have several white boards in the school room, plus a white board book, a magnetic sketch pad, his blackboard surfaced desk and of course an endless supply of blank paper. I was greeted near the end of the month with mysterious letters, numbers and basic words appearing on any surface that could be written on. He would just wander in from playing in the afternoon and decide to write some letters or words for fun.

READING: After being somewhat reluctant to work on his blending and words, Alex has suddenly started trying to read anything he sees. Junk mail comes through the mail slot and he carries it in and starts picking out the words he can read. His great accomplishment this month was the word "chicken" on a pizza flyer, which he informed me was a very large word. I suppose it would seem that way since we have been doing mostly three and four letter words. He is now picking out the words he can read when I read stories to him and his brother. Proof once again that allowing him to progress at his own rate rather than forcing the issue has resulted in an eager young learner who is excited at the prospect of all that he can read.

Numbers

After a month of practicing writing his numbers and introducing the concept of the cuisinaire rods we moved onto basic math while still continuing increasing his range of number recognition.

CUISINAIRE RODS: Alex learned last month how to represent the numbers 1 to 10 with the rods. This month I introduced the concept of using them to do addition. We set out his focus mat and then I would give him a worksheet of addition problems. He would then take the paper numbers and symbols and take a problem from the sheet and set it out on the mat and place the corresponding rods over the top of the numbers. The next step would be to snap the rods together and count out the answer. He would then select the paper number for the answer and put it after the "=" sign and place the corresponding rod over the top of the number. The final step would be to take the snapped together rod and measure it against the "answer" rod to check that they are the same length and then to write the answer on his sheet. It sounds complicated when its all written out but the actual process is very simple.

NUMBER BEADS: My lovely husband didn't finish the bead frame on time for my homemade Montessori beads so we resorted to setting them out with flash cards on a focus mat instead. I also introduced the hundred square as a visual aid to help Alex as he learned to count to 100.

Science
We continued on the early part of the month with our study of plants and then spent some time on Alex's new hobby.

BIRDWATCHING: Ever since a pair of binoculars arrived as a free gift with our National Trust membership Alex has been scanning the garden for feathered visitors. I gave him a book on identifying birds and we set up a feeding station in the garden. He spent time each day for an entire week perched in the windowsill watching to see which birds would come to eat and bathe and identifying them in his book.

SOLAR SYSTEM: After half term break we spent the last week of February learning about our solar system through poetry, photos and stories. A big chart of our solar system now adorns the wall over Alex's desk and March will bring a planet by planet tour and the decorating of our ceiling with a hanging model of our solar system as well as a ceiling mounted constellation guide and the chance to go stargazing together. We hope to cap it all off with a trip to the National Observatory in London.

Music
Both of the boys enjoyed their introduction to the world of musical instruments. I still haven't had a chance to start teaching Alex piano but decided a good place to start would be learning about the different types of instruments. We spent an entire afternoon learning about percussion instruments through colouring pages, a video of a percussion band with solos by each of the instruments and our own percussion session.

Free Range Learning
Ethan obliged us with plenty of time for getting out the toys with little parts by falling asleep almost daily on the sofa before I even had a chance to take him up and try to put him down for a nap. I just left his dog dog and blanket on the sofa and when he got tired he would go curl up and be asleep within minutes.
I had picked up several different building sets at the NCT sale including a Mcano set and also a K'nex set. This month Alex repeatedly picked activities for his free range learning time that had to do with building and patterns. He spent time making space settlements with his blocks, putting together puzzles and making tanogram patterns. He especially loved the tanogram shapes and went from building them on top of a laminated pattern sheet to constructing them on his focus mat using the pattern sheet as a guide. We spent several days together building with the Mcano set and he amazed me with how quickly he was able to learn how to read the schematics for assembling the various models and soon was able to build a model by simply looking at the drawings without any help from me. He liked to look at the pictures of the various things he could make with the K'nex and worked his way through the little booklet building everything in sight and then started inventing his own animals. Our camera was having problems for almost a week so unfortunately I didn't get to snap any pictures of his Mcano and K'nex models but did grab a shot of this "space settlement" that he built and I wish I could have videos him telling me the long story about the aliens who lived there.

Summary

Tuesday, 17 February 2009

January Review
January was our first month "officially" homeschooling as Alex would have started school full time as a rising five if we had chosen to enroll him. We missed a few days here and there due to stomach flu, head colds and me being evaluated for possible premature labor and told to reduce my activity level but there was still plenty of time for learning.
Daily Intro

We introduce poetry into our start of day routine and read a poem each day about winter. Here are some photos of our recent snowfall and these were two of Alex’s favorite poems as he learned the concept of metaphors and similes...

Crumbs on the Snow

Lucretia Penny

When it's winter and the snow

Like a tablecloth is spread,

I remember hungry birds

And see that they are fed.

On their snowy tablecloth

They find my gift of bread.

Winter Morning

Ogden Nash

Winter is the king of showmen,

Turning tree stumps into snow men

And houses into birthday cakes

And spreading sugar over lakes.

Smooth and clean and frosty white,

The world looks good enough to bite.

That's the season to be young,

Catching snowflakes on your tongue.

Snow is snowy when it's snowing,

I'm sorry it's slushy when it's going.

Phonics

We continued on with the Jolly Phonics program we started using last year. Alex's retention of the phonic sounds was very good but he still struggles with blending to create words so we alternated between adding new sounds and doing various activities to help with his word comprehension and blending.

JOLLY PHONICS LESSON: We always follow the same order of activity in learning a new phonic sound.

1. Sound Book: We start with the sound book which Alex has made. Each day he sticks his new phonic sound into the book and at the beginning of the lesson we go through from the very beginning and review every sound. If he struggles to remember a sound we write it on the white board to review again later.

2. Letter presentation: The new letter to stick in the sound book is presented on a tray along with the Finger Phonics page for the day and worksheets. I tell Alex the letter sound, show him the action and give him the letter to stick into his sound book.

3: Jolly Music: We then listen to the Jolly Phonics song for that letter several times and practice the action.

4. Finger Phonics book: I tell him the story for the letter of the day then he spends time tracing the cut out shape of the letter and saying the sound several times. He then reads through the words that use the new letter or blend and then looks through the picture on the page and picks out as many items as he can that have the new sound in them.

5. Handwriting Practice and Colouring Sheet: Finally I give him the two worksheets for the day and show him how to write the letter. He then spends time on his own doing the handwriting practice on the worksheets and colouring in the pictures.

OTHER PHONIC ACTIVITIES...

POCKET CHART: We used the pocket chart for initial sounds practice where Alex had to pick out the picture of the object that started with the letter up on the board. We also used the pocket chart for putting up sentences for him to practice reading. He memorizes things very quickly and after having read a sentence once or twice in a book he remembers the sentence by recognizing the picture on the page and so will recite it off without actually reading the words. The pocket chart in a great asset because I can put up new words or sentences for him to practice on and there are no pictures to clue him in to the words, this keeps him from guessing instead of reading.

INITIAL SOUNDS GAME: This game is a combination of pictures and letters and is good practice for him to pick out the initial sounds in words. There are two to three pictures for every letter and multiple letter tile charts to go through. This game is self checking as the correct letters are on the back of the pictures for verifying once the exercise is done.

INITIAL BLENDS MATCHING TILES: These are two sets of wooden tiles, one with pictures the other with either initial letter blends for the words or ending blends for matching. The tiles are also self checking with letters on the back of the picture tiles to verify answers.

STARTING LETTER PUZZLE: This activity consists of 26, two part alphabet puzzles with a picture on one half and upper and lower case letters on the other. I give them to him in sets of eight to match up. This is another self checking activity as the puzzle halves will only fit together with the correct mate.

WORD TREASURE BOX: Every day Alex opens the treasure box and picks out between three and five words to read. I add more words as he learns new phonic sounds and we do this exercise each day before doing the standard Jolly Phonics lesson or other reading activities.

WORD PICTURE MATCHING: I have many sets of words and pictures printed up from the computer. I stick a small ball of blue tack on the back of the words and pictures and then he has to go through and read the word then match it to the correct pictures. This is another exercise where I can switch the order of the words around to keep him from simply matching from memory without reading.

LIBRARY BOOKS: Because Alex memorizes so quickly we take frequent trips to the library for him to pick out books for us to read together and we are saving the books we own for later when he is able to read more fluently and isn't tempted to just memorize or guess at the pages.

Numbers

Even though Alex knows how to count and recognize numbers he hasn't had much practice writing them. So we went back to basics and started at one with worksheets to practice writing.

BEAD JAR WORKSHEETS: I introduced the Montessori bead triangle and also gave Alex a bead jar which he added a coloured bead to each day as we went up through the numbers. This corresponded with a handwriting worksheet for him to practice writing the number and also a picture of a jar to which he would draw in the correct number of beads.

CUISINAIRE RODS:

I also used this opportunity to introduce the Cuisenaire rods that we would be using when we started doing basic math. Alex built a Cuisenaire wall display above his desk to use as a quick reference for remembering which rods corresponded to which colours.

ODD AND EVEN NUMBERS:

I introduced the concept of odd and even numbers using two sided counters, wooden numbers and a sheet of A4 paper with a line down the middle. Each day he would take the new number he had learned, count out the correct number of counters and then divide them between the two sides of the paper. He knew if he ended up with the same number of counters on each side it was an even number but if he ended up with one more counter on one side than the other that it was an odd number. He would then place the counters over the top of the numbers turned either to the red side or blue side depending on whether the number was odd or even.

TEST WORKSHEETS: Alex was given two tests this month to verify he was able to count a group of objects and match the amount to the correct number.

NUMBER PUZZLES AND MATCHING GAMES: Alex also did various number puzzles, sequencing cards and played games with matching numbers to pictures of groups of objects.

VOCABULARY: As each number in the sequence one to ten was introduced we also introduced the concepts of first, second, third, etc. and also did a basic introduction to fractions and the phrases whole, one half, one third, etc. This is in preparation for next month when we will make a fraction pie game and learn more about fractions and how they work.

Science

SEASONS: We started off the year learning about seasons. We read a chapter from a great text book called “God’s World” which talks about the seasons and their purpose both natural and divine. Alex also watched a DVD called Nature Baby which is full of beautiful video of the changing seasons, poetry, puppets and classical music. He used to love this series of videos as a toddler and liked to watch it again and connect it with what he was learning. We studied about animals in different seasons and introduced new vocabulary such as “hibernation” and “migration” and talked about their meaning in different species. I made him a season matching game with six pictures from each season and he had to look at the content of the pictures and decide which season they were from. We also had a great time experiencing the joys of Winter first hand when we took a “snow day” from school to play outside.

PLANT PROJECT: Our plant project spanned several weeks of activities. In learning about the seasons Alex was also eager to learn about how plants grow. Since I had been planning to do a kitchen window herb garden it was the perfect opportunity to accomplish two things at once.

1. Book Research: We took a trip to the library and got out a book called “How Thing Grow: Sunflowers” that details the entire life cycle of a sunflower plant from seed to flower to falling seeds. We talked about the difference between plants that grow from bulbs and seeds.

2. Planting seeds and bulbs: Alex and Ethan both helped to fill window planters with pebbles for drainage and the potting soil which we then placed under cling film in the windows for several days to warm the soil. One day was spent planting the seeds for the kitchen garden and another day planting bulbs for Alex’s playroom window.

3. Observation and documentation: I helped Alex to make a journal to record our observations regarding the seeds growth and over the next two weeks he would check daily to see what was happening in the pots. He used his digital camera to take pictures of the plant growth, a ruler to measure every three days to see how quickly the Dill was growing and then told me what to write down in the journal. He also eagerly watched as his Hyacinth and Narcissus bulbs sprouted and bloomed in the windowsill of his playroom.

4. Parts of the Plant Matching Game: I downloaded flash cards with the various parts of a plant, one labeled the other unlabelled and he played a memory matching game to put the two pairs together and also practiced reading the words on the labeled cards.

Free Range Learning

Alex enjoyed all kinds of fun in his free range learning time. He had access to the games and materials he had been given for phonics and numbers and also enjoyed the following activities.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS WORKSHEETS: These included your basic colouring pages and also connect the dots and tracing sheets to help him continue to improve his hand control for writing. He also enjoyed colour by numbers as well. His colouring skills are excellent for a child his age and he has a very artistic streak. This is a picture he did for his Daddy since “Daddy is always looking at the fish in our fish tank.”

MONTESSORI: Alex loves the various home made and internet purchased Montessori materials that we use. If you would like to know more about the various materials used in Montessori then this is a great website to look at and also has ideas for lessons with each of the supplies.
http://www.infomontessori.com
1. Cylinder Blocks: These are a favourite of both Ethan and Alex. Alex will use all of the sets while Ethan is only given one at a time. Alex takes out all of the cylinders and mixes them around to make it more challenging but Ethan is given the block with the cylinders in place or set up with the cylinders in front of their matching holes.
2. Sound Boxes: I made these sound boxes from cheap Tupperware style storage containers from Tesco and filled them with everything from rice to flour and glued the lids shut. Each pair of boxes has its own distinctive sound and Alex sets them out in two rows, then puts on the blindfold and matches them by sound.
3. Scent Bottles: These were made with cheap specimen cups from an online laboratory supply store. I made muslin pouches for the herbs or cotton balls soaked in essential oils so that when Alex opens the lids he can’t tell by looking what is in each bottle. He loves to smell the different scents and even noticed when we were planting our kitchen herbs that several of the seeds smelled like his scent bottles.
4. Baric Tablets: Alex loves to do the exercise with baric tablets. There are three sets of six tablets. Each set is made from a different wood and so the first set is quite light, the second set is heavy and the third set’s weight is between the other two. These are various exercises we do with the tablets. http://www.infomontessori.com/sensorial/baric_sense_baric_tablets.html
Ethan

Little Brother has continued to learn right along with Alex. In addition to sorting exercises, colour matching, flash cards and stories he also enjoys Montessori style pouring and spooning exercises. He likes doing puzzles as well and when all else fails Mummy calls in Barney or Boz to babysit when we need 20 minutes peace and quiet.
Well that about sums up our month. We did study a few other things, mostly reading from books that Alex picked out from our Dora Kingsley sets on things like Jungles and Volcanoes. He also enjoys “reading” and listening to his leap pad. He also has been learning a lot about animals from watching “Go, Diego, Go” . Alex has also started Karate and is doing very well. It is excellent for helping him learn to focus and follow instructions and he loves it so much he asks to sit and watch part of the big kids class after his 45min class ends.

Len is learning what it means to be the Dad of a homeschooled child. The most recent amusing incident was when they were playing with Alex’s plastic animals and I listened to the running dialogue from the other room. Here is an excerpt from that conversation

Daddy, picking up an animal toy “I’m a hungry crocodile and I’m going to eat you.”

Alex looking at the toy, “Daddy that is not a crocodile, it is a caiman!”

Daddy looking at the toy, “Are you sure, it looks like a crocodile to me.”

Alex heaves a sigh and gets up and goes over to the bookshelf and pulls out a book on animals, pages through till he finds what he is looking for, brings the book over to Daddy, shows him a picture and says, “No Daddy, this is what a crocodile looks like. That (pointing to the toy) is a caiman; see how their noses are different!”

Daddy, “I’m a hungry caiman and I’m going to eat you”

Hope you enjoyed our update and stay tuned for our February update where Alex gets to learn about addition and subtraction, fractions and tangram style puzzles, just to name a few items on the upcoming schedule.

Tuesday, 06 January 2009

Our Homeschool Experience

Our Philosophy:
The best definition for our style of homeschooling would be Eclectic. Before embarking on our homeschool journey I read up on many different philosophies and methods. Having been a student at a Montessori school from Preschool through to 6th grade I was strongly drawn to her philosophy of education but with the space constraints, a toddler running around and another baby on the way, having a full access Montessori style learning space was just not an option for us. I like to joke that my style as a teacher is somewhere between Maria Montessori and Mary Poppins.

Our school room is filled with Montessori materials and on the wall is a picture of Mary Poppins with the quote "In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and 'snap' the jobs a game" to remind me to keep the learning experience fun and to find creative ways to present even mundane tasks and most of all to try and keep a composed, pleasant demeanor.
The Curriculum:
I seek to use multi-sensory exercises and supplies to present the various topics I teach. We use a combination of Montessori and Cuisinaire supplies for teaching math.

Reading is taught using the Jolly Phonics curriculum.

Other topics such as music, science and practical life lessons I put together myself from various books, supplies and internet resources. I am currently looking for a good Spanish children's curriculum to use.
A lot of work is done on the floor.

I also use "focus mats" to help Alex focus. These are carpet sample squares and are used in two ways. I either use them to set out a lesson on or when I'm teaching him a lesson he has to sit cross legged on the focus mat and listen. He knows he needs to stay on the mat, not wiggle around or get up and most importantly "focus" on what he is being shown.

We have a daily schedule of lesson times interspersed with snack time, outdoor time, and lunch break.  I currently try to teach four 30 min session each day, phonics and numbers are taught daily and music or art and practical life or science are rotated in the other two slots. Numbers and phonics take priority and are taught first. The thirty minute session for phonics and numbers are broken into about 15min of teaching and 15min of independent work such as handwriting practice and sum sheets.
Ethan is included in the phonics lessons, and is left to play or watch cartoons while I do math and science. During Alex's independent worktime I choose from a variety of different puzzles, learning activities and arts and crafts to do with Ethan.

The day ends with a free range learning time for Alex while Ethan is napping and this is where many of the Montessori sensorial supplies and other supplemental items, such as games and puzzles which support the current lessons, are set out and Alex is free to choose what to do and for how long. This is also a time where he can work on extra worksheets or coloring if he chooses.

We manage to actually stick to that schedule once or twice a week. Being pregnant, having a toddler and dealing with childhood illnesses is not really conducive to keeping a set schedule. School is on the schedule between 9AM and 1PM but some days we school in the afternoon if for instance Alex seems overtired and I decide to put him down for a nap with his little brother. Other days a certain subject will spark his interest and we will spend much longer than the alloted time on it and then double up on something else the next day to catch up, or simply delay a lesson by a day altogether.
The purpose of homeschooling is not to replicate a mainstream school schedule and environment in the home. One of the main problems in regular schools is that, out of necessity, schedule in emphasized over joyful and effective learning. Homeschooling frees us from having to stick to a set schedule, so that learning takes place at a time when the child is most alert and receptive, lessons can be lengthened or shortened based on interest level and ability and subjects taught until they are truly learned rather than having to push on to the next subject while the prior one has not been adequately grasped simply because a schedule has to be kept.  As children get older it is much easier to keep a regular schedule because they are less subject to the ups and downs of energy level and concentration that young children experience and are more able to discipline themselves to work even if tired or feeling distracted when these things do occur.  With younger children our goal is subjects well learned, while cultivating a love of learning. As their maturity, concentration and self control increases there will be plenty of time for more established routines. Schedule and routine is important but should be our servant, not our master .
Our Schoolroom:

We have converted an odd shaped addition at the back of the house into a school/playroom. The rear half of the room is the school area and is divided and gated off from the front half which is the toddler area. This allows Alex to work on his subjects without Ethan "helping" him and since the divider only goes half way up I can keep an eye on either child from whichever side of the room I am in.

I think the key to having a tidy area is that toys and supplies are easily accessible and easy to tidy away.
We have a fold up desk for Alex's school work with easy access to his writing and art supplies and display area on the wall and bulletin board...

I use two easels, one for art and another with a whiteboard for writing out what topics will be covered that day. This is left till the following day where we do a quick review of the items on it before wiping clean and starting. The larger art easel is also used to support a feltboard when using it for presentation or games...

We use labeled toy bins and boxes to store toys. Toys are sorted by type to help encourage an understanding on how to organize...

Two bookcases hold additional supplies that need to be kept out of reach of little fingers and all of our books...

Since we don't have space to have all of the Montessori supplies accesible and some have to be kept out of reach of little fingers, I use a tea trolley. Each day I choose which items to place out and Alex can choose whatever he would like to work on for his free range learning time. Like his desk, the tea trolley folds away so that once school is finished each day everything can be collapsed down and the area converted back into a play area. Set up only takes about 10min the night before to set up for the next day's school activities.

A set of wall shelves hidden behind a curtain hold additional supplies and toys as well as a TV, DVD and VHS player, and a printer scanner. These rest on an old buffet which is used to store craft supplies, spare books and supplies for topics not being taught yet and underneath is a garage area for all of the toddler wheeled toys, and baskets for baby toys...
The walls are covered with changing posters on the current topics being covered, a wall frieze shows the phonics we are learning and soon a constellation chart will be tacked to the ceiling and the sun and planets will also being hung from above as we learn about our solar system. Our Jesse Tree is still up from Christmas because Alex wants to leave it so he can look at the symbols and remember the stories...

A sitting area for watching movies converts to a workspace for Ethan for play-doh, art and other toddler activities. It also hides additional storage underneath for yet more supplies :)