School Area Archives - Monsters Ed

Organisation

Organisation when you homeschool is key. I’ve gone through numerous organisation solutions over the last 12 years to find what works for us. With the children now doing online schooling, our need for elaborate organisation systems is no longer necessary.

I have sorted the kidlets’ books into Tidy Files Plastic Containers. The graded workbooks each have their own box and then each subject, for example History, has its own storage container. This makes it so much easier to find things to pull it out for our offline lessons.

I now have 1 long shelf that is out of the way where I store all my school books. We have 1 additional bookshelf that holds the kidlets’ files, our version of workboxes that work exceptionally well for us, as well as some hands on activities and manipulatives.

I’m a firm believer that you don’t need to spends a lot of money on items to get you started. Start off simple. Your storage solutions and requirements will evolve as your homeschooling journey evolves.

I’d love to hear how you organised your homeschool area and what tips you have for others who are starting out.

Below you will find some great online homeschool room inspirations.

Classroom Reveal 2015-2016 from Core Inspiration
Homeschool Tools - Organisation
Each drawer on the upper shelf contains items I want to keep handy for current units of study or lessons for next week. This eliminates piles and clutter around the room. When I am lesson planning each week, quickly check my drawers and am reminded of the resources I wanted to use for the coming week.

5 Ways to Redesign Your Classroom from Learning Liftoff
Homeschool Tools - Organisation
It’s a new year, and it’s a great time to redesign your learning space along with all of the resolutions you have for yourself. It may even be one of your resolutions! Here are Learning Liftoff’s editors’ picks for the top five ways to redesign your learning space this weekend.

New Scraproom! from Scrapbook.com
Homeschool Tools - Organisation
This particular post isn’t a school room. Its a craft room. I love the storage solutions she uses here.

8 Affordable Homeschool Storage Solutions from Sonlight
Homeschool Tools - Organisation
Before getting into all the homeschool storage solutions I have for you, let me first say this: Homeschool organization is about practicality and not merely about good looks. A Pinterest perfect homeschool room will do you no good unless it’s functional for your family and your children love learning within those walls.

11 Ways to get your crafts organized from Organizing Made fun
Homeschool Tools - Organisation
Again, not a school room. These storage solutions are great for stationery and art supplies.

Back to School Classroom Tour from Simply Sweet Teaching
Homeschool Tools - Organisation
This is almost identical to my book storage organisation. I use narrower file boxes, but they work just as well. I find these wide boxes a little too heavy when full and cumbersome for the children to carry.

22 classroom systems that make my teaching easier from Angela Watson
Homeschool Tools - Organisation

Organization Tips You Can Use In Your Classroom from Top Notch Teaching
Homeschool Tools - Organisation
When looking for spaces for homes for all of your bits and bobs, whether it’s the stationery in your class, or reading books or student work books; keep like items together as much as possible.

We live in a small town house. Our school area is in our living room and is tiny and as a result, I’ve had to modify our Montessori space quite significantly. We had a little shoe shelf that I converted into a tray shelf for the girls to share. It was too small so I added a small 2 tier wooden shelf on wheels (it used to stand in our bedroom with a TV on it). Fifi’s trays now stand on the shoe shelf and Pixies trays on the wooden shelf underneath our router and my colour printer. I’ve repurposed a large baby blanket to use as a cover when we are done with lessons and to help minimise dust.

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Here are many examples, with links, from other bloggers who have shared their Montessori spaces.

This is my favourite classroom setup, one day I’ll have the space to do something like this for the kids. Homeschool Room Tour Fall 2014 by 1+1+1=1

Not much has changed since our last homeschool room tour here {which also has a video}. But there are a few changes, and I will focus on those in this post! Our Homeschool room has evolved greatly over the years. Here’s a look back, for those of you who like to see how I got to where we are now.

How to Set Up a Montessori Space at Home by Living Montessori Now

Setting up a Montessori space at home is something any parent can do – because it can be designed to fit any home and any family. A Montessori space is especially helpful for toddlers and preschoolers, but it’s helpful at the elementary level as well.

How to Set Up a Montessori Homeschool Classroom by Living Montessori Now

We loved our Montessori homeschool experience! Just adapt your Montessori classroom to your home situation, and have fun following your child!

My Homeschool Classroom by Montessori for Everyone

I thought I’d start by showing you a picture of my living room – should I say, “former” living room! I explained to my husband when we started homeschooling that whatever is important to you is reflected in your house, so if homeschooling was important to us it was okay to devote our living room to it. (We still have a family room for play & TV.) Somehow he understood my rationale.

Montessori Homeschool Setup in a Small Space by Child Led Life

I am excited to be hosting a 5 part series at Trillium Montessori on our Montessori homeschool setup in a small space. We have lived all over the country and creating new Montessori spaces for our children in all types of homes has been a fun adventure for me. I hope you will join us at Trillium Montessori each Monday in the month of September for a tour of our one bedroom apartment setup.

Our homeschool room! by Barefoot in Suburbia

When we built our house earlier this year, we finished the basement, with the intent on using a quarter of the finished basement as a homeschooling room. The space worked out wonderfully and it is exactly what we needed! We can easily fit our three children in there and they work fairly harmonously, and we can likely fit 1-2 guest children as well (we have a few friends that also want to homeschool using Montessori ideas, and so we’d love to have them over to work too!)

A Montessori Homeschool Classroom by Montessori Mischief

Our Montessori home has changed significantly in the past six years. Not only have the children grown older and changed in terms of their needs, we have lived in four different houses! For example, when we lived in Dallas, I had a kitchen with a lot of space. I could fit a toddler table and chair set inside, and I had an extra cabinet just for kid stuff. When we moved, the new kitchen was a mere sliver. The toddler table and play kitchen lived in the dining room instead, and the play kitchen was converted to a cabinet where we kept the actual kid dishes and utensils. Even though it was not ideal, in my mind, it worked! And while having more space is nice, it didn’t define our Montessori practice.

Montessori at Home: 8 Principles to Know by Simple Homeschool

Montessori education is a philosophy and model created by Maria Montessori, the first woman physician in Italy, in the late 1800s. At its core, Montessori education is designed to promote peace and considers the whole child as well as the environment in its approach.