Tour 12 Fabulous Homeschool Rooms

Most homeschoolers that I know LOVE checking out other homeschool rooms. Getting ideas, tips, and inspiration from others helps a lot when you are planning to homeschool. So I decided to give all of us what we love. Twelve different homeschooling spaces, from different homes. Go get a fresh cup of coffee or some tea to sip, and get comfy because I have a lot for you to see.

 Are you Ready?!?!

Click the Links to see all of the amazing rooms.
Enjoy!
The perfect place for peaceful learning happens here at Natural Beach Living .

The Natural Homeschool has an Amazing Home+School room. I love how she takes you on a tour, and makes you feel like you are right there in her home. 

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom is where the magical learning fun happens. 

ALLterNATIVElearning has such great Montessori Inspired baby and Tot school spaces. 

How to set up a Montessori Preschool classroom at home from Living Montessori Now 

A Montessori Inspired Homeschool room from The Kavanaugh Report will keep you in Zen mode all day. Such a calming space. 

Check out this fun writing station from Lemon Lime Adventures. 

A lovely homeschool area in a small space from Faith and Good Works.

Oh, how I love Naniheart's Block area. Such fun, natural, open ended play to be had. 

It's all about Functionality and Organization at Still Playing School.

If organization is what you are looking for The Chaos and the Clutter will help you with ways to get organized quick.

Is a Montessori Setup for you? Get questions answered and great information from Montessori Setup.

That was awesome!!! I hope you enjoyed the rooms as much as I did.

We don't want you to miss anything here at Natural Beach Living.
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A Lifetime of Play with Elves & Angels

You know when there is that special something that you look at for a long time? You take the time thinking about it, you love everything about it, and so desperately want to have it? 

That's how I have felt about the Elves & Angels Playstands. For awhile now, I have admired them from afar, looking at other families pictures, seeing them online, and in catalog's. It was one of those things I have longed to have for my children. I have asked myself and friends, "Are playstands necessary"? Are they worth the money? Are they stable enough and made to last for years? Well I finally get to answer all of those questions, and more. 

Come along with me into my reality, and see for yourself how incredibly amazing the playstands can be.        

So real quick let's talk about set-up, I was a little nervous at first to let my husband know what he was going to be doing one Sunday afternoon, because my husband is not even close to being handy. Sorry honey :) But here's the thing, David Smalley genius behind Elves & Angels must of known that some of us are visual learners because he actually sends a disc to watch each easy step being done. My husband was in heaven and he had the playstands put together in a quick 20 minutes. Afterwards he commented on how he could tell David really takes pride in every toy he makes and how amazing he thought the company was. All that from the video, I was impressed and ready for play.    

Not only are the playstands beautiful, they are large enough for several kids at various different ages to be able to play. You can tell they are made from the top of the line materials, smooth finishing and extremely sturdy. I also am a huge fan of the extra shelving, it gives so many extra ways to play, and they can easily be added or taken off in minutes. Playstands can be played with in a million different ways from our dolly market, to puppet shows, kitchen, house, farm, the possibilities are endless.   

I am cherishing all of these special moments. 

Why am I such a HUGE FAN of Elves & Angels, because I love their story, because they are a homeschooling family with twelve children that I admire. Because they are a small business that believes children should be surrounded with beautiful handcrafted toys. Because their customer service is impeccable, and I truly believe in good customer service. Because after 24 years David still loves what he does, and is determined to create the very highest quality wooden toys available. Those are just a few things that keep me coming back time and time again :)   

If you are looking for "Heirloom Quality Toys" look no further, Elves & Angels is at the very top of the list.

Being able to have and enjoy these Waldorf playstands with the children is truly special. The children always have an invitation to play whatever they can imagine. 

So have I answered the questions I had asked myself time and time again, and I am sure you have probably asked yourself ;) 

YES!!!!

Elves & Angels Waldorf Playstands are even more Amazing in person.

One of the best investments ever- totally worth every penny! 

If you would like to see other pictures of my children playing with the playstands and different ways we have used them, please visit me on Facebook.

Just in case you are curious about a few of the other toys pictured I'm listing them below:

Lovely Northern white pine Stable is Sam's Stable 

Beautiful handcrafted kitchen shown above is Julianna's Kitchen 

Sweet natural wooden Cradle in the top picture with the Waldorf dolls is from The Toymakers Daughter

Waldorf Dolls are from several different gifted dolly makers. 

My family was given these lovely Waldorf Playstands in return for my honest opinion of them, and we honestly LOVE them.  

The Perfect Winter Nature Table for Toddlers

O how we love our nature tables here at Natural Beach Living. If you haven't had the chance to look at a few, please check them out here. This week I decided to put together a table for my daughter. Although I feel children of all ages can enjoy this table, I catered it to the younger group by making sure everything could be handled by a baby and toddler. Since toddlers have the tendency to put things in their mouths, I wanted to be careful everything was safe and clean. So here you have it, our sweet toddler friendly winter nature table. 

I would love to tell you my daughter has a favorite thing here, but she loves it all and so do the older boys.

A child can learn so much from a nature table. It is a multisensory experience, being able to see, touch and especially feel the natural items. These little Puddlefoot drizzles are made of natural materials and are in the shapes of stars, clouds, and the moon. My daughter has been loving these up ever since we got them. I added a large Amethyst Stone to our table this month. Amethyst stones are associated with February and was the stone of St Valentine. Known for faithful love, it is believed by some that it carries the energy of  fire, passion, creativity, and spirituality.

 You always have to have a few nature books on your shelves, so for this table I choose Wonders of Nature Little Golden Book. To go along with it, a winter bowl of clean pine cones, and a cleaned off branch. I also posted a little sign that reads "This is Winter", great for the visual recognition of words. Sitting on a white play silk, you'll probably notice one of my favorite nature felted pieces. Mother Winter and baby, made by Lavender and Ladybugs . 

I love anything natural and handmade, put the two together and it's perfection. 

Let's not forget about the beauty of the living things outside. Whether it is the winter trees, the birds, critters, or something else. Spend the time watching out the window with your toddlers. It's so wonderful to see the excitement in your child's eyes as they watch and explore nature. I would love for you to click over and read "Nature through a toddler's eyes." 

The wonderful cards that I have displayed are the Winter Toddler Montessori cards from Free Spirit Kids. They can be seen in depth here.

I hope you enjoyed our perfect winter nature table for toddlers. If you have a winter nature table I would love to see pictures or hear about it, visit me on Facebook to share.  

Be sure to check out the nature loving mommas listed below, there are so many fabulous nature tables to see. 

How Wee Learn 

Rain or Shine Mamma

My Nearest and Dearest

Mommy Loves Trees

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Homeschooling Room Tour for 2014

I seem to be changing our schooling room around a lot these days. About every six months it seems it's time for a change and that's because our family is changing. The biggest change for us this year is we now have a toddler. As I'm sure most of you know, when your sweet little baby becomes a curious toddler, things definitely change. I try to embrace those changes and adapt our living and schooling space to benefit the children in the stage they are in. Today I am sharing our homeschooling room with you. I hope you enjoy your tour. 

 "Receive the children with reverence, educate them with love, let them go forth in freedom."
- Rudolf Steiner

Looking into the room, you will see,

a perfect place for you and me.

The low shelves hold some of Baby Bells weekly activities.To the left you will see her floor mat and play silks , in the middle she has a new wooden puzzle, and this week we have been working/playing with farm animals. So I added our schleich horses and a few toddler touch and feel books. We also are blessed to have this amazing doll house from Elves & Angels. The children have spent hours playing with it already.

This is our comfy reading corner. The kids LOVE to lay here and read. I keep a basket of Toddler books on the floor for Ms Bell to easily get to. We also have a new Pottery Barn Kids anywhere chair to sit in.
If you are wondering about the posters and maps above you can get all of the information about them here.

A child size table is so important to any schooling or play room. This is the Large Caroline table from Pottery Barn Kids, however I have seen many great quality wood tables from some of my favorite stores..

It is so important to have good quality, natural, open ended toys. Let their imaginations flourish while they build and play. The toys you see here were made by me.

We love our baby dolls!!!
 These are some of the baby dolls in our house.Waldorf doll makers put such heart into making their dolls with quality natural materials, and they each have their own dolly personality. Perfect for those of us that love dolly play. The sweetest baby doll of them all is the one on the right, she's mine :)

These are things you'll see around our room. First is our little teacup Yorkie Peanut, he's always nearby.
The fabulous Barn you see here was the big Christmas gift of the year, and it's also from Elves & Angels  As you can probably tell, Elves & Angels is is one of our favorite stores.
The Grimms Rainbow and hand kite are also favorites.

The bookcases seen in our room are the Carolina bookcases from Pottery Barn Kids. I love them, and if I had more room, I'd probably get more bookcases :) I use lot's of  baskets to help keep things organized.

I love having a kitchen in our space. The boys have always loved playing store and we incorporate it into our everyday learning and play. Unfortunately they are no longer making this farmers market, however I highly recommend getting an Elves & Angels kitchen. We have their Julianna's kitchen and love it.  

We love nature and I feel it's very important to bring nature into your learning space. Every month or so I change around our nature table. This is part of our Winter table. You can see some of our other Nature set up's here and here.

My favorite reading chair is right by the windows. It is so nice to relax there and read with the kids. 

This is what you see as you are looking at the back of the room. (bookcases are below) 

Above the windows are our bird counting cards they are so sweet and I felt they were perfect for our room. We love Eeboo products.

This is how the left side of the room looks as you are walking in.

Little B's Treehaus castle blocks, Stringing beads, and wooden peg dolls are set out to play with for the week.

Looking straight in from the dining room

This is what you see as you look into the room towards the end of the day. 

I feel so blessed when I see the sun shinning in, all of the colors dancing around the room, and the laughter from my children in the background.  

I hope you enjoyed your tour. 

Feel free to visit us anytime, we love visitors.

If you would like to see the changes our room has gone through in the past year, you can see them here and here.

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Our Homeschool Room for 2013-2014

We are finally hitting the "I feel ready to start stage" I have purchased books and curriculum I needed, organized everything, and revamped our schooling room for the year. I'm feeling really good and the kids seem refreshed and ready. Usually we are year rounders however, this year we have had so many visitors that it's been hard to hold to a schedule. We've enjoyed the beach and the time off but now it's time to get down to business (wink). If you missed seeing our schooling room from last year here it is. Several things have stayed the same, but I have added a few new things for Baby Bell's Toddler stage and Bladen being a Kinder now.     

One of our favorite new changes to the room is our comfy new reading corner. This is a crib mattress with a chamois sheet, pillow pets, Bunnies by the bay blanket and buddies, baby gund floor animal, an anytime chair from Pottery barn kids, and of course lot's of books. Those cute little owl stickers can be found here if you are interested. 

Baby Bell loves her new reading space and so do the boys.

We LOVE our EverEarth Farmer's Market, we've had it for a few years and it's played with all the time. I don't think the room would feel the same without it. Behind it I have a 3 drawer plastic container labeled with extra food, pots, napkins/placemats, and on top sits a Cash register with checks and money. 

This is our Nature/Science area right now we are working on the Solar System.

Baby Bells shelves, I usually switch her shelves around weekly right now it's set up with mostly shapes, stacking, and transferring activities. She has just turned 11 months.

Our Pottery barn kids table is awesome, we use it everyday for work and play. 

 The boys Geography corner. We have our Little Passports World Edition maps, continents, and animals of the world posted.

Baby Bells wall complete with her hands on alphabet and mirrors. I did leave up Little B's word wall because it looked cute and he enjoys using his pointer to point out the words during the day.

We have the animal alphabet from 1+1+1=1, I love all of Carisa's printables and we use them a lot with our schooling. 

I've added a cutting and writing station complete with my favorite beginner scissors, these and these. Colored Pencils, alphabet stamps, and several different paper options.

Little B's shelf activities for the day/week. I change these around often.

Our peace corner can be seen more in depth at Montessori on a Budget.

One of my favorite brands is Eeboo and I use several of their products for homeschooling, these are the Counting Birds which hang above our windows.

The is what you see on the right side of the room as you are looking/walking in.

This is the view of the left side as you are looking in from the dining room. If you are wondering what is hanging from our light, that is our Solar system (smile).With each unit study that we do we transform our room to incorporate our projects. I try to keep this room a calming yet inviting place to live, learn, and play. Enjoying a  lifestyle of learning is important to me for my family. I hope you enjoyed touring our room today, come back anytime for a visit.  

Like our children have grown and changed, so has our homeschooling room. Check out how the room has transformed, by clicking on the link below. 

The Perfect Place to Learn 2014 

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