So this is our learning area. This is our homeschool room during the day and a family room in the afternoon and night. The materials you see here are mostly traditional Montessori materials, a basket of books at the corner, and some open-ended toys for Vito. Mavi kept all his stuff in his room. What you see here are the following:
- Kallax shelves from Ikea
- Work table from Ikea
- Carpet from Ikea
- Basket inserts from Ikea
- Chairs from Mothercare (these are 6-year-old chairs!)
Now let's take a look at each shelf!
In this corner, I connected two Kallax shelves and placed all the Montessori materials we currently use for the week/month.
While it is NOT recommended to stack materials on a shelf, we have no choice due to our small space in the apartment. Now don't panic if I did stack our materials. The boys are highly trained on how to handle this situation. They can properly remove and return items at the bottom, so stacking materials is not a problem in our household. This doesn't hinder their learning capability at all. But this was not the case when Vito was much younger. I observed the "no stacking" rule for easier materials access back then.
The topmost is where I place our printer and space for thematic materials for our current learning activity. But since we're not doing themed activities, Mavi decided to display his animals and Grimm's rainbow stackers. If you are curious how I organize the top for thematic display, here are our Antarctica, Farm, and Shark exhibitions for your inspiration. Excuse the printer. I know it is out of place, but it has to stay close to our router for connectivity purposes.
On the leftmost side, I place our pink tower and our basket of rugs.
This is where I keep our nomenclature cards which are currently in use. You can get this wooden box from Ikea.
On the other side, we have baskets of open-ended toys like Magnatiles, Schleich animals, Duplo, and some board games. The basket inserts you see here contain my books and some printables. Baskets are from local shops Meadows and Bryne and Homebase. Oh yeah, that's an Xbox, LOL. My eldest and I (and dear husband) love to play Lego games here!
And, of course, here's our working table! This is where the boys write, paint, do crafts, and more. The table is beside our glass wall, which always catches the morning sun, perfect for Vitamin D! I love that we can sit here to learn or observe the outdoors as we look through the glass. The chairs are from ages ago; we bought them for Mavi when he was 3. They're very sturdy and nonslip.
And that's the end of our learning area tour! If you have questions, just leave it as a comment, and I'll get back to you!
This post is part of the 12 Months More of Montessori hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.
How to Set Up a Reading Nook Kids Love | Natural Beach Living
Awesome Homeschool Room - Pictures & Printable Homeschool Planner | The Natural Homeschool
How to Prepare Themed Montessori Shelves | Living Montessori Now
Montessori Inspired Homeschool Space | Mama's Happy Hive
Montessori Home -- Our Art Area | The Kavanaugh Report
How I Organize our Montessori-Inspired Learning Space | The Pinay Homeschooler
How to Set up Montessori in a Small Space | Sugar, Spice & Glitter
I love how much you did with a small space! It's an inspiration because we have limited space, too, and sometimes I get discouraged. I also love that your school room is also the family room, I think it's really important that children are not pushed "out of the way" into their own room, to work in total isolation.
ReplyDeleteBtw, you can't synthesize Vitamin D inside, because the UVB light (the one you need for this) is blocked by windows. I know you spend a lot of time outdoors and get plenty of proper sunlight, I just thought you might find this interesting! :)
I totally agree! That's my pet peeve.... pushing them to their rooms for isolation. I love that we have a small house, keeps us closer together and the fact that I can see and talk to them all the time. Thank you so much for that information on Vitamin D. Love to learn from my readers.
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