Birch Family School Room Part 1

Welcome to the Birch Family School Room!

This little room has been a labor of love as I've strived to make it a place of peace, learning, and function. It's been a challenge to use every square inch of this space wisely so as to have a functional room that is free of clutter.  For our school room I decided to go with a vintage/farmhouse look and I'm kind of excited at how it turned out.

 Every morning we start the day with the Pledge of Allegiance.  I love this little IKEA guy and he sits on the most adorable 109 year old American School Dictionary that I snagged at a thrift store.

I tried to divide the room up into two different learning spaces: one for my school aged boys and one for my preschooler and toddler.  In the far corner of the room is a little table that my 2 year old and 4 year old work at.  They each have bins that I put different activities in (such as puzzles, books, coloring pages, alphabet workbooks, and crafts) and they bring their bins to their table to work on. I have been amazed at how well they will sit in the corner and work away!

It may have something to do with these adorable vintage school chairs! They love to sit in chairs that are just their size.  These were also purchased from a thrift store with the intent of being fixed up, but I just don't have the heart to repaint them.  I think they have so much character and charm just as they are!

Next up is my orchard crate bookshelf.  I found these crates on an online Yard Sale Facebook page for $8 each and knew I had to have them. Hubby nailed them all together then screwed them to the wall.  They work perfect to store our books.

And the top is a fabulous place to keep some of our other school supplies such as our globe, dictionary, Judy clock, United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

 We have another book storage area made from IKEA spice racks.  These hold mainly the board books.

This area also doubles as my teaching area as it is where the white board is located.

Each week we memorize a new scripture verse and this area worked great to hang our Scripture chalkboard. (This scripture is from The Pearl of Great Price in Latter-Day Saint scripture.)

See that dent in the wall up there? That's from little boys running into the room and swinging the door open...and it is why our class garbage can recently moved to this area. Hopefully the hole won't be growing any bigger because the garbage can makes a great doorstop.

Next up is the "big boy" learning area.

We made two of my Farmhouse Modern desks and set them up face to face. The reason for this was so that the boys wouldn't be facing the wall all day and when the desks are pushed together it allows for a nice big work space. The desks are plenty big so the boys can't touch (and kick, ha!) each other. Here is another view of the desk. 

I'm really in love with the legs on this desk.  The tutorial can be found over on MakeIt and Love It.

I knew I wanted to pair a modern looking chair with these desks and I found these cute chair tops at IKEA.  The only problem was (1) that the bottom was a swivel chair and (2) they were sold out of the bottoms anyway.  Having full confidence in my husband's ability to make anything work (seriously, the man has some mad visual spacial problem solving skills!), I bought a different chair bottom that I thought would work. He may have been slightly frustrated at my purchase, but just as I had full confidence that he would...he figured out how to make it work with an extra piece of wood and some long carriage bolts.

On top of the desk sits our Kleenexes (a classroom necessity!) and our school pet, Rivers, the fiddler crab.

On the wall is our classroom clock and it has come in quite handy in teaching my 1st Grader how to tell time.

 The wall is also full of inspirational quotes and our chalkboard.

This chalkboard was made from a thrifted frame and a piece of masonite...and MANY coats of black chalkboard spray paint.  This chalkboard is multifunctional and sometimes it has an inspiring message and other times it has our goals or schedule for the week.

Behind the boys' desks is the bead board wall. At the top of the wall is a wire where we hang all our fun school projects.

The shelf sure has come in handy for storing our school supplies.  I like having them up out of the way, yet the boys are still able to see what's in the jars.

 Also on the shelf are our carved books spelling out JOY.  Its an acronym we use to remind the boys to put others first (Jesus first, Others second, You last).

I hope you enjoyed Part One of the Homeschool Room tour! I know, after all of this what else could there possibly be to show you? Well, I have a whole closet full of workboxes and curriculum that are in the process of being organized, and when that's done I'll be back to show you!