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JennGM
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| Posted: July 27 2006 at 9:37am | IP Logged
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I'm following the wonderful thread on preschool and especially Elizabeth's preschool posts.
I'm starting from scratch here. My son will be 3 in September. I don't have shelves, cabinets, drawers.
Dh has said to go ahead and research and make plans (so he can approve the drawings and budget  )
Seems like many of you have multiple shelves and cabinets that serve many purposes.
Art Cabinet or shelves
Montessori shelves, more than one, to serve different areas
Atrium
Books (of course)
I just don't know where to begin. Right now I've piecemealed and hobbled along, but my son's area is sadly overwhelming because not everything has a place. I can't stand it, and he doesn't like it, either.
Some things I don't want completely accessible to ds at all times (i.e., art supplies), so I'm thinking some shelves need to have higher access for adults only. He is very curious. 
So where do you find your nice little shelves and cabinets? I need to be inspired by creativity and budget conscious, but also the elegant simplicity rules.... 
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Cay Gibson
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You're so right, Jenn. It is all in the organization, and I'm trying...really trying. Now...where to begin....
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
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Betsy
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Hi,
I want to just interject a small voice of reason. I had these great plans when my two oldest boys were little. I read all the Waldorf books and Montessori, etc. and wanted a learning area of my own.
But, in reality when I set manulipitives out they seemed to get scattered like the wind through out my house. I ended up getting really frustraded and having to keep things up high and higher!!
Anyway, for what it's worth. Start small and see how your child is at having alot of "stuff" out at his hight. Or how you are at picking it up with him, etc.
I am really feeling this all over agian as I have a 16mo that is in to everything right now. However, I looked at Elizabeth's post and tryed to bring things out onto our shelves again. But, but 7:30 this morning all of them were cleared off the shelves!!! 
So, I think I am back to putting them back into the closet and bring one out at a time...I know it's not as creative, etc. But it keeps the sanity here!
Betsy
Mom to three boys!
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JennGM
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| Posted: July 27 2006 at 10:03am | IP Logged
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Betsy wrote:
So, I think I am back to putting them back into the closet and bring one out at a time...I know it's not as creative, etc. But it keeps the sanity here!
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Closet? You have an extra one of those? I have no spare closets for manipulatives on the main floor, wish I did. I was thinking some cabinets might work, that I can keep closed if I don't want things out everywhere.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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lapazfarm
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Since all of our shelving is yard sale or junk-pile finds, I can't help you with furniture shopping, but I can tell you what is working better for us.
In the name of accessibility I used to have the open shelves so stacked full of dd's things that she nor I could ever find what she wanted. Eventually she stopped trying and just ignored it all, never getting any benefit from any of it. Since I jumped on the "less is more" bandwagon and put most of the things away, only leaving a few things out at a time, she is eager to try them all! She can clearly see what is offered and it makes all the difference in her independance. It also has not been an issue for putting away. Since the shelves arte neat and uncluttered to begin with, it inspires her naturally to keep them that way. They look as good today as the day I set them up with very little upkeep on my part.
For art supplies I set out things that she can have free access to=coloring books and markers, etc. But then I also set out pre-assembled supplies for one special small art project she can do herself. Ex: We don't need to have ALL of the glitter out, just enough for that project in a little container. We also can set out just a couple of pieces of construction paper to choose from, rather than having the whole pack out, or a few collage items rather than the whole box full. I have a basket full of gallon ziplocks in which I have pre-assembled materials for just one little craft project. I can pull one out any time and there is a fun activity for her ready to go.I find her doing many more independant crafts this way than when I was worried about her making a huge mess with all the supplies!
I don't know if this is what you meant, but I hope it helps some.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Dawn
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JennGM wrote:
| So where do you find your nice little shelves and cabinets? I need to be inspired by creativity and budget conscious, but also the elegant simplicity rules.... |
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Jenn, all our shelves and cubbies have been handed down or bought at the unfinished furniture store. If you have one near you, check it out - the prices are usually quite reasonable. 
Very timely post, I am tackling the big shelves in youngest son's bedroom today (I'm thinking - math, language, science/nature and art ...) I need to work on the containers ...
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kingvozzo
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Jenn, we recently purchased 6 Billy bookcases from IKEA. 2 reasons why we went that route. These particular bookcases have an extension you can place on top which increases the height from 79" to 93". Floor space is really at a premium in our little house. The other nice feature is that you can put doors on the lower shelves. We were able to get a ton of storage, both open and closed, at pretty reasonable prices. They are also very versatile.
BTW, when is your ds's bday? My "baby" will be 3 on 9/23!
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Noreen
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JennGM
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kingvozzo wrote:
| BTW, when is your ds's bday? My "baby" will be 3 on 9/23! |
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Ds is one day older than yours!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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Elizabeth
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The white shelves and the shelves with the little baskets on top that are picture in the preschool posts were purchased at Target and assembled at home. The large white bookcase with big baskets and the moveable alphabet was an ugly dark brown monstrosity in my inlaws basement. Paint is a very good thing. The two nightstands were in the spare bedroom in my mom's house before she moved. The matching dresser is in Michael's room with the bed and the chest of drawers is in Stephen's room. Broke my heart to split the set but it works nicely to serve our purposes. The altar table was an Amish furniture craft fair find of my mom's. So, there you go: Target and hand-me-downs. Remember, I've been at this a long time!
In the beginning, I dedicated three cabinets under a kitchen counter to "school storage." That grew to shelves built under the stairs and standing bookcases in the basement (that are now the craft shelves you saw in the art post) and then when we moved, we turned a walk-in closet into a library with floor-to-ceiling shelves. But the kids still have bookcase in their rooms--all hand-me-downs except for the girls', which was my major decorating splurge of all time: I couldn't resist!.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Cheryl
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Jenn,
I have a bunch of pictures of my newly organized new school room here on my blog. I have to say though, that we haven't been here long enough to know if the way I've set it up will work well. I thought the photos might give you some storage ideas.
The music cabinet is actually a computer cabinet that we bought (and had it stained) from the unfinished furniture store. We used to keep the computer in our small kitchen and my dh wanted it hidden from view when we weren't using it.
The gray 6 ft table is from Staples. My boys use that more than my dd 4. She likes to sit at our old kitchen table or at the little kid's table.
The brown bookshelf was found in my dh's old office. My baptismal kit table is actually a copy paper box covered with an old white sheet from my dh's grandparents' house.
The white cabinets and drawers we put in when we built the house. The white bins are from Walmart. The stack of bins in the closet and the white wire organizers my friend was getting rid of and she gave them to me for free. The plastic drawers in the closet were from Target. The white bookshelves were from Staples. I think they look nice in the picture, but they are low quality and I think in time (and as we get more books) the shelves will sag. They are good for now. If you have the money, I think built-ins would be great.
I also want to add that in our old house we used half of our pantry cabinets to store art & craft supplies, which worked out for us because we did art in the kitchen.
I will probably make many adjustments after the school year begins, but I feel like right now I have some peace of mind in that room (not the whole house) knowing that everything has an assigned place. When it gets messy, it will be easier to pick up because we will know where everything goes. One problem I have is that ds 7 keeps bringing in stuff from the garage and basement, then leaving it. But that would be another post.......
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Cheryl
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saintanneshs
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Jenn,
Most of what we have is used or "functional" (meaning not necessarily of aesthetic value, but definitely affordable and durable). We have 3 tall (floor to ceiling) bookcases with shelves and tubs for math manips, books, reference materials, science tools, nature tools, etc.
When I think of what I wish I'd known prior to setting up our cramped little schoolroom, two things come to mind. First, that even though things are up high, they aren't necessarily going to deter little boys from climbing up to reach them. When I realized this we bought one medium-sized and 3 small sets of shelves for easier access to the things the boys always seemed to want. I figure that if it's forbidden without supervision (for safety reasons) I shouldn't have it in plain sight, up on a high shelf in the schoolroom, but rather in a locked closet somewhere. Needless to say, I don't have any school things that are "forbidden" in the house ...it's just too much trouble right now.
Our schoolroom is at the edge of our livingroom and right now (without our basement finished) we're living in only the top half of a split-foyer home, which means 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 livingroom, 1 diningroom for 6 people. Lots of potential (downstairs) but right now things are a bit cramped to say the least. I'm hoping we can finish the schoolroom/playroom downstairs before the baby comes!! Anyway, the second thing I wish I'd kept in mind was that no matter how organized I had things in our small space (in their pretty white tubs, complete with labels ) there would always be a need for MORE room to put stuff...extra room on the shelves for those fantastic used-books I just picked up at the book fair, room to display our latest project so it didn't get shoved in a drawer, a spot on the wall for our homemade hand and footprint math measurement chart...I wish I'd left room when setting up housekeeping for those kinds of things.
Happy organizing!
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Kristine
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Erin
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Betsy wrote:
Hi,
But, in reality when I set manulipitives out they seemed to get scattered like the wind through out my house. I ended up getting really frustraded and having to keep things up high and higher!! |
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Very good point. Been there, or if not scattered it takes up much of your energy to ensure that it doesn't happen. And actually it wasn't my children who caused the problem as they understood the Montessori principles, it was the visitors 
I ended up having the manipulatives in a cupboard and having a Montessori bookcase. The bookcase were three shelves about a metre long. The bookcase was on castor wheels. If dh is handy he could make it. I had the equipment put away but would decide what activities we would do and just place those ones on the shelves for the day. Afterwards we could wheel the bookcase away. Oh the case didn't have a back. Probably if I could re-design it I would make the shelves deeper and you could certainly add more shelves if you wanted.
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Erin
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Oh another idea Jenn
Do you have a Montessore pre-school near you? A friend and I went and spent a day as visitors at one an hour from here. We got some lovely ideas and it helped with the visualising.
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Cici
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saintanneshs wrote:
no matter how organized I had things in our small space (in their pretty white tubs, complete with labels ) there would always be a need for MORE room to put stuff... |
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And this, sadly, says it all for me. Only, our space isn't necessarily small - just well, already organized for other things.
Thus, begins the great house rearranging... I have a four year old that is definitely ready for some real "school" time. But little brother is just 22 months and is of the "scattering" variety mentioned above. I've had to empty one of our closets (spare room/office - filled, essentially, with my scrapbooking supplies) to make room for a quiet and safe place for the "learning" to go on. Yes, little brother will have his own shelf of a few age appropriate manipulatives, and then the purchase of rugs/mats and the appropriate teaching of the difference between these "toys" on the shelves and those in the playroom.
Incidentally, craft supplies (both the children's supplies and my scrapbook supplies) were moved to the basement "toy room" high enough out of reach and next to a big 6 foot table.
I guess what I'm being terribly inefficient at trying to say is...take a look at what you have. You might have little corners here and there that you can declutter and consolidate enough to free up a small space. You might not wind up with a "complete" school room to house all supplies and books. But you may wind up with say a room and a closet big enough to hold the manipulates currently in use and a few baskets of books that currently "in use" and being worked on.
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Cay Gibson
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Cheryl wrote:
I have a bunch of pictures of my newly organized new school room here on my blog. |
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Cheryl,
Once again, I just had to tell you how lovely your school room is. I just paid another visit there to sit and soak in the lovely, fresh, clean new-ness of that environment. It's lovely and so inviting. Well done! 
We don't have a separate room for school, but one can dream, can't they? With this ongoing strike at my dh's place of work it looks like dreaming is all I'll be doing this school year. It'll be awhile before I get that carport closed in.  Oh, well. School goes on as does the learning.
Your room has given me some pictures to dream upon and to show my dh just sos he'll know just what I'm aiming for once we do close in that carport.
Cheryl wrote:
My baptismal kit table is actually a copy paper box covered with an old white sheet from my dh's grandparents' house.
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I love the baptismal area and can't believe I keep forgetting to set one up for my little girls. I'm putting it at the top of our list.
Thank you for the inspiration.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
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Katie
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Jenn,
If your ds is a "gatherer and scatterer", you might try keeping most things in a cupboard or out of reach, but then place a low table - a longish one works well, or an old coffee teble - something low at his level - and set up 3 or 4 activities or educational toys on the table. You can easily swap them out every few days or every week, and that adds the element of surprise and newness that this age group seems to enjoy so much.
To answer you original question, I love bookshelves with adjustible shelves (so you can change them around as your needs change), "cubby" type shelves for grouping books or activities, at least one place with a door you can shut for all the stuff that is going to look messy no matter how you "organize" it, and baskets, baskets, baskets for the little things. All my furniture is hand-me-down, yard sale, or belongs to the house we live in and not us!
I agree that craft supplies should maybe be kept out of sight, with perhaps some crayons or pencils and some different papers available for use whenever he wants.
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jdostalik
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This is a timely subject for me as well! We have just moved kids into different bedrooms and now I am down to just one smallish room for a playroom and schoolroom (and it houses the computer desk, as well).
Last year, at Alice's recommendation, we bought this Expedit shelf at the new IKEA that opened near our home. It was the biggest version of the shelf they sell and it is ideal for storing learning toys, supplies...Right now it has books on it but I am about to empty those books off and start organizing my school items...Say a prayer for me...I have so much to do...my first trimester nausea (thanks be to God!) really set me back and I am running behind in school planning and prep!
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Jennifer in TX
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Willa
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My solution has been a bit like Theresa's -- with some differences because I have 2 little boys -- ages 3 and dev delayed 7yo. We do the thrift store bargain thing too.
I cleared an old coffee table to use as a child-size table, and stocked an old wire shelf (originally a shoe holder) with a few items, not too many, mostly letter activities and puzzles. They can get what they want and ideally put it back themselves (in practice, they need some help and support). I can rotate what's on there when they lose interest (which I notice they have -- I put it up in the winter and they've gotten bored with what's up there).
In addition they have a toy box stuffed with the miscellaneous random things like trucks that don't really fit into an organization scheme.
When my now 10yo was a preschooler we had a preschool box with his preschool things in it but it was hard for him to get at what he wanted, so I like the shelf better.
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Willa
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JennGM
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I loved all these ideas. I'm resurrecting this thread because this month's issue of Martha Stewart Living had this fabulous idea of making bookshelves of wooden benches.
Now, can anyone tell me where they have seen these type of benches for cheap? I was just trying to do an initial Google search just to view and price shop and realized "wood bench" isn't going to cut it. Any other suggestions?
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
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Topic: It’s About the Organization
