4Real Forums: Learning Room Extraordinaire

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

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Nurturing the Years of Wonder ( Forum Locked)
4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder

Topic: Learning Room Extraordinaire

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Elizabeth
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Real Learning

Joined: Jan 20 2005
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 7:32pm \| IP Logged

I'm guessing y'all won't want to miss this tour.

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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)

montessori_lori
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Joined: June 06 2007
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 7:44pm \| IP Logged

You have done a fantastic job! My hat is off to you, Katherine!

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SuzanneG
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 7:50pm \| IP Logged

Oh my goodness! That's beautiful, Katherine! Love it! Love it! Love it! Thanks for posting, Elizabeth!

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Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)

Maryan
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 7:50pm \| IP Logged

Wow Katherine's room is definitely an inpsiration and food for thought.

Thanks for directing us there -- I haven't had time to read blogs lately. It's that vacation laundry thing.

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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
A Lee in the Woudes

Eleanor
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 8:08pm \| IP Logged

What a wonderful gift Katherine and her husband have given to their children!

SeaStar
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 8:17pm \| IP Logged

WOW

I always forget about Ikea for organizational items. The room is a marvel. Lucky children!

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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)

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marianne
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 9:18pm \| IP Logged

That is just the most amazing thing I've seen in a long time! What a great education those kids are going to get!

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lapazfarm
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 10:40pm \| IP Logged

Stunning! Just stunning!

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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning

kjohnson
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Joined: July 26 2006
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Posted: Aug 08 2007 at 11:29pm \| IP Logged

Thank you, ladies. I really appreciate these kind comments. It's been quite some time since I've been on the boards and I've heard rumors lately that the Montessori boards are busy on 4 Real. I've meant to stick my head in for the past few weeks. Thankfully, Elizabeth did that for me.

Looking forward to learning from you!

~Rachel~
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Joined: March 29 2005
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Posted: Aug 09 2007 at 8:06am \| IP Logged

YAHY Katherine! I saw this on your blog yesterday, I thought you did a wonderful job!

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~Rachel~
Wife to William
Mum to James 13, Lenore 8
Lighting a Fire

ambermelody
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Joined: June 30 2007
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Posted: Aug 09 2007 at 3:58pm \| IP Logged

It's very inspiring Katherine!

I would love to know the rough dimensions of the room if you knew them.

You're organisation is wonderful... now I'm itching to get to ikea now!

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Amber
Mama to 2 beautiful boys (1 & 3)
Bangalow, Australia

kjohnson
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Posted: Aug 09 2007 at 6:57pm \| IP Logged

The room is 17x13. It's actually a game room that was supposed to be opened up to the family room. With homeschooling in mind, we had our builder close it off and build in 2 closets. During the building process, when I designed the room, I thought it was my dream learning room, but all the features that I added in made it problematic.

The french doors left me with a wall with very little wall space and the wall length window seat left me with an unusable wall. We put the computer between the wall with the 2 closets, so that left me with only one usable full wall. Since the ceilings are high, Doug built the IKEA shelves very tall. We bought extender kits for the shelves and that made a huge difference. In order to make the wall under the window seat usable, we used the same extender kits for a low shelf (the faith and sensorial centers). Because this is a large room, we bought the shelves with the most depth (I think they are at least 14 inches deep), but IKEA sells an option for less depth that wouldn't take up so much floor space.

The table we chose would work no matter what space you were dealing with. I was just talking to a friend who is using a very small spare bedroom for a learning room and she is going to get that same table for space purposes. But I just like it because I like to free space up and be able to move around.

I think this type of layout could work, no matter the size of the room. Whether it's a spare game room, a living area or a small bedroom or breakfast room...or even a part of a family room... you can configure the IKEA shelves to work for you. And they are very inexpensive. We looked at nice shelves, even at IKEA and to get any depth it was going to be $300-500 a bookcase. I think we paid $250 for everything with this unit (tall sheles and lower shelves along the window).

I also think a rotating closet would work well(or a well organized storage system under a bed if you don't have a spare closet). I really need to organize one of the closets in our learning room so that I can rotate things on the shelves. It's impossible to "display" everything you have all the time and I think change excites the kids. So, for instance, when we're tiring of our botany materials, I'd like to get a storage box to keep them in the closet and pull out another topic from the closet. That will take some time to tweak, but it's my next project.

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In Christ,
Katherine
Wife to Doug and Mother of 6

ambermelody
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Posted: Aug 09 2007 at 7:26pm \| IP Logged

That was a great explanation Katherine, thanks!

The only room I have an option to set up is a similar french-door opening style one... though much smaller. But there are great ideas here. Brilliant!

Thanks again

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Amber
Mama to 2 beautiful boys (1 & 3)
Bangalow, Australia

kjohnson
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Posted: Aug 09 2007 at 7:30pm \| IP Logged

I really think you can make anything work for you. You just have to identify where you have space and then build into it. You have to get creative...that large shelving system is really 3 shelves connected together. I think the configurations are probably without limit.

Have fun!

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In Christ,
Katherine
Wife to Doug and Mother of 6

Meredith
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Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 10:57am \| IP Logged

I'd LOVE to know where you found those nifty wood drawers that are stacked all around, were they from IKEA too?? What a wonderful gift to share this with us all so we can dream

Blessings!

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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light

Theresa
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Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 1:16pm \| IP Logged

Wowza!!!

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Theresa

dawn2006
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Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 3:02pm \| IP Logged

That's amazing!

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Dawn Farias | wife to Ariel | mom to Gabriel 9, Daniel 7, Elizabeth 5, and Michael 3 | blogger at Be Absorbed | native Texan but currently living near Seattle

stefoodie
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Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 5:02pm \| IP Logged

That's so inspiring and beautiful, Katherine! Esp. that expandable table -- I've been looking for one forever, and that will just be perfect for our learning room.... though we'll wait until we get our very own local Ikea (

) in the spring.

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stef

mom to five

kjohnson
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Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 9:10pm \| IP Logged

Meredith wrote:

I'd LOVE to know where you found those nifty wood drawers that are stacked all around, were they from IKEA too??

Yes, Meredith. They are from IKEA too. I believe they were about $20 each and they were easy to put together. They had 4 different configurations of the smaller and larger drawers that I can remember. You can stain or paint them...or just leave them natural. Emily (11) painted one green for Peter's green series. She wants to do a pink and blue too.

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In Christ,
Katherine
Wife to Doug and Mother of 6

kjohnson
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Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 9:12pm \| IP Logged

stefoodie wrote:

Esp. that expandable table -- I've been looking for one forever, and that will just be perfect for our learning room.... though we'll wait until we get our very own local Ikea (

) in the spring.

Our IKEA is relatively new to our area too. It's a wonderful resource, but hard to go in and just buy one thing...if you know what I mean.

The table is working out great. The gate legs are very convenient and easy enough for the kids to adjust. And having the supply drawers built into the table is awesome. Now when Gregory begins pulling up and slamming his fingers in them, I may have a different opinion.

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In Christ,
Katherine
Wife to Doug and Mother of 6

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