Showing posts with label reading nook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading nook. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Around our Home...

Saturday is welcome here any day! We have been taking it easy this week at school and just enjoying nature as it happens all around us. We are still getting our studies in but spending more focus on the weather. We are experiencing some serious flooding on our area and in 1 day we had rain, snow, hail and then back to snow. So crazy.
A favorite in our home for awhile now are these bookshelves that we put next to each child's bed. They each hold their bank, books they are reading and a few prized possessions. The rules are that they have to keep them neat and clean and my kids are absolutely doing so well with this. 
How do you organize your games in the playroom? We have a shelf for kids games (here) and another shelf for older type games that we all play as a family more often (upstairs near the fireplace). These 2 shelves hold oversized toys on the top shelf and then games for kids on the bottom. Our Ikea Expedit holds more large toys along with a small microwave for them to have popcorn when they are watching a movie in the playroom. On top there are fun books that don't really belong in the classroom, because they are most loved! Markers and our favorite Globe Lamp!!!! I also have a little reading nook tucked into the corner, where the kids can often be found curled up in pairs reading.
Have your students decorate a tongue depressor with some markers and you have an easy reading pointer. This allows the child to stop and read each word, only focusing on one and not the entire sentence. They are also flat enough to serve as bookmarks! Inexpensive and fun.
Enjoy your Saturday my friends! It is 2:30am, so I will bid you goodnight!







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Monday, March 4, 2013

Reading Nook

This weekend has been quite a whirlwind with all the activity going on around our home. We purchased and moved into this home at the end of August and have just YESTERDAY, unpacked the very last box! I was so excited and when I saw what a difference it made, I was a bit upset I didn't do it sooner. We have a finished basement, so all of these boxes were taking up serious square footage in an actual room down there.   As I began this project, I knew what this room was headed to be. As many of you know, we absolutely love to read around here, it's actually something that I would describe as a passion. It was time to carve out a reading nook in this room that will undergo a fun transformation.
A quick trip to IKEA, gave us all that we were going to need along with 'shopping out home'. The center bench part of the nook is actually a coffee table, but I wanted something wider as opposed to longer. I don't like to lie with a good book, I like to curl up & this was absolutely perfect. I had to take this photo from close up, because the room was FULL OF BOXES!!!!  
Next, I began adding books and as that was being done, I was emptying boxes and was actually able to move further back with the camera. I used old board game boards as baking on some of the shelves and just may add more as I come across them. a realization hit me as this project was underway, and I came to notice that if I was physically seeing a change in the room, I was tempted to keep working and keep getting it done. In the beginning when the room was loaded down with boxes, I hardly wanted to be there and kept sneaking upstairs to just get away from the chaos. How much I loved just closing that door. The problem with that whole situation though, is that in closing that door and keeping it all hidden away, we were also closing the door on an attached full bathroom downstairs! How insane is that?!

Did I mention that we began this project on Friday evening and it went into the wee hours. So late/early was I working that I was actually able to entertain a call from a friend who asked to stop by at 3am, as she was in town! LOL!! She came over and that is when I stopped working. As she left right before 7, instead of going to bed, I headed right back down! Progress was being made in the shelves but the boxes needed to be weeded through again. As the clock rolled on towards 9 a.m., I had visitors that already found this room to be the coolest one in the house! AMAZING how a few simple things being done, can bring kids to books like magnets. Nope, I never got any sleep on Friday night and headed over to see my parents on Saturday where we stayed until about 10. I thought for sure I would pass out when we got home, but instead I kept working and finally fell asleep at 2 a.m.
Here it is, finally finished at 2 this morning and I am thrilled with the results. A dry erase board is in the center, underneath the bench is where all the activity and coloring books can be found. They actually are in some kind of order but I am going to want to organize them better in the near future. We want to be able to spread these books out and add in more educational toys in the mix, so we will be doing the exact same thing to the opposite wall. We also have loads more books in each bedroom upstairs and in the 2 bookshelves in the playroom, so we would like to move those down here as well!
Here it is, the opposite wall! YES, you CAN see it!! This room is empty of all books and looks amazing. I am in love and am thinking of sleeping down here for the next week. Right now, it just holds our daily schedule and some jumbo ABC career flashcards I came across one lucky thrifting day! 
AMEN!
I've been making up book marks for our Book Exchange Party!


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Monday, January 9, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things...

Happy Monday friends! I hope you all are faring well that the weekend treated you with nothing but kindness and warmth! I have a sick little at home with a fever today so although the weekend was nice and relaxing, today should be crazy. I would like to share a few of my favorite things with you today! This first one is easy, Marshmallows are a favorite among the Littles here and I like getting creative with the ones I do find. When I found these jumbo swirly ones, they looked like lollipop tops, so I turned them into one with a stick!

I absolutely ADORE these frame paper by Melissa & Doug! Each and every picture instantly becomes a masterpiece when finished! 

Using things in multiple ways has always been a passion of mine! Finding these heart-shaped erasers was great, when I turned them into Seasonal Counters at our 100 Chart Center! 

Self Check-Out at the Library has me SWOONING! Each child steps up with their own books and their CARD. Taking turns they learn about what books they are checking out and it helps them be more responsible since THEY checked them out.


Reading Centres make me smile! My daughter is developing a nasty cough, so our outdoor time has been limited today. Since she was getting a bit bummed, I put together a little Reading Nook for her with an old tent she hasn't used since she was about 3!

Science Stores have always become a favorite place of ours, but lately our daughter has been getting more and more in to it! With the installation of her SCIENCE LAB, she only wants to purchase Science things for her room. I Love the educational goodies she picked up this weekend with her gift card. I was quite amazed that she could fill up a cart and blow through a large amount of money in no time, she went in knowing what she wanted!

I love thrifty finds and this book is right up there on my list of great finds! .50 was an awesome price for a book that is offering us so much fun! What are some of your favorite things??

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