NBTS Week 3 - {Learning Spaces}

Welcome to Week 3 of the Aussie NBTS Blog Hop.  This week we are sharing our Learning Spaces for 2012!

In week one you met my three children Mr T, Miss J and Sir N who have all been homeschooled.
In week two I shared the curriculum choices I have made for the year ahead with Sir N.  This inspired me to share a Time Line of my homeschool journey with you.

I have a confession to make (blushing) I had been avoiding this post.  I had popped on over to Our World Wide Classroom and had a look at some of the dedicated learning spaces that  Our Aussie Homeschool, Pumpkin Patch, Our little Homeschool and Educating April had shared and got cold feet showing our space as we do not have dedicated space for homeschooling. Over the weekend I popped back over and had a look at Doves Rest, Home School Dreaming, Defying Gravity, Herding Hobbits!, Acres of Learning, Mansted Family Project and Seven Little Australians and was inspired to tidy up and invite you on in to see where we learn.

Welcome to our Learning Spaces
Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them for a better view.

Sir N's drawing of where he learns.

This picture means a lot to me.  Sir N did not know about this blog hop. He asked me for a piece of paper yesterday to draw.  Quietly sat down and drew me a picture.  He brought it to me and said "This is where I learn ! "

This is a panorama of our living area where 80 % of our learning takes place. The balance is outside and in the community {e.g. Sustainability Expo, Fishing, Ballet, Hanging Rock, Australia Post}

Our lounge is currently occupied with Sir N's Farm !

This is our read aloud space.  If it's cold we hop into bed with a warm doona and read there.  In summer we read here and if the day is not too hot we will hop onto the trampoline or a picnic blanket in the garden. To the left of the chair I have a bookshelf with most of the years Core books and some extra research books.

To the right of the read aloud chair I keep two boxes.  The blue one contains the current read alouds.  The basket contains our library books.

This is our dining room where Sir N sits and does his writing work. The draws to the right of the freezer contain all his pens, pencils and books we are working through. On top of these draws is a terrarium where what ever we have caught in the garden temporarily lives for us to study. We also have some rather unique pets in our home. Being married to a Zoo Keeper means that we get to look at and touch many interesting types of wildlife and get to go to the zoo as often as we like.  Last year we enjoyed Night Zoo.

This is our kitchen where we cook together.  A few months ago I moved the microscope to the kitchen bench. It used to live next to my computer but never got used because we forgot we had it.  It now gets used quite regularly. An example of one of the things we looked at last year is a flea we found on our cat.

I have this wonderful corner display cabinet we keep our treasures and memories and talk about.  It is also a perfect spot for our world globe.

This is our rumpus room which contains five of my seven book shelves.  I am truly blessed. One word of warning to homeschool Mums you do NOT need or have to own this many books to effectively homeschool.  I have this many books because I LOVE books and my husband graciously indulges my delight.
The three identical book shelves on the right are special to me.  My Dad hand made these when we immigrated to Australia.  I was in need of book shelves as the last house we rented had built in book shelves.  I was frustrated over the expense and design of book shelves.  We purchased the wood and my Dad spent hours making these for me. The tallest one contains mainly novels. 

Thank you to all of you who shared your spaces and inspired me to share mine.

Blessings
Chareen