Portable Art Supply Box

We enjoy our art and crafty activities and have accumulated a nice little supply of various items.

I have noticed over the past few months that our art has progressed, we are no longer in that little kid zone, with all of its delightfully fun messiness!

 

However, every time we want to draw or work on an art project we have to go hunting for all of the supplies. Most often they are all fairly close to each other but at other times they aren't.

I really wanted to remedy that issue so that art became an enjoyable part of our day, not one where we couldn't find the supplies we needed because they weren't put back where they should've been.

Introducing our new Art Supply Caddy, isn't she grand! I had first gone to find a fisher men's tackle box but after realising that the only ones that would suit what I wanted were going to cost me well over $100 I quickly let go of that idea.

This is actually sold as a sewing supply box and I found it in Lincraft, they have a smaller version and I did spend a bit of time contemplating. Now that it is full I'm so glad I grabbed the bigger one.

This is completely portable, with a handle, it also has three layers with the top able to be used independently from the bottom two.

Down in the bottom, the main deeper area we have our paints, spare oil pastels, chalk pastels and palettes.

On top of that sits a tray, which has a handle for easy lifting in and out. Here we have our paint brushes and pens, glitter pens, gel pens, paint brush markers and various other coloured markers.

As you can see in this image there are also large white pull up handles so we can carry this part of the box around if someone else is using the next layer.

The top of caddy is clear, has carry a handle to pick the entire container up and houses two separate, snap lock sides.  This one we keep pencils, coloured, water colour pencils and our paper stubs. The whole top piece then also snap locks on the caddy itself.

Across on the other side of the top compartment are sketch pencils, charcoal pencils, erasers, sharpeners and our 'in use' oil pastels.

One the best things I love about this tub is that it is so simple to take our art away with us. Whenever we go away, even for just a weekend I always take art supplies, now all I need to do is grab our caddy and visual art diary's and we're off!

Happy Homeschooling
Kylie x

P.S I purchased this item and was not compensated in any way, just sharing something that I love :-)

Our Learning Spaces - Not Back To School Sharing

Today as part of my own little Not Back To School Fun I'm sharing some of our Learning Spaces. We never stick to one room and do take our activities all over the house. We are blessed to have a largish home with plenty of indoor and outdoor space to spread out in.

These photo's are all from the one room which is probably best classified as our Home Office, Home Library and Home School Storage Space. Do we spend time in here completing activities but we are not bound to this space.

This was actually two fairly small rooms that were only divided by a wardrobe, since we barely ever used one of the rooms it made sense to convert the space, once we knew for sure that homeschooling was an important part of lives, into one larger more useable space.

The room is definitely a work in progress and nowhere near where I see it being. It's actually quite plain and boring right now also, being the start of a new school year we strip the walls bare.

When you first enter the room, via one single door, that is situated close to the center you can see straight out into our front yard. On your left, right alongside the doorway is this shelving unit. This is the last place in the room that still needs the magical touch of a cabinetmaker, so for now these shelves make do.

This is basically my daily go to shelf, where everything we are currently (or will be very soon) using is housed.

Top Shelf - Office must have's, well technically not must have's but make life easier's hehehe  Shredder, Laminator, Binding Machine

First Shelf - Geography Books and some folders that the kids add to from time to time on some of their favourite topics. B's is Star Wars and K's is Fairies.

Second Shelf -  Each child has a magazine folder for odds and ends and things that we hope to get to soon but aren't actually in their rotation of activities right now. There's a few of our current read alouds sitting there and the white basket is simply paperwork, catalogues and stuff I still need to file.

Third Shelf - Each of us has 2 coloured lever arch file folders to store our completed work in (although mine is more for planning and other paperwork)

Fourth Shelf - Each child has a basket that holds all of their current activities, school books etc....this is what I pull from daily when adding items into the kids workboxes. It makes life so much easier for me to have one basket for each child. C's obviously quite empty, he is only 2 after all ;-)

Bottom Shelf - Unit Study Baskets, current studies we are working on or will start in the coming weeks (I need one more basket to fill the empty space). So right now I have a basket for beginning Geography stuff, an Aboriginal Unit Study and I am working on getting started on Earth & Space (which I need a basket for). My History stuff just gets stored anywhere I can find room at the moment as I only have enough space on that shelf for 3 baskets.

If I had a spare shelf it would be great for future planning of unit studies. The baskets make it really easy to add to and I keep notes in the baskets (books on order or too order, websites to visit, items to print, supplies to purchase etc) as well so even if I haven't worked on planning a particular study for a few days I can easily pull the basket out and have everything at my fingerstips.

Moving around the room is our main desk area that houses two computers, well that was until one died. I'm still undecided with what to do on the wall under the cupboards behind the computer screens. I'd like some kind of cork/magnetic board but am concerned that it would just be another place to attract clutter, albeit hanging clutter.

The keyboard also stored in here, I really need to find a more permanent solution for this though. As the kids do their keyboard lessons online they need the computer and it is a chore to set it up each day.

Keep turning to the right and you are virtually standing in the doorway (this is what you see when you enter the room). I'm still contemplating what to actually do with that wall space where the world map is. We don't have alot of available wall space in here to hang things.

I was considering attaching the map to a framed cork board so we can easily pin on it but then I'm not sure I want to do that to the map and may just print one off to use in that way. However if it was attached to an easily removed board of some description then I could change out that wall depending on what we are studying at the time. I also thought that world time clocks might kinda look cool hanging across the top of the map there but haven't seen anything that works for me yet....decisions, decisions, decisions.

There you can also see the kids workbox draws ( a new addition for us this year) that I'll post about sometime soon.

The centre shelf holds C's Bambino Academy Work Trays for when we are in this room. We still have the area for him out in our 'Kindy Garage' for when we are also out there.

Keep on turning to the right and you looking at the other end of the room. You can see K's adjustable height desk on the left, she looks out of the window and is a nice spot in the mornings to sit and watch the cows over the road grazing.

The second desk in the room, doesn't have an actual purpose right now. B doesn't have his own desk, sometimes he'll use this one, other times he'll sit up at the computer area, he generally reads on his bed and often will go off somewhere else to complete his 'quiet' work.

The shelves and cupboards above this desk will house my scrapbooking supplies and extra special craft supplies...when I ever find the time to finish sorting them. I hope to slowly transform this area into a Writing Centre of sorts and will keep you updated on my progress.

 

Yet another turn to the right and you are at our main book shelf unit, floor to ceiling, with super chunky shelves to hold the weight of all of those books. It certainly isn't as neat and tidy as I would like it but I am still working on cataloging all of my books over at Library Thing, this is very much a stop start type activity. I have quite a ways to go yet and if the book isn't catalogued then it is not on these shelves.

The shelves are organsied by subject/theme, it just made sense to me to do it that way. The bottom left (in the corner shelves) three shelves are all Science, so broken into Anatomy, Earth & Space, Animals etc etc, as we are preparing to cover a theme I look for books at Lifeline Bookfests, 2nd Hand stores and Book Depository.

Above there are history, of which we haven't done a great deal so there is shelf space in here. Currently in that shelf space is some of the books and games that I picked up at the last lifeline bookfest, waiting to be organised.

To the right bottom shelf is Preschool type books and easy readers. Up from there is a shelf for Language Arts and then one for Math, then up we go to Art, Craft and  Music books, next up is seasonal books, Christmas etc and top shelf is character building, religion and parenting books.

Just next to the main bookshelf is C's little spot up against the door. This is where he does his 'school work'.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour. :-)

Next week I'll share a day in our life.

Declutter, Plan & Prepare 2011: January

You might remember me mentioning my plans to declutter, not only the areas in our home that need it but also in my life in general.Well I thought I'd show you what I accomplished this past month.

The Christmas Fare is an obvious one! Supplies in this department really grow very easily for some reason. I generally purchase 1 - 3 new items/decorations each season and it's amazing to see how those small purchases grow into a mountain of goodies.

Now if I was being realistic, these boxes of Christmas Decorations and Craft Supplies really should have been sorted and culled BEFORE I stored them but they weren't........I'll add that to my November/December decluttering project for this year ;-)

I sorted through both B's and K's wardrobes (sorry no photo's I forgot) and gave away 3 garbage bags of hand me downs to their cousins.

The pile in the photo is baby clothes sorted and ready to giveaway....there's loads more baby stuff to come yet, but that was a good chunk of it.

I spent a large portion of my time on our Home Office/Home Library/School Room, it was in a bad way!! Here are some before and after shots, for those of you that get a kick out of looking at others people's mess LOL!!

Before - Computer Desk Area

After - Computer Desk Area

Before - 2nd Desk at other end of room

After - 2nd Desk at other end of room 

(Cupboards and shelves above still need organising)

Before - Current Curriculum/Unity Study Supplies

After - Current Curriculum/Unity Study Supplies

In the decluttering our life, I prepared the Morning Routine Chart , spent a great deal more time simply playing and being with the kids and assessed each week before making too many committments.

In the planning department I am all sorted for the year with our learning plans. I'm pretty flexible with those and don't feel any strong need or desire at having to complete and stick to the plans though, much less stress that way (especially with a toddler in the house).

Our Homeschooling Support Network (Logan Home Education Network) Committee planned our entire term. This was a huge feat, for awhile there we weren't going to go ahead with the term at all. We really out did ourselves to put it altogether so quickly. This term we are offering a six week block of Drama, Art, Spanish, Japanese, Physikids, Swimming, Tennis and Golf. This will provide extra curricular activities to somewhere around 60/70 homeschooled children in the area.

In the preparing deapartment I have printed, cut out and laminated all of the fabulous resources for Valentines Day over at Musings of Me.

What about you? What did you Prepare, Plan or Declutter this past month?

It Is Absolutely Beginning To Look Like.....

........with new shiny furniture to help stay organised and foster independence.

It Really Is Beginning To Look Like.....

New books, to nourish and excite the mind,

To find out about the world around us,

To learn new skills and to improve on others....

It's Beginning To Look Like.....

The look, smell and feel of brand new, neatly organised stationery.

Crisp clean , freshly sharpened pencils.....

Morning Routine Chart

This simple little chart has made our morning much smoother since we have been using it, this past week.

It's been one of those little things that I had been meaning put together for so long, a 2 minute job, something quite insignificant really, but something that just never got done.

Why oh why do we do this to ourselves?!

Now, instead of me rattling these words off every morning to the kids, "have you brushed your hair, your teeth, made your bed, tidied up your room", now I simply remind them to check their "I Have" chart, plain, simple, easy.

Should of done this two years ago!

I'm not sure this will be of use to anyone but you can grab a copy via this link.