Our new learning shelf

I am excited to show off our new learning shelf. As I mentioned before, it's funny that I've never done anything like this at home before. I do try to provide lots of learning experiences and opportunities for my boys at home, but this is the first time I've actually set up something just for that purpose. This shelf is in a new location now.......it is set up on a little "stage" area we have in the corner of our computer room. This room is located right off our other main living area which is a kitchen/dining/living room combo area. This is also the spot where our Christmas tree is every year. My oldest son immediately commented on how the new location of the shelf would interfere with our tree placement. I assured him that our shelf could easily be relocated during the holidays next year. Anyway..........I'm really happy with how it turned out.
It's just been up for about 24 hours and the boys have each already selected things to do from it.



On the top shelf are two books that I'm planning to read to/with the boys this month. I have already printed off all the lapbooking materials for each book from Homeschoolshare. When we get started on those, I'll be sure to post more details. One thing I want to point out about this shelf is that I have WAY more activities on it than I would place on any shelf in my Montessori classroom. I think this is fine for the home setting since only two children will be using the activities. In a classroom setting with 20+ children using materials from many shelves, it helps to have fewer activities per shelf. This helps the children remember where they got the activity and where to return it.



Here you can see the books we'll kind of focus on the next few weeks. I am VERY open about how we do this. In other words, I'm not going to be really uptight about WHEN we read them, or whether or not we do any or all the activities. I just want to enjoy some special book experiences with the boys. That's all.



Here you can see the other activities I've placed on the shelves. I'm going to keep you in suspense about the specific activities for now and will be posting more about them over the next week or so.



I took this photo to show that we do have one Montessori-type rug for doing activities on the floor. I'm not going to be really hung-up on that either in our home setting. However, both boys are used to it from their respective Montessori classrooms, so I'm guessing it will be used some. Last night my older son used it when giving his little brother a "lesson" about one the the activities. It was very sweet to watch.