Every students needs their own space. In a classroom, every child has their own desk and chair...a space all their own. Since I am teaching my little guy at home, it was important for me to create a space for him where he could do fun things and create his masterpieces! At first I thought there was no way this could work. We have a very small house and his toys have already taken over every room so, therefore, we have no space left. But I moved some things around, shoved all of our pots and pans into a cabinet and voila! a space! This space is where we do everything! We color, paint, play with playdough, cut, glue, use stickers and sometimes eat a snack. Even though his things are in every room of our house, I wanted him to have one space where we did all of our "school" things. I didn't want him doing artwork all over the house and I chose the kitchen for two reasons...one, it was practically the only space we had left. And two, clean up is a breeze!
What's in the space?
- an easel with poster board or paper
- a table and chairs
- crayons, markers, paint and paintbrushes
- glue, tape, scissors
- paper...different shapes, sizes and colors because little ones love to choose!
- playdough and cookie cutters
- plastic placemats to put under the paper to catch stray marks
- wipes
- coloring books, activity books and sticker books
- word cards, picture cards and alphabet cards
- color sheets printed from the computer
- memory board or corkboard to display artwork
- a folder to keep artwork that is not on display
A few thoughts...
Obviously, I put the things out of reach that I do not want him getting into, but I put things down low so he can make choices, too. I put the coloring books and paper within reach so he feel like a big boy when he chooses. I always have several different color pages already printed from the computer of things I know he loves to color. In our house, our color page folder is filled with trucks, cars and trains and I always let him choose which one he wants. I usually let him choose what he wants to us to color, too. I say usually because sometimes, I just don't feel like getting into the paint. I let him choose the paint color and paintbrush, too.
A trick that helps me...
I try to do some sort of activity at the table everyday, usually after breakfast before we get sidetracked. To help me remember, I have a small lamp right next to his table that I turn on first thing every morning. I leave the lamp on until we do our activity for the day. If I see that the lamp is still on, I know we need to do something at the table. But if the morning gets hectic and we don't really have time for an activity, we just turn off the lamp and go on with our life.
Create a space...have some fun!
