HOMESCHOOL HUTCH

Homeschool Hutch - a lesson in reduce, reuse and recycle. We happen to have lucked upon a ton of old furniture from parents, grandparents, etc. and while this is wonderful - we have found it daunting to try and find a home for each item. Some items we like so much, we bring them into our home and use them in ways that you might not find as usual for the piece. This hutch here is a great example - re-purposed for the classroom. This one went from storage offsite, to the garage and then finally into the house. In the end, it is always well worth the effort to save something like this, now - should I paint and sand - or leave it be?

M&H love that the hutch is "theirs" and that they can see supplies clearly in each area. The top is wonderful for a beautiful array of rainbow colored materials and book sets. While the kids cannot reach these items, the display allows for them to request things that can be brought down easily and they are always in plain view so it is a great reminder of what we have on hand. Resources are so plentiful, that sometimes we forget about really cool projects or kits.

The middle of the hutch houses easy to reach books, writing journals, writing paper, etc. Little hands can easily reach these items. Maverick especially likes the on-hand book selection, right at eye level for picking favorite books.

The bottom area houses puzzles, which we have a wide variety - Maverick is a puzzle genius, the kid gives me chills. I'm serious, she is 5 and the puzzles that she can solve take me twice the time. So, we have set up the bottom of the hutch as puzzle central. Organizing things at the level of the student, to the students interest, can really help aid in use of the curriculum materials you have on hand.

The drawers of our hutch were separated for silverware, with a nice felt lining. We used this as a storage unit for flashcards of all kinds, that can be broken up into MorH sections, kindergarten and third grade level/relevant topics. This is a really cheap way to up your hands-on materials for the classroom. Stores like Target, Michaels, Walmart, etc. sell many flashcard sets for $1 in very relevant, real and graphically awesome topics. We have a set for landmarks, space, phonics, math, US presidents, etc. pictured here. Our loose theme for Fridays is - Flashcard Friday, so this drawer gets great use.