I promised in my last post that I would start showing you our home school classroom. Well, I’ve been known to stretch the truth.
Seriously, I promise it is under way. I’ve moved most of the boys’ toys upstairs to the loft, and I’ve organized all of the learning toys and manipulatives onto the shelves. I’ve been to the attic to go through the 87,376,459 boxes of teaching supplies that have collected dust for 5 years now. I just need to finish up some sorting, order a few things we need for a Pre-K classroom, and get things decorated. What can I say? I’m rusty. I use to whip a classroom together in no time. Plus, I have “helpers”.
I do have a treat for you, though. One of the things I did to our home last year when Piggy One went to Preschool was create an art wall. I knew our ‘fridge would be spilling over with papers and notes within a week, so I had to have a place to display his beautiful creations.
The first thing I did was search for a display system. I knew it had to be something that could hold different types of work, and I also wanted something that would be high enough off the ground so that tiny little Piggy Two hands wouldn’t rip something down. I had seen this hanging system at Ikea, but was not making a trip into downtown Atlanta anytime soon. I searched online and I found the Ikea DIGNITET Curtain hanging system. I ordered two of them and waited for the Big Brown truck to deliver my goods.
I had my husband hang them for me. It took all of 10 minutes to hang. We measured up from the molding so that they would be level, found a stud and screwed it in. At first I was using tiny little clothes pins that I found at a craft store to hang his art, but I didn’t like that. I went back online and found these Metal Curtain Hooks. I ordered a couple packs of those and we were in business.
While I was looking for the hanging system and the clips, the same site had a suggestion of a vinyl saying for art walls. (If you click on the link for the clips and scroll down, you’ll see what I mean.) I thought I was such a smarty-pants coming up with this idea. Apparently, like most things, I was 475 steps behind everyone else. C’est la vie!
I loved the vinyl saying, “Every Child is an Artist. ~Pablo Picasso”, but knew I could make it myself. My long time BFF, Allison, from House of Hepworths, had given me a hand-me-down Silhouette Cameo, and this was just the time to break it out! Don’t worry. If you don’t have a super awesome bestie like Allison that gives you amazing “trash”, you can free hand it, use stencils to paint it, or just buy the vinyl letters. Or – oooooohhhh – (Do you see the light bulb over my head?) You could chalkboard paint the wall, put your hanging system up, and then get really creative with chalk! ME LIKEY!
The font that I used to create this on the Silhouette is Curlz.
There you have it! One of the things that I created last year for school, but we have cleaned off to get ready for the new school year. This year, the upper wire will be for Piggy One to display his work, while the lower wire will be for my sweet little Piggy Two. Can’t wait to see all the cute hand & foot print art they create in the 1 year old class. Makes me turn to mush and get teary just thinking about it.
Across from our Art Wall is our Family Message Center. In my next post I’m going to show you how to build it. I made ours last year, but I am going to use the same concept to make a calendar for the home school classroom, and you get to come along for the ride. It is so easy, you’re going to die! DIE, I tell you! Well, I hope not, but… Anyway, come back to see it!
Heather
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