Our Own Home: Office/Playroom

I had been hesitating posting our own play spaces because they're not "Pinterest perfect."

But then I was truly inspired by this Play Space Inspiration post by Janet Lansbury. And it got me thinking.

Learning by Design services can be about beautifully decorated and organized spaces.
But, it's also about child development education, parent involvement in play and practicality.

So after much self-reflection and realizing I'm entirely too hard on myself, I have decided to share how things are in our home. It's a work in progress; it always will and should be. Children change and learn so quickly. Our toys and learning spaces should adapt with them. So, I've used this reflection and inspiration from other bloggers as motivation to share our spaces with you and update things as they evolve.

I also had hesitated as we weren't sure we would be in our apartment past Spring.
But, we've decided to stay another year.
So, I'm excited to be able to continue to update things and make them our own.
I can't do all I would like to of course, since we don't own our home.
But, that's also what Learning by Design is about: using what you have available to you to design the best "play to learn" space in your home.

So, welcome to our home! 

This multi-functional space serves as our playroom, guest room and home office. When we moved in, we thought it would be B's bedroom. But we've become a bed-sharing family for the time being. And using this space this way just serves us much better for the time being. Most of the toys are actually in the living room. But I like having this room to dedicate to playful items and decor. I'm planning to do a lot more with this room this year so stay tuned!

In the closet I keep bins divided by areas of development (cognitive and fine motor, sensory activities, language, and practical life/dramatic play.) I'm sure in the future I'll need bigger bins but this is all we have room for right now in our small apartment. 

This room also includes our writing center and a book nook (there's another book nook in the living room). 

 

Yup. The felt board got colored on. 

So there is just a peek into some of the ways we play to learn in our home. You can read about how to create a cozy book nook and look forward to a future post soon about our writing center. I'll also soon be sharing our living room space and how we encourage independence and practical life skills. 

Thanks for visiting!