In true teacher fashion I had to set up my daycare space like a classroom, especially if I was planning on implementing some type of curriculum, ie. Tot-School.
I have been teaching for about 8 years, mainly in kindergarten but this last year in first. If you are a teacher then you understand how much “stuff” you accumulate over the years. I knew I had a lot but I think I underestimated it just a bit. On the last teacher work day I had arranged for Connor to come and help, well it was a good thing Jamie decided to stay home that day as well and I convinced him to come too.
When I was completely moved out we had filled our Chevy Suburban and our Chevy Silverado. That being said I also left a couple of things that I wasn’t originally planning on leaving. When we got everything home it all went in the basement and I had to go through it ALL before I could begin setting up anything. I am not going to lie it was a lot of work and I became very overwhelmed a few times.
Fast forward 2 weeks later I have gone through just about all of the boxes and have almost everything set up. While setting up I made sure to include a few things to make Tot-School a success.
First off I need bulletin boards. I wanted one for calendar/math and another to display art work throughout the week. I found both of the boards on Amazon and Jamie helped me hang them. I still need to add to the calendar board and a title to the artwork board but I am very happy with how they have turned out so far.
I also needed more storage for all of the TOYS that were going to come with watching littles. I already had the Trofast stair system from IKEA, so I decided I would keep with that system and order two more pieces to give me some more storage. I originally got the tall white bins but decided they were too big and went with the small bins and medium sized bins.
I had to make sure that included my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree. Over the years it had seen some wear and tear so before I left school we ripped off all the letters and took of the brown paper. Caitlin and I have already made plans to redo it over the summer.
Books, Books, and more Books!! I did not realize how many books I actually had so I added another book case and still have 3 bags I don’t know where to put. I also need to reorganize them, right now they are just on the shelf in any order.
Art supplies are a must for Tot-School so I spent a lot of time organizing it. I will go back and add labels when I have a little more time.
Since I don’t have to follow a set curriculum and get to make my own, I decided to go back to thematic teaching. So each theme needed a bin of course. I need some bins and need labels but we will be there.
Why do teachers accumulate so much office supplies? Fortunately “the girls” came down one day and organized everything for them. They did an awesome job and I can now find the floor of the basement and all of my supplies.
I am going to stop there with what I had to include and save the rest for another post. Once my TWO inspections are complete, I will be ready to start advertising and enrolling “littles”. I am super excited and can’t wait.
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