***UPDATED***
Renee asked if it was always this neat and organized.

No.


Here's what the room looked like at 5 pm today. It would probably be worse, but I think the littles are coming down with a cold and they all took 2-3 hour naps today. Also, they played in the living room.


We usually do a "quick tidy" before lunch, but didn't today. The rooms do get picked up at night, usually. The playroom has one kid assigned as "monitor" and Miss V and Miss C are helpers. Another kid gets living room duty. Our chores rotate.

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We rent this house, and it's twice as big as our last one. I'm glad we're renting, because it costs a fortune to cool in the summer! Our next house will definitely be smaller.

One bonus to having so much space is that we have a playroom. We've always tried to keep as many toys as possible out of the kids' room, anyway, and set things out in a Montessori fashion even though I don't have any actual works out right now. Here's our play room from two houses ago.

The downside? The room that works best as a playroom is the front room. It's the very first thing you see when you open our front door. Well, kids live here, too. I hate the super designed rooms on TV and in magazines that completely erase the existence of all people under 4' tall.

View from the front door: (Yeah, I didn't vacuum before taking these pics. So ignore the crumbs on the floor. Kids live here!)



We have a lot of toys! We have toddler toys, preschool toys, early elementary toys, and older boy toys. We have a 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 year old.

Our playroom is set up in "zones".

Dress up zone (there used to be a mirror where the US Map is, but Mr R broke it two weeks ago and we haven't gotten a new one yet.)

Pretending zone, sound zone.
Babies are in the big green bucket, baby clothes, bottles, and paraphenalia in the white basket, and doctor kit. Piano, toy phones, Tube Phone, cassette player that I don't think works anymore. Also on the floor: big bucket of wooden train tracks.



Animal play
Large plastic animals in the green bucket. In the plastic baskets, we have people (army men, mermaids, etc.), dinosaurs, and farm animals. The big white thing is a barn with stuffed farm animals for X that I got from Ikea.

My older boys play with the animals in an entirely different way from the preschoolers.


Littles shelf
Little People landscapes in the big green bucket, Little People in the small bucket (so they don't have to dump the whole thing to find a Little People (Little Person?) to play with. Baby X's Leap Frog tow truck, and miscellaneous Matchbox cars. Baby X's other toys.


Block shelf
Foam blocks, Lincoln Logs, wooden blocks, Marbleworks, and Bright Builders. Duplos in the nifty Duplo desk, another garage sale find.


Reading nook
Library books are in the blue tub; there's a white bucket for the kid books we own that I find all over the house. I found the ladybug pillows at Salvation Army for 50 cents each!


I like the bookcases, especially when you have older kids and younger kids. The big kids' stuff is on the upper shelves.

Games, puzzle, Bionicle pieces. The gray buckets on top hold Imaginext Pirate sets and baby toys that X has outgrown.

K'Nex, Legos, and the baby wipe box is for me to dump all of the extra Legos I find all over the house. My favorite label is the "weapons" box. It's so deliciously un-PC. Holds lightsabers and Nerf guns.


"Asking" toys with lots of pieces, like domino sets, Mr. Potato Head, pegboards, and lacing cards.


Along the stairs, I have a cabinet we use for "tea party" and food.


View from the reading nook.


And an Aquadoodle on the wall.



What do your kid spaces look like?

Labels: children, Family Life, homemaking, Montessori Mondays