Creating a Functional School Space

Our first week of homeschool has gone well. Little Girl has enjoyed preschool and we've had good mornings of learning together. One of my priorities in starting school was to have a space where we could keep all school-related things: books, activities, supplies, etc. I think it helps kids - especially younger kids - establish a routine and know what is expected of them. I told Little Girl when we are at her desk it's not play time, she can't wander over to her toys, it's time for school. Likewise, the things that are in her school space are for school only. If she needs something from there outside school, she needs to ask before she gets it.
When we moved into this house I knew we wouldn't have a set aside schoolroom but there was plenty of room in the basement for a school corner. I know we're only one week in but it's worked wonderfully for us. Here's a look at how I made our school space function for us.

Our corner of the basement: behind the couch.

Top basket and tray have flashcards, stickers, pencils, scissors, glue, and other small items.

Second shelf is Little Girl's school books, teacher's guide, and resources for me.

Bottom shelf is coloring books and pages, extra paper for crafts, phonics books.

Our red trash can is handy for all the cleanup we do.

I bought a huge stack of construction paper at Sam's that's leaning against the side.

I put an ABC border on the bottom of our bulletin board. Using a resource from Pinterest, I printed off a monthly calendar and coloring page. Each school day we talk about what month, day of the week it is and find the day on the calendar. She gets to circle the day with a special marker.

I also printed off a list of schoolroom rules. With only one student some of them don't apply as much to school but it's always good to encourage and teach good behavior, wherever we are.

The mesh rectangle is supported with pins. I put all markers in there, out of reach of little hands. :)

The magnetic drawing boards are a great way to display the projects Little Girl does and also a place I can write reminders of things to do for the day/week.

 A closeup of our school caddies. I got them fr $1 at Target. It's so easy to keep things out of reach when we're not doing school but then pick up the caddy and put it on the desk for access during class. I got all the flashcards for $1 at Target also. We'll be working through Phonics 1 cards, American Animals, shape/color review, and letter review.

I keep a pair of my scissors and the stapler on the side in case I need to help her cut.

On the other side of my craft table is Little Girl's reading couch. She loves getting a pile of books and sitting in her own space to read. I have the books kind of categorized but I realize with a 3 year old total organization isn't a priority. As long as she picks up the books she gets out and puts them back on a shelf when she's finished, I'm happy.

So where do you "do school"? What ways do you make your space function?