fun question--filling an empty wall...

[hs.mama07]

We did some rearranging and now have an empty wall near our kitchen/school table (fun fun!!!). Looking ahead to the older guides--what do you ladies like having on your walls? What gets used the most with HOD? I could buy a dry erase board, a map, bulletin board, educational posters to rotate, etc...or nothing and just decorate as usual. Any suggestions?

[LynnH]

We use the large white board every day, so that would be my first choice. A large world map is also used a lot.

[StephanieU]

We are obviously only at the beginning of the guides, but I would go with a big magnetic white board. You can then put other things on it/around it as needed. With it being magnetic, you can "hang" things easily as you go. But hte white board is great for copywork, math, grammar, etc.

[Nealewill]

I had originally bought a large white board that we used. Now, I have small hand held dry erase boards and don't use the empty white board so much.

For me - I like to display things my kids make each year and decorate my house with it. If I had a large empty wall, I would fill it up each year with special things the kids do and then save one thing from each kids to display permanently (if you can) and then clear the wall each year. That is just me though

[MelInKansas]

We use the white board on the wall pretty often, though we do have a smaller one that we use quite often also and the small one was the primary before my husband mounted the big one on the wall. Kids really like standing and writing on a vertical surface for some reason, it helps some of them think. My oldest does some of her English exercises and her dictation on there, but a lot of the other work is done on paper.

Something you could do temporarily for now and then change it up as they grow, I just have ribbons across the wall and clothespins to put up the current week's artwork and pages. With Beyond and LHTH you could fill up one line in a couple of weeks. It's a fun way to show the things off to their dad when he gets home. Some people think this kind of thing looks messy and they don't like it, but I do.

I do like the large world map idea. There are alot of geography activities as you go on up in the guides. We use our globe, which is a decorative item in the living room, and I do also have a large world map and a large American map but we pull them out and unroll them when we want to look at them (when we need more detail in the U.S. for example). Having it on the wall would make for easier use and more frequent discussion over where things are located.

You could always put the timeline up, this would be in the category of things the children create. Handwriting guides if your handwriting book comes with those.

[Homeschooling6]

Dry magnetic white board, pocket chart holder, and a large map is what I put on my limited amount of wall space.

[Mumkins]

We have a little area like that. I use it to display artwork or projects. I also have a chalk board area though. If I had to do it again, I think I'd put a white board.

[hs.mama07]

Thank you SO much for the ideas! Seems like the white board is used a lot by everyone...and I can imagine my energetic sons would enjoy doing their work standing up. If I did the board, I think I'd still have room to display some art work--I really like that idea too! (right now their art works kind of gets put up everywhere, lol). Or some of the other ideas...I'll have to look over this again when the kids aren't under foot. Thanks again!!!

[StephanieU]

Since your kids are still young, you could even hang art at the top of the white board. Just attach some string and then clothes pins. Or use magnets to hold them up. That way you don't end up with a ton of holes in the wall