Our School Room

When we started school this year, we just sectioned off part of our living room and turned it into our school room. Why not use the kitchen? Our kitchen is quite dark no matter what I do and I didn't want to have to clear off the table constantly for meals. Also, I'm in the kitchen a lot, and I wanted to have a different place to be in for school. That's just me though. Because I was so ambivalent about homeschooling, I was simply trying to set myself up for success. This worked fine in the living room, but we were having to move our kitchen chairs in and out each day, our table was very wobbly, and that area was easily a mess all the time.

So after thinking about it, we decided to try putting all four of our girls into the larger bedroom- 1 set of bunkbeds, 1 daybed, 1 toddler bed- two dressers were in the room, two in the large closet. All large toys etc. were taken out, and it became a BED room, with clothes storage, and a few personal items displayed. They all went to sleep well that night and it's been a success ever since! Who would have thought?

So then we started work on the other room. I still had to use a table and lawn chairs for awhile, but at Christmas we were blessed by our church with a very large gift check, and was able to spiff up our room. I didn't want to paint, so I left it white and went with rainbow colors added to it. My husband had built the large desk a few years ago for their bedroom, and we put it in here. It has now become my space, which I really really needed, for sewing, crafting etc.

This is dark, I am not a photographer. This is taken when I was standing in front of the closet:

We bought the cube thingies at Lowes, and they were approximately $45, plus the cost of the square bins, and they were on sale for $5-6. A friend happened on these desks and chairs and brought them to me, two for the grade school girls, 1 for the preschooler and 1 for whatever.

A better picture. I painted some letters and er, uh, hot glued them to the wall! Hot glue is such a friend! I have various craft stuff and playdoh etc. stored under the desk. I want to make a curtain to hang and cover the things under it, and definitely paint it soon.

View from the window. Our window also has a bird feeder hanging in front of it, and the girls really enjoy watching the birdies during school, maybe a little too much sometimes. Those things on the shelves are picture display boards my sister in law made, and I thought they were decorative on their own so I put them up there. I also have a few EASY care potted indoor plants. We have a dry erase calender by the shelves, and all our school books, painting supplies, library books and workbooks are in those shelves.

Our map doesn't really fit on that wall, but it's the best place I could find for it. The metal cart is awesome and we use it for the workbox system. Each drawer holds materials for each subject we study. The girls know to start at the top and work their way down. I will have a sticky note telling them what to do, and they are able to work more independently. We are still getting used to this and haven't filled up all the drawers each day yet. But I really like it and they like being somewhat in control of what they do. I also put in notes for specific chores, or for getting a snack etc. I bought this one at Overstock.com

This is what is in the closet-Barbie world!!! Yes they have two houses in there, plus an RV camper hidden away, two barbie cars, countless horses, out of season clothes and dresses, and the top shelves are filled with other stuff that needs to be sorted out. They like being in a small space hidden away, like it really is a Barbie world LOL.

This room gets lots of action and lots of messes each day. These pictures were taken after most of the school lessons and after I cleaned it up. There was a lot of messes from ME because I hosted a large birthday party for my two oldest girls and there was lots of homemade decor. If anyone is interested in learning more about the workbox system for homeschool, you can do a search on it, or I can talk about it in a separate post.

Here is the link to the cart I bought. It's a little pricey, but it's worth it. It is metal and a nice hard plastic for the drawers, and was quick to put together. I really really like it. In the pics I have a big basket of pencils and my home management notebook on top. And it rolls.