New School Room

Anyone that knows me knows I don't generally go very long without moving furniture around in my house. Ed, being the smart husband that he is, no longer complains about it. He just lets me do my thing and helps when I ask. I know it drives him crazy, though!

True to form since we started homeschooling, I got a bug to change our school room up! It just so happened that the bedroom closest to the game room in our house (which was serving as our school room) is also the smallest room in the house. With the most furniture. Plus, my children love to be underfoot. It used to drive me batty, but I've learned to embrace it and create more space around my feet to accommodate them. :-)

Every morning, we gathered in our 10x10 school room with a ridiculous amount of furniture. With five people, it got pretty darn warm! Its no wonder I thought I was having hot flashes!

Then, there's this: upon moving here, I totally purged our toy supply. We got rid of A LOT! My kids had an outrageous number of toys. They still do, actually, but we literally got rid of everything that wasn't something they loved and played with on a regular, consistent basis. Add in the fact that I had the 3 big kids move all their little tiny toys {Polly Pockets, Legos, Littlest Pet Shop, Tech Decks, Barbies - you know, all the little toys that Jace would enjoy eating} to their rooms and we were left with a very large game room that contained surprisingly little! Plus, the game room has a built in desk that was only being used for an occassional puzzle.

You can see where this is going. A few weeks ago, I told {warned} Ed about my plans. He, of course, said, "Whatever you need, babe!" Oh, we've come such a loooong way!

So, one day last week, Jake and I tackled the mess. We cleaned things out as we went and were left with one large bag of items ready for a garage sale and a smaller bag of trash.

We are all loving our new, much cooler school room. The "playroom" that is now in the tiny bedroom is a bit cozy, but should be better once we can move the computer armoir out. See, what my little brothers don't know is the next time they come over, they will be put to work! That thing is a BEAST! And, I'm just too big a weany to heave-ho that sucker down the stairs. It doesn't help that any time I help Ed move something heavy, he makes me bust out in belly laughs that leave my muscles totally useless.

Ok, so anyway, there's actually more to this than just sharing my furniture-moving fetish. I get so many questions and emails about how I set up school/where I do school in my house, etc, so here ya go...this should cover it.

Linen-now-turned-homeschool-supply-closet!

Built-in desk

Other side of the room

The desk in the corner is Jadyn's spot!

The table is where I work with the kids one-on-one

This is a quilt that my great aunt made for Jake when he was born.

We haven't moved it yet, but this big wall will be perfect for our time line.

I kept the entertainment center/TV in here - at least for now

This is Jace's spot/stuff

As a bonus, we have a little nook right outide the kids' bedrooms. I put a small bookshelf and the majority of their books there. Its amazing how much they love that little area!! We keep small stashes of books all over the house, but the majority of their books are there.

Hope you enjoyed your tour! :-)