4 Moms, 35 Kids

I loved the link-up I found while browsing blogs, today -- storage solutions at Raising Olives. A while ago I posted about our newly organized schoolroom. It's working pretty well for us, although I must admit we school all over the house, and largely at the kitchen table. It is nice, however, to have a dedicated room for resources, and a room where I can CLOSE THE DOOR if it gets too "hectic" inside.

Becoming a homeschooling mom has alerted me to the fact that I am not the obsessive compulsive neat freak I once thought I was (I can hear my husband laughing at that right now!). With all of the projects, resources, and ideas floating around my house I have become a bit scattered. I guess this is called "letting it go", right? I used to base a lot of happiness upon how organized I was. Well, I would be unhappy most of the time now if this was the case, so I've had to ease up on myself.

So, check out Raising Olives and her storage solutions for a big family. I am impressed to say the least!
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Not Back-to-School Blog Hop - Our Schoolroom

This week at Heart of the Matter, the focus is on school rooms. A few weeks ago I posted pictures of our school room. You can check it out here. I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of time we spend in this room upstairs. Oh, we do migrate downstairs for snacks, some crafts and cooking, and when we want to snuggle up and read in the family room, but all in all I love having a dedicated room for "school", and most of all a place to put all of our STUFF. Another great thing is that the attic (where I store a lot of the kids' things) is just off of the schoolroom, making organization easier for me. I think we may need another bookshelf or two, but for now it's all good.

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Our New Schoolroom

I've been on a mission this summer to dedicate an entire room in our house to school.... and it has taken me the past month and a half to clean out one room! Up to this point we had used the room as an upstairs family room, so it already has a comfy sofa and entertainment center with a television. In my defense, this room is above our garage and has a very large attic storage space adjacent to it - that space is very large and had basically housed a bunch of junk that had accumulated since we moved in five years ago. So, step one was to remove all junk from the attic and give away, donate, throw away, or save. Once that was completed I then tackled the closet in the room - which was my scrapbooking closet. I packed away a lot of those things (many we can use for school!) and dedicated that closet to books, games, and supplies. Finally, I got each of the children their own table and lamp so they have their own area in the room.

I'm not expecting 100% of our schooling to take place in this room. I know that there will be times when we will relocate to the kitchen table, or to the back deck (especially in the Fall when it's so beautiful in the backyard), or the family room. Rather, I see the schoolroom as being the place we start our day, as a quiet place away from the hubbub to get some work done, and also as a place to store all of our curriculum and supplies. Last year my daughter did everything at the kitchen table, and that worked fine - but with two at home this year it just feels good to spread all of our school things out!

The thing I worked really hard on was the closet - trying not to spend a lot of money, I just invested in some bins from Target and put all of our books (that I could actually categorize) in different bins. This is just one of eight bins in the closet.
And here is the whole closet (nice and organized.... ahhh....) You can also see my daughter's workspace here.

I love that is right by a big window that overlooks our backyard. And yes, that's my husband on the lawnmower - probably his favorite place to be (and I'm not kidding).

There is one bookshelf in the room, which I think may be quickly outgrown. I only keep books we are currently using (lots of Sonlight Core 3 and 4 stuff in there) and things I think we will be needing this first semester. Above the bookshelf you can see a frame with artwork in it. There are actually a couple of these that hold canvases of artwork. Hopefully we can change these out during the school year. Next to the bookshelf I just have overflow books for free reading in the black crates. I like having a television right in our schoolroom - it is not hooked to our satellite, so only movies and the Wii are on this tv.

Next is my son's area, which is by the other big window in the room. In the corner you can see a tiny bit of a big treehouse for dolls, which will be staying in this room. My daughter loves her American Girl dolls and her uncle lovingly made this treehouse for her birthday last year. She doesn't know that she will be getting an AG desk for her dolls for her birthday (which is next week)! I hope she sets them up in our schoolroom, too. I'd like to eventually do some cute window treatments, but one step at a time for now.

That's it for now - I am excited to really start using this room in the coming weeks. We laid in the schoolroom tonight and read before bed and it is so cozy and comfortable. My children are blessed beyond measure, and so are their parents!
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