Suggestions for When Homeschooling Isn't Going So Well...

The title of this post could also be, what to do when your kids attitudes are circling the toilet or how you should keep homeschooling when you just want to watch Netflix. Because, for sure, this is how I feel about 34% of the week.

Are we done here yet? Have I exerted enough energy to make a difference in your education?

Yes? Well, good.

Let’s be honest, sometimes it’s just not jiving and that is hard because you have an expectation of what you think your homeschool day should look like, the state has some idea of what your homeschooling should look like, and I think we’re all in agreement that there should be some kind of learning going on most of the time. But when it is hard and when you’re just bleck about it, I have some suggestions that will (hopefully) help you because I KNOW they have helped me.

These will not turn you into Donna Stone or Mary Poppins but they should help you to be able to trudge through your day and get done what needs done.

Surprise!

Go buy yourself something pretty. No but really. Sometimes all it takes for us to change our tune about school is a new sheet of reward stickers, a new highlighter, a fun colored pen…something to make you excited to get going on your school day. There have been days in blackest homeschooling weeks that I have been known to schlep the whole Shebang to Panera to do school. They have free wi-fi, hot chocolate, and food that I did not have to prepare.

A Reward.

Order in Jimmy Johns for lunch. Go out for ice cream at the end of the school day. Buy your kid a lego set at the end of a successful week of school. Think of some kind of reward or treat that would help if they have that to work toward. We do not buy our kids lego sets every week but we have had seasons where we’ve had to do this just to help them keep their eye on the proverbial and real prize.

Sneaky School

Baking? Measuring and math. Walks? Nature observation. Going to a museum? Art/history/science observation and appreciation. Ride on public transportation? Social studies. This is what I refer to as sneaky school…when your kids are doing something where they are learning but they aren’t realizing it. Read a newspaper. Go to the library. Get out of the house. Find something to do and you’ll find some merit/benefit/educational value to it. Somedays we just can’t face all of the worksheets and sitting and that’s okay. The truth is that education can take many forms and it is perfectly fine to go out and explore with a multitude of them.

Read

Lord knows how many days have gone by when I haven’t been feeling well or my kiddos are fighting a cold and we have simply snuggled on the couch for hours reading. When they were little it would be stacks and stacks of board books. As they’ve gotten older it is fun to be immersed in chapter books that they may not have the wherewithall to read themselves. I was battling the flu when we finished The Hobbit together and currently we’re making our way through The Hound of the Baskervilles. It’s fun to read together and definitely a memory you all will have and cherish forever.

Library

If you are really butting heads with your child I would like to suggest something way crazy out there…go to the library. That’s not really that out there but here’s the Secret thing to do…simply watch what kind of books they are pulled into. Minecraft? Lego? American Girl? Garfield? Harry Potter? Peppa Pig? Whatever they like there is something on Pinterest to help you with coordinating activities or worksheets online with that theme. Around age 6 our son Calvin would not learn for all the money in the world. He had no desire to. At all. All he was interested in were legos. So I decided that school would be all about legos. I bought lego themed paper and suddenly he was okay writing his spelling words out on lego paper. While I read him history I had him recreate the scene in legos. We added the dots on the legos to do our math, on and on with as many lego things as I could think of. It made school fun for him, instilling a love of learning into him and it helped me to get into his head and discover what he liked to do. All in all it was a great experience for him.

And if you just go to the library for books, that is great too. There is nothing more exciting than coming home with a sack full of books that you just can’t wait to read.

Take a Break

There is a fine line between giving yourself grace to rest and just being plain lazy and not wanting to do anything. Feeling out that line is important to do. Sometimes you just need to take a breather so that you can feel refreshed to give it your all the next day. Giving yourself grace is when there are mountains of projects and ungraded papers on my desk so we take a day off for me to get the homeschool room tidy and clean, get all of our future work in order, and plan out our week so we can go into the coming days with a renewed spirit and a fresh breath. Laziness is different for everyone but for me it is not wanting to do school and then spending all day on the couch watching Designing Women or something that is not in the least productive to our lives.

So those are the things that I do to combat the spirit of not wanting to do school. It is hard on most days. It is a strong and true struggle on some days. But in the end it is always worth it and always rewarding personally as a momma. Just make sure you remember that we ALL have these days from time to time, and it is okay to push through, shaking it up when we need to. Love you all and I am here for you in this journey of homeschooling!

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These Items Help Make Learning Awesome!

Over the years we have fine tuned what works for us and what doesn’t.

This past year we took our very large homeschool room up on our third floor and moved it down to our den, located on the first floor. This took an enormous amount of time and thought as we sifted through each item on hand to determine its value in our classroom. After all, we moved our classroom into a much smaller space and which thereby dictated that everything needed a justification for its use of precious real estate in the footprint of the room.

It was really hard and took me a really, really long time (think 9 months, ugh). In the end though I am left with what really works, what we love, and what is useful to what we are studying. For a girl who always liked to have one thing on hand, then another if the first didn’t work, and then maybe something else, this was a struggle.

But now we have on hand things that work well for us and things that we love to use. (at least I love to use, something the kids would just like to not do school, teehee).

A few of you have asked me for some recommendations on things to buy so here they are in no particular order:

Light Up Timer

This is amazing for showing your kids how much time they have. It also gets you off the hook for having to track your kiddos time (or am I the only one who randomly forgets to keep track of the time only to announce, “two more minutes” when your kids ask how much time they have left?). It has a yellow zone so you can set it to give a ____ more minutes left until time is up. This is a much needed feature for our son and it’s really helped.

Multiplication Bracelets

We used these when we were practicing skip counting and now we use them when going over our multiplication facts. I will randomly give the kids these when we are not working on our facts and ask what number all of the bracelet numbers are multiplied by.

Drawing Workbook

This workbook has been in our house for years and for good reason…it’s amazing! When we practice the OiLs method of drawing with Classical Conversations I pull this out but we use it at other times as well. There’s a little story that tells about the animals you draw and there are stickers to use as well (we’ve actually never used those, just the story and the drawing).

HP Printer Connected Ink

Okay, I love our printer! We have had it for about 3 years and it is hands down the best printer we’ve ever had. We decided to take advantage of the HP Connected program. If you don’t know what that is, basically it’s a subscription program for your ink. You sign up for how many pages per month you use and they send you ink when you need it. It is so easy. You can send them back your old cartridges to be recycled and that’s it. It is so easy. I was always running out of ink and pinnacle moments when I didn’t have time to run to Staples for more ink and now I don’t even have to think about it.

Tichonderoga Pencils

We have tried so many pencils. When we started homeschooling (8 years ago!!!) I was a mom who would buy the Target Dollar Section everything to match and it was in theory so much fun! Except the pencils would always break like it was their job and that part wasn’t so fun. Through trial and error I realized that Tichonderoga Pencils really are worth the money. If you have a chewer like me you should also invest in some eraser tops because the eraser will be gone long before the pencil is short so with the erasers you can keep using the pencil.

Sticker Charts

You can get any you would like but I have the ones that we have linked so you can see what I am talking about. These are a great incentive for good attitudes about school and diligence with our work. I give a sticker for each day the kids get their work done without complaining and have good attitudes. Sometimes I will give the chart a set prize value “trip to the froyo place” or I will give it a monetary amount, usually about $5. This gives them something attainable to feel that they have achieved each day. Plus we like to use the little treats when we have a break from school and we remind them what their hard work has earned them.

Fidgets

We used fidgets long before fidget spinners were the craze and we have never used those. Instead I look for quiet things their little hands can play with while we are reading outloud, working on poetry, or whenever else they want to play with them. In my mind fidgets can be anything that keeps their hands busy…so crochet, weaving, playdough, anything could be considered a fidget, right? I love having different things on hand for them to play with (get it, on hand! Eh? Eh?!)

These are the things that are working for us to make our year awesome! If you have any other recommendations I would love to hear them! We are always looking for new things. I will have to learn to recycle things through with our new classroom rather than just hoard everything. I’m excited for the challenge though and hope it will keep us engaged as we will keep only what we love and move through things we are finished with.

Happy learning!

Our Winter Trip to the Indianapolis Zoo

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day we went to the Indianapolis Zoo.  I wasn't sure what to expect going to the zoo when it was only 7 degrees out but we went anyway.  It was amazing.  Even though not many animals were out we had an amazing experience.

As I mentioned in this previous blog, to get in we only had to pay with canned goods to help the local food bank.  How amazing is that?

The first thing we went to see was the indoor aquarium. 

There is something so magical about taking the time to just let the world go by behind you while you gaze at the fish swimming contentedly around.  And then there is something to ethereal about watching your children be able to do the same thing.  It is such a joy to watch them enjoy God's creation and to discover all of the attributes about it.

I think our favorite part was getting to watch the Dolphins.  They have this walk through thing where the tunnel is under the water and the dolphins swim by. Because it was the winter and there was hardly anyone else there we had the whole place to ourselves and the kids and I laid down and watched the dolphins swim over us.  At first Emma thought I was crazy but after we left she said that was her favorite part.  See?  Sometimes it pays to be the weirdo mom :)

Other things the kids loved were the penguins waddling around,

the walrus under the water eating his fish and then spitting it out at us (I refrained from posting those pictures on here.  You're welcome! :)  ).

The orangutan exhibit was so neat and we spent lots of time there watching the apes (not monkeys as we learned!).

We also saw a polar bear,

a tiger that looked like he just wanted to be pet (or eat our face off but you know, whatever), and more!

All in all it was a super fun day.  I think our most memorable thing though were the dolphins. After lunch we returned to the zoo for the dolphin show.  The kids had no idea that dolphins were capable of performing and doing all of the neat tricks.  They were squealing with delight, it was so precious.

So there ya have it, our fun, freezing trip to the zoo.  If you go in the winter I do highly recommend it because we were able to have so much more interaction with the cold weather animals and with such low attendance it practically felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Have you ever been to the zoo in the winter?  Did you like it more than other times? Comment below, sweet friends!

Thankful For My Babies

What a rollercoaster of a year this has been!  

As we roll into the week of thanks, I find myself particulary thankful for these precious children of mine.  

So blessed God chose me to be their Momma!

As we go through life doing this super, crazy busy life, I am thankful for the opportunities God has afforded us...that I can stay home, that I have such an amazing husband, and such a great family network surrounding us.  It's just amazing.

Not sure how much I will be on here this week with Thanksgiving preparations under way.  So in case you don't see much of me I hope you have an amazing holiday with your family and stay safe!

Count your blessings, name them one, by one, count your blessings...

The Nina and the Pinta!

Well, this past week we officially started homeschooling for the year!  And we survived!  Just barely but we survived.  Two days in both of the kids were sick...colds.  By the end of that day I was sick.  Like, I can't survive, just hold me while I die, sick.  

But we got through, we're only a little behind so I guess I just need to cut myself some slack and breathe!  

Anyway, for those of you paying attention we are doing Classical Conversations curriculum this year.  We don't have a group we are meeting with as our schedule with Cal at his Autism school does not permit it so we are just winging it and doing it at home, alone.  Which by the way, so far, I am loving!  We may not get a group because we are plugged in in other areas.  But we will see :)  

Anywho, the first week of Classical Conversation (this year CC is in cycle 3 where we are studying American History) was about Christopher Columbus.  We studied, we read, we memorized.  And at the end of the week we drove for a field trip to a neighboring county where replica's of the Nina and the Pinta were docked for tours.  How awesome of God was that?  To have them here just when we were studying??? Awesomeness!  

So off we went...it was a gorgeous day.  

 Hi!  I'm your teacher for the year...  :)

 Here we are!

 Hi Daddy!

 Okay so these boats are tiny!  I mean, TEENY tiny!  There were 26 men crammed on these boats when they took off in 1492.  And they had to take so much cargo that the men all had to sleep up on the deck.  Seriously, I could not imagine going through that.  No memory foam there, folks.

So we've survived our first week, we've had our first field trip, and all is well in our little neck of the woods.  Hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying school too!

The Nina and the Pinta!

Well, this past week we officially started homeschooling for the year!  And we survived!  Just barely but we survived.  Two days in both of the kids were sick...colds.  By the end of that day I was sick.  Like, I can't survive, just hold me while I die, sick.  

But we got through, we're only a little behind so I guess I just need to cut myself some slack and breathe!  

Anyway, for those of you paying attention we are doing Classical Conversations curriculum this year.  We don't have a group we are meeting with as our schedule with Cal at his Autism school does not permit it so we are just winging it and doing it at home, alone.  Which by the way, so far, I am loving!  We may not get a group because we are plugged in in other areas.  But we will see :)  

Anywho, the first week of Classical Conversation (this year CC is in cycle 3 where we are studying American History) was about Christopher Columbus.  We studied, we read, we memorized.  And at the end of the week we drove for a field trip to a neighboring county where replica's of the Nina and the Pinta were docked for tours.  How awesome of God was that?  To have them here just when we were studying??? Awesomeness!  

So off we went...it was a gorgeous day.  

 Hi!  I'm your teacher for the year...  :)

 Here we are!

 Hi Daddy!

 Okay so these boats are tiny!  I mean, TEENY tiny!  There were 26 men crammed on these boats when they took off in 1492.  And they had to take so much cargo that the men all had to sleep up on the deck.  Seriously, I could not imagine going through that.  No memory foam there, folks.

So we've survived our first week, we've had our first field trip, and all is well in our little neck of the woods.  Hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying school too!

Music and Munchies...there's nothing sweeter

 This morning Emma had a cough so I kept her in bed to take it easy.  I know it was just a little cough...she didn't have a fever or anything (well I guess she did have a touch of a stuffy nose) but to tell you the God's honest truth I am terrified of any of my children getting H1N1 and dying.  I know that sounds extreme but, show up with a little cough and I am putting you in bed.  Just be warned :)

 Anyway, I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon so cough or no cough, the kids had to go to their art classes.  Before we left though we stopped to have a little jam session...Emma on the electric guitar and Cal on the drums.  They got really hot and heavy into it when I went out to warm up the car. When I came back in you would have thought they were acoustically torturing something :)

 two, three, four...In case your noticing, yes I still have the price tag on our drums...don't judge  :)

 And Emma on the guitar..strumming away on the stand, silly girl.  She had to squeeze in next to all of the cookies we are selling for Girl Scouts :)

Anyway, as mentioned earlier I had a doctor's appointment.  It was my annual exam..."the lady one" as my husband says :)  I hate those appointments, don't you?  I have no earthly reason why but the week coming  up to it I am terrified for no apparent reason. I think I am always scared they are going to find breast cancer or ovarian cancer, or tell me I have a week to live.  Something awful like that.  But no lumps were found and no one said "ewww" when the sheet was lifted so I think up to this point I am in the clear :)

In honor of that I picked the little goofies up from art and then proceeded to snuggle up with a chocolate piece, a giant cup of coffee, and a teachers catalog.  A successful appointment calls for a little celebration right?  And besides they might call tomorrow with news of the death outcome so I'd guess I'd better enjoy things while I can, right?  :)

Seize the day, folks, seize the day!

Just Another Manic Monday...

Well it's 8:30 here on Monday morning and the kiddos are still sleeping.  Yes I know I should wake them up, but if they are sleeping their little bodies must need the rest, right?  I'm going with that...

As I struggle to wake them up I thought I would give a little update on what we were up to last week and still are :)  

 This is Frank.  He's our new tape dispenser.  Cute, right?

 This is our my method of sharpening all of the oodles of pencils we go through.  I think it might be time to invest in an electric pencil sharpener.

 Last week when we had the snow bonanze come through we were treated to an ice show on our windows.  So beautiful to see God's patterns and designs in our lives.

 This was one of those weeks that we didn't get through as much as we should have.  So I'm trying really hard to not freak out about it like I usually do.

 Emma's cursive.   While it's still a little too up and down for cursive, she is doing amazing with it!!!  I had oodles and oodles of people ask me how she does with this so I thought I'd give an update!  Here she is writing out her spelling words.  

 After we read our history lesson I will often have Emma narrate it back to me, I'll write it out and then she copies it.  Which is what we had done here.  I love her interpretation of the 95 theses of Martin Luther.  "You don't have to do a bunch of funny stuff to have God love you."  Amen sister!

Emma's Math!  Grrr!  This girl is phenomenal at math but HATES doing it.  It definitely is a weird combination but I'm happy she is good at it.

Hope you all have a Happy Monday!!!! :)

Penguin Themed Homeschooling

Last year I found that I was leaving out lots of fun stuff you probably get to do in real school.  I was also kind of dreading the monotony of school day in and day out, so if I was dreading it I can only imagine what Emma must have been feeling :/   

So this year I've instilled theme weeks.  It's like college all over again or something.  

Anyway  our first week we had Penguins as our theme!  And why penguins you ask?  

 Because we read Mr. Popper's Penguins!  I remember reading this in grade school and loving it so I was super excited to read it with the kiddos.  One of my dear friends, Kristina suggested getting copies for everyone so we can take turns reading or just to follow along.  It was a big help! We also used some components from a Unit Study

I found online for the book.  It was awesome!  It had chapter work planned out that you could do for your entire schooling and covered math, vocabulary, history, etc.  It was so much fun and so packed with helpful info!

 I've tried to incorporate some fun worksheets into their school every week too.  While I can't make all of their work theme-ish, it is fun when I can make some of it.  I got this worksheet from Super Teacher Worksheets.

Their site is so fun and has so many cool worksheets.  They have a membership but there are also tons of free things you can get even if you don't get the membership, the penguin worksheet included. 

 Emma's not doing a penguin worksheet but I had to include this because it's just too cute.  This is her "I'm thinking really hard" look :)

 We also made penguins... Calvin using two colors and them not being blue is a huge, huge step forward folks :)

Here was Emma's finished product.  Seriously, how adorable are these two together?  I got this craft from Lakeshore Learning. hey have such cute projects!

In addition to the things listed we made pbj's on fish shaped bread, snacked on goldfish crackers, read penguin books, made a penguin lapbook, and as our final event we watched March of the Penguins which the kids LOVED!!!  I think that movie helped them understand penguins than anything else we studied.

So excited to share with you our themes throughout the year!  If you have any ideas for themes, please let me know!  :)

Family Fall Festival

 Happy Fall, Y'all!  Yesterday being the first day of Autumn around here, we decided to pack up and have our traditional trek around to welcome the season!  Every year we visit a local mill for a tour, have a picnic, then go to a nearby Orchard to pick apples.

 These are the kinds of faces I get from Cal these days :)  Silly goose.  This was before they sang their fall songs for Daddy and I.  We've been working on songs about leaves and Autumn all week.  Seeing as we homeschool this was a family day/fall party/fieldtrip all rolled into one cute little package of a day!

 By picnic I mean we got take out from Panera.  I know, how planned of me.  But seriously we love their soups, it was a crisp, good day day for soup, Sunday.  And Daddy treated them to these cookies from there...yum!

 I had to document this as this is the most stubborn little boy I've ever met.  Seriously...ever!  Anyway, the boy won't even try to tie his shoes because he doesn't know how, or so he claims...Here he is tying his shoes.  He got most of it on his own and then Emma helped him finish.  But seeing him actually try to tie his shoes is a very rare photo indeed.

 Here are Emma and Daddy exploring the Dahlia garden...gorgeous, right?  By the way, this girl is looking too tall next to her 6 foot 4 inch Daddy...I'm just saying :(

 Hi Baby!  I love you!  This is the picture we always take, with the Mill behind us.  I'm pretty sure Nick thinks I'm insane that I always make him take the same pic of us every year :)

 These two...sigh.

 And these two together.  I called them my Puffy Vest Fellas.  These two go at it like cats and dogs with each other.  But here's how they really feel :)

 Then it was inside for a tour of the mill.  It wasn't on when we got there, the kids were bummed so this kind man who worked there turned it on and actually took us through the steps of how the grain is made.  That's right folks, it's a gristmill that still works!  We buy our year's supply of cornmeal there everytime we go and this time I picked up some bread flour too.  Excited to try to make wheat bread with the kiddos.

 The kids really enjoyed watching the stones grind the cornmeal we were able to take home!  Nothing like learning where your food comes from!

 Then it was onto picking apples!  Seriously, how cute are these kids?

 It's all about the outtakes, right?  How silly!!!

 Emma picked the biggest apple of the day and then proceeded to bite it before we could slip her a smaller one.  Not kidding, the four of us split that apple and it took us about 45 minutes between the 4 of us to eat it.  GINORMOUS!!!

 I think we ended up with two more bushels on top of this and then we were ready to go.  Momma's got lots of apples to make goodies with!

This was his proud moment when Daddy finally let him have his turn with the fruit picker.  He carried the apple in the basket all the way to the scales to pay.

So that was our day, hope you all are enjoying your fall!  Our house is all decorated for the season and we are loving the crisp weather!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

First Day of School Photos

Our first day of school was Monday.  It was...interesting.  While Cal's been around the whole homeschool thing for sometime now, he was in a formal preschool setting so I never pushed him to participate too much as I didn't want to make him go through countless hours of schooling.  This summer he did school with Emma but I had him on a Kindergarten program.  The kid can read and knows numbers and can add and subtract.  Colors, sizes, community helpers, the definition of a noun, the Gettysburg Address, he's got it down.  So I decided he was ready for first grade.  Or some version of that.  We shall see...

Our Kazoo is in third grade!  Age wise she should be in second but she's always been so advanced.  Love her and her passion for learning.  

 How cute is this???

 Emma lost her top tooth last night and when I told her to smile, this is what I got...um, that's not smiling... She is too funny! And speaking of funny....I simply had to show you the progression of Cal's pictures I got...

 Last but not least, finally a smile was in there!  I think we are going to have a super fun school year and I can't wait to see what is ahead for us :)

Mommy's Back to School Shopping

I am so thankful for a husband who believes that the teaching Momma needs supplies too.  So in addition to the crayons, markers, notebooks, and gym shoes, I got some things too!


Nick bought me this cup at the Henry Ford Museum.  I  really do love history so this is the absolute best mug for me.  It was the last one and I was over the moon to be able to snatch it up!  I still can't tell if Nick got it for me to tease me or not, but I love it either way.

He also treated me to these beauties!  They are  Crocs!  So comfy!  I love that I can wear them with jeans and only the toes show and they just look like shoes.  But they are cozy and light enough to just wear around the house.  Perfect for me staying home and running out around town.  Plus they are the navy and pink I love!  

Last but not least I wore my new necklace Nick bought for me on our Anniversary trip.  It's a bubble necklace and I love it!  The colors are all the jewel tones of fall!  

So those were the things I looked forward to yesterday on our first day of school...it was hard to get up at 4 in the morning!  But it was worth it to get myself around, get dinner in the crockpot, laundry in the machine, and feel ready to go by the time I had to wake the littles.  

2013-2014 Classroom Tour

So the dream we shared in this post of me doing a video tour of our classroom looks like it will not be coming true.  In the past days I've spent countless hours trying to figure out editing, attempting to not look like a cow on the camera, and then when that seemed feasible my camera was not focusing in video mode.  And quite frankly, with school starting today I have lots more ways I should be spending my time.

I'm sure you understand.

Hopefully in the near future I'll be able to do some fab video chat with you all and I will be wickedly saavy in the technology department but until then you'll have to settle for dumb ole' pictures.

This is located directly behind the kiddos desks.  It fits right underneath windows.  If our classroom wasn't on the third floor I would probably make a cushion and make it a little reading area.  But since it is on the third floor...um, no.

Seeing this just makes me squirm.  I am not very good at Chemistry.  So the fact that Emma will be studying it this year definitely puts me out of my comfort zone.  

This is my main area for books.  I've labeled where everything is so you can see how I attempt to organize.  We follow the Classical Curriculum.  If you don't know what that means, basically there are 3 stages of learning and each stage is broken into 4 years.  Each of the 4 years you study different times areas of subjects and then in each stage you repeat your studies.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, because we studied Ancient Egypt in 1st grade and will again in 5th grade, I have everything separated within their own subject by the year we will use it.  That way I'm not rifling through material we aren't even covering right now.  

To me this seems like a ton of books but I guess in the grand scheme of things, this isn't too much for teaching two kiddos.  I should also note that if you are noticing all of my shelves are made for short people, you are right.  Our classroom is in our attic and it has a severe pitch from the roof.  Very angled and very hard to set up, so our shelves are under the roof line.  It's kind of hard to get to if I stand but if I move my desk chair over and sit at the books it's not bad at all.  Sometimes it's a pain but I just feel so blessed to even have a room to call our classroom! 

This is our Calendar area.  Each day the kids will put the day up.  We also have information to learn our address, and phone number, the months of the year, and will add to this as the year goes on, I'm sure.  The tree will be used once we start Awana and I can make notes of what the children have memorized as an encouragement to keep going :)

I'm embarrassed to show you this.  Do you remember on Friends when Monica didn't want anyone to open the closet because it was such a mess and she was such a neatfreak?  That is totally the same as this closet! But in total honesty, here it is.  You can see the chaos.  It's just supplies that really don't fit anywhere else.  If you have any suggestions for organization I am all ears.  These are also things I don't really want the kiddos playing with all of the time (the clock on the second shelf up is SOOO annoying!)  

This is another corner where I have books for the kids to read for fun.  It's on it's own and is super easy for the kiddos to get to.  Emma a lot of times during her afternoon reading time will come up and swap out a read book for a new one.  In the drawers are extra activities for the kiddos...puzzles, fine motor pincers,  blocks, the like.  I'm not a fan of this setup but this was part of Cal's crib and it works for now.  It will soon be replaced by a bookshelf :)

Again, total honesty...this is my desk and how it looks.  It normally looks like this just because I am working on so much to get things ready for them.  See?  You can now feel better about the condition of your desk.  

This is our reading corner.  It is built in behind the built-around around the stairs and is in a dormer.  There really is nothing to do with this area but make it a reading corner.  And it totally helped my linen closet.  The cushion is actually made up of old comforters and bedspreads that I am not ready to throw out but had no room for in our closet.  So I folded them carefully and made them into this.  The top quilt is the bedspread we had when we first got married.  I love the colorfulness and it always makes me happy.  Pillows and blankets make this a cozy area to snuggle and read.  

This is the area that is used the most.  I've labeled what everything is.  I love having the books I need on top of the workboxes so I can throw them in the box I need them to be in or take them out and put them away.  The kiddos sit really close to this so they practically have everything they need at their fingertips.  Nick made this workbox system by following a tutorial from one of my fave bloggers, Laine.  You can check the workboxes out here.    You could buy one from Ikea but they didn't have the exact size I needed and this worked perfectly!  The bins are from Ikea though.  They also have colored bins which would also be helpful for sorting by siblings or subjects. The possibilities are endless.

For a better idea of our room, this is what it looks like where the desks are.  Their workboxes are behind the chalkboard and the long bookshelf is behind my chair.  See?  This is why I need a video, folks.  So confusing.  As I mentioned we live in an old house made in the 1890's.  Our homeschool room is on the third floor.  We have an intercom system because it just feels too massive.  Sometimes I hate the angles and it not being done as much as I want and on and on.  But God gently reminds me (as he's so good at doing) that I am blessed to even have an entire room to teach in and discover things and explore with these blessings of ours.  And when we are done, we are done.  I can shut the door and not have to trip over all of this stuff.  And please know that I think there are tons of ways to homeschool and I am in no means looking down on you if you don't have your own room.  I know moms who only homeschool at the library!

I hope my photos have helped explain things...I get tons of questions about how I do things, where things are, what we have, etc.  If you have any unanswered questions let me know and I'll try to answer.

We are starting school today so hopefully everything goes well...praying for a great year for you all too!

The Ugly Side of the Classroom

I've been reading this book called

"No More Perfect Moms"

by Jill Savage which encourages Moms to be real with one another and to dispel the myth that we need to have it all together to be a good mom.

In going along with that I thought I would be totally legit and show you how my homeschool room looked sans cleaning.  Yikes, it's embarrassing and part of my feels crazy showing you this.

My friend Heather came over the other day and our house was trashed.  I mean, horrid, horrid trashed!!  But I bit the bullet and had her over without cleaning anything.  Part of me was mortified.  The other part just tried to laugh it off and explain this is what our life is really like.  She laughed with me and said it made her feel better about her house and made her think that maybe I'm not as perfect as I seem.  I was shocked...

me?  perfect!  Ha! 

But apparently I somehow exude that in areas of my life and I don't want to seem that way at all.  I don't want to make other Mama's feel bad about themselves by how I run our home.

So anyway, there's a little background in deciding to show you what is really going on around here...

 junk!  Wow!  A random shoe, clothes for Goodwill, Storage containers, school supplies purchased for this room.  Wow, wow, wow.  This is at the top of the stairs so this has become a veritable dumping grounds over the summer.

 Eek!  A broken plate, a no longer used computer monitor, stacked books, junk, junk, junk!

 A nice cleaned off desk with iced coffee is the calm in the storm I guess.  Yeesh.  The kiddos have been having friends over this summer and they love to play school which has caused most of this.

 Just utter chaos to me.

 This are is our reading corner.  It is tucked behind the stairs in a dormer and the reading corner is just about the only thing this area could be.  I had tried a matress in this area but couldn't find one that fit just right so we had extra blankets folded up there to make a cushion.  It actually worked really well, was comfy and basically was a way to store all of the extra comforters and bedspreads I wasn't using.  Well this summer when the power was our for four days I forgot I had washed Emma's Hello Kitty bedspread and it stayed in the washing machine for 4 days.  Uh, it was so disgusting I had to send it to my Mother in law for remidiation and in the meantime I had to pull this thing apart to find an old purple comforter I had for her to use.  While I was in there I found a long lost duvet cover I had been looking for for Cal's bed.  Anywho, long story short, this is the finishing product of me running up to grab things...now it needs put back together after washing everything.

This may be the saddest part of all...my desk.  Skewed lampshades and empty glasses around pretty much sums it up.  

So this is the long and short of the horrid looking room.  I figured that if I showed you this room 1) you would see if you ever did think I was perfect that you are wrong :)  and 2) this can serve as a sort of incentive for getting it in tip top shape.  :) After I took the pictures we got to cleaning and it is already looking better even.  

I'll be sure to post the after pictures so you can see what it looks like for real.  And if I can ever figure it out I will try to make a video tour of our classroom to show you around a bit...I'd love to show you how I store things and what I have.  I get so many questions about stuff like that so I'll try to figure it out :)