Homeschool Room

For those of you who have visited my blog before, you probably have already seen pictures of our homeschool room. Last year we moved in the the middle of September, so one of the first rooms I tried to organize and get in working order was our homeschool room. We picked a bedroom in our basement for our main homeschool area, which acts as an office for everyone in the family. The only new thing this year is that my husband bought us a new wireless modem. This summer he was very busy doing a job search, which meant that he needed to be on the computer a lot! We were so blessed that at his work's Christmas party two and a half years ago, we actually WON a FREE laptop computer. So, now we no longer have to have our Mac computer turned on if we want to be able to connect to the internet on the laptop. And it doesn't slow our computers down, since we are no longer using the wireless signal from the Mac. So, now our daughter can access the internet anywhere in the house. So, if Daddy is using the Mac, she can go on her Spelling City dot com account on the laptop in the living room. Or else she can go to her newly painted bedroom and use it at her newly painted desk that we bought for $15 at the Goodwill. I am most definitely a FRUGAL homeschooling mom. We've had to live that way since adopting and losing several jobs over the past four and a half years. So, there's nothing better than using an old metal shelf that was a hand-me-down. Just spray painted it and used very cheap plastic totes to put books for the different subjects that Penny is studying. Now that I've started up another part-time job, Penny will be working on her own at least two days a week. She'll probably choose to take her books or laptop to the living or dining room to do her homework assignments while I'm at work. But, having the organized room for the homeschooling stuff in the basement is ideal for our family, since my husband Jay gives piano and voice lessons in our living room on the first floor. We have a small, cottage-style home. So, Penny and I can disappear and work quietly on some homeschooling lessons while his students are upstairs. Here are some photos of our homeschool room. Most all of our furniture is either hand-me-down or from a thrift store. I got the blue desk at a Goodwill store for about $5. The rolltop is broken and can't roll down. It had been black with no knobs. So, I painted it blue and added new knobs. I LOVE this desk, because of it's deep drawers and lots of cubby spaces. When we moved into this house last Fall, Penny had a little more space in her bedroom. So, I just happened to find a small, rolltop desk for her, also at the Goodwill, that I painted white. I also spray painted the metal knobs on it and it looks much nicer. Because she does some of her schoolwork in her bedroom, I'll include the before and after photos of her desk here. Even the new chair that now goes with her desk was given to us by some friends. So, you see, you can really homeschool and live on a very tight, frugal budget. Of course, since I offered to paint her desk, I ended up getting talked into painting all of the baseboards, closet doors, the dresser, etc. I have yet to finish the inside of her actual door to her room. So, please don't think that we are DIY experts. Trust me, I take my time on these projects, too. I'm not a super woman. I'm still figuring out things for homeschooling. We've only been doing this for one and half years. I checked out books from the library, talked with friends, browsed through various websites, prayed and journaled about the idea of homeschooling for one semester, before jumping into it. It's not without it's challenges. In fact, today was one of those days. We had LOTS of stress in starting up in Math, again. But, it's so nice that when your student gets all stressed out in Math, he/she can run upstairs, close the door, jump into bed and just take a nap. That helps the teacher out a lot, too! Hang-in-there, all of you homeschooling moms! You can do it!