Cleaning Up the Homeschool Room

I had so much fun seeing all of the great pictures of other peoples' homeschool rooms, that it inspired me to clean up our homeschool room/office.  It is the designated place where we at least keep all of our materials and sometimes do our schoolwork.  I really wanted to join the bandwagon and show my homeschooling friends where we hang out.  But, the more I looked at our space I realized that it was in need of much cleaning and reorganizing.  So, this morning I got up early and jumped into cleaning up and here was the utter chaos of me organizing things from the closet…

Now that I've cleaned up my mess, allow me to introduce you to our humble but happy homeschool room…

I always love to see Before and After photos, so now I hope you enjoyed seeing mine, so that you know that real homeschoolers often aren't perfect.

If you've ever been over to our home, before, you may notice just a few subtle changes.  Not too much has changed.  Penny is still using the Goodwill desk I bought years ago for only $10.  After a makeover, it has become one of my favorite pieces of furniture…

You may notice that I put up a copy of the Declaration of Independence.  That is because this Fall we will be studying American History.  The other change I did was put a new, larger world map, which has the window between the 10 degree and 40 degree latitude highlighted, which is an area that needs much prayer.  Next to it, is a new calendar, from a ministry to the persecuted church, which gives us practical ideas of ways that we can pray for our brothers and sisters around the world.

Speaking of maps, I also put a much larger US map up above our computer desk.  Penny has done a really good job of learning her states in US Geography this past year.  She now knows all 50 states, along with their capitols.  The map is next to a drawing that she did while she was in middle school.

We're excited that during this Fall semester we'll also do an art class.  So, that was another motivation for me to deep clean this room, so that I could find all of my art supplies.  I keep some in a chest of drawers that someone gave us several years ago.

Next to it, is a bookshelf with a lot of books about art and a plastic art tote with supplies that you can carry with you, if you go outside to draw/paint.  The cat also likes to hide on the shelf, too!

Now that I've finally cleaned out our closet, I actually have more room in there to also house some things like extra art supplies, among other office supplies.

Don't you just love the 70's color scheme in our closet?!  That'll be another project way down the line.  Thankfully, I can just close the door on the eyesore and know that I now know where all of my supplies are kept in there.  That is the closet door behind Penny.

Yes, our cat, Jenny, often likes to frequent our homeschool room.  As you can see, there is less stress when you do your schoolwork at home, when you have a friendly feline friend nearby to keep you company!

But Jenny's very favorite room to hang out in, besides the sun porch, is Penny's bedroom.  

That is another room where a lot of learning takes place.  Especially when Penny wants to study for a quiz or test, she likes to retreat to her room, where she studies at her desk (another Goodwill find for just $15).  Once again, a little paint made it look like new.

One of my all-time favorite features of our homeschool room is the shelf which holds six plastic totes.  I've labeled each of these for the various subjects we are studying.  I also have one with my own teacher supplies and an extra one that we can use if we haul books to/from the library and/or our church. 

 You see, I work part-time as a front desk receptionist at our church.  And that is where Penny's homeschool enrichment group meets every Friday morning during the school year.  But, that will be another blog entry posting.  

The place where Penny most likes to eat (and do her homework), of course, is the dining room table, which is right next to the kitchen.  So, you can frequently see the Teacher's Edition of the Algebra book sitting in place of a cookbook on my recipe book holder.

But, when it's time to do our reading, we usually like to curl up on the couch in the living room.  

Sometimes we also listen to the book on Audio CD in there.

We also like to watch DVD's there, such as ones about science that we check out from our homeschool group or our favorite series of "Discovery America" from the library.

 And Penny will often use the laptop computer in there.  Once in a while, we'll even tickle away at the ivories on the piano.  I have a hard time getting Penny to get her violin out, but once-in-a-while, we get a rare treat of hearing her play it or her Thai hammered dulcimer, sitting next to the couch.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour our homeschooling space.  Thanks for all of the inspiration, ladies!  Keep up all of the hard work.  I can't believe that it's my last year of homeschooling.  I'm going to try to enjoy it as much as possible!

Link up here http://www.ihomeschoolnetwork.com/6th-annual-not-back-to-school-blog-hop-school-room-week/ to see some more great creative homeschool spaces.