Our School Room

Back to school, back to homeschooling, school rummage sale... it was a perfect storm that resulted in me doing what Paul's been after me to do for the last 3 years.  I cleaned the school room.  And I don't mean I vacuumed and dusted.  I mean I deep purged.  Several boxes and bags, and 3 large Rubbermaid totes all went to the kids' school's rummage sale.  I had been saving a lot of things in case Katie wasn't our last child.  But Paul assures me that she is.  She's turning 10 soon.  It's time to let preschool stuff go.  Counting bears, all the "tot trays" stuff I used to post about, tray puzzles, stacking pegs... goodbye to all of them.  Once I got going, I ended up clearing out most of the K-4th grade curriculum, all the board books (I cried a little), all the Biscuit books Jack and I used to read together--well over a decade ago.  The end result is, the school room feels a lot lighter now, so I thought I'd do another School Room post.  I shared our school room in 2014.  Many things are similar, but there have been some changes, too. 

The wall of bookcases.  We still have a lovable hodge podge of books, curriculum, games art stuff, and assorted supplies, along with the random finished art projects, such as the Greek pitcher or the Egyptian canopic jar two shelves below the wooden rainbow I painted.  2 of the purple bins up top hold art supplies.  The plastic "shoebox" size bins in the right side bookcase hold things like index cards, paper punches, glue, pipe cleaners, pom poms, stickers, markers, colored pencils, etc.  The pink bucket has traditionally been where we keep loot from Staples crazy BTS sales.  We used to get multiples of all the good deals and set them aside for "later."  Well, it's later now, and we'll be using up the contents of this bucket instead of refilling it. 

Our school table was a Christmas gift from Paul a few years ago.  I like the wooden one much better than the folding Costco plastic table we had in here.  Under the clock is a wreath of apples my students made in the 2007-2008 school year.  They're all adults now.  Sigh.  Below that is a picture of my current students, Jack, Hannah, and Katie, from about 5 years ago.  The plastic drawers hold Sharpies, paintbrushes, and writing implements.  The top holds our pencil sharpener, hand sanitizer, and antibacterial wipes.  We're planning to have 2 extra students one day a week, so we'll be wiping down the table more often than usual.  Notice the open "windows" in this picture.  Those ledges have been storage for many years, but Paul prefers them cleared off (the black blob to the right of the monitor is our router, the only exception).  We'll be filling and smashing that pinata when we study Mexico this year.  I originally bought it for CNY--a couple animals back.  I'm better at coming up with ideas than actually executing them. 

Crayon bins on the left hold more art supplies.  We have a lot of art supplies.  Left bookcase is mostly chapter book series.  Right side of top shelf is our China section.  Stacked rainbow bins are currently holding foam stickers, flags, and 2 buckets worth of toob animals (affiliate link).  The crate to the right holds other years of MFW curriculum.  Atop the crate, the frog bucket holds 3 bottles of white board cleaner (oops), 2 erasers, and all the white board markers.  During my cleaning, I discovered that the white bookcase lost it's supports somewhere along the way, and the shelf was sitting on the stuff beneath it.  I'd cleared out enough things that we didn't really need that shelf any more, so the "middle" shelf is now under the stuff on the bottom shelf.  The bottom shelf holds our microscope and English manipulatives, among other things.  Moving right, the pink bookcase is laden with games, flash card sets, clipboards, and more chapter books.  The USA travel scratch off map will be coming down, and the world map will be going back up, but not until after the map pre-test the first week of school. 

I love that our school room has lots of natural light.  The pile on the "window seat" and the buckets on the floor to the left of the window seat are things I haven't quite found a home for yet.  The window seat is storage cubes that hold books, paper, and gardening supplies from our botany days.  I should probably go through those and "weed out" a few things.  Pun intended. 

I tried to do a panoramic shot, but I feel like that works better for landscapes than inside a room. 

That's our school room.  Learning happens here.