Clear the Dishes, It's Time for School!

We do not have a designated school room. Even if we had a room we could use, we wouldn't. We just aren't happy unless we have made a mess from one end of the house to the other. Our dining room is in the center of the house with our kitchen on one side and our living room on the other. We like to do our school work at the dining room table, on the couch, in the sitting room, or in the kitchen. Life is school and we don't like being closed off.

You have seen these pictures before because things rarely change around here. (I don't like change.) A couple of things have moved around, but that's it.

We start our day here, at the dining room table. I put our whiteboard in the corner by the windows  (not in the picture) and we do the majority of our bookwork and artwork here. We use clipboards because the tile on our table is a rough surface when writing. We just grab our supply caddy and books and get going. We usually start with a nice cup of hot tea.

My desk and shelves, that hold all our supplies, are in the room with us.

Top shelf: cameras and electronic supplies (cords, etc.), tray for completed papers
Second shelf from top: Books and binders we use often but not everyday, my planner
Middle shelf: All of the books we use every day (see how we have simplified?)
Second shelf from bottom: Bible, nature, and science notebooks, extra copy paper
Bottom shelf: MUS manipulatives, supply caddy we take to the table, clipboards

I got a new laser printer this year (I feel like a pro now). I use our printer/copier every single day. I got tired of paying for a color cartridge on my Kodak inkjet when I was always using grayscale, and then it broke (darn). So I bought a monochrome-only Canon laser printer/copier/scanner. I am in love. It's a little bigger than my inkjet so I moved it over to the antique sewing table. I like it much better there. We have a few more daily supplies there and the kids' Bibles.

When we are ready to watch a video or play a game, to do independent reading, or to do work on the couch with our clipboards when we are feeling tired or under the weather, we retreat to the attached living room.

When we do our read a loads we usually move a few more feet into the sitting room. We can all sit on the love seat together and the dogs have room to lay with us on the footstool. We just pile all up together.

We have our globe in here and all of our library books. We light a candle or our wax warmer so it's fragrant and relaxing.

We are able to live in our home with our school items all around us but still feel like it's our home. So where are all the messy miscellaneous supplies? In the hall closet. Our hall closet is lined with shelves. I have all of our junk hidden behind the closed door, and this is also where I store our whiteboard on Friday afternoons when we are done with school for the weekend. It's kind of a mess, but that's why it's behind a closed door!

I mentioned the kitchen. We are in and out of there all day getting drinks and snacks and fixing meals. We like to try to incorporate cooking into our studies, and will be doing a lot of it with Prairie Primer this year, so our kitchen gets a workout.

Thanks for stopping by our schoolroom when it is actually clean. In fact, I just organized everything today so we are feeling ready to go in a week from Monday when we officially start!