After 25 years of home schooling, now that we're down to one child doing school, I finally consolidated all of our educational stuff in one room.
I started this just before our school began in August. On the advice of one of my adult daughters, I cleared out several massive bookcases in our dining room so it could be... just a dining room. (See Reclaiming Our Real Dining Room.) I sold and gave away hundreds of books, and moved the rest onto one huge bookcase in what we called our computer room. And that room became a bona fide junk room. It was horribly messy, with piles of boxes and stuff overflowing. We also had an over-sized desk and an air hockey table with a large dog crate under it. Oy.
After Christmas, I decided to make a push, clean it all up, and start actual school work in there with my youngest daughter.
I originally bought the blue curtains for the living room, but I needed something for the sliding glass doors so I moved them last year. Then I found the blue love seat at Salvation Army a couple of months ago and it seemed like a good color match. It has sea shell designs on the cushions, so I decided to theme the room around that. I am generally not into tropical beach decor with flip flops and palm trees, so I tried to make it more quaint northern seaside with muted blue and tan tones.
I got rid of the bulky cruddy old desk and asked my son if he wanted to trade this desk below for a more minimalist one that I got for free from a friend of a friend. He agreed. The blue trash basket and supply bin came from the Ross store, about $5 each. I found the seaside painting for $20 at Christmas Tree Shoppe.
This is our one big book case after I did another huge book purge. That blue bin at the left is just one of three containers filled with books to sell at an upcoming used curriculum sale. I don't need primary grade or high school books, so those were pretty simple to cull out. I don't have any other place to stash the bin for now, so I put the floor fan on it. It can get pretty hot in that room! We already had the white board with black board on the back side. I got it at IKEA on clearance for $7.50 last year, and we use it nearly every day for math. There is also a small bookcase for DVDs off to the left. Our school room is adjacent to the living room where our TV is.
I bought the small round table at Christmas Tree Shoppe on clearance for about $25. One of my kids threw it down on the floor (in a big grump) and the top broke off. I fixed it with copious amounts of duct tape on the underside. Yay me. My daughter does her workbooks on this table as we sit side by side on the love seat. I like how the bottom tucks under the love seat. The base can be pushed all the way under the edge of the couch when we're not using it.
The printer is on the antique side table to the very left of the picture since there isn't room on the desk.
The school room is also adjacent to the kitchen. Our lovely doggy Persephone sometimes scatters trash in the doorway so there were some stains on the carpet that I wanted to cover. I found this throw rug at Ross for under $10 after wandering around and around at Old Time Pottery for one that I liked. I love it! Well, apparently so does Sephie. It's a good things its reversible and washable, but I do have to flatten it down every day since she plays with it and sometimes sleeps on it.
This inspirational sign also came from Ross. Good for educational motivation!
Here's our big basket holding books for our current unit study, this one on Africa. I have to say that Mary Slessor is one lad who imagined life's possibilities - a Scottish mill hand who ventured to untamed Africa as a missionary in the late 1800's and transformed the darker aspects of village culture. She had to beg the tribal chief for a school building.
I found this seashell ornament on our day trip to St. Augustine this week and tied it on with brown raffia.
Also from St. Augustine, I found a light house and a seashell with the Lord's Prayer written on it.
I am glad we set up our new seaside school room. It gives focus and beauty and organization to our educational efforts. Now if I can just find the pile of workbooks that got misplaced elsewhere in the house when I was sick? They've got to be around here somewhere!
To read more about our elementary home schooling check out this blog: Start Well Home School.
Blessings,
Virginia
