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Right in time for summer break!

I went a little nuts the other night and rearranged the entire downstairs to accommodate our homeschooling and because I was sick of homeschool stuff in my kitchen.  So my poor dining room took one for the team and is now our homeschool/coffee house-esque area.  I also lost my keeping room in the process to toys but eh.  Never really used that space much anyway.

Here’s my dining room BEFORE (and yes, I was insane enough to keep my table set with my grandma’s china with two rambunctious boys in the house. I was kind of obsessed with formality – HA HA HA HA HA…whew.)

Okay, so I didn’t usually have fresh flowers on the table, but the ESSENCE of fresh flowers emanated from my dainty room. I am Hyacinth Bucket.

Here’s my dining room NOW

WONK WONK, homeschool room now. Computer is going upstairs, btw.

That rogue chair is turned that way to serve as a foot stool because we don’t have room for any kind of ottoman in here (I am in said chair NOW, by the by). Dave moved the 795 pound, solid oak kitchen table to the dining room and we put it in the corner to save space. I moved the rug from the keeping room in here with the help of Dave’s mom, who also helped move the chairs (thank you!). Here’s a shot of the corner of the room where the bookcase went. It’s sort of ugly, I hate to say it. Grandma, if somehow you have the internet in heaven, I apologize, but I think you’d agree it doesn’t really match plus it’s covering up my wainscoting. And I can’t help but think you’d have liked my wainscoting.

My phone takes horrible pictures. Oh iPhone, where art thou?

I’m going to ditch the rolly-carts and get some of those cube book cases from Ikea. Erm, Dave, next time I go to Charlotte I’m getting some book cases at Ikea and then we’re going to assemble them. I’d kind of like each boy to have a cubby hole for their things, but we share and I don’t like them touching the books (you can’t resell boy-roughed-up materials – I’m not being mean here). So maybe they can put a pencil box and their sketch pad in a cubby hole and I will use the rest for books.

We are really going to focus on reading next year. I am SO PUMPED to start school after going to the CC Practicium this week. They emphasized reading a lot and I realized I haven’t been doing enough. Though he learned a LOT this year and is working above grade-level as a result, we’re going to back off the rote text book learning next year and take a more relaxed approach to learning. I hope. I hope I can do that. I am not a relaxed person, in general. I need tangible evidence, like rote workbook results, that indicate learning and mastery. So this new, laid-back, book-ladened Donna-as-a-homeschool-marm thing might be difficult at first.

This – coincidentally – is why there are coffee break chairs in the room.

Related articles

• Organizing Homeschool Supplies (thehappyhousewife.com)
• Baskets, Binders and Bookshelves – Organizing Homeschool Materials for Large Families (barbigreen.wordpress.com)