I love seeing how other homeschooling families arrange their...junk.
Whether it's photos of designated 'school rooms', or just pictures of how they've got toys, science experiment stuff, and/or books organized...I love it.
So, when a poster at the Well-Trained Mind message board asked for folks to link to pictures of their arrangements...I decided to share mine, in the hopes that some other folks would post some of theirs.
Here we have one half of the 'Rumpus Room', as we like to call it. Doesn't this look incredibly peaceful, and orderly? (I straightened it up before taking the picture.)
The curtains were born of a crazy idea of mine that if I had some way to cover up the haphazard storage of science supplies, games, Fandex guides, etc., etc., during those times, late at night, when no one was using them...at least a piece of my sanity would be restored. Not only were they a lot of trouble to make (does anyone know if it actually does take less energy to iron-on hemming tape than it does to just sit down at a sewing machine and really HEM something?!), but they are seldom used. Experiment over, conclusion noted.
This is the other half of the room, which is meant to look 'older', and give the Big Kids a little space to be Big. (Table can house a boombox, and the Playstation is stuck in the storage area under the couch cushions. Not that we have a television to play it on or anything.)
And this is the formal dining room, which someone thought should have carpet, and is therefore rendered unusable on a daily basis if you have five kids and don't want to clean spaghetti out of it regularly. Hence the use of it as a place where Big Kids Can Actually Do Some Real Work. (The Littles use it for work purposes, as well.) The bookshelf holds schoolbooks, a whiteboard, CD player, and a laptop. The little bookshelf to the left is for library books, and is housing our butterfly habitat, in this picture.
So, there they are; our family's primary areas used for this home education adventure.
But my conscience cannot allow me to leave you with these neat, tidy images as the ones of our little endeavor, here. This is what they look like in action...
Here is a Big Kid attempting to listen to something. Probably a Greek or Latin pronunciation CD. (Since I have no clue how to pronounce anything.) This is really a great snapshot of how a homeschooling parent can provide real challenge for a child; not only is the task at hand something inherently difficult (learning an ancient language), but it's made even more so when you throw in some additional distractions (such as a younger brother getting within an inch of your face and repeating, 'BLOCK?! BLOCK?! BLOCK?! Or maybe a little sister CLIMBING the table, and launching a two-pronged attack against the learning process by first making the CD skip, and then falling on you.)
Isn't this sweet?
This is the almost continual state of the Rumpus Room. Actually, this looks really good, comparatively. I even think, if I remember the time of this picture correctly, that the 'Peep' at the couch was doing something sort of schoolish, on a piece of paper, and not actually writing on the couch, itself. You can't hear it, but the car that the Youngest 'Peep' is playing with cycles through a series of tunes, specially designed to both grate the nerves, and implant themselves in the brain.
It's a lot of fun.
