Organize Me!

When we first began homeschooling, we knew that we'd have to organize our home to fit our new lifestyle. Fortunately our home here in Cleveland has plenty of space and several different rooms that could serve as a classroom. Last fall we began brainstorming the pros and cons of each room and what we might need to organize our supplies. We discussed buying some new desks, a new table, new shelves, etc. What we finally decided to do was to wait. Truthfully, we didn't know what room would work best since we never homeschooled before. Before we made a major purchase, and began rearranging furniture, I thought I should try a few things in a few different rooms to see what we prefer.

I settled on the dining room. It has lots of natural light, as well as a decent overhead light fixture. Our dining room table is nice and big, with benches on each side. Each child has a bench, and an entire side to the table. We can easily move to the living room, to sit on the couches while we read, and then transition quickly back to the table to complete some seat work. I've positioned a chair at the head of the table where I can instruct the kids from either side.

It really has served us well, and I'm glad we didn't spend a fortune on something that wouldn't have been so sufficient. But, we did have one problem. By having all our school supplies at the dining room table, often times dinner would roll around and our dining room would look like this....

Or this...So, we knew we needed a little something to help us contain all our supplies. One Friday in December, we had had enough of dining in the classroom, so we took a trip to the Pittsburgh Ikea. We found the perfect bookshelf to place under the window that would neatly assist us in turning the dining room into the classroom and back again. Each subject has its own box, and everything is fairly well organized so we can access it quickly.

My two favorite parts...
1. The entire set up was less than $100.
2. With simple Ikea furniture, the kids assembled it themselves.
Here they are. Proud of their work.We're off to a great start this winter, mostly because we're so organized!