And we are ready to begin. I have had a few set backs but hearing my pastor say last night that the previous week he experienced an extreme case of "cold feet" for the day really helped me a lot. It is encouraging that they are on this journey with me. They homeschooled one child last year, but this year they will do all four. I feel like we are all embarking on an adventure together.
I finally finished my room...for now. I didn't get to do what I wanted and we opted to change rooms, but we are organized and we do have a classroom where I can teach and my girls can create, explore and begin our year. This isn't the room as it will look three months from now, but it is the room as it is now and since we start school one week from today, I think we have done pretty well.
We originally thought we were going to sacrifice one of the girls' bedrooms for this and we changed our mind and decided to use the dining room instead. After all, we don't "dine", we just "eat" around the kitchen table anyway and big family dinners are done at my mom-in-law's house so I don't NEED a dining room all the time. I encountered some obstacles here though. See, I run a full time business out of our dining room. Check me out at www.facebook.com/OneDivaThreeDolls or on Etsy at www.etsy.com/people/OneDivaThreeDolls . Anyway, I currently have to have a usable dining room, complete with storage for my heirloom dishes, a complete shop with three machines and a large cutting area and school. So, I didn't take pictures of my sewing corner or of my mannequin Bridgette standing guard in the corner, but here is where I ended today...
Organization is important to me. Each shelf is for a different child (except the top shelf, that's mine) and you may notice that there are wipes containers across the top. I took the entire cabinet load of puzzles we had, popped each lid on my printer and scanned it smaller. Then I dropped the newly shrunk (shrunken?) photo and the puzzle pieces into a ziploc bag and stuck them in the wipes container. I also took all of our card games out of their boxes and put them in ziploc bags and their own wipes container and did the same with our flash cards. What is now in four wipes containers used to take up an entire cabinet. Yay me.
We have a little person in our house. She is almost three and is desperate to claim her own territory and supplies in our room. Because of this, I had to find some out of the way storage for small items. All of our art projects, stickers, extra markers, etc. are up here as well as a few projects the girls made me last year in girl scouts. What you can't see is the plaque at the top of the shelf. It says, "My daughter is becoming just like me. Lucky girl." :)
I still have a business and home to run, so Mommy had to have her own space (pretend not to see my mess under the desk). Above our bulletin board (which will not stay empty for long) is a sign that reads,
Let's eat Grandpa!
Let's eat, Grandpa!
Correct grammar...it could save a life!!
(My rising fourth grader found that hilarious)
And here is the room from one angle. If you look carefully you can see my sewing machine and serger in the china hutch and a second sewing machine on the floor by the window. Bridgette was upset at not being in the photo, but she is over my right shoulder.
And here is our room from the other angle. I am standing in the doorway to our living room. The goal is to put up a curtain so if we are messy in our classroom, no one who visits our living room needs to see it. I think I am in love. :)
As soon as I got the desks in, my middle child sat at her desk. She was still sitting in it a few minutes later when I came back around the corner. I finally asked her if she planned to sit there for the entire week. She said no, but she was going to sit there for a little while. :)
