The Big Reveal... and Signing Off

Tomorrow is our first day back to the grind of homeschooling! We *were* planning to start this week, but an exciting outing with Daddy one day, followed by a stomach bug in the family the rest of the week kind of derailed that plan. Which was OK, because it gave me the time needed to finish up the homeschool room!

We have a full finished daylight basement that up until now "functioned" (or didn't function, for lack of specific purpose and layout) as Michael's "work at home" place, the play/game room, as well as what I called the "couch graveyard" where somehow we amassed several couches that need a touch of work and we didn't have room for upstairs. I wanted to Craigslist/Freecycle them all, but my wise husband suggested they might come in handy someday. And, as usual, he was right!

So my homeschool furniture is not new and fancy - in fact, it is mismatched and somewhat ugly... but it works for us just fine! The best part is since they were already just sitting there, I didn't have to spend any extra money. In fact, even the paint we decided to use was a color we already had on hand! The only things I had to buy were some lamps, extra storage containers, and the gutter supplies for my gutter shelves.

So now our once terribly cluttered and non-functional basement is a decently suited homeschool room. I'm pretty excited about it.

Here are the before pictures (actually, before these there had been a huge ping pong table taking up the big open space you see. That was thankfully put away!) - prepare yourself for some major clutter!


And here are the after! (A few things are still in progress - the white walls will be painted a warmer color, the computer needs to be relocated, and I have a few things left to hang on the walls.)

Where preschool will take place - the coffee table is the perfect height for littles to work at, and the couch is great for reading stories on. Toys are also in this corner, behind where I stood to take the picture. Also in this picture is the desk where the computer will be. Next to the desk is a bookshelf. Those cluttery things in front of the sliding glass door there are our heater and dehumidifier, I didn't bother putting those away because they will be in use soon, and they also block anyone from being tempted to use the non-functioning door. My birthday request is nice patio doors to replace the glass door - it will really make things look SO much nicer, as well as give us instant access to the backyard.


A view from the preschool/toy area - the computer desk to the left, the table in the center is for seatwork. The wet bar in the back is where the arts and crafts materials are stored (it has a sink and everything - how perfect!) and the bookshelf behind the wet bar has our current curriculum - each boy has their own shelf. There is also the stacked drawers that contain our markers, pencils, papers, etc. on the left near the wet bar. To the right are bookshelves containing puzzles and some preschool supplies. The TV area is also to the right.


A close-up of the wet bar area.


The toy and preschool area from a different angle.


My favorite part - our reading spot! The gutter bookshelves will hold books relating to whatever country we're studying, and the basket next to the couch has additional library books. The cabinet there actually stores all of the board and card games.


A close up of the puzzle/preschool supply bookshelves. Can I just say that the treadmill is such a frustration for me? Whenever I see it, I start humming that song "One of these things is not like the other..." It just doesn't go with the flow of things! But it does get used, and we had no other spot for it, so there it is.


The TV area. We have no TV upstairs and no cable, so its a nice spot for family movie nights, and for when the kids need to watch their Math-U-See videos. Lots of couches make for more comfy reading spots. We do alot of reading!

And that's it! Its hard to give a really good view of the way things mesh together, but I'm pretty happy with it. It took alot of thinking and planning, but I'm so glad its come together! I'm really looking forward to giving it a go this week.

That being said, I am going to spend this first week of back to homeschool, offline, to help me to stay focused and use my time appropriately without distractions. So I'm signing off for now... but I'll be back with updates in a little while!