Schoolroom Prep.

I spent most of yesterday preparing the schoolroom to start this year's school year. We made the designed "den" of the house the school room, because I've found it too difficult with toddlers to be tucked away in some remote room of the house. This way, I can attempt to keep kids on task even while I slap PB and J's together at lunch-time. While a traditional den would be prettier, the convenience has been worth it!
What I have done for several years is have the kids keep all their day to day books and notebooks in one of these fabric bins that then get put away in this Ikea shelf. Once upon a time, I homeschooled only four kids and they each had a shelf with one left over for supplies; these days Gabriel and Alei have out-grown my system, Moriah and Alyssa still have their bins, James and Ben share a bin and Tori and Julia have little bins that leave room for the crayon, marker and colored pencil boxes.

I also cleaned out and organized the bookcases. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to having the books in logical order; I'm not sure my system would be logical to anyone else, but it's working for me. I'm also quickly running out of book room!

My last touch is that I'm going to move the horse out and set up a small train table for Elijah between the book-cases, in hopes that it will help keep him occupied during school time.

We are getting close to the 2010-2011 school year!