A School Room is Born!

I have really been struggling with the after-school rush lately.  The kids have trouble focusing on homework at the kitchen table, Jason is rarely captivated by distractions, time is was short due to football practices and games 3 days/week (no more football for him, now that his arm is broken!) - all combined with the already crazy dinner hour.  Every evening is stressful in our home and I'm really just OVER IT. 

While in Kansas City last week, I began getting the itch again to homeschool. The after school issue is one of a dozen reasons homeschooling makes sense at this stage of our lives.  A dear friend gave me a ton of books and resources and so much time alone left me tons of space to think about the logistics.  Nothing's set in stone, but this very well could be the kids' last year in public school for a while. Mike and I are really praying that we'd both have peace about the decision one way or the other.

But I'm not ripping them out of school right now. So we still have an after school problem! In the meantime, I was desperate for a solution to the 3-5pm witching hour.

The answer finally came to me: if/when I homeschool, I'll need a space dedicated to our school day.  So I decided to convert half of my craft room into a school/homework room! I got the bug Friday night to pull everything apart and rearrange, got everything in the room organized on Saturday and the closet finished on Sunday.  When I'm motivated, I'm like a machine!  And Mike was thrilled that I didn't spend a penny on the transformation...I just repurposed a bunch of stuff we had hiding around the house.

Before: from the doorway

After: from the doorway

Before: reverse view

After: reverse view

Before: attempt at a kid's art station

After: new school station
(the desk on the left will hold the hand-me-down computer as soon as we get our new Mac)

Before: scrapbook area
(I haven't scrapbooked in months...my desk had become a dumping ground)

After: scrapbook area
PLUS a new art station and reading corner (they're small, but they're intentional!)

Before: closet

During: empty closet

During: contents of closet on the floor (can you see where I sat in the middle?)

During: 5 minutes later...the contents of the boxes were EVERYWHERE

After: closet

All of the bins are labeled and organized - and not a dime was spent!!!

Jason kept himself busy stacking Dixie cups while Mike helped me rearrange furniture on Friday night

the new "art station"

the new "reading station"
with a book box for each child (under the easel)

Jason's corner
I'll rotate toys up from the playroom to keep him distracted while I help with homework

Mommy's corner/scrapbook station

Now that the clutter is gone, I was so inspired to create that I got caught up on the kids' birthday scrapbooks.  I was 2 years behind on Ryan, 3 years behind on Kaylin and Jason's wasn't even started.  I kind of like that my scrapbook area is now a corner of the room instead of the whole space.  Hopefully, it will keep me accountable to keeping it neat!