Saturday, August 24, 2013

Our learning area and my new desk space.

Welcome to our learning area aka part of the kitchen. :) Ignore the ugly red...as soon as I have a spare minute, that color will be gone. 

So this is where we do all of our groupwork and the littles do their *sit down* work {math, spelling, handwriting etc}. 



A close up of part of our school storage. The brown storage bins contain craft supplies, puzzles, calendar pieces, small education games, etc. Notebooks, journals, empty {YAY!} storage space on the 2nd row, and the 3rd row holds all of our school supplies {pencils, crayons, glue, scissors, etc} in labeled storage tubs.
 
 
 
 
All group work printables and Drake's work for the year are stored here.  I love having all of those papers just waiting for me to pull them out for the kiddos.  Saves a LOT of time!
  

Right through the white doors
in top picture is old pantry turned library/school storage/office entryway.  One side contains most of our home library, some math and language arts workbooks and file folder games {blue and green magazine holders}. Then a corner of things that still a home. :)  This is definitely a work in progress.  Someday soon I'd like to take everything out of this area and repaint the shelves, finish off the sheet rock where we tore down the back wall {entrance into my desk area}, and then paint the walls to match the future color of the kitchen.
 
 
This is the other side of the old pantry. From top to bottom: paints, flashcards, and items I don't want in the hands of my littlest littles {gorilla glue!! armor etch glue!! etc}. Some of my teacher manuals, some small storage tubs {more things I don't want the littlest littles to have....glitter, stamps, bingo markers, magnets}, and all of our math manipulatives.  Blue storage tub full of various math games, binders of curriculum, and some of our group work books.  Our Ikea paper roll that I LOVE and a couple of storage tubs with office supplies. Below that are some of our workboxes.  We don't really use the workbox system like it's intended.  I like the idea of the workbox system but I think a couple of the boys are just too young yet.  Really they don't have much *independent* work anyway.  I pretty much have to work one-on-one with them on the majority of their work.  I'm not sure how we're going to use these in the future but for now we just have individual work and some group work books stored in them.
 
 
These last two pictures show my new desk area.  I was standing in the middle of the old pantry {with the library on one side and school storage on the other}, looking at what used to be the back wall of the pantry.  We knocked it out to expose a small storage area that previously was only accessible from the garage and back yard {yes, there are TWO doors in my desk area...lol}.  I love this space SO much and try to only allow pretty girly things in it.....you know, since I'm the boy mama of FIVE, there isn't a whole lot of room in the house for pink and sparkles. The desk is actually a 10 ft countertop.  I have space to plan for school, run our business, AND do some paper scrapbooking!   It's still a work in progress too. I need to find some kind of flooring. The cabinets need to be painted.  I need to find a home for a few more things. And to the far right of the bottom picture is a hidden space around the corner that needs a lot of work. There is a set of shelves that hide all of the things I don't want out in the open yet, a couple rolling storage carts that I haven't put to use yet....and one of our water heaters. :)  That's why I didn't take a picture of that space...it's ugly still. BUT nobody can see it unless they walk around there so for now it stays hidden. Ha!
 
 
 
 So that's it! Our learning area and my desk space!!  For now anyway....  We have plans of turning our garage into a family room so that ugly red wall with our calendar stuff on it may end up being a huge pass-thru/bar soon.
 
 
Until then, it's where we do school!!
 
Oh the joys of remodeling an older house!! :)
 
Thanks for taking a tour of our learning area!  Hope you enjoyed it!
 


Not Back to School Blog Hop

Friday, August 23, 2013

Week 1: 2013-2014 school year




As usual, the first week back was CrAzY!!!  We had a lot of fun though and it felt great to get back to at least a bit of our routine.

 
Of course, Monday was our Not-Back-to-School party day. We started the morning with some fun school photos.

 
And the boys opened their gift bags. Since we don't have the expense of public school needs, I like to get them a few fun things to kick off the year. Helps make the day feel special.

 
Then we went to McDs for our annual Not-Back-to-School breakfast. 

 
Monday means women's bible study meeting....which is held in the party room of a fun building packed full of those blow up bouncy slides and mazes. The littles LOVE going there! BONUS Not-Back-to-School fun!!!!


 
After bible study, we ran home for a quick lunch before heading out to a local bowling alley for our homeschool group's Not-Back-to-School party!!!

 
 
Nathan, my 10th grader who came back home this year after a year in public school, met up with all of his old homeschool friends and had a blast catching up, talking basketball, making new friends, and {of course} bowling.  However, he avoided my camera like the plague.
 
Came home exhausted but managed to get everyone seated for a little math.

 
Our 1st official day was Tuesday.  Reminded myself {over and over} that it's going to take more than one day {Week. Month?} to get back into a good solid routine.  We were big ole lazies this summer....and the boys would like to continue that trend.
 
It's just going to take some time and patience and chocolate and Jesus....but we'll get there.
After a morning of trying really hard, we took a break to meet Daddy for lunch. :)
 
We did better Wednesday morning, and packed in as much as we could before taking off for the 1sts student council meeting of the school year. This is Nathan's 1st year to participate....and he was excited!!! Elections were held and Nathan is the new student council chaplain!! :)
 
Decided to take it easy on Thursday....and don't you know, we accomplished more than I had planned. 

 
 
Drake is READY to learn to read. We're working on some letter review and sounds right now. He can't wait to read his first word!

 
Friday is our grocery shopping day, and Nathan has plans with friends. Not much being done in the way of school work but I consider getting anything besides the grocery shopping accomplished a bonus.  Feels wonderful to have the first {crazy) week behind us. Looking forward to a more settled, less crazy week 2 {hopefully}.


Here's to an awesome and blessed 2013-2014 school year!!

 


Wednesday, August 21, 2013

My NEW super awesome desk chair!!

So this summer Bo and I worked on creating a new desk space for me. I LOVE it and will have to share pics of it soon.  First, however, I am super excited to share my yard sale find!
 
I needed a new bar height chair for my desk. I had been using a bar stool without a back. Not very comfy!!
 
I found this beauty at a yard sale for.......$1. Yep, a whole buck. I had to ask what was wrong with it, and she just said it was a little unstable.
 
So I tightened the screws in the legs. Ha!
 
Seriously that was it!! 
 
I broke a piece of it when I got it home. :-/  But easily fixed it with some gorilla glue.
 
Picked up some 1/2 price HOT PINK mistinted paint at the store along with a can of glittery sealer. I already had the fabric at home.


 
It took a couple of coats and forever to dry, thanks to the humidity. You can't really tell in the picture but it was pouring rain that evening. I finally had to put the chair in the garage just so it would dry. I gave it an extra coat once it dried and then two coats of glitter sealer.
 
The glitter is more of a fine powdery look. Not overpowering but not as glittery as I hoped. 

 
 
Please excuse my messy garage. We're in the middle of moving everything out to convert it into a family room.
 
My finished chair! Isn't she pretty?! I love her!! 
 
Total cost: $15 after supplies but I still have a TON of hot pink paint left, a little bit of fabric for a couple of frames, and glitter sealer.  The cheapest (and I mean cheeeeeeep) brand new bar height chair with a back I found was $38....and it was an ugly brown/black color.  Makes me love her even more!!

 
In my world of BOYS, I need some girly every now and then. :) 

Can't wait to show off my new girly office space!!

Not-Back-to-School pictures 2013

So excited for this new school year! The biggest change from last year is the {re}addition of my oldest who decided public school wasn't all he thought it would be. :) 


Nathan
 
Kaleb

Gabriel

Drake

I like his shirt....

And the shirtless BABY Joshua!!



Opening their Not-Back-to-School gifts!

If the overgrown 4th grader and super young sophomore's sense of
humor is any indication....I think we're going to have a
fun year!