Getting our Schoolroom ready!

Friday was Box Day at our house, which means that Friday was also organize the schoolroom day at our house. 

It was either that or leave the books strewn about our entryway. 

The kids dug right in and all started looking over next year's books.  Measle was the most excited about Mr. Popper's Penguins.  I hope she still feels that way now that she's seen the movie.

I was actually feeding Calvin when our boxes were delivered, so I wasn't able to capture most of the Box Day fun.  Queen didn't get any books, but she managed to join in the celebration.

Now, because I know you're interested... pictures of our newly organized schoolroom.

This is the table where most of our schoolwork takes place.  Monk's computer books are next to his computer with programs, paper, and ink in the plastic drawers.

I recently moved most of the kids' books into this room.  The bottom two shelves in the near bookcase have all of Prince's Five in a Row books, Dr. Seuss, Bob books (in the tub), and beginning readers.  Also in that bookcase are books on art, music, poetry, Christian biographies, children's classics, and our Arthur Scott Bailey collection (wonderful animal books written about one hundred years ago.)   The far bookcase contains our Ballantyne and Henty books, a shelf full of creation science books, my aunt's Nancy Drew collection, some used Rover Boys and Bobbsey Twins books, and a small reference section.  And wait, what is that I see in the far corner of the room at the top of the yellow hutch (that was in my bedroom when I was growing up, by the way, and just recently found its way to our schoolroom)?  Could it be an empty shelf?!  See, I told you I was simplifying!

I use these cubbies to hold the kids' independent books and workbooks.  Monk, Twinkle Toes, Measle, and Prince each have one cubby, one holds all our science books and IG (we'll do science together this year), one has their memory boxes, one is full of Magic Treehouse books (Measle has been reading through this series this summer), and one has Greek reference materials that they all share.   My goal for these cubbies is that they look like this all the time.  Normally the kids tend to stack their books and workbooks which looks messy and makes it hard to find what they're looking for.  I'm going to try to start the habit of checking over the cubbies daily.  Let's see how long that lasts!

This beautiful piece of furniture holds most of our current year Sonlight books.  We're making a big change this year, our third with Sonlight.  Measle has her own core this year and she's so excited!  Her IG is in the pink binder, her favorite color.  (I'll talk more about our binders in a separate post.)  The left two bottom shelves are dedicated to Sonlight Core F (Eastern Hemisphere) with the History books and IG on the upper shelf and readers on the left and read-alouds on the right of the bottom shelf.  Measle will study Core B (World History Part I with 3rd grade readers).  Her history books, IG, and read-alouds are on her upper shelf and her readers are on the left side of her lower shelf.  Also on her lower shelf are other books she's currently enjoying (in the basket for easy portability).  Our library books are perched on the edge.  Hopefully we can keep up with them!  The top two shelves in this bookcase hold books that I just can't seem to get rid of.  Many are from my childhood. 

How's your schoolroom coming along?