Our New School Space

I'm still gushing over our new place.

I know, it's probably getting old.  I mean, you know I really am loving where we landed.  But I can't make any promises as to when I'll quit wanting to share it with you.  I always love peeking in other families homeschool areas.  So today I'm showing you ours!

When we first decided to move to Scottsdale we knew we'd have to give up some square footage in exchange for the exact area we wanted to be in.  I made peace with that and did a major clean out of our school supplies.  It's kind of nuts how much stuff I had stock piled in the closets at our old house.

Flash forward to where we live now.  We did give up a little space, but not nearly as much as I had thought we would have to.  We even have an extra room that would be perfect as a school room if we decided to use it for that.  However, Andrew staked his claim on that room so school is happening at the dining room table.

And I love it. 

Really, really love it. 

But only because I got creative with our storage options.  As much as I want to be one of those homeschool moms that is totally OK with her house looking like a place where kids are learning and creating all day, I'm just not.

During the day, our kitchen/dining room area is covered with projects and notebooks and library books.  There are pencils and markers and dry erase boards all over the place.  But when we wrap up our last formal subject, I need this space to be clean and clear of all clutter.

So here's how I'm making it work.

We do school mostly in our kitchen/dining room.  It's a big open area with an island and a built in desk.  There is plenty of room for us to all spread out and do our own thing without being on top of each other.  There's a lot of natural light which I love. 

If you look close in the picture below, you can see Gabe outside.  We are putting in a screen door so I can leave the sliding glass door open.  Now that we are done with triple digits, I'm expecting we will move most of our school outside.  We just need a table out there.

I almost didn't bring our big bookshelf cabinet.  It was a custom build for a very certain space and I wasn't sure if I could make it work after the move.  I'm so glad we ended up bringing it.  We put the base in our dining area as a buffet type table.  And the cabinets are perfect for school.

On the left I have all of our curriculum.  Gabe's on top, Josie's on the bottom.  These are the books we use on a regular basis.  The right side has our sensory tubs and other manipulatives that keep Gabe busy.  Beads, lacing, letter cards, and Playdoh are his current go-tos.

I gave myself a drawer to keep all of my things or materials for art projects we are doing soon.

And the other drawer is for all their supplies.  I ended up finding a basket that fits perfect for the pencils and scissors that I just pull out and stick on the table during school then put it back at the end.  It has made it super easy to clean up.

I hijacked a wall in Andrew's office for their bulletin boards. 

This works great since we pretty much just hang stuff to show him.

I also used the bookshelves in the office.

I put the kid books on the bottom shelf so they can grab them easily.  I want to get a bunch of globes to put on the top.

I'm using one cabinet of the bookshelf to hide my notebook hoarding problem.  Not quite ready to admit I need an intervention here.  Seriously though, notebooks were .05 cents last month!  How could I not grab a billion of them?

Paper, learning posters, dress up, and bigger art supplies are all stored in this drawer system in the corner of the office closet.

And a shoe organizer holds all of our other random supplies on the back of the coat closet door. 

Another thing I almost didn't bring was this dresser.  We decided to use it as a TV stand and I love it.  It makes the room feel cozy for some reason.  Plus it gives us a ton of storage.  We haven't used up all of the drawers but this is where I'm keeping puzzles and games.  They used to be stored on a top shelf of a closet so it's been fun to have easier access to them so we can use them more.

Our kitchen has this desk area.

I claimed this as mine, but Josie usually props herself up right here.  It's nice since I can get stuff done in the kitchen and still be totally available if she needs me.  We are using a few online tools right now and this is a great space for that.

I'm so happy with how great this space works for school. 

We are getting to be all together and still not have school stuff all over.  It's the best of both worlds!