Getting Ready for School - Part 1

I have spent hours and hours and hours this summer preparing for our upcoming school year. Don't worry, I have taken some weeks completely off where I did nothing remotely resembling home or school organization, but let's face it....when you spend several hours each day teaching your children there are just lots of other little things that don't get done.

I decided to tackle the school prep on two fronts: home/physical organization and mental/school preparation. I will write about the second one in another post. To help me out with all this preparation I hired a mother's helper for the summer. He comes once a week for several hours and entertains the children while I clean, organize, read and think. What a blessing he has been! (thank you so much P!!!)

First I mopped the kitchen floor because life is just better with a non-sticky floor. Then I bought this bookcase from IKEA and organized all our books for the upcoming year. The bottom row of cubicles is reserved for toys for our 2 year old (it has been better organized since this picture was taken).

We school in our kitchen eating area, pictured below. I cleaned out all of last year's stuff from the school cubbies and put in this year's stuff. Each school aged child has their own color coded cubbie to keep their school things in. Currently the top and bottom cubbies on the far left are mine, but eventually I will have to give one to the 2 year old. My cubbies are colored "plum for mum." Our children came up with a little rhyme to remember what everyone's color is!

We also bought another bookcase from IKEA (I do not care for most of their modern line of furniture, but I love, love, love their bookcases!!) and put it down in our basement for school books that we are not currently using. I have a bit more organization to do with this bookcase, but it's a start. I painted the wall behind the bookcase a bright flaming red and I just love how vibrant it looks down there now!

I have a few "hot spots" to de-clutter and the 2 year old's new "room time" toy to buy, but we are pretty much physically ready for the school year. I always get so excited to start a new school year, it's hard to wait until Labor Day!