New Office

As promised, here are some pics of our new office.  The only thing missing is the beautiful new shade I plan on ordering for the window, but it has to wait a couple of paydays.  The futon couch folds down into a full sized bed.  Daughter G slept on it when she was last home, and has declared it "very comfortable!"

One of the baskets in this cube storage unit holds the sheets for the bed, and pillows and blankets are in the closet.  Because we started with basically an empty room, we got to put in only those things that were useful and/or meant something to my hubby.  So there is a place for everything, and everything in its place.

We love it!

Pre Holiday House Keeping

We interrupt this homeschooling blog to bring you pictures of my most recent deep cleaning and organizing project...our living/dining room!

Once again I neglected to take a "before" picture, so these pics may not be very impressive to you.  They represent hours and hours of de-cluttering, deep cleaning, and rearranging, and I am happy and grateful for how it all turned out!

We had a lovely old library table in the corner of our dining room, an antique piece which is very special to me, but which has a large flat surface to collect lots and lots of things.  I wanted to reclaim the dining room and make it look like an actual dining room, so this lovely antique library table became my desk in our schoolroom and our dining room instantly felt about twice as big!  We did still need to keep one computer in this room, so I bought a 2' wide table for $22.  It takes up very little space and has no big flat surface to collect junk.  Happy!

The china hutch pictured here, another special piece of furniture to me, used to be flat against the wall but I moved it to the corner.  In the process of moving it I dusted every dish and tea cup on it, remembering the history of each one and basking in the glow of some special memories.

The adjoining living room is currently used as a music room, but I re-positioned the drum kit to make a better seating area in the corner.  We finally hung the new stuff above this couch.  Little Man helped me arrange and hang it.  He was really helpful with this whole project!

I told my husband we have to have lots of people over RIGHT NOW before it gets messy and cluttered again!  haha

This room makes me smile, and that is happy.  With us mamas it's always the little things, isn't it?  

Now, something I learned in the course of this project....it may be better to tell your college aged daughter about the changes before she comes home for the weekend and discovers them on her own, because it's no longer "the way it's been all my life!" and that can throw her off just a bit. :)

My Organizational Project Last Weekend

 Before....

After!

#feelingaccomplished

Room Makeover

 Or, more accurately, room clean-up and re-arrange!

Our living room/dining room has needed a really deep clean for a very long time.  But I had no physical or emotional energy to do it.  Over the course of last school year, both of our desktop computers located in these rooms died, and there they sat.  Carcasses of modern technology.  Every horizontal surface was layered with stuff placed there by several of our children, who either didn't notice or seem to care about the clutter.  Keepin' it real..... here is the proof....."before":

I had a dream to re-arrange the living room and turn it into more of a music room.  Music is just a wonderful, wonderful thing.  I am so thankful God created music!  It is calming, motivating, praise-inspiring, and downright therapy for daughter H  (probably for all of us!).  Five of our six children play some kind of instrument on a daily basis and there is always much music in our home.  I LOVE it.  How to make the room more conducive to the making of music?

I "girded up my loins" as the Old Testament would say (I have always wondered exactly what that means, but I think a loose translation for my situation might be "I put on my big girl panties!") and cranked out the entire room in one afternoon/evening.  The evening that everyone else in the family was at church for Stockade and youth groups.  So I could toss things to my heart's content! ;)  I went through every paper pile, and all the old computer games/discs, and cleaned and scrubbed every corner as I went.

Here is the "during".....  (antique desk already moved to the far right corner in this first pic)

I consolidated all our "office" things onto one desk.  Moved that desk to a different corner.  Took down a 6 foot long table we were (not) using as a two person desk, and removed two other pieces of furniture from the room.  Boxed up all the broken computer parts and electronics.  Cleaned, dusted, took pictures of toys and games as I found them and immediately posted them for sale online.  I was a whirling dirvish I tell you!  (again, what is that???)  And speaking of music, I did all this while playing motown tunes on very high volume.

Here is the "after".....

Moved the piano to where the antique desk used to be.  Now we have a music corner!

Our window seat is the perfect height for someone to sit on and play the keyboard!

When the family all got home from church and saw this room they were astonished and thrilled.  Maybe the clutter did bother them a little bit.  And the best part is......the next day our teen boys picked up their guitars spontaneously, daughter H went to the piano, son C to the keyboard, and they all began jamming together.  LOVE!

Oh sweet music room, how I love thee!

(office corner not shown because it is the one surface not put away!)

My Sunday Afternoon Project.....

....organizing the front closet!  May not look like much to you, but compared to before it is a vision of loveliness.  The snow boots are on a shoe rack hidden behind the coats.  It is so nice to get them away from their previous home beside the front door!  Gloves/mittens are matched, odd ones thrown out, and too small ones put in a bag for the Salvation Army.  Same with the socks in the top drawer, and the soccer socks in the second drawer.

Two hours well spent.  This is what I did instead of watching the Patriots cream the Texans.  I am not a fan of the Patriots.  And if I do anything else when a football game is on, you know it's serious!

"Block" Scheduling ~ or what we're trying when the first schedule epically failed

Remember this post?  The one where I displayed my middle three boys' assignment charts?  We made a valiant effort to make them work, and I kept encouraging the boys, son L in particular, that it was a time management thing more than an "I can't do it" thing.  But in the end, it was just not going to cut it.

Son C has done fairly well with his assignment chart, so for now we are keeping his the way it was.  Why fix it if it ain't broke?  But for son L, he struggled all throughout the day to switch gears between subjects (note to self, he has always had trouble with transitions, why did I not expect this?).  I thought I had given a reasonable amount of time for each scheduled subject, but for him it was NOT enough.  Each day, according to the little squares on his assignment chart that were not checked off, he fell farther and farther behind.

Many tears.  Many late night conversations.  Many prayer times together.  Many pep talks, especially when the dreaded "I'm stupid" words came.  I was and am committed to helping him succeed ("success" in his mind being completing a day's worth of work in one day with enough time left to play before dinner, "success" in my mind being putting forth his best effort most of the time and finishing assigned work before dinner) but I wasn't convinced he couldn't succeed with the way his assignment chart was currently written.  I made myself more available to him.  I played quiet praise music in the school room.  I gave him a signal that meant "focus" whenever I saw he was being distracted.

No significant improvement.

One of the beautiful things about homeschooling is the ability and freedom to change things midstream if they are not working.  And clearly, this was not working.  An assignment chart is simply a tool.  Not our task master.  If this particular tool wasn't working, maybe I could change it to make it fit more closely the way he worked.

Enter "block" scheduling.  His new assignment chart has a morning "block" of 2 hours, and an afternoon "block" of 2-3 hours.  He now does his 4 academic subjects only twice a week (during a morning or afternoon "block") instead of every day, doing 2-3 days' worth of work each time.  This way, when he gets  in the zone he can simply stay in the zone, and not have to switch gears to another subject when the first subject was not yet completed.  We made the switch mid-week last week so the jury is still out.  But so far, so good.  This schedule also gets rid of the 3 subjects he was "supposed" to do on Tuesdays, in between classes at co-op.  So now during his co-op "off" hours he can just hang out with friends or work on things he wants to do, which will make Tuesdays much more fun for him.

(click on picture to enlarge)

Son L is our child who lives with Sensory Processing Disorder, so certain aspects of learning have been challenging for him his entire school career.  We have tried a variety of things to help him over the years, including professional therapy.  The physical and occupational therapy he received was excellent and definitely a piece of his school success puzzle at the time, but the thing that has probably helped the most was just doing lots of reading and then experimenting with various "tools" and routines that might help him.  Each child that lives with SPD is wired so differently, it is often a process of trial and error to find the right "cocktail" that best helps your particular child.

Things we are currently trying:  I am letting him use a tiny little mp3 player I got in my Christmas stocking a couple years ago, to see if music in his ears will help him focus.  Music in the schoolroom is great for 2/3 of the family, but a couple people work better in quiet, so this will accommodate everyone (he may or may not be receiving his own mp3 player for Christmas, but you did not hear that from me!).  I have also given him a new "desk ball" to use.  This is a squishy palm sized ball that he can play with at his desk.  He likes to hold on to something while he's working, and this makes no noise.  It is also something he can squeeze hard without hurting himself, and it "pushes back" to give him some tactile pressure.

He used to sit on an exercise ball instead of a chair, but he has outgrown the old exercise ball and I have yet to purchase a bigger one.  That will be the next thing.

He also still responds well to a set routine, with predictable meal times and bedtimes (and lots and lots of snacks!).  As noted earlier, he tends not to transition well, so if I can give him lots of warning and lots of time to move to the next thing, he does much better.

My job as teacher/mom is often tricky, as I work to give him the appropriate tools for success, while also holding his feet to the fire and requiring him to do the work, turn things in on time, finish things completely, etc.  I pray constantly for wisdom, and am so thankful that God has promised to give it!

Son G also asked for block scheduling, so I have switched them both over to this type of daily routine.  I am letting the block schedule play out for another week or so, and if it proves to be helpful I will then take about 27 blank copies back to FedEx/Kinkos and have a new book of assignment charts made up.  Hey, it is only $5 so we didn't waste too much with the first book now going unused!

Live and learn.  :0)

(and as before, feel free to email and request a copy of the new block schedule.  If my family has to do this any more times, chances are good that one of our schedules will work for YOU!)

Nervous: Starting full school schedule tomorrow!

Before our vacation I did a good job of planning out the content of our first 9 weeks of school, but did not have a chance to wrap my brain around how to fit it all in.  When to do what, so that everyone was getting their work for me done in a timely manner, and their work for outside teachers/classes done as well.  So during this past week I pondered and prayed about the overall schedule and spent some time trying to map it all out on paper.  We are not a super tightly scheduled family, but I am a very visual person, so it really helps me if I can literally see how it all fits together. 

This is a picture of my first attempt at our fall schedule.  I usually have to tweak it after we try to live it for a few days.  And as I said before, we don't necessarily follow it to the letter.  It just really helps to keep us on track.  I purposely kept it small here, but if any of my fellow homeschoolers would like your own copy to see up close, or to edit for your use, please email me and I'd be happy to send it to you.  I originally got this template from someone else, so I'm happy to return the favor and pass it along!

In addition to the overall schedule, I made paper assignment charts for my three middle boys for each week of our school year.  The charts are not new, but what is new this year is binding them all together in a little book at the very beginning of the year!  ($5 per book at Fed Ex Kinkos) This does two things:  it prevents lost papers (unless the entire book of charts gets lost.... heaven forbid!), and it saves me the trouble of binding them at the end of the year as a record of what we did that whole year. 

Inside the bound book are 36 pages that look like this:

The pages for each of my three middle boys are slightly different, but in all three cases we write their work for each week in daily columns.  I am teaching the boys to do this themselves ~ that is going in stages and is a work in progress.  Some of my friends use online scheduling programs, and some have their children use handheld devices (such as ipads or itouches) to track their schedule.  I was paralyzed with indecision about what to do this year until I just decided to stick with the old fashioned paper method for now!  Again, if any of my fellow homeschoolers would like to see this template up close, feel free to email me and ask.  I have made and tried lots of different paper schedules, and this one works best for our family.  It was designed specifically with Tapestry of Grace in mind, and I love the section at the top where they can track their history reading progress through the week.

Our daughter G has her own planner and is 100% responsible for her own schedule now, so I do not make pages like this for her, and Little Man has his daily work written in list form on our school whiteboard.

Tomorrow is our inaugural day with the new schedule.  I'm hopeful!

Bedroom Makeover Complete!

We finished putting the bedroom back together literally minutes before going to pick up son G from his mission trip, but we got it DONE!  Here are the promised before/after pics.  I am being vulnerable here and showing you how incredibly messy it was before.  This would be due to several months of the boys "cleaning" it themselves without enough direction and help from mom.  I think I am just as happy about it being NEAT as I am about it being repainted!  And they are highly motivated now to keep it clean, so we shall see....

BEFORE ~ bed was red.  Rug was beige.  Night stand was cluttered with stuff.  Chair rail molding and primary colored border I put on myself when I was hugely prego with baby #4 (which was son C ~ got it done immediately before being put on bedrest with him as I recall!  If I ever talk about putting wallpaper or a border up again, somebody please threaten me with bodily harm!).  These boys have a knack for covering every horizontal surface with S.T.U.F.F. so the whole first day we spent just clearing surfaces and emptying the room.

AFTER ~ walls are green.  Bed is spray painted brown.  We left the hardwood floor and just put a small area rug by the bed to look like grass.  "Curtain" is a strand of plastic plant - boys love how it fits their jungle-ish decor now, but it will be super easy to change in the future!  Nightstand has storage so (hopefully) less clutter on top.

BEFORE ~ messy desk corner.

AFTER ~ cleared off desk!  I love how crisp and clean the room looks with the solid green walls.  This corner shows the two different shades of green we used.  Wall on left is a bit lighter than the wall on the right.  Two walls are light, two are dark.  This was a compromise, as the boys wanted the darker color and the parents wanted the lighter color.

BEFORE ~ cluttered book case corner.

AFTER ~ cleared out book case corner!  The boys need to do a second pass through these shelves and find more items to bless the Salvation Army with.  They were able to fill two bags completely on their own though, with no input from me - progress!  Yay!

BEFORE ~ closet that didn't work well.  The previous owners had tried to make the closet space functional, with two rods on the right side (one high, one low), one rod high on the left, and built in shelves down the middle.  Without room for dressers, one boy used the middle shelves for clothes, and we put a plastic drawer tower in there on the left for the other boy (the space was way too narrow for a dresser - trust me, I looked!).  Neither place worked well for clothes and they were constantly spilling out onto the floor.

AFTER ~ this may be my very favorite thing about this room!  Doesn't the closet look ORGANIZED??!  We took out the bottom right rod and bought matching wire drawers that fit the clothes perfectly.  We may get sliding panel doors to hide the closet eventually, but I actually like to see how organized it is, and it's easy for the boys to get things in and out!

We have a couple pictures left to hang, but otherwise the room is DONE, and the boys love it so much they are hanging out there constantly!  And I have a huge sense of accomplishment in getting this project checked off my to do list. :0)

The Ongoing Endeavor to Get Organized.....

Does anyone else struggle with this? Actually, you don't have to answer because I know that you do! Getting and staying organized seems never ending, because just when I finish organizing all my children's bedrooms, the season changes and it's time to go through clothes again, or Little Man has outgrown the preschool activities and it's time to sort and give away, or my paper pile managed to grow back and it's time to file and toss. I know this is something you can all relate to.

This problem seems worse for homeschoolers because there is so much more to organize. **Sigh**

I am slowly making progress in several areas of our home and life. Even though the schoolroom is not completely finished, I am *loving* using it. We start each day together in this room with Bible, and the younger three do the bulk of their work here. My vision, now three years old, of how I wanted it to work for us, is finally beginning to take shape. With some changes of course, because so much time has passed since the vision first formed in my brain! haha! Soooo very thankful for this room!


With an entire wall of bookcases now, I organized all our Tapestry of Grace books according to Year (there are 4 complete years here!) and further organized by unit (4 units per year). I am able to bless some friends by being their history lending library, so to aid them I put these color coded signs on the bookcase to show where a particular Year plan starts (you're welcome, Sally and Lisa!).


Right above my teacher desk I put this strip of velcro directly on the bookcase. To this I can stick all the little squares that go on my boys' assignment charts each day, so it is easy to change them out depending on what day I am preparing for.





It is a work in progress, but it's progressing!

In other news, I cleaned out my bedroom closet this week and filled two large bags to take to the thrift store. And that was just from stuff on the floor! (yes, seriously) Have to go through all the hanging clothes next.

How do you stay on top of the shifting organizational needs of your family?

Before and During (not quite "After"!)

Remember this?


Couch is now 2/3rds cleared off, with permanent homes (or the circular file) found for the things that were on it.



Go me!!

Fantastic Homeschooling Tip

For all my homeschooling friends who have ever wondered how to find the time to correct their children's work, and when was the best time to do it.....

thanks to my friend Marsha, I have instituted a new checking/correcting routine this week that has worked WONDERFULLY. Here is the daily assignment chart for one of my boys.


As he does each task, he moves the little velcro square to his "done" chart. This part of the routine is not new.


What is new is the last square. The one that says "Checkout with mom". My friend Marsha is brilliant! Before each child is truly done for the day they must check out with me. During check out I correct all their work for that day, with them sitting next to me making immediate corrections if needed. This is keeping my children accountable for doing all their assigned work for each day, and keeping me accountable for correcting it! I know it's only been three days, but oh what a difference!


It does take time, but the best things in life do.

Thank you Marsha!

Before and After

I'm still (as I have time) organizing and nesting in our new red family room. Here are a couple of small painting projects I finished last week. The shelf before:


And the same shelf after, painted black.


Our old preschool cupboard, before (walls were "before" too!):


And after, painted black and repurposed as a media storage unit.



Amazingly it fits all the stuff that was in our old entertainment center (which went to the thrift store) plus some! And organizing it all gave me the opportunity to take out movies/cd's that we really don't use. It feels good to make our space work better for this stage of our family life.