Twas the night before the first day of homeschool...

...and all through the house not a child was stirring but a mommy blogs! I thought I'd share some of my thoughts as I'm anxiously awaiting tomorrow morning's first day of homeschool! M and I have slaved away the past week, and have been rewarded with a cozy little school room just the way I thought and hoped for! Paint was brushed on, a wall was knocked down, holes were filled, walls were mudded (over and over!), corners were cleaned, papers were organized, posters were hung, cabinets were organized, and desks were filled with first day goodies!! I love it, love it, LOVE IT! Here's some during (I totally missed the before!) and after pics:

During: Art area (notice the wing wall gone!)

When we first moved in I thought the bar was more in my way then anything. I originally wanted to tear it completely out, but was persuaded otherwise by outsiders. :) M just ended up taking out the wing wall, which opened up the area so much more! I'm glad we kept the wall that we did keep. It has great counter space for art projects! We ended up making the "center" the Art Corner. It just made sense with the tall counter and tile floors for easy clean up!

After: Art Corner

Eventually we'll be getting tall bar stools for the boys to work on their art at the counters. I also will be ordering a Picasso quote for the coral wall. We are also going to hang their artwork from the various areas in the art corner, and adding a fabric covered foam board above the counter top.

After: Calender/Weather/100's Chart

 

 

 

 

The boys are VERY excited to do the weather/calender. BP enjoyed that so much last year in preschool so I knew I'd have to bring it back this year! With this being preschool for LP, I knew it would be important for him as well! We'll also be counting straws for each day of school, and will have a big party for the 100th day of school!

 

 

After: Geography Area

 

 

 

Across from the calender area is our geography wall. We were blessed by a school closing to go through a ton of posters and pick up some free curriculum. It's funny how many of them remind me of my elementary school days! We are planning on starting a geography unit once we get into a good routine. No sense in adding too much at once!

 

 

 

During: M working on painting the back wall! Reading nook off
to his right, and the boys "play" area (as requested) to his left.

 

 

The "back" wall has some phonics charts, our ABC cards and is the location of our beloved reading nook! I'm sure this comfy couch will be my favorite spot! There's books, a rocker, a couch, and a table. It's surrounded by posters of planets, stars and moons. We did this decor for now since our first unit will be on Creation.

After: Reading Nook

 

After: Back wall

 

Before: Office/Book Work Area

The back office (on the other side of the basement) has become the "bookwork" area. Their cute little desks were bought at a garage sale for $5 before we even knew that we were going to homeschool. I thought we needed a more "formal" area for doing our more intense learning! I bought them each workboxes (which LP put together all himself!), and have them loaded up for them. Tomorrow they have a drawer of first day gifts!

 

After: Bookwork Area

After: Bookwork Area

 

There is a wall that I don't have a picture of that is the coral color. It's opposite of the back wall along the stairs. We are going to put a 5X5 dry erase board there!

 

That's that! Our humble home school room! Hopefully the creativity and learning will be abundant! I'm so excited to start that I'm not sure I'll sleep well tonight! I know there will be days I'll want to quit, but I have a barrage of encouraging sites/blogs to read to help me lift my chin!

 

I was thinking earlier that it would sound so much more dramatic to have to say "Well, it was a long hard road, but we're finally here....", but I'm so so so grateful that this has gone the way it has. We've just put this part of our lives in God's hands, and He has directed our paths fully! I feel like we haven't really had any hard times with this, which makes me all the more confident that God is in control and this is his plan for us at this time!

 

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."