Getting the Schoolroom Ready

Time to organize!

This summer while I was busy canning peach jam and taking a mission trip to Mexico, or even just swimming with the kids, the schoolroom slowly got more and more disorganized. We had the son of a friend staying with us, so our schoolroom became his bedroom, and we quickly got through our Bible in the morning and then in the evening when I might have reshelved the books and sorted the papers, he was in there on his air bed trying to get some rest after a long day at work.

School was waiting to be started though, and so finally the weekend came when I got down to business at putting away last years accomplishments, making out the report cards and getting the school area ready for the new year. I love having a variety of resources available for my children, but it can be difficult to keep it all contained. It is so important to have a good learning environment for kids, one that is both lovely and comprehensive in scope. Clearly, our schoolroom was not very lovely with all the books lying there waiting to be put in their places!

Our shelves are organized by subject, one for arts and crafts, another one for history resources, and another for science. I also have a shelf of teacher books and resources, not pretty I am sad to say, but necessary for homeschooling. I also like to have easy access for my children to markers, colored pencils and stick glue. In this way they can put together creative notebook pages, or quickly make a card without having to ask me for supplies which they have learned to use.

Teaching kids to put stuff where it goes never ends as you can see from the first photo. If you want an area to stay neat, and it really should stay neat if you want to be able to focus in it, you have to constantly reinforce where things go, and make sure the place where stuff goes is easy to access.

a bit tidier

 School at home can be so much fun, but one important aspect is taking the time to prepare your home to be a place where children can focus on their work, find supplies, and do the research they need to do to be well prepared young people. Organization isn't just about having a nice looking room, it is also teaching our children good mental sequencing skills and making our homes more functional places to learn.

hard at work

 Click here for a favorite blog and A view of a well organized school room.