Last Organizing Post of the Series

And now, for a word about bookcases. Plenty. That's my word! I have more than 1,000 books in my house. I actually counted them and I'm sure that says something about me. Probably not flattering, either. I know I'm not alone among homeschoolers in my endless acquisition of books. I even have numerous strategies for bringing books into my life. Among them:

* The public library, of course
* Paperback Swap
* The Amazon Kindle
* Freecycle

and naturally, bookstores, both brick-and-mortar and the on-line version. Amazon loves me. To prove it, they give me One-Click Buying and, should that seem too slow, Books In 60 Seconds on my Kindle. Really good for reading. For addictions, not so much.

Anyway, all those books need a place to be (yet another reason I love my Kindle). In my homeschool room, I have two bookcases and three cabinets. One of the bookcases is depicted above. That one is small. It's only about 4 feet tall. I'd love to change it out for a big, nice Pottery Barn modular unit, but that's not in the wallet for now. What is infinitely useful, but always scarce are bookends. Depicted above, you can see two fancy finial-type bookends; pretty, but I need dozens. Staples sells the cheap version, also depicted. They work pretty well. I have about twenty sets in my house, but I need about ten more. Tottering piles of books that flop over really work my last nerve.

My aunt once gave me a cute little doorstop, which I then used as a bookend. On the inside was a brick, but it was wrapped in fabric and decorated with tiny pillows and bolsters to look like a miniature sofa. Very cute! I don't really enjoy craft projects like that, but if I did, I would make a bunch of them. Or, if someone who is really crafty is stumped for a Christmas gift for me...



The cabinets in my homeschool room hold games and toys, curriculum and crafting materials/art supplies. Sometimes I manage to have these pretty well-organized. Other times, not.

So, you see, although I have a pretty good rep for being organized, I don't always have it all together. Nobody's perfect. If you find yourself buried in a disorganized mess, you can use my ideas to chip your way out of it. But you can still keep it real.

Organizing the Homeschool Room Part III

Okay. Sorry I missed a couple of days on our organizing theme, but my daughter and I took a little trip down to Williamsburg, VA. Wow. What a nice place if you're into Early American History! The only real drawback was that it was 478-degrees. Okay, 105. But it was really astoundingly hot.

The picture above is my son's desk area. Each of my kids have a set of plastic drawers next to their desk for holding their curriculum. I like my daughter's best; she has six drawers. The boys have four-drawer organizers. I don't like it as well, because I have to lump some things together, such as materials for spelling, vocabulary and grammar in one drawer. It's a bit more fumbly than I really want it to be. The drawers come with wheels you can attach to the bottom. I found it was better for me without them.

There are also small desk-top plastic drawers that work nicely for staples, tape, erasers, pushpins, paperclips, etc.

Ideal for each desk area, if you can outfit them each as such:

* Trashcan
* Tissue Box
* Desk lamp
* Pencils/pens
* Scissors/ruler
* Bulletin Board/Dry Erase
* Curriculum Drawers

Each of my kids have a mailbox on their desk. These are discontinued now at Pottery Barn Kids. They are probably kind of corny, but my kids love discovering a little treat or note in there. When I'm on top of it, that is. Sometimes they ask for something in the mailbox and I make them leave the room so I can put something in there, which they then come in and take out, which kind of takes the thrill out of it a little bit, but oh well! (How'd you like that sentence?)

Two of my kids also got cute little Pottery Barn desk lamps back when I was ambitious about having the homeschool room just sickeningly cute and matchy-matchy. Reality intruded later. My youngest has a simple black desk lamp from Staples. So much for matchy-matchy!

More on Setting Up the Homeschool Room

Sometimes, the simplest solution proves the most elusive. For years I've been confounded by pencil/pen holders. Don't laugh! I bet it's true for you, too! You know how it is. You need a pencil, but they are broken, or their erasers make a mess of things or the only writing utensils in the cup are one dried-up marker that came with a Happy Meal, a lipliner that you haven't used in ten years and the cheap pen that exploded blue goo all over the bottom of the cup. So, let's just make a clean break before the fall session begins. Throw away any pencil you hate, recap worthless erasers or chuck those pencils because they only tick you off when you use them. Toss all pens that don't write and all dried-out markers. If the cup is ugly, chuck that, too.

I realized that my Mason Jars (pint sized) were pretty and perfectly suitable pencil cups. I also realized that what makes more sense is to have three cups: one for pencils, one for pens and one for markers. And by the way, the only pencil worth having is the Ticonderoga pencil. I love these pencils so much, I will even walk all the way to another room in search of one. The erasers do their job smoothly and neatly and the pencils write nicely and sharpen well. The worst pencils I ever used were Staples brand pencils. Their erasers were horrid!

Holding Curriculum

I use magazine files to hold floppy curriculum or multi-part worktexts neatly. Some, as the black files seen in the picture, are utilitarian and can be picked up most anywhere: Target, Walmart and office supply stores. Others have a more decorative look, like the green files in the picture, which I bought at Michaels. The utilitarian version is less expensive and the nameplate made it easier to label. The decorative version didn't take well to labeling, but it looks a little prettier on an open bookshelf. At this point, I have quite a few magazine files, so if I was starting fresh today and owned none I would probably pick up five or six of the utilitarian style.

I will post another few pictures and ideas tomorrow. I hope this effort is helping someone. :)

How to Organize Your Homeschool Room

For the next week or so, I'll be doing a series of posts on how to organize a homeschool room. Now, I know not everybody has a specific room that is for homeschooling, or that your homeschool room is also the Dining Room or Oma's bedroom when she comes, but still. This past week, I've been up to the waist (or is it waste?) in old paperwork, former spelling tests, filled-in worktexts and of course, books, books, books! I'm organizing our schoolroom and putting all the new books and curricula in place, which leaves the less-palatable task of removing the books and curricula that was there before.

But, it turns out I've learned a few things in the past eight years about how to set the room and desks up effectively and (relatively) inexpensively. I know the best way to hang maps on the walls, how to afford a desk for everyone and what method of organizing their books and texts works best for me. So, come with me on this little journey as we explore setting up the homeschool room.

In my first photo above, you see laminated maps hanging neatly on the wall. (If you're keenly perceptive, you'll also notice that they are out of level. More about that later.) My favorite product for hanging posters neatly on the wall is 3M Command Adhesive Poster Strips. (No, they're not paying me to say that, although I would take it if any 3M CEO's out there are looking for an advertiser.) I would also recommend that if you are going to hang two gigantic maps on the wall, don't get all giddy about it and struggle with hanging it yourself, convinced that you can eyeball-level it at close range. You can't. Wait till you have a second pair of hands to help you get that puppy on there straight as a Baptist preacher.

Looking back at the photo, you'll see what passes for desks in our schoolroom: Black 20X48" Folding Tables from Target. You see, only my glorious firstborn lucked out and got an actual desk, like firstborns everywhere, but I came to my senses for the next two. I don't have the exact price any longer, but the tables were around $30.00. The only disadvantage I've noticed is that they shake like a chilly Chihuahua when the kids erase a mistake. A fringe benefit is that they can be called downstairs for extra dining space when Aunt Marge and Uncle Frederick come for Thanksgiving.

By the same logic, folding chairs work nicely for desk chairs.

Come back again tomorrow as I throw out a few more organizational bones.