Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Our Own School Room

Well, I had a few things I really wanted to get done while we were out for Christmas Break. I actually accomplished three! One was to finish up on the murals in my sons rooms-still working on that, but at least I got started on them again-which was a goal within itself. The second thing was to get a desk in our school room. Let me back up a little on this...
The school room...I was so happy when we got our house built that we had the option of breaking up our living room and formal dining room into separate rooms. I am not big on formality. When growing up, I could never understand the purpose of a formal living room. Why have a room that was nice to look at but you could never, ever step foot into-unless you were company. Then, if you ever got the privilege of doing so, you had to take your shoes off due to the carpet being white or a very light color. Once you made in, you had to sit on the plastic that covered the couch and the love seat-very uncomfortable, especially to kid in the summer time with shorts on. My legs would always stick to the plastic....eeeewwwwweeeewwwww.
I am so happy for this room! It makes things a whole lot easier! Well, my children had their desks from a school that was throwing their old desks out. I bought a couple of cans of spray paint and painted them the colors of their rooms-just in case we decide to the desks in their rooms later on. But I didn't have one! Wellllll, we still have houses being built around us and I am still amazed at what the builders will throw away. One day I was out walking and I just happen to glance in the trash bin and there was a kitchen island iWellllll I whole entire island! There was nothing wrong with it! I told my husband and he got it out for me. It sat in our garage for about 6 months. Then, it dawned on me that the island could be my desk! It was more than enough room at 4'x3'. I had a two drawer file cabinet and will buy another one for the other side, in the meantime, I had boxes with school books in them. My husband got the island and put it on top-VOILA! MY DESK!!!! And it is perfect for me. I have enough room to do lesson planning, while using my laptop and my printer/fax/copier/photo printer I received as a gift for Christmas. All of my lapbooking things are in order...which brings me to the third thing on my to do list. I got all of our supplies out of the school room and put them in the cabinets under the island in my kitchen, which is where I want all of our crafty things-there is carpet in the school room.
Well here are the pictures:
That's my bookcase in the corner with all my teaching info and stuff, the other bookcase is next to my desk with the materials we are currently using for lessons:

These are the children's desks and a few of our bookcases. This was taken from the doorway that leads into the school room:

Another view of the desks:

Nice pic of my bookcase-again. The big cream colored binders are our curriculum:

Last but not least, my desk. I have bought a lamp since these pics were taken:

One of my most prized possessions-a pencil sharpener. When we lived with my parents, we always used on of those 3 for a $1 ones. I thought it was great because the kids could keep them in their backpacks and have them handy-nnnnnooooooooo! It didn't work out as planned. The blades would become dull and wouldn't sharpen the pencils correctly or the kids would loose them or I would. And don't even begin to think about the battery operated kind. I would get so tired of them (the pencil sharpeners, not the kids). I told myself, when we moved I would buy a pencil sharpener like the kind in schools that could be mounted on the wall. While shopping in a whole sale store, I came across this one that could be like a clip on, I guess really a screw-on-it is perfect. No more excuses for an unsharpened pencil!

Here's one of the murals in the younger boys room-this is by their window-notice one of her gloves is black? I was so excited to get back to painting I accidentally did this. Oh, well-I'll fix it later. The little round circles above her head are "bubbles", they are really mirrors:

Here's Patrick at the doorway and once again, mirror bubbles.

I have the Spongebob portion halfway finished and will post pics as soon as its done. I love it and so do my children. My oldest son's room is Spider Man themed and I really need to get started on his before he changes his mind!