New schoolroom library

Our school room is all ready to go! I can't believe we finally have bookshelves. No more books stacked up on the floor against the wall. I thought about getting actual school desks at one point, but I decided that it defeats a lot of the purpose of why we homeschool. I felt like one big table for all the kids would promote a "one room school" feel. I want my kids to learn from each other, the littler ones to glean off what the older ones are learning. I want to encourage bonding and having to learn to get along (share space and compromise). I want my kids to be best friends with each other. When they learn to get along and compromise, they become closer and trust each other. That is my explanation for using a table instead of desks. Plus, it looks so nice, doesn't it?

A reading corner

This is our piano spot. Someday we shall have one for our musically adventurous W.

Family reading and relaxing. On the wall above this couch we hung the alphabet.

I wanted to put my Christus like this hovering over the globe to represent the center of our homeschool being Jesus Christ, just as he is the center and reason for the world.

I recently saw pictures in a homeschool group on Facebook of other people's homeschool rooms/areas, and a lot of them had maps hanging up. I had a mental "duh" moment, because we never had maps hanging up, we always had maps tucked away in a drawer. I thought it was a great idea, so we saw these maps at Walt-Mart for super cheap and bought them. They aren't the absolute best maps, but they go great with the room and they do show the basic things. The other details that come on a map won't be needed until much later.

As I've been putting together this room over the last couple of weeks. Our second child, E, has been begging me to "teach". I think it's so cute. She loves to play school like The Little House on the Prairie.

I think I'm going to be very glad that I went with the idea for a room dedicated to our school. It already has such a great feeling. It feels spiritual to me, and there is an excitement in here. Our family is very blessed. We are blessed to be able to live in this country and this state, and blessed to have a strong provider (who we pray for every day, love you sweetie ;-)), and blessed to have Grandma live with us who is an incredible teacher, and blessed to have such great kids and most of all to have the knowledge of the gospel.