The Story of a School Room ~ Back to Homeschool Blog Hop

Next up on the blog hop is another favorite topic for homeschoolers, the classroom space. I love taking a peek at what other people have got going on in their school rooms.

Our school room has gone through some major overhauls over the last few years. The first being one of epic proportions. I've written about it before so I'm going to give you a full recap because it's so amazingly awesome. 

The Story of our School Room

There once was a school room that was...okay.

There was some furniture that was too big for the room and it's purpose. Not nearly enough storage or shelving. We are Sonlighters, after all.

Not to mention the the Wee Babe (yes Kayleigh was a babe when I first wrote this) hated it!!! She'd enter the room and start tearing stuff apart. At one point we moved a book shelf from our living room into it around Christmas (to make room for the tree).  And left it there. Then, we ordered next years curriculum in January and had no place to store it. So it wound up in the middle of the room that the babe had trashed.

The result is in the lower right hand corner... Beware it isn't pretty. Not for the faint of heart. But I like to keep it real. And it was real ugly.

While looking at the pit, my hubby and I made a tough decision to postpone a much anticipated trip to NYC this summer. This has been something we promised our eldest on her 7th birthday. She's 9 now. We decided it wasn't the best use of our $$$ when there were things around the house that wanted to improve. So we broke the news.

We eased the tears with a trip to Build-A-Bear, and signed her up for the drama and church camp she's been wanting to go to. Oh and a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge. Bribery at it's finest.

We replaced the trip to NYC with a trip to IKEA. Oooh, it's not down the road, so we emptied out the van and buckled in. And being the mean parents that we are, we brought some school along with us. Yes, that's right, we canceled her trip and made her do school on the way to a boring store. =o)

We wandered around IKEA with our map and our pencils and furiously scribbled down everything that we we planning on getting. And a few things that called out to us while there. Whoaaa! Look at that cart? Maybe we weren't so wise with the $$$? Of course we were, it's IKEA. Cheap, cheap,cheap. We actualy came out $200 under our limit. Yay wallet!!!

Then we spent about 3 hours total assembling 11 pieces of furniture. Easiest assembly of our lives. IKEA is our new favorite place. Those shelves from Target or Walmart take about 30 minutes a piece. And that's for a small, 3-shelf, bookcase. We built a 6 shelf bookcase from IKEA in 10 minutes.

Then came the sorting, purging, and organizing. Ack!!! Long, not fun work. But we called the "Big Guns" to help with the purging.

Yes, it would have been cheaper to rent a truck or dumpster and haul it out ourselves but we decided our sanity was more important. (I'm a tad on the weakling side. LOL) Plus, we removed a bunch of shrubs that we hated and cleared out the garage while they were at it. They took it all. And they recycle and donate everything that they can. Which saved us several trips to several different places. Worth every penny. If you have it.

And the moment you've all been waiting for... The after shots. Not bad, right? I wasn't really thrilled with the red walls that now clashed with the green and blue bins, but one step at a time.

Today, about two years later, it still looks pretty much the same. Including the red walls. LOL We've added a couple of more pieces, like piano keyboard for our little prodigy and a table for the tot, but for the most part it's the same. And as wonderful as it is, we still do school all over the house and the yard. Well not the yard this year because we'd melt. But when it's not 300 degrees out, we love to school outside. 

If you'd like a closer look, and you happen to be a subscriber to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, you can open your May 2012 issue and get a virtual tour of our classroom. And find out just how fast that I talk in real life. Good luck with that. lol

But don't get yourself too attached to this room. Because guess what? We're going to give it one more major over haul come October. We're moving it one city over into our new house. We're just waiting on completion. But here's a sneak peak at the future home of the Sonlight Academy for Girls...

I can't wait! It's going to be bigger, brighter, and not red. =o) I'm thinking a very pale blue....

Well now that I've shared so it's your turn. What's going on in your schoolroom?