Nook & Cranny Craft Room

I Just Can't Believe It!  I have a "Craft Room"  now!  EEEK!  Actually, I will be sharing this craft room with my 3 daughters, but I can deal with that!


It all happened this past Saturday as our family of 8 was sitting around our living room staring at one another after a work day at our church.  My husband had mentioned going to the springs, but I didn't want to...the kiddos would have liked that or to play some video games or maybe watch a movie.  I sat up and said;  "I know what to do!."  Let's rearrange our living room so daddy can have a desk.  He needs a desk and I have two!  Two is too many desks.  Any how...it happened and we are just now recovering from it!  It was 4pm on Saturday when we began.

This was a den of sorts.  We watched movies a little in there and now look at it!  Sew Cute!

My sweet daughter took these photos for me.  This is a faux wall that we makeshifted out of two entertainment centers.  Actually one is a computer armoir. 

I really like this corner.  I am hoping to get some more white bookshelves for more organization.  I ran to my husband and thanked him so much!  

Here is my little white bench with our art supplies organized.  It is darling!

This is my oldest daughter's desk for her writing and crafting.  She wants to be an author.  I think she is on her 5th book so far...

She was blessed by our sweet friend Papa Jim with a wonderful Fuji Camera.  Because now she's into photography as well as her writing.  Her blog is:  http://themeltedcamera.blogspot.com/ 


Oh I can't wait to get here and start creating.  The twin girls and oldest daughter already beat me to the punch!

Not Back To School Blog Hop School Room!

So this year I am so excited about our school room change up!


Last year I had the older four in the Parlor at the round table doing S.O.S. curriculum on their netbooks.


But this year I get to do a full year unit study program with 5 out of 6 of my children.  So I moved us to the kitchen.  I am using our big square table that has a bench with storage and our cabinets that are hardly used for anything other than stashing large things.

I am glad that we get to use these cabinets.  I sit in the chair in front of the new school cabinets, so they will come in so handy.

In this cabinet is my file crate system, pencil basket with index cards and white board spray, Books that we will be using for the next 30 days and a calendar.   I am on my second year using Dawn's file crate system from http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/file_crate_system/  I just love her organizational thoughts on this file crate system!  I hope that you go and check it out.  I will simply pull out the basket and get the folder that I need out for the coming week.  

Sorry for the dark, blurry picture.  But that is week 1's folder.  I will simply put any printables or scheduled appointments, recipes, or ideas in that folder for that particular week.

This is the bottom cabinet.  It has our glasses and patch for the kids that use them.  Some math manipulatives, 3 ring binders, books we will use next year and our American Flag.

This is our top cabinet.  It has colored envelopes, my journal, a lapbook project, spiralbound notebooks, and books that we will use later in the year.

So blurry!  My apologies...my camera cord is missing and I am forced to use my daughter's kodak.  But this is where my twin daughters will sit for school.  I love our farm table!  It has four drawers.  So the twin boys across the table will have two drawers too.

This is a great organizational idea from a very crafty friend of mine!  The kiddos just grab the flower pot of whatever medium they choose for their artwork and just put it back when they are finished.  These are actually plastic "clay looking" flower pots.  Very useful!  I love finding a new way to use things around the house!  Speaking of that, does anyone have an old wooden screen door they don't want anymore!  I need it for my pantry door...

So here is our white board.  I have the first days lessons ready.  Can you tell what we are starting our unit study on?  To the right of the board is our artwork clothes line.  I will probably be adding a shelf above the lines and another line or two below the current ones.


My oldest child(tenth grader) will be in and out doing things with us.  He will be continuing in the computer curriculum.  But he will be helping me with some of the unit study this year.  He loved the Egypt study he did when he was younger, so this is going to be fun for him.

2011 Not Back To School Blog Hop

So I am so excited about this new year!!  We are changing things up a bit.  I discovered these Teaching Textbooks last week and am just so excited to get to order them!  I asked the Lord to provide so we could purchase this excellent computer math program.  And He did!  Praise Jesus Lord of All!

And speaking of the Lord providing!  A dear friend who didn't know I was praying about curriculum and what to do this next year, brought me this unit study to look at and possibly borrow!  I am so glad she did!  Because it is going to cover a gap in history that I just found out we had for three of my children! God is so good!

We are hoping to continue our oldest in the 10th grade S.O.S.

I will be using Rod and Staff for my twin daughters.  They are going into 2nd grade.  And will join us during the unit study time with the twin boys and Bugnanny(big sis).

I have six children.  Grades 2, 6th, 8th, and 10th.  May the Lord Bless this school year at our home as well as yours!