Our New School

Caleb, working on his spelling words, in his new school location.

The boys are watching VeggieTales, John David is taking a nap, and Alan is at a CPR class that he has to take, as part of being basketball coach. So what is this? Time that I can write, without any little boys hurting themselves or others???  Sweet!

I wanted to take a minute to tell you about our new school. Well, really it’s just the same as our old school, only we are moving it. After Christmas break, I said, “Let’s just have school downstairs.”

The boys all said, “Yes!!!  Hurray!”

And so it was done. I stayed up late last night cleaning out the school room, but it still isn’t finished yet. Alan helped me move the main bookshelves down to my humongous downstairs storage closet. Seriously, the closet is big enough for a twin bed or two. It’s in the dining room, and they are doing their school work in the dining room now, so it’s perfect.

morning seat work at the kitchen bar

I’ve been anticipating the move for a while, so Alan ordered and hung a great, big, new marker board in the kitchen for me. All I have left to do is re-organize a little bit.

Why did I do this? Mostly because of this guy:

our smallest ‘student’, the neediest student of all. He’s also ridiculously adorable.

We have this one student that didn’t have a seat in our teeny tiny school room. He needed a seat. He also has this STRONG desire to be at my feet at all times. This need was by design, see. If he isn’t by my feet, he is quite a danger to himself, the walls, the DVDs, you get the idea.

Now that we are downstairs, Daniel and JD can play trains, run around, play Connect Four, whatever, and I am right there with them. This is working so much better!

We also wreck less of the house this way. Sure, downstairs is a tornado while school is going on, but I am more motivated to clean that area up. In fact, we have to clean up in order for us to eat dinner down there.

So far, so good!

Yes, I realize this rug intersection looks ridiculous, but I have four boys and light carpet….in the DINING room, so that explains the rugs.

I think in the beginning Joshua and Caleb needed the little school room, so that this whole home school thing would feel legit, you know? But now that they know I don’t play when it comes to academics, we can get a little more cozy, a little less institutional. Whatever works.

Caleb’s rendition of the state of Mississippi. We have now learned all 50 states and their capitals, and we are now learning America’s history and major geographical features.

Hope everyone is having a great week, and you are enjoying your low gas prices! I live in Crazyfornia, where our state government voted itself a $1.00 extra gas tax. Yep. Gas is still $3/gallon here. 😉