Not Back to School Blog Hop 2013 Week 2

It's the second week of the Not Back to School Blog Hop hosted by iHomeschool Network. Last week we shared our curriculum plans. Now it's time to share our school rooms!

When we started homeschooling seven years ago, we used the dining room table. Every day I had to pack things up so we'd have a place to eat dinner. I had a craft armoire that I used to store all of our books and supplies. It was cramped to be sure.

We moved to a new house in 2009 so now we have a dedicated school room. It's a small space, only 11x7. But at the end of the day, no packing up our stuff! Yay! I can just shut the door to avoid anyone seeing our daily messes accomplishments.

We start our school day here, then more often than not we drift out into other areas of the house - the den or the playroom often is where you'll find us. Those spaces have comfy furniture and TV's so we can watch DVD's or Netflix movies that go along with our studies.

My desk is the first thing you see when you enter our school room. It will only be this clean for a day or two until we start school. Then you'll be lucky to see its surface for the rest of the year! Thankfully, I have a Desk Apprentice, that big black thing in the corner, that allows me to stay organized. I keep all of my daily planning sheets and school supplies - Sharpies, stapler, paper trimmer, paper clips and more - in this thing.

The kids' desks are to my right, the Princess on the left and Mr. Lego on the right. We got the desks at a local office supply store after we moved into this house. The height is adjustable, so they will grow as the kids do. That feature came in really handy when we had to raise Mr. Lego's desk two notches so his knees would fit under it!

One of my favorite things about having a school room is being able to decorate the walls. We never could do that at our old house.

This is the other wall, our Wall of Presidents. I've left some room to add more as we go this year. The white board is really shower board from Lowe's. A sheet of it was here in the house when we moved in, so hubby just cut it to fit and screwed it into the wall. Not bad for free, huh?

This is what I use to adhere my posters to the wall. I previously used sticky tack, but it took the paint with it whenever I removed the posters from the wall. This stuff, Magic Mounts by Miller Studio, is amazing! It comes down easily (no paint peeling) and if I'm careful when I take them off the poster itself, I can reuse them on another poster! I picked these up at Office Max last year and still have plenty left.

This is the view from the kids' desk looking toward my desk. I adore having the large wall maps up and easily visible. Maps make me happy for some reason.

Looking out the school room window, you can see our driveway and front walk. We're a little below ground level, since the school room is located on the bottom floor of our tri-level home. We have a neighborhood cat that likes to sit by our window and look in, until the dog notices and barks at it. We also have chipmunks, squirrels and birds that hop around the walk. Maybe that's why the cat comes around?

So what does your school room look like? Link up to the Not Back to School Blog Hop and share!