Blue House Academy: School Room Switch-a-Roo

School Room Switch-a-Roo

I have been one spoiled homeschool mom. ?I had the best homeschool room a mom could wish for. It was spacious with lots of natural light and an incredible view of the woods. ?We even had a special tree outside the window that provided some of our best bird watching moments. ?There was plenty of storage space, and it had it's own bathroom. ?It was a multi-purpose room that housed our guests, held all my craft supplies, and it contained the only television in the house -- so I guess that made it our family room too. ?

We actually called it the office, because before it was a school room or a guest room it was our office/junk room. ?So for our five-plus years of homeschooling, my morning call has been, "It's time to go to the office!" ?No, I didn't make them wear ties or carry brief cases. ; )

You may have picked up on the fact that I'm referring to the school room in past tense. {Sigh} ?

I had to give up my beloved school room.

When we bought the Blue House 11 years ago, we didn't know we needed a school room. ?We didn't even know we needed an extra kid bedroom, because Grace wasn't born yet. ?The house was way bigger than anything we had had before, so it was easy to look over it's limitations. ?But the bedroom situation has been a problem for years. ?I'm embarrassed to say our 14-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son are still sharing a bedroom. ?

It's too complicated to go into as to why we've let this drag on for this long, but we've been trying for years to come up with an alternative. ?We thought we'd try finishing the basement ourselves and put a bedroom down there. ?We even got it partially framed (the "we" being Marc and my brother-in-law), but then Marc got a promotion that required more travel and the basement project was put on indefinite hold. ?

So the girls are now moving into the old school room/office, Ryne is moving into Grace's old bedroom, and the school room is moving into Ryne's old bedroom (that Anna was also sharing). ?

Confused? ?

It certainly has been a confusing transition. ?Originally we figured we'd just move the school room to Grace's room. ?But the room has two walls of windows, leaving very little wall space. ?There was no way to fit our school room essentials in there. ?Plus, it has an itty-bitty, teeny-tiny closet, so it made more sense to put Ryne in there. ?

Here is Ryne's old room, which will now be our school room.
It made me very sad to have to take down the goodnight sign I hand-painted when Ryne was a baby. ?He's 13 now, so I had to pack away several items that are too babyish. {sniff}

Let me tell you, it's been fun trying to figure out how to fit everything into a room a third the size of our previous school room! ?It's been good for me though. ?Even with all that space, stuff got buried and I forgot all about it. ?I've been forced to part with many things and decide what's really worth keeping.

Ryne's new room is almost complete -- just waiting to get Anna out of the top bunk, so we can remove the bottom bunk and put his desk underneath.?

The school room is almost done. ?I have a long weekend of work to do, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to show pictures for the Blog Hop on Monday.

The girls' room is a disaster. ?There is still stuff in there that either needs to get tossed or find a new home. ?The walls need to be painted. ?I wish we could get rid of the carpet, but it's looking like that's not in the plan right now. ?So next week I'll be focusing on getting that room at least done enough that the girls' can start sleeping in there. ?Right now Grace sleeps in a big chair in our master bedroom and Anna's "closet" is on the living room floor. ?

This chaos must stop.

Pray for me. : )

Source: http://bluehouseacademy.blogspot.com/2012/08/school-room-switch-roo.html

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