Homeschool Organization: Keeping It Real

Brenda at The Family Revised is looking for ideas and inspiration for organizing her homeschool and asking us oh so organized homeschool moms to post our perfect school rooms.  Oh, wait, this is a "keeping it real" post...whew, then I can participate :)

Our schoolroom is our dining room.  A nice little room actually, with a window looking out to our front yard and street, and it is still open to the living room so I can keep an eye on my little one if he roams.  Right now I guess you could say the room is in transition...it has it's summer wardrobe on.

This is one wall, where we have our chalkboard, world map and some posters. 

This train table is not normally in the schoolroom...dh is converting it to a Lego table for ds3.  I don't know how I'm going to convince them to move it out again in August. 

Here is my dining room table.  Normally it is a full sized oval, but dh broke it down to this little circle and moved it from the center of the room to make room for the train/Lego table.  I actually think I like the table in this position and at this size so I may keep it like that for school.

This is command central folks!  My desk.  I love my desk.  It has taken years, but I finally have it pretty much just like I need.  My many planners reside here, I recently added the cork board for posting important memos and such (on there now: receipt from haircut, schedule of reading events at library, letter from Great Sunflower Project...boy that's probably more than you ever wanted to know!) and my ever present Disney World mug filled with water.  Oh, and my new laptop! 

Here is one of my many attempts at organization.  A file crate which now is a catch-all for papers, notebooks, looks like there is an empty shipping envelope in there...Okay, the file crate is supposed to have files arranged by season to store ideas and materials for school (summer has 4th of July, fall has Halloween, etc.)  Those files are in there, it's just that everything else has found it's way in there too.

My ds's bookcase.  Right now it only has ds3 and ds4's books on it.  Ds1 and ds2 keep their's in their rooms.  When we are schooling I have little plastic tubs on top labeled with the theme of whatever we are studying (like space) and the season or holiday (Easter, etc.) and have corresponding books in them for easy reference.

Okay, here is where the nitty gritty is.  My hall closet stores our school books and supplies.  I have the shelves labeled (Mom's books, ds2 books, library books, etc.) so the kids can find and replace their supplies easily.  On the floor I have a box of reference books (dictionaries, atlas, etc.) and ds2's reading books for the year.  The drawers hold paper products, art supplies and various science materials (beakers, etc.)  I really want to get a rolling cart for some of that stuff to keep in the school room.

One shelf up in the closet.  Go up any further and you're looking at my towels.  Oh, look, one is peeking down right now.  Anyway, the top shelf in the picture is my shelf with my planning books, test books and reference materials.  And on a bad day it's filled with magazines and other stuff I just didn't want to put in their proper places lol.  Right now the closet is pretty bare as I cleaned out books from last year and haven't gotten all the books for this year yet.

I don't know if any of this inspires or helps anyone else, but I hope it does.  I know it has inspired me to get going with my school planning and get organized lol!  I am going to visit those who have linked to Brenda's post and hopefully gain more inspiration!  You should too!  Thanks Brenda :)