Saturday, July 30, 2011

The School Room

For the last two years I have used my dining room as our school room. For the past two years, I have desperately tried to retain the illusion that this dining room is, in fact, a dining room.

We completed all work in a manner that would allow the evidence of learning to be swept away into cabinets and drawers in the event of company or a holiday meal. I even went so far as to purchase a large bookshelf for my office across the foyer, that I might be spared the embarrassment of visitors beholding the untidiness of papers, projects, and books that are inevitable in the home of any homeschooling family.

This year, however, I've resigned myself to the fact that our home is an unapologetic place of learning. It began when I realized my daughter (who is learning cursive this year) would need a cursive reference constantly available. Should I print out a cursive alphabet and laminate it onto a card that can be tucked neatly inside a bookshelf?

No. Enough. When I ordered my daughter's Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, I also ordered large classroom-style cards.

I didn't stop there. I kept surfing the web. I ordered two large maps - one of the world, and one of the United States, of the dry-erase adhesive variety, that I could plaster directly on my walls. I ordered educational posters. I selected "Gifts of Ancient Civilizations" posters, knowing that this year would begin our formal study of world history. I purchased a small end table that matched our furniture that I might place our lovely globe (a generous gift from Grandma) out in the room where my children actually learn, instead of squirreled away behind my computer on my desk like a decoration.

I cleared the knick-knacks off the hutch, and placed them elsewhere in the house, and used that luscious horizontal space for everyday book and folder storage, and a laptop recharging station. I mentioned I wished I had a rustic wooden caddy for colored pencils and scissors, and my husband built one for me.

Holiday meals and guests will, for the foreseeable future, be entertained in the company of our schoolroom menagerie.

And I embrace that fact.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Increased Blog Activity

August will begin our third year of homeschooling and hopefully some regular activity to this blog. After spending quite a bit of time archiving old work and deciding what to keep, I concluded that posting regularly to this blog will add an additional level of record I feel obligated to keep, in the event that I should ever encounter any legal trouble for our decision to home school. Alabama law is vague on the subject, and I've always felt that due to my very informal covering, it is wise to keep ample records of work completed by my children.

So here we go.