The School Room

This weekend I got to work on the room that used to be the dining room, but that has now been transformed into the school room.

When I began this project a few weeks ago I wasn't sure how it would turn out or if we would keep the new arrangement.  I know that Paul wasn't totally sure how all this rearranging was going to look and wasn't really thrilled about the prospect of losing the dining room.  I wasn't all that sure either... still I figured that if it was horrible we could just move it back.  But once I'd hauled the dining room table into the living room and hauled the Chinese chest and toy chest into the living room I was pleased.  I unplugged the TV and moved it across the room, deciding at that moment that cable wasn't something we needed any more (Paul didn't care... he's always studying anyways).  

Amazingly, once I was done, both the living room and the dining room looked bigger.  The girls love that they have a sort of runway back and forth between the rooms where they can twirl and sprint and zoom back and forth.  And Paul thought it looked great too.

Once Paul's done with classes next week, I'm going to do some more reorganizing, sorting toys and trying to fit the ones that are regularly played with into the toy box with its lid down... but for now this works.

Here's the result... our "school room" did end up spilling over into the little dining area.  I was only too happy to cover up the stains on the paint with the school posters, and Sadie's always hauling her books over to the table, so it seemed like the perfect place for them.

Here easel and school books... and a treasure chest with Mae's shoes.

The reading corner and the quilts.  Those quilts get pulled down almost every morning when they make a fort or a bed or some other creation...

The riding corner.  This is going to change the most in the upcoming weeks.  The giraffe is going to go up to Patrick's room.  I'm not sure where Maximus is going (the horse) but he might be going up to the girls' room for late night riding because there's a trampoline on its way to our house (a small one) that somebody got Mae for her birthday... and that seems like the best place to try it out.

Looking into the room from the living room.

Mae's rice and bean table.  Sadie wasn't happy when she saw that I'd added beans after she went to sleep last night.  Mae had a blast.

This is my favorite piece of furniture in my entire house.  I remember staring at it when it was in my grandmother's house when I was little... And now it has been hauled from California to Florida to Michigan with us...

I love the posters so much more than the stains that just won't scrub off the wall.  When we moved in I put a bookshelf in front of them and forgot about them, but since I'd moved the bookshelf they were seriously bothering me... and scrubbing just wasn't doing anything!

My little scholar, dreaming her volcano dreams... That book was mine when I was a kid.  She loves it.  She finds it and hauls it out and stares at the pictures of rocks... especially the lava rocks.

She's also started doing "school" with her brother and sister.  Poor little Patrick.  She has some high expectations for him:

And I won't even relive the "school project" she set up for Mae yesterday.  Let's just say it involved rice and beans and my hardwood floors.  I think it might have been a test of gravity...

And that's the latest in my quest to make a fun little school room that the kids and I love being in!

So far I'm pleased with how it's going!