It’s the first day of summer. The sky is blue. Boats are in the lake. Jet Ski’s are racing around, ducks are eating on the grass and Gold Finches are at the feeder.  But for some reason – I still feel like we need to “Do School”. Hmmmm

Could this be why? Our meandering products are still out, piles and piles of them. It is what has happened since we were using more books than our magazine holders could.um. hold.  

So yesterday, on a trip to the Big City, we purchased The Desk Apprentice.  My goal was to clean up the bench – make it ready for summer company, have it be less of a catch all.  And – Vwallah. 

Hmmm. So why am I so dissatisfied?  See those side pockets all around?  Notice how two stenographer books barely fit in the side pouches? Notice how there are no books in the other side holders? Cause they don’t fit?  And how our Nature Study books are still in the bag? And mom’s stuff doesn’t fit.  You’re so clever spotting all of those things from a simple photograph.

The other issue is Size.  It’s huge! Like the size of a milk crate with extensions.  It would take up the entire end of our craft/class table.

So I tried putting it on the “homeschool work” shelf.  It hangs over by a few inches.

In theory, it is nice.  I have one half for Jon and one half for Nate. But – Even just putting their notebooking pages in – no real books – it is stuffed. You’d not be able to add to it all year long.  The pencil cups on the corners are so high that pencils will get lost in there, along with everything else 10 year old boys put into containers. . . .

So it hit me.  For $25.00 – this Desk Apprentice was not really going to help out my long term goals.  Keeping their work handy, transportable, and clear of clutter. So – We’re back to where we were before the magazine holders (that were too small) – with these file boxes!

They do fit on the shelf, if I needed the space for crafting.

Ah Much Better.  For the record – we’ve only done “school” here about 5 times. So now, it’s the Library, instead of the Classroom. For those looking for Workbox Ideas for Older Kids – High School and Middle School – I have this handy book shelf on the left to store this year’s products on.  Each little pile is a subject.  The resources that I want to use for the month go into the workbox.  They are old enough to “do the next page”. I do use the white board and a sticky post it system if they need lists for the topics of the day.  I enter everything on this shelf into the Resources on Homeschool Tracker – and play around with how our day/week/month  might look. 

I just found a friend to take all of the Saxon on the floor there and spent some time cleaning that corner too. Productive day!

So – In Wrap Up – The Desk Apprentice did Exactly what I wanted it to do yesterday.  It helped me to clean off the bench!

It helped me to organize the classroom and look over my resources so I can pray about our goals for the upcoming year. (See the door through the garage door? That’s where the classroom Library Stamp Corner is located. But – I’m taking it back to Staples today.

And there ya have it. All Clean.  I’ll still use the magazine boxes probably – on a daily basis, just to set out their work – mixing it up a bit. . . who knows.

Continuing the tour, I have a reading area there by the sliding glass doors, the dining room and the coffee bar.

Looking this way we have the computer area and futon in the little nook.

View from the Reading Area this morning – I had to stand up. When I sit down I see bars.

Oh – and a long while back – I wrote a post called Organizing the Heap that showed how I made the piles on the shelves and my post – it note system for the boys. Jon still likes the post it note system, but Nate has seemed to have out grown it.

This article was submitted to The Christian Home – I hope you enjoyed seeing my before and after messy dining room pictures! How do you organize the heap to get ready for the next school year?
http://thelegacyofhome.blogspot.com/2011/06/christian-home-issue-21.html