For those of you who visit – you’ve seen this lil bench in all sorts of disarray.  On a perfect OCD day – there would be neatly stacked up workboxes beneath, with nice light blue checkered cushions on top, with a neatly stacked field guide / nature display shelf to the right and my reading books . . . ok. That really only exists in my brain – we pile all sorts of things on this bench, hidden by the kitchen table. . . . .

Oh. Right. A whole tables worth of debris was moved to the Learning Library. I have already put away the Lego League supplies, the mound was much more impressive.

I have piles on my bookshelves for each type of topic, Math, Writing, Latin, Art, Geography, Science, etc.  I just put the books on top of the matching pile.  Today, I went through their workboxes as well and pulled everything out.  In the afternoon I went to the local mart and purchased some more file folder holders – then went to good will and picked up 20 for a buck.  The box  will be headed back to the Mart today . . . .

I like to keep things put away – in order of where I want to find it when I’m looking for it.  Since the boys have been little, our library shelves have echoed the Dewey decimal fiction/non fiction structure.  When we moved into this furnished home, we sold several bookshelves, and books.  Sigh. There really isn’t anywhere where they would go here, so I make due with these smaller shelves. Books are on their sides to fit on the shelf.

As you can see  – I’m not into neat as a pin, stacked perfectly, presentation. We cull from these shelves to help our studies. Rarely do we “do” school in here, I will come in here for quiet crafting time, or planning. Jon comes out here quite a bit to play with his crafts – he is really into the glue gun, popsicle sticks, paper crafts, etc. I never know what the table will look like when I enter this room!

We have a science center corner set up – the grey tub on the bottom is filled with every kit imaginable – a gift from a friend – electrical, chemistry, microscope, biology – we can take any interest to any level of learning!

In fact – each year, I have looked at the grade level of Science Scope and Sequence, or actual text – and we have already completed those requirements.  Even this year, with General Science and Physical Science – the only thing lacking was a detailed study of the human body.  – Looking at this shot – I really need to find someone who wants my President books and may be interested in some Latin Curriculums. . . Anyone?

My craft corner – Buckets of Stamps and Card making supplies, a used entertainment center found at a garage sale, on wheels house my art supplies with closing doors, a pile for our Lego Robotics supplies, and Jon’s tupperwares of crafts.  He has free open permission do what he wishes with his glue gun, paints, wood burner, etc, he has mats and plywood boards to work on. I keep everything in gallon ziplocks, he’s pretty good at putting them back in the containers.

So – now that everything is in it’s place, I pull out our supplies for Jan – March and place them back in the Workboxes.

Ta Dah! All ready for another season of learning!  I will be writing this week on how I keep my resources organized using computer software – so that I  know at a moments glance what we have available when a topic comes up! I’d be interested in hearing what software you use to organize your books!