Reorganizing our Schoolroom (Again)

You'll remember I posted before about our 2014/2015 School Room Tour, because we'd made, what I considered at the time, to be some pretty nifty changes to our school room.

You're welcome to check the link above to see the original post, but the pics above will give you an idea where I went with organizing the multitude of things needed for our school space.

Well, we've had a few months to test drive the new system and I was pretty happy with it. Functionally, I mean. I was so much more organized than what I'd been working with.
As time went on though, I could see that we needed to tweak it further.

We had some doors in the cubby units, that were brightly coloured, and I thought eye catching.
Turns out it's distracting for kids with attention problems.

So when we had the opportunity to replace our TV unit with a similar one in black, we scooped all the black doors from the front school room, and decided to match the doors to the already white units.
Very white, very boring. Very functional for the distracted monkeys.

The doors were added to more of the units, which allowed us to not see all the books. I think it contributes to a more stream lined look. The white very much brightens the room, which in med-January was a very welcome change.

We did also decide that we had too many paper types, note books, and even colouring books to store them in a way that helped us know in the first place that I already had them.
This resulted in me making more copies than necessary, or spending too much money on buying doubles of things. Big money saver, actually.

So we did a little reorganization, and added some more drawers to the units, rather than just doors.
We have partially re-labelled, but have more of that job left.

The neatest hack in this room, in my opinion, by far, were the tiny shelves that my dear husband added to the insides of the cubes. They hold the multitude of paper types, and small things, and do a great job of allowing us to see at a glance when we happen to be out of any given thing.

I am finding that I am breathing a sigh of relief. Things are easier to find, and less over whelming visually.

 Nony of A Slob Comes Clean, is a favourite blogger of mine when it comes to de-cluttering. She's great at talking about it all, and hilarious to boot. She talks on many occasions about the container method. How you can only have what fits in the container. These units we've put in the school room really work well with that concept, and I have to make what I have fit, or get rid of it, to keep the stuff behind the doors, which makes the whole room look better. Keeps me honest about my pack rat ways. Keeps me motivated, because I really like it when it's tidy, even if tidy seems a little out of reach with five children, who are onsite most of the time.

We did keep the coloured cubbies in one of the units, because those were the kids' personal 'locker' type storage space. They had become accustomed to the colours they each had, so they stay.
They may grow out of them soon, they may not. In the mean time, I have my splash of colour.

One last thing that we did was repaint and shellac the chairs in a darker colour. They used to be a honey colour and drove me a little crazy. This works better in the room, and is a little more forgiving than the light colour.

I would definitely say that the colour change in this room makes all the difference in the world.

Now to dig out the label maker and move on to making sure *everyone else* can find all the stuff and things.

DIY Poster Storage Unit

Storage and organization of school and house supplies in our house is an on-going battle.

We have so many things that require odd sized storage containers. Things that would be quite cost prohibitive to our budget, or difficult to find.

Case in point. Not everybody has a need to store a whole bunch of posters in their house. But this girl does. Educational posters of every size and description. So, my dear husband, built me something to store them all in.

Looks simple right? Simple, and built like a tank. Relatively cheap too.

It has worked to store those lovely posters for quite a while. I've been quite happy to have it, since something made of card board would run about $15 at the local store, but if you want to sort between types of posters, adding extra card board as dividers comes at $5 per sheet. I could also get a plastic, envelope like deal for about $20.

So for a while the size did its' job. Then I needed a bigger one. Nothing I could find really was quite right. None of it fulfilled my 'needs to be built like a tank' criteria. Save for the one that was gorgeous. It was $679.

Not gonna happen.

We decided the most budget friendly thing we could do was to modify what we had.

Using 2x4's, and ply wood, our resident 'stuff builder' added sides and a backing to the one I already had.

Three times.

Effectively we created permanent compartments that will allow for storage of different items.

We were going for functional, rather than pretty, but as a nice touch, The 'Stuff Builder' even made an outside cover for it, so it looked slightly better.

Looks raw, but it will definitely do what I need it to, and we won't have stuff falling all over the place.

I'll bet you're wondering what all of the compartments were for. Well, by the time I was finished loading it, I had loaded about 50 posters, a Wii Fit board, that one sad TV table that is still in our house, but didn't have a home, a crokinole board, three large art clip boards, a bunch of poster board, and a large folding card table.
Now all that stuff isn't just leaned up against my wall being knocked around by the kids.
For those who are curious, the total price tag on this project was about $30.

I'm so happy to have this problem solved.
I would wait to post this until it's painted, but I know that most of the projects around here hit 80% done before we abandon them. Paint would be the last 20% of this project.

Accentuate the Positive- reframing your child's frustrating tendencies

As a mama, I find that sometime it's easy to get discouraged.

My central job involves trying to raise my kids right, troubleshooting the eccentricities of the children, and also bearing the lions' share of the responsibilities that come with seeing, finding, and stick handling all of the challenges that come with that. 

Now, because of our mixed lot, we have some serious excess energy being expended, some big time messes being created, and 
some serious off-task activities happening here. We have stubborn, moody, strong willed, forgetful, disorganized, inconsistent, and nosy.

That can feel pretty overwhelming sometimes. 
Enough on some days to make a body want to pack up and go home.

Oh wait. We homeschool. I am home. Back to the drawing board.


Tongue in cheek, and to help me keep my sanity, I have to reframe much of what I see in the positive: 

 Their leadership tendency is so strong that they don't recognize anyone else's authority, 

They have will so strong that they will carry through on what ever goals they have to success. 

They get so into what they are doing that they can tune out everything else.

They are an individual so spontaneous they constantly have things on the go.

They feel so deeply. 

They are willing risk takers, and innovators.

They notices everything, even the smallest details. 

What creative problem solvers!

Such enthusiasm, and energy!

Super quick thinkers

And of course, what you see is what you get.



See, all of the things that frustrate one about a person can be reframed to see what's good about it. 
Have you ever heard the saying about a person's greatest strength is their greatest weakness? Well, I believe that applies here.

It's just a matter of stick handling that in the right direction. 
We work constantly at it. Sometimes the trickiest part is remembering to do this when you're frustrated.

Freezer Cooking: What Will I Do with all this TURKEY?!

In case you were curious about any of my time and money savers as a largish family mom, I'd have to say that freezer cooking is a pretty handy way to go about achieving both for our family. There is a time investment involved, but the time it saves after it's done really does make it worth the time taken.

FREEZER/ONCE A MONTH COOKING DEFINED:

An assembly line method of making several meals at one time that will last for anywhere from a couple of extra meals to an entire month worth of meals.

WHY FREEZER COOK?
We choose to buy large quantities of supplies at lower prices, so we save money

We avoid take out, so we save money

Increases convenience: We assemble many meals at once, so we have prepared food on the days we can’t/don’t want to cook. In the case of month cooking, potentially several nights of freedom.

Promotes Nutrition: We know exactly what’s in the food.
Saves time: At dinner time on the day of, we have taken many steps out of the ‘what’s for dinner question’.

Promotes Hospitality: casual invitations to dinner become easier, also when we want to heat something and take it to someone having a hard time (family challenges, deaths, births etc.)

AN EASY WAY TO BEGIN
Often we will make a turkey or roast, and then don’t make full use of them. It’s a meal you already know your family will eat, and you’ve got a ton of it.
What if you packaged full meals in lasagna pans right away and threw them in the freezer? Label it, and you have a few extra meals. This can eliminate waste.

Other nights, make a double batch of something, or fill the biggest crock pot, or stock pot you have when you are cooking. Then immediately after eating, (or before if you’re ambitious) stock your containers, label and freeze them.

You can always work your way up from there to accumulating supplies for meals for a major cook, or continue to make triple( or more) batched meals, and rotate serving them through a menu plan.

LOSS LEADER SALES

There are some predictable times when you will find large amounts of the base items for freezer cooking on sale at fantastic prices. Summer is a great time to pick up zucchini, Rices go on sale with many of the Caribbean festivals, as advertised in the flyers. 10lb bags of vegetables (carrots, beets, onions, potatoes) go on sale when they come into season in the fall. Meats like turkeys and hams go on sale for us here in Canada before Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Under certain point programs that we have here, you can get free groceries, and time the spending of the points for when you know they will go on sale. With a little thought and planning ahead, that brings down the prices even further, and you can get the foods into the house that you want to make.

MATERIALS FOR STORAGE

Some of the useful things you might find handy:

Lasagna pans- half height lasagna pans or smaller depending on whether you are storing a full meal, a sauce, or a side dish.

Ziploc Bags- they store reasonably flat

Containers that you would like to give a second use through re-use.

Sharpies and labels – you want to know what was in that container the next time you unearth it. Make sure to take note of your cooking date when you label, for food safety.

Multiple nesting stock pots- handy for making multiple types of foods at the same time, so that you can form an assembly line when the foods are ready. Having lots of pots to work with make it more convenient for the cooking stage, and storage is easier if they are nesting.

WHERE TO SHOP FOR THE SUPPLIES?

Check your local flyers for the foods, because that is a great bet for the loss leader sales.

For the storage items, they are less likely to go on sale, so check out some of the following if you need ideas. Locally, we have:

THE WHOLESALE CLUB- open to the public

http://www.wholesaleclub.ca/LCLOnline/home.jsp?storeId=466

 2255 Barton St East,  Hamilton,  ON  L8H 7T4

GT FRENCH

http://gtfrench.ca/

90 Glover Rd Hamilton L8W 3T7

COSTCO
http://www.costco.ca/

100 Legend Crt. Ancaster L9K 1J3

1225 Brant St. Burlington L7P 1X7

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days.

5:30 a.m. arrived. She put her feet on the floor, and rubbed her eyes. Yes, five days in, the headache was STILL there.

Awesome.

She knew if she didn't get moving, the kids would get ahead of her, and she'd be dragging behind them kind of like the owner of a too-large dog, that is being taken for a ride by something that she thinks that she is in charge of.

The five minute shower that has become her hallmark occurred without incident.
Breakfast got made and laid out.
Then they started to come.

One by each, they arrived hungry and insistent.
Over half of them wanted something other than what had been prepared.

None of them wanted to get dressed.
None of them wanted to get ready for school.

Here we go again....

Yesterday had been rough. The raspberries that somehow made their way to being spread like jam all over the front hall were still fresh in her mind, as she considered the contents of the oatmeal bowl that were now splattered across the kitchen floor.

Today wasn't looking much better. To boot, it was still so early, and so much of the day was ahead of them. Sigh. It was enough to make a body tired.

Fortunately, she knew a few things:

1) Nothing lasts forever
2) Hard work pays off

So she put on her big girl panties, and made a decision.
That she wasn't willing to give up what she wanted most, for what she wanted right now.

What she wanted right now, was more sleep, and an uninterrupted bath. If we were really shooting for the moon, there would be a book involved, that was being read for nothing more than pleasure.

But what she wanted most, was children who understood that life is not all about them, that they need a strong work ethic to succeed, and that they learn to be good representatives of the God that set the example for them.

They spent a lot of time in the corner that morning.
They complained a lot about mom cracking the whip.
But they buckled down and eventually did what they were supposed to.


Later,
One sibling said to another, don't worry about unloading the dishwasher. I'll do it for you.

Still later
And then a little girl arrives with a piece of artwork, and the words "Mommy, I made this for you, because I love you so much."

Heart melting.

And for that moment, it had all been worth it.

Gearing up for the New School Year- School Room Tour

We some time over the summer gearing up for our new school year, which requires a lot of prep work. We've been looking at what hasn't worked for us, in the hopes of tweaking things, in anticipation of  a smooth start in September.

We had been working hard to become more organized, because we have some disorganized operators around here, so we've made a gradual switch over this past year to a completely different shelving and storage system, in the hopes that it will help us out. Having five children learning in a space that is not huge, requires that I get a little more organized.

As you can see we do have a table for the kids to work at, but don't be fooled, they will work where ever they find themselves. Since the largest part of our school storage is in one place, I thought I'd give you a tour of our school room, so that it might spark some ideas as you make and tweak your own homeschooling experience. This has been something that I have worked toward for quite some time, so don't feel, if you are starting out, that you need to walk into homeschooling with an elaborate system. The state in which you see this room lasted about as long as it took to take the pictures, in the interest of full disclosure. :)  Just a reminder that one should not believe everything they see on Pinterest.

We began to accumulate these neat units from IKEA earlier in the year. I have always loved that when a small child starts pulling the books out of these units that a whole shelf full doesn't fall out. Just the amount of books in the cubby that the child is currently wreaking havoc in. It buys mom precious minutes to do damage control.

We used the cubby doors in the second half of last year, but realized that the kids have enough books and supplies, that we decided to expand and give each child (save for the youngest) two of these spaces. Then they can store their school books, binders, and the courier packs that hold their pencil cases and smaller supplies. We decided to use a label maker to make sure that all the spaces had the appropriate names on them. No arguing over things being misplaced. Easy Peasy.

We decided that since IKEA had one less pink cubby than we wanted, we would use an appropriately sized basket to put packages of crayons and pencil crayons for future use. We lucked out at a thrift store for them, because someone dropped off a matching set.
We are trying to work hard on each child having their own supplies, and each child being responsible for getting their own supplies into their own storage space this year.

Extra binders were stored at the bottom, since we tend to need to replace them frequently. We'll try to keep them as handy to the area in which they will be used, as possible.

We have many science related supplies, so we chose the upper drawers to keep the pieces in. Stickers, stamps and ink pads needed a place to go, and we chose this type of storage for them.
Our Kindergarten specific supplies and visuals needed to stay behind closed doors, so we chose a row to keep those safely tucked away, out of sight, out of mind, from the children most prone to pull things out and leave them every where.

We did decide that some of our art supplies, (plasticeine  art manequins, clay molding supplies) and laminated visuals, needed baskets that could be carried to the table and taken back when finished.
Clip boards canvasses and small individual chalk boards were big enough to take up a space by themselves, so they got a dedicated square.

 In unit number three, we have our Smaller odds and sods. We have pencils, and stickers, markers, dry erase markers and crayons, along with chalk board and dry erase board brushes in drawers.
Since we also have tech supplies, they are organized and labelled so that we have places for them, and the kids know where they belong.

This seems to be one of our biggest challenges. Having a place for things, putting them in their place.
It's also helping me prioritize how many things we keep.
As a pack rat, it's always a challenge, but I am learning that it's important to simply choose to keep only the things that I have homes for.

The bottom shelves of this unit have many of our resource books, leisure reading books, and small individual curriculum books that don't fit my core curriculum. Each cube has been arranged so that like books are stored with like, so that at any given time I can put hands on what I need quickly.

I chose this unit to store my teacher's manuals. I use BJU for my core, so there are many subjects that I have as base subjects. Teaching multiple grades, and storing the manuals from the 'off' years when they are not being used became challenging when I stored the 'off' years in another room, so this has been a positive change. No more changing these books out each year. no more carrying it all back and forth.  I just have have all grades together, but each cubby has one subject in it. So much easier than what I was doing before. The bonus is that I had space left over at the bottom to store my printer paper, lines papers and all the odd ball types of print outs that we need as part of the job.

That is the main core of our 'school room'. I'm so happy to have most of our school things in one place now, and I'm really moving forward hopeful that this new set up will help the kids keep things tidier and easier to find. We are a week in on our school year, and so far, so good.

Not Back to School

I had a 'breath caught in my throat ' moment this morning.

Disturbing, and healing all at the same time.

All because we started back to school this week.

You see, I ended up with a very busy couple of weeks, between preparing to, and speaking for my weight loss support group last Friday, and preparing to and leading our local home school support group meeting on the first day back to school.

Makes for one busy girl.
Lots to keep my mind occupied, and if I am completely honest, a little overwhelmed with the busy.
Fortunately it's a 'when it rains it pours' proposition, and the rain doesn't last for extended periods.
So we have a quiet period.

My mind has  moment to process.

That's when it happened.

It's not that it hasn't happened before, but not quite this way.

I realized that we still have one missing.
One that DIDN'T start school this year.
One for whom the day to day responsibility for parenting is not mine.
One that I never got to bring home.

The quiet afford me the moment to think of what grade he would be entering.
That's when it hit me.
I didn't know off the top of my head.
The shock hit me that I actually had to think about it this year.
Devestated, because I never thought the day would come. For a second scared that I would forget. That I could ever forget.
Healing, because it wasn't the main preoccupation.

To all the moms not sending one back to school, or stating them back to a school year for the same reason,  or simply fresh in your missing your little one, my heart goes out to you.

Please take some time to be kind to yourself if you are currently struggling.