Homeschool Rooms

We started our homeschool journey last year. DS was in third grade. Before we started, I cleaned out our unfinished basement, painted a few walls, set up some bookshelves, found a card table and some chairs, made some posters and hung them and bought a clock for the wall.

It was cold, it was dreary and we hated it.

We quickly found the kitchen table. It was the perfect spot, the heart of the home. I could cook (aak!) I could do dishes, while still supervising DS. (DS is the type child that needs constant supervision or else his mind wanders aimlessly.)

I like the kitchen table. It suits me fine. It was my great-grandma's. Six generations in my family have sat at that table. DS informed me that he doesn't like the kitchen table. It's too tall. It's too messy. (Mom stacks tons of books on the table.) He wants a school room.

At Christmas, I decided, due to DS begging, to make our spare bedroom/genealogy room into a homeschool room. DH had three weeks of vacation. Perfect time to get it done. Not. I emptied out the room two weeks ago and we've been tripping over the contents since. Today I got serious.

The room had been painted white. White walls, white ceiling -- blaring white. I did that awhile ago because it was going to be my genealogy showcase. I bought beautiful black frames for my ancestors' photos and thought the contrast would be great. The room was also to house two or three of my trunks.

Well, now the room holds my granddaddy's ugly burnt orange rocking chair. It holds two of my trunks. It has three book cases. There's a stack taller than me of my genealogy files. There's no room for a table -- at least a card table.

So, what's a mom to do. DS is begging for a school room. I thought we could buy a small, bistro table. Big enough to hold his math workbook, or to hold paper to write or do artwork. Looking online, the price is a little more than I want to spend.

So, I started searching the net for ideas. I came up with a solution that I think DS will like. I'm going to have DS make himself a PVC table. Dirt cheap, he can take ownership in it, and it can be taken down if need be. I found free plans at this website:

http://www.pvcstore.com/furniture.htm


This is not how I had envisioned this room. However, if it makes DS happy, I'm willing to give up my grand ideas. I know PVC tables aren't the prettiest things in the world! Neither is my granddaddy's chair, though. It will work. The price is definitely right.

I'll post a picture when we finish this task. The only thing I'm unhappy with is the ugly carpeting in the room. DH has the new wood flooring for the room, he's had it for three years now. He just hasn't installed it. I'm done waiting on that, as I don't have the skills to do that myself.

Time to search the net for free posters. Time to run to the hardware store. Hopefully I can cull enough books so that everything will fit in the three bookshelves. Maybe it will be nice having a homeschool room.