A LOOK AT MY "SCHOOLROOM"

I put schoolroom in quotes because I really wish it could be a dining room. But I just gave up this year and decided I needed to make it work for school no matter how it turned out. We don't have a basement so we use what's available. These pictures were taken a couple days before school officially started. The first picture is of my bookcase obviously which holds reference books, boxes of crayons and other books which are not child specific. Two great finds were Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic which I bought at our county library's annual used book sale for $0.50 a piece. I also have a very old copy of Little Men which I plan to read this year after we get done with the Anne series. The boxes to the left of the bookcase contain all the child specific materials. Each of my three children have a box and know where their workbooks are located. I got those at IKEA and they've worked out great. It's wonderful to dream about all the stuff I could get at IKEA, but I digress. The second picture is of the wall next to the bookshelf. Here I've posted the family schedule, a calendar and two white boards which I can use to write down a to-do list or a memory verse. My daughter is posing for the camera with the movie we got for that week's pizza night. The third picture is a close up of the schedule. After trying and failing with MOTH last year I determined to try it again, except follow my own style. There are color coded sticky notes for each person and it's been working pretty well so far. The fourth picture is a close up of my chore charts which I got off some website I can't remember. I personalized them with a favorite character and the kids really got into checking off their chores. However, the novelty has worn off and I'm realizing that whatever system you use, you just have to keep reminding children of their responsibilities or they're never going to stick to it and things will always keep going back to the status quo. By the way, status quo means Mom ends up doing all the chores.