Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Tues Toolbox~The Comfy Couch OR CHAIR!

OK, not to be too simplistic, but anybody think about WHAT their school room or area or place LOOKS like?

A few months ago there was a contest for the best voted homeschool space on facebook and frankly it blew me away the amount of work some moms put into the spaces where they teach.  I admit that they looked FANTASTIC~colorful in many cases and quite organized! One thing was certain, for quite a few~money was spent in supplies and organization STUFF to get it all so great looking!

But there WAS a finalist that peaked my interest.

Her room was one that frankly rather mirrors WHAT I HAVE COME TO as far as homeschooling is concerned. You see, I have had school rooms with loads of bookcase space and organization. I have had a special area in our kitchen with assigned cabinetry where our school supplies were held.  I have even had DESKS ~ the wooden desks with the under shelf for supplies that we pulled out each day into our den and DID SCHOOL.  None of these is the way we are pursuing school today.  In fact, IF I HAD KNOOOOWN then what I know now, I would have saved my energy, money, space, time, bookcases...because I have found that the VERY best schooling for us occurs in the natural environment. 

When my children were littles, we often would curl up in my big ole recliner and read.  My daughter would read to us all (son and me) while he looked at the pictures! As they got a little older, they would sit side by side on the couch and read, listen and watch. 

Does the couch and chair cover ALL of the needs for homeschooling? NO~A kitchen table works too!  I learned that the desk didn't help as much as sitting at the table.  I learned that propper sitting height HELPS penmanship a BUNCH!  I learned that I really didn't want to clean extra spaces or organize extra STUFF!

OK, so you may be like I was~salivating for the school room.  Don't beat yourself up, it's over rated! If you have the space and want to contain everything, go ahead, but if not, otherwise find some simple hide out places for stuff like posters and teaching charts (yeah, I still use them LOL) like behind the couch or in our case, piano to work the spaces we have into every form and function.  I do like bookcases I have to admit.  I will say that as blessed as I am to have some very nice ones, IF I could have done some weeding out, we might not have needed them~just saying!

Soooo today, I want to bring OUT the comfy chair or couch and say~USE them as educational tools...they work and work well!
Blessings
SisterTipster<3

1 comment:

Susan said...

Good points. I haven't posted mine, yet, we'll see if I get around to it. I need to severely cut my computer time.