Today, as I mentioned over at Oh Waily earlier, I took a further step in creating some sort of order out my homeschool things.  Although at this stage of proceedings there isn’t an awful lot of “things” to organise.

At the age of five and a tiny bit, our main focus is on fun and play, with a bit of reading, mathematics, art and science thrown in for good measure.  Following my new monthly topic format many other areas will be integrated as we go, including a smidgen of history and geography when and where it fits well.

So I purchased these cheap and cheerful magazine files today with the intent of using them to store the books from the library that I use to help me come up with activities, or for reading to the kids.  They are pretty much on-subject, so only Master Oh Waily seems interested in looking through them.  He’s obviously the non-fiction child in this house.  And he insists that we do every activity in one of the measurement books I brought back, so there ought to be a few posts for you right there.  But he has also tired of looking at them recently, so instead of having a towering pile of books on the kids’ table, I thought it best if I found an alternative.  Here they are:

Along with library books I will also be storing printables, worksheets and anything else that I will need for the activities I plan to do each week.  At this point I am presuming that they will hold most things, or at least the list of items required if they have homes elsewhere.

Both Miss Oh and Master Oh now have a file each – in pink and blue – that I have put to each side of the desk.   It is where the work they are currently doing will be stored, or where items will go before filing.  Miss Oh Waily’s now houses a new maths exercise book that we will put to good use making graphs and area measurements amongst other things, and also her pink writing journal which it seems might show signs of being a success.

This was the scene shortly after the cover was decorated with a smiling heart.

And once again Brave starts to take shape. I’ll let you know if it continues or was a one-off wonder.

The subject magazine files are currently stored on our unit in the dining room, but only because we are waiting for the arrival of an Expedit bookshelf from Myflatpack. This one, in fact.  It will be installed in the hallway directly opposite the “front” doorway in to our living room.  I shall re-home all of the kids books on this and set aside some of the cubes for organisational use.  Well, that’s the plan as it stands at the moment.  I’m slightly scared that it won’t have enough space for everything, but perhaps it is just my imagination that we have way too many books*.

I’ll see how it goes.  The bookshelf should be here in a couple of weeks and when I’m done sorting it into its first incarnation I will post some pictures so you can see where the heart of Oh Waily kids reading will be.

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* I know it is not possible to have too many books, but that perhaps to have too many books out on view will make choice harder.

Today I was going to update you on our Grass People and the haircuts as administered by the Oh Waily kids.  But, something more exciting has come along and gazumped them.

Ever since I started on Jo’s  My Organized Chaos course I have been looking out for a desk for the kids.  The lovely little table that you will have seen in nearly all my previous room photographs is simply too small to accomodate two children at once.  The problem was, where do you find a table that will take two little bodies, their paper, pencils, crayons and any other sundry items they want?  Oh, and at a price that I could live with.

Children’s tables do not come in a size fit for two.  At least not two to work at.  Play tea parties, yes.  Do small confined activities on a tray, perhaps.  Draw together, no.  Write together, no.
There were other options to try.  Secondhand stores for larger tables that the legs would be cut down to size on?  Maybe.  But then what do you do when they get a bit taller?  Glue the legs back on, bit by bit?
Suddenly turn into some amazing joiner and create my own?  Hah, only at the risk of finger, thumb and any other stray appendages.
Buy a ready made one?  At over $200, and still only one height.  Erm.  I love my kids, but…. who’s arm and leg should I sell each time I want to upgrade my seating arrangements?

Then, because I had been collecting interesting ideas for this very purpose over at Pinterest, it all became clear to me.  I would do this.   It would require minimal woodworking skills [read: none], a smattering of painting skills [read: delegate to Mr Oh Waily] and some basic maths [read: measure for the board accurately].

And hey presto !   Courtesy of a some good work on Mr Oh Waily’s part, the cot was resurrected from storage at work, the base area was measured, a piece of board was ordered and cut by the store, it was then painted and painted again.  Finally this morning it was put in place and here are a couple of photographs for the almost final result.

Sorry about the light, unfortunately the morning sun comes in that window and causes a bit of bother when I want to take pictures in that direction.  But I’m sure you get the idea.  Here’s another with the curtains closed over a bit.

As you can see, we didn’t even have to do anything with the height of the bed.  It slotted straight in at the original top height holes.  And I’m sure with the aid of a drill and some good measurement, we will be able to keep this desk going for a few more years until the kids really do need their own workspaces and therefore new desks or tables.

It isn’t a finished item yet, as there is plenty of space to hang things so that the table top is completely clear.  I just need to work out the hows and whats of storing things and using the space best.

The only other downside has been finding a space for it.  We really only have one wall in this living room that could take it, and that is the one the bookshelf sits against.  It took a few different manoevres to find a place that would work.  It’s still not 100% ideal, but we will go with it for now and see how things pan out.  Like all of this home education lark, it’s a matter to testing and altering and testing again until you find the right fit.

Where do your kids work?  Their own table?  The kitchen table?  Do they share a space?  Nosy curious people would like to know.