Scrubbing, Vacuuming, and Dusting, Oh My!

So one of the biggest dilemmas  a homeschool mom has is where to do your homeschooling.  I have read many homeschool blogs in the last 6 months and there are those who use a converted room in their house, or their dinning rooms or the kid's playroom.  I considered using our dining room, and even had it set up.  But I quickly discovered that wasn't going to work.  I had most of the items I use stored in the basement and every time I needed or forgot something I had to walked back down to get what I forgot.  So I finally decided since everything was already stored in the basement why not set up a classroom in the basement.

This is looking into the room from the door.

This room was used as a work shop by the previous owners.

This is looking from the center of the room towards the door on the right.

One of the nice things about our 98 year old brick house is that it has a full basement with 7' ceilings that is the same size as the 1st floor of our house.  It is separated into three rooms and has all brick walls and concrete floors.  While it would be nice to fully renovate one of the rooms for a schoolroom, it simply is not in the budget.  But with a little elbow grease and some imagination I can turn the room into a workable space for a schoolroom.  So the last five days I have been scrubbing, vacuuming, dusting, hauling, pushing and arranging my little heart out.  I have about 5 more days of organizing all of my teacher stuff from the last 20 years, and a little trip to Ikea to make before I will be finished.  I have gathered every unused piece of furniture and every educational toy I could find and put it in the schoolroom.  I look forward to showing you my finished product.  In the meantime, I leave you with a few before pictures of the space lovingly referred to as the "schoolroom".

The Beginning!

Life sure has a funny way of turning things upside down.  Six months ago I would have never imagined I would be living in a 98 year old house in the middle of the corn fields of Northwestern Indiana.  I remember not too long ago wishing for a more simple way of living.  BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!!
So here we are living in a little town in northwestern Indiana with corn fields and wind turbines all around us.  Things here are much different than the fast paced life of Southern California, and it is a welcomed change.  This lifestyle change will afford me the opportunity to home school my two youngest children, but it is a very large undertaking.  I have created this blog as a journal to chronicle my journey in educating my children.  So here we go!