The school room makeover

When we arrived home these 3 boxes of Jeremiah's curriculum were waiting for us. We waited a few days but then Aaron and I just couldn't resist digging in and seeing what was there. Looks like good stuff! I hope to make a specific post later about what we got and what we think of it.
After going through the boxes they were put out of sight in the guestroom until we had a place for them. Last week I started to get motivated to work on making our sun room/playroom into our school room when I realized that we were supposed to start school on August 16th. We had some ideas in mind of what we wanted to do so last Saturday we decided to scope out some stores in our area to price things like book shelves and desks.
We were so thankful to actually find some pieces at a thrift store for a good price! A piece of furniture that was originally a sideboard but we saw as a perfect storage shelf for books and supplies. And a student desk! Jeremiah is very excited about having his very own desk.
So Saturday afternoon we cleaned and rearranged and ended up with the basics of a very bright, cozy room for learning, playing, and relaxing. We still need to do some painting and replace the nicotine saturated window shades (the lady who lived here before us smoked like a chimney) but the room is basically there and we have been enjoying it a lot this week already.

(view from the back door)

(view from the kitchen look-through window)

I had 3 main goals for the room
1. Comfortable and inviting. Since I figured we will be spending some time there every day I wanted us to want to be in there.
2. Place for Nathaniel. Nathaniel is going to want to be with us. There is a designated toy area so he can play and amuse himself during the times that I need to give Jeremiah undivided attention. Who knows? He may even end up learning something!
3. Not expensive. For obvious reasons.

I think we have accomplished those goals so far. Jeremiah already loves to sit in the comfy chair during quiet time and look at his new reading books. He was so enthusiastic about helping me unpack his school boxes and organize his school books on the shelves. He can't wait until we get a chair for his desk so he can use it. Nathaniel has rediscovered his Lego's and Thomas toys and has spent many hours playing all kinds of make believe games out there.

We already have some seeds planted for pumpkins and cacti sitting in the widow so it appears some learning has already begun!