Before and After

When we first purchased our home I didn't even dream that we would be homeschooling, so we bought an eleven hundred square foot home. As the idea of homeschooling started coming up in my husband's and I regular conversations, I thought to myself, oh no how am I going to make this work. But as time went by and I started digging into do-it-yourself magazines, or watching HGTV, we came up with the perfect solution. 

New Yorkers also entered my mind a lot. And I said to myself if they can raise great kids in small spaces, why not me? So the first thing I did was think of one powerful word, organize! The closest were the first place we started and then we worked our way onto the flooring, painting, and decor.

Here are the pictures from the flyer we first saw when our soon to be house was up for sale. We ripped up the carpet, put in hardwood and painted the house two tone. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of before and after pictures, but hopefully these will give you an idea of what things looked like before we gutted the house to bring it back to life. 

Here's the living room, kitchen, and dining area...

Here are the kids rooms after we'd painted but not gutted the floors or closets yet. The top picture is our current room for most of our schooling.

Here are the guys ready to start the mini-demo...

The closet shelves starting to take shape. We decided to do them from scratch to not only save money, but to size them perfectly for all the kids stuff and their monumental amount of books!

Here's the after pic of the smaller ones closet...

Our school room closet. All nice and ready for new school books to come..

Here's the after of the room that had the red bunk beds in it and that we now do most of our schooling in.

I decided to paint an accurate mural of all the continents up on the ceiling (and believe me, my neck was sore for a LONG time, but it was wroth it!) and the black strip through the middle of the wall is chalk board paint. It has come in handy big time with teaching so far, love it!

Okay that's all for now, but I will be posting more pics on how we've decorated the room and what school supplies and books have been a life saver so far. Thanks for stopping by!!

Why We Decided To Homeschool

First I want to say that I completely love all the teachers and workers in the education system that work tirelessly to give our children the knowledge they need for a brighter tomorrow. My child has been in the public school system now for three years. Each of those years something new ignited in him that was both encouraging and wonderful. But as he approached the end of the second grade, he was getting bored and stagnate with his work. This could have just been the change of school for him, but either way he started coming home every day discouraged. I started talking with friends who are homeschooling and that led to me digging in deeper about Nevada's eduction. And to my surprise we ranked bottom of the barrel at a whooping 49th place out of 50. This truly took me by surprise and got me thinking about my childhood. 

I was born and raised in Nevada and feel very blessed to live in such a beautiful state. Tahoe is just up the road and anything you can think of to do outdoors is on our back yard. But my education growing up here was very discouraging. I was not only held back, but didn't learn half of the things I should have known by the time I moved grade levels. So as I pondered those thoughts, I came to the conclusion that maybe it would be best for us to try something different. 

One of the programs I came across was Nevada Virtual Academy. Not only are the children coming out of the program ranking super high in education, but the ones I met in the program love it! And one of the best parts about it, is that it's free and meets all the school standards like a traditional public school. So right away we signed up and started getting our home ready for a positive school environment. It's taken a lot of work to get there, but it's also been a lot of fun, so with Monday fast approaching (the first day of school) I will post some before and after pictures of what we've done to get ready. More of that coming soon. So how about you, are you thinking of homeschooling? If you are, do you have any advice for us? 

Happy school days everyone!