School Room- The Ugly Truth!

Ok... so this blog is named The Mess Exposed, as a reminder to be truthful about the struggles and imperfections of homeschooling and not present a perfect front others can't live up to... and right now, I'm soooo wishing it weren't. I committed myself to participating in the iHomeschool network blog hop that is hopping weekly around different topics. Unfortunately, this week's topic is your school room. So, with red cheeks, I present to you the pictures of my school room...

UGH! It has so much potential, but it seems to look like this more often than not! My daughter's gymnastic mat somehow gets stored in here, the desk has become the "catch all," the kids apparently don't know how to put books away, or won't. Even though there are 2 garbage cans in here, there is garbage all over the floor! SO, most of the time I keep the door closed, and make the kids come back here for stuff, because I get sooo frustrated. There are 3 of them and 1 of me... A couple of years ago, we all drove to IKEA and got this great bookshelf. I came up with a great way to help my most unorganized child stay organized. I had a ton of letter trays, and fit them into the squares of the shelves. Each tray is to hold its own subject, and you don't even have to use the same tray each time. Just put it back into a clean, empty slot.  Somehow, even that is too much for him.  I tell him to put his school books away and come back here to find them on the floor, desk, or shoved in square of the shelf that doesn't have the letter trays... sigh...

About 5-6 times a year, I really clean it out and we use it and keep it clean for a couple of weeks...then someone comes over and everyone puts stuff in...you know, the stuff you're not sure where it should go. Then it starts getting to the point where I don't have enough time to get it, and the cycle starts over.  It takes me an entire day to get it clean, and if you've been following my blog at all, you know I don't have many of those.  But, now, I will try to work on it this week, so I can post a picture of it all clean!  When it is clean, I love it, and I love doing some of our school in there. I've got a corner desk outside of the corner, that way the kids and I can sit across from each other, all my supplies are right there and we don't have to wait or run all over to look at them, and I'm one of those nerdy people who love school supplies, school rooms, and school (elementary) all together....

If I'm able to get it back in shape, I'll post pictures of how it is supposed to look!  Hopefully you guys are having better luck with your school rooms!


This was so popular at ihomeschoolnetwork, that I thought I'd share here too...