Join the Journey Toward Beautifying Your Home One Small Baby Step at a Time

 

Yesterday, I shared my first baby step towards a renewed journey to beautify our home.

Today, I'd like to invite you to journey along your own similar path, sharing as you go.

You see, a week or so ago, when a friend posted on her Facebook page, "I don't have a single beautiful space in my house. I don't have an 'eye' or any clue how to make the space look nice," I realized that I could echo her sentiment. 

I also thought, But there are folks I know in person and through Facebook who DO have that "eye". 

Then, I thought, Connections! Might there be interest in an online idea and help group on Facebook where we might post a picture of a space in our home and ask others for ideas about it?  Might those who join it who live close to one another connect in person to offer help to one another?

With these thoughts in mind, I spontaneously began the Facebook group Baby Steps to Beautiful Spaces for Busy Families as an experiment to see if we might encourage one another in beautifying our homes one baby step at a time so that our homes can best reflect the beauty that dwells within, which if course, is the people!

So far, the group has had little action.  That is okay.  

It served a purpose of encouraging a friend on a given day and has subsequently given me a place to be accountable for my own periodic baby steps - or at least a first baby step so far.  

If you seek an online space for encouragement and accountability in creating your own more beautiful physical space, please feel free to join us!  For my journey to creating more beautiful spaces within my home has begun anew and if you are ready to begin - or continue on - a similar journey, I'd love to share.  

Where do you find inspiration and accountability for creating more beautiful spaces?

One Simple Step to Beautify Your Home

 

My husband gifted me with a couple hours at home by myself the yesterday to clean and organize.  

One of my first areas of attack was our kitchen table, which had become a clutter magnet for papers, art projects and more, all pushed to one end so we could eat on the other.

As soon as I had the table cleared, I thought, Pause, Martianne.  Clear is not enough.  What tiny step might you take to beautify this space?

Answering my own question, I stepped outside and cut a few blooms to make a bouquet, which I placed on the table.  Doing this took all of five minutes, if that, yet inspired so much more time spent in delight.

When my daughter came home, she noticed the bouquet right away and asked with a huge smile, "How did those flowers get there?"  I told her I had picked them.  She then gathered crayons and paper, plunked herself down right next to the flowers and began to draw and color with a huge smile on her face.

Then, this morning, the first thing my daughter did was go outside and pick a tiny bouquet of her own to add to the table.

Her younger brother followed suit.

Now, instead of one piece of clutter left on the table attracting more clutter and creating a space that is anything but beautiful, one small effort seems to be multiplying smiles!

The simple baby step that I took of clearing the table and putting a small bouquet on it has been magnified by my children's delight and purposeful activity.

I have oft heard it said that "a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."  My journey toward truly making the spaces of my home more beautiful has commenced.  How about yours?

What baby step might you make today to beautifying your home?

Our Montessori Hat and Mitten Tree

Last week, on “K” day of our Advent Alphabet, our key word was “kindness”  Well, lo and behold, not long after the kids and I talked about how we might extend kindness to others, Grampy stopped by to extend some unexpected kindness to us.

He was on his way to an appointment in our area, so he took the time to drop off some hand-me-down clothes, toys and books, as well as a handy little gift that Grammy had picked up for us:

Jack concentrates on "mitten work" with our new gift.

A hat and mitten tree!  But, more than a hat and mitten tree, it was a possible solution to my yearly quandary at this time of year: what simple tool or system can we use to keep the kids’ mittens both accessible and dry, while also encouraging independence?  

Over the years, I have tried a number of things, but have not been satisfied with any of them.  Grammy may have hit the mark!

Luke had the tree figured out in no time at all.

Before I had a chance to help, Luke set to work putting the hat and mitten tree together.  (Independence!)

Nina enjoys putting things in their new home.

Then, without any prompting, Nina and Jack began practicing how to decorate the tree with their gloves and mittens.  (Structure, order and practical life skills!) 

The kids’ “mitten work” later made getting out the door to a homeschool skate day that much easier.  Their hats and mittens were right there waiting for them.

And when we got home?  They knew just what to do with their wet gear.

So, it seems that Grammy’s simple bargain-store find might just prove a perfect solution to our yearly winter gear question.  Our new hat and mitten tree is child-sized, encourages independence and – bonus – can be disassembled easily to be stored during warmer weather.

A Caveat:  Mom and Dad Have New Work, Too

Of course, since our home is anything but ideally Montessori, the reality of our new hat and mitten tree is not either.

You see, instead of leaving the tree in the living room when we first got it, Luke carried it into his room and, for some reason known only to him, put it on his bed.  Jack saw Luke do this, and, has since followed suit.  For days now, we have been finding the tree in different spots around our home – in the hallway, on the table, on a bench, on the couch, on an ottoman next to the Christmas tree...  

It appears that the hat and mitten tree is perfectly "Jack-sized" and that Jack is in some sort of sensitive period of home redecoration.  And, while Mike and I are all for Jack exploring his strength and creativity as he experiments with decorating skills, we do not relish him doing so with the hat and mitten tree.  That simply does not bode well for keeping dry mittens and hats together conveniently by the front door.

So it is that Jack is testing limits and Mike and I are practicing (and, admittedly, sometimes fail at) offering consistent, firm, yet peaceful responses every time we discover our youngest's chubby little hands around the trunk of our new hat and mitten tree.

"Mitten work" is fine – even encouraged – by us.  Jack's current choice of "redecorating work" is not.  Thus, our “perfect” hat and mitten solution has also become an opportunity for Mike and me to confirm some “limits” within which Jack can enjoy his “freedom”.  Ah, the timeless dance of parenting, whether Montessori-inspired or not!

Oh, for the work to remain just intently hanging and removing mittens.

We are thankful to my folks for gifting us our new hat and mitten tree, and on "K for Kindness" day, no less.  We are also trying to remember kindness (as opposed to frustration) as we guide Jack in how best to use the tree.

What bargain-store finds have helped you improve the prepared environment of your home?  What unexpected lessons have they brought you and your children?

Please note: Links to Amazon within this post and others are affiliate ones. Should you choose to click through one to make an Amazon purchase, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. This does not cost you anything, but is a choice we thank you for making. Anything we make from links goes straight back into training up our children and to much of what we share with you here. Thank you!

Want to be inspired with others' Montessori ideas and work?  Click on over to Montessori Monday and enjoy.

My 30 in 90 List: An Intentional Home Project

One day folks will enter this door and not be unpleasantly surprised by the clutter inside.

Quite some time ago, I bumped into the 101 in 1001 idea. Since I love making lists, I began making one, but between interruptions from my children and then subsequent computer failures, that list never got finished  Such was not the best start for completing 101 specific tasks in 2.75 years, I must say.

Then, at the beginning of August, something jogged my memory about the 101 in 1001 project and I was this close to beginning to list away again.  Thankfully, I realized that doing so would be a time waster.  Life-as-Mom these past six-plus years has proven that life as Super-Task-Checker-Martianne is on standstill, at least when it comes to grand plans. 

So it was that I caught myself about to list instead of to live.  Promptly, I determined that taking time to list 101 ideas would be wasteful.  It would also set me up for defeat.

Truly, my current season of life requires me to simplify – to think (and live!) 10-15 minutes at a time.  Any longer than that and the kids tend to wreak havoc somewhere in the house or yard, requiring me to invest double to triple the amount of time I spent doing whatever I was doing in order to face the consequence of having done it.  Too many times, I have learned the same lesson:  when I shift focus away from my children for a twenty minute or more chunk of a day, there is a frustrating price to pay.

Another thing I have learned:  Be yourself!  Living without authenticity is not living at all and, if I am to be 100% honest, lists seem strongly woven into the fabric of my being.  Even as a young child, I made lists.  (Here, I smile nostalgically as I recall the pages and pages of class lists of imaginary students that I would check off when playing school.)  Making lists; looking them over; and checking them off  may not always be the most productive thing to do, but it is something I do.

My 30 in 90 List Project

One success of my 30 in 90 List Project:  On a recent morning, the "big kids" actually woke before Jack.  What a joy it was to see them run to the door to wave bye-bye to Daddy as Daddy went off to work. 

So it was that I decided to create a 30 in 90 list.  That is 30 specific things to accomplish within 90 days with the children alongside me or in a nearby room.  Now, I know that “30 in 90” doesn’t have the same visual appeal as “101 in 1001”, but the lower digits offered me hope of success!  Plus, it sounded better than “30 in 90, minus weekends, when I have another goal system in progress”, which, in actuality, is what my plan should have been called.

But, I digress...

As I laid out my 30 in 90, I wanted a clear framework that was more specific than just “30 things” – something that would help move me forward with specific intentions.

Since I had promised myself and my husband that I would organize the upper portion of our home before Advent 2012, I knew part of that framework had to based on that goal. 

Since the new school year was already upon us, I decided to include an academic focus within the framework.  

Finally, since I have been focused on the better living the motto of “people before things”, I decided to round out my self-created framework with that concept. 

Thus, the parameters for my 30 in 90 list became:

• one relational goal
• one practical cleaning/de-cluttering/organizing goal
• and one homeschool-related goal

related to each of the upper areas of our home.

Perfect. 

Or maybe not.

Accountability Time! 

Mike is not killing clutter (though he'd like to).  He is trying to play Jedi Warrior around the boxes that are, thankfully, no longer crowding our hallway.

It appears my goal was still too large.  (Or was my focus and motivation too lacking?)  As my the 90 days come to a close, I realize that my 30 in 90 was less successful than I had hoped it would be.

As things in my life too often do, my 30 in 90 List proved easier to create than to complete.  In black-and-white, my project was a big failure.  I do not yet have 30 items checked off.  But I am not always a black-and-white sort of girl.  I like color.  So, I am counting the project as a success despite the lack of checkmarks on my list. 

Why?

My 30 in 90 project focused helped me make progress on some things that were hitherto just thoughts and ideas.  And, something is better than nothing.  In fact, it’s enough to motivate me for my next project:  One Main Thing in Seven – a joint effort to be made by my husband and I that I may write about later.

Just What Were My 30 in 90?

Doesn't everyone have a pet slug in the entry to their home?  It wasn't part of my 30 in 90 plan, but it was a reality that made for three very happy children for a while.

For the record, just because “30 in 90” did not fully work for me over the past few months does not mean it will not be an effective approach at future point when focus, time and motivation coincide better  Nor does it mean that the idea could not work for someone else.  So, I am sharing the nitty gritty of my list below as fodder for my own later progress as well as inspiration for others:

Stoop

• Increasingly stop what I am doing when Mike leaves in the morning to see him off and, then, say a prayer for him and his day.  (Hopefully, the kids will model after me.) – Check!  Going well!  Not 100%, but nothing beats Jack (and sometimes Nina and Luke) standing on the stoop with me, all of us waving to Daddy and blowing him kisses as he drives away.  What a simple, but joyful way to start the day with love and relationships!  I highly recommend it!
• Clear the clutter off the stoop and scrub its “floor” down. – Check! The stoop is clear and Clean.  Getting it that way was a Practical Life activity for the kids and me that taught me a thing or two.  Hoorah.
• Create and implement the use of a Practical Life Skills Tidy Time card. – Partial check.  The card is designed, printed, but not yet in use.

Entry

• Increasingly stop what I am doing when Mike comes home each day to offer him a proper welcome.  – Hmmm.  Stopping a thing in motion (particularly this Mommy in motion) can be so difficult!  Gotta work on that.
• De-clutter:  Pair down our shoe explosion; “weed” entry shelf;  attack and organize front closet. – Well, we “edited” out all the kids’ outsized shoes, but still have a long way to go with this checkpoint.
• Create Hand Cleaning and Nature Nook.  Housing for our pet slug took over the space where I was going to put our Hand Cleaning and Nature Nook, so. I aborted this goal.  Our slug “Flash” didn’t make it, so we’ve just removed his home and now the space is again ready for work.

Living Room

• Enjoy focused floortime or face-to-face outdoor play with each child individually on a daily basis. – Partial check.  You’d think it would be easy when you’re with your children almost 24/7 to do this, but getting true 1-to-1 time can be challenging.  It’s high on my priority list for my 42^nd year to schedule such time in more regularly until it becomes a regular habit.
• Create Space:  “Edit” out some furniture; remove some toys and books. – Check! I removed some of the furniture, toys and books, so there is more space.  However, the room still feels crowded.  It is somehow overflowing.  I need to keep at it.
• Make a plan for better utilizing the kid’s kitchen in living room until it finds a home in to-be-created downstairs family room.  Then begin implementing the plan. – Ideas are simmering on the back burner of my brain, but implementation... No check.

Kitchen

• Celebrate together through monthly Liturgical Teas. – Check!  We even had a second impromptu one in August.  This is a habit we are all enjoying the formation of!
• Spend at least the equivalent of five minutes daily de-cluttering an re-organizing for better family food culture. – Okay, so I needed to revise this checkpoint early on because I did not spent five minutes a day each day we were home and also ended up not being home for a week when we went to see the in-laws.  I thought I could catch up by spending about fifteen minutes a day on the days when we are actually home for the remainder of the 90 days when I initially revised my plan, but, um...  failed!  Oh, to have little mice to help make my dream of kitchen organization a reality.
• Revive and maintain Produce Power campaign. – Check!  I revamped what we are doing and we are making strides in getting more produce power into the kiddoes!  Whoo hoo!

Deck

• Enjoy breakfast and Circle Time on deck whenever weather is fair and we are not in a rush to get somewhere.  – Adapted Check.  We started doing this on days when the kids didn’t request the front yard, which is their preferred spot these days on many mornings.  However, as the EEE risk (deadly mosquito disease) got high in our area, we began staying inside in the early a.m. and at dusk.
• Organize space better for learning, playing and dining. –  No check, for the reason above.  When we are outside, we tend to stay in the front yard, further from the mosquito-breeding wetlands out back.
• Create and implement the use of a Practical Life Skills Tidy Time card. – No check yet.

Hall

• Stop when passing one another in the hall to acknowledge one another with smiles and love. – Sad to say, not a full check yet.  I can be so narrowly focused when getting from literal Point A to Point B and the kids tend to follow my lead on this.
• Get the boxes back out and the “art space” up.  – Check! A quickie art space is up thanks to our Piet Mondrian study, and I finally kept my promise to Mike and cleared the boxes back out. 
• Create and implement the use of a Practical Life Skills Tidy Time card. – The card is designed, printed, but not yet in use.

Bathroom

• Get back to Tubby Fun Focus. – Um, a water issue between the bathroom floor and the basement nixed this checkpoint.  We have not allowed tubbies for over a month, just quick showers.
• De-clutter and label closet, cupboard and drawers (again).—No check.  I found that trying to do anything in the bathroom when the kids are around just begs for disaster as they entertain themselves in the small space of the bathroom with me – or worse – get into things elsewhere.
• Begin better oral health focus.—A weak check and no excuses for it not being stronger.  We really need to get on this, especially since Luke has turned into Mr. Shark with grown up teeth growing behind baby teeth.  Dentist appointment, here we come.

Bedroom

• Increasingly go to bed at the same time as Mike in our room, not the kids’ room.—Big fail thus far.
• Reduce clutter; label anything remaining “on hold” in the room.—I have made slight progress with this, but only slight.  The paper monsters that leered from so many other areas of the house found their way into our room and are taking soooo long to get through.
• Reorganize homeschool resource shelf.—Reorganized, but disorganized again.  Obviously, the plan needs revamping.

Boys’ Room

• Spend five or more minutes of Mommy and me time a day.—Jack and I are doing this consistently on the days when we are home at his nap time.  Luke and I are not nearly as consistent and sorely need to be.  That boy needs his mom-and-me room time.
• Revamp “storage areas” (closet, desk and shelves).—Partial check.  Luke and I started this, but never finished.
• Ask children to spend time at least three times a week with me maintaining the room.—Partial check.  Not up to three times a week and need to be.

Girl’s Room

• Spend five or more minutes of Mommy and me time a day.—Failing, but not always.  On the days I spend time with Nina in her room with “just us”, she beams.
• Revamp “storage areas” (closet, shelves, etc.).—Failing and facing explosions.
• Ask children to spend time at least three times a week with me maintaining the room. Partial check.  When do attack tidies and maintenance in Nina’s room, it always seems to come with a fight.  Not good.

The Most Important Check:  Reality Check

We want to freely experience more of this.  Thus, my determination to get to more of my 30-in-90 goals must remain steadfast, even if attacked through a different approach.  A decluttered home, where learning and relationships thrive daily will afford the freedom for LOTS of days off elsewhere.

As reality evidences, my list was too ambitious and my discipline too lacking to get all 30 things done in 90 days.  It also shows that some rooms had little to no progress, tasks related to learning goals could use some focus and relationships are strong, but habits that help keep them that way could be better attended to.

Perhaps if I reduce the clutter in my brain and on my list by narrowing things down from a 30 in 90 approach to a One Main Thing in Seven Days focus, I will experience greater success with everything.  As I mentioned before, that is exactly what Mike and I are planning to do.

SPD Connection

When I am smart, I set the kids up with sensory diet activities before attempting to attack any to-do's.

 I thought that yesterday would be the last time I posted this month, but when I realized my 90 days were up, I began assessing my progress and felt inspired to log it here.  Thus, another October post and another word on SPD:

All moms know that it can be difficult to advance with clearing, cleaning and organization (as well as to attend to other projects) with little ones underfoot.  Moms of children with SPD know it can be even more challenging to do so when a “sensory kid” demands extra time and focus.  Although I can hardly blame the condition of our home on Luke’s neurology, I will say that all the time and energy that we spent with therapies and behavior issues prior to changing Luke’s (and our entire family’s) diet certainly did nothing to help things.   

Further, even since changing Luke's food diet, it can still be difficult to get things accomplished on the occasions that I neglect to pay close attention to his sensory diet. When I get into go-mode and forget to ensure that Luke gets enough vestibular and proprioceptive activities in, or when I leave him to make his own activity choices for too long, things get ugly.  I usually end up having to come to a screeching halt to deal with fall out.

Likewise, as my husband periodically reminds me:  just as Luke’s neurology has affected my efforts to declutter and to make headway on other projects, my failure to effectively reduce mental, physical and schedule clutter affects Luke’s neurology.  Mike and I both truly believe that having a less-cluttered, tidier home (and schedule) would benefit Luke.  My mental clutter overflows into Luke's over-active brain, it seems. Physical clutter adds yet another dimension of input that Luke's system has to process.  A busy schedule creates too many transitions, which are tough for Luke, just as they are for many kids with sensory issues.

There is always work to be done.

Resetting in the sunshine makes the task list less daunting.

Thankfully, we know the value of play and time for resetting, too.  It keeps the smiles on our faces and the light shining at the end of the task-tunnel.  For intentional living is more than task lists; it is breathing in the goodness of life.

52 Weeks of Organizing: Classroom, Shoes and Books

Everyone pitches in...

Okay, so the last time I actually posted about our progress in the 52 Weeks of Organizing Home(school) Challenge, I was only on Project 14.  Now, that is pretty pathetic considering we are actually in the 41^st week of the year. 

So, let me set the record straight:  I have not stopped trying to organize our home(school) as part of the 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.  I did, however, revert (more than once) to my old, not-so-effective habit of putting organization low on my focus list – doing what I could, when I could, as I could, around the busyness of my children and their needs, the desire for our family to spend ample time together enjoying the great outdoors and, well my own distractable mind. 

As I look back at the past several months, I see a two-steps-forward-one-step-back pattern in which the steps back were sometimes enormous ones that set me further “behind” than I was to begin with.  Not so heartening…  Yet, there have some successes and those are worth noting.  Among them, I:

Recreated Our Classroom Space (#15)
 

I spent quite a lot of time making a classroom space that would work for us this fall based on our needs and goals.  You can see pictures and read all about it here and, if you’d be kind enough to do so, you can click over to our contest entry at My Special Needs Network and leave a comment, which will act as a vote towards helping us win $250 in sensory supplies and equipment.

Enabled More Independence with Footwear Storage and Accessibility (#16)

As the kids’ feet are getting bigger, my old system for storing and accessing shoes was not working.  One recent morning, the shoe explosion by our front door was just more than I could take, so I printed out a kids’ shoe-sizer and measured the each child’s foot.  Then, I spent time sorting out out-sized and out-of-season shoes (the latter of which I had to retrieve with our welcome, but unseasonably warm weather of late).   

From there, I re-purposed shelves, bins and boxes that we already had in order to house everyone’s footwear close to the front door.  Once this functional, but far from fancy (or even appealing!) updated shoe system was in place, the kids helped me put their shoes where they belong.  No more shoe explosion!  Ahhhh.  (Happy sigh.)  However, further work still needs to be done both in simplifying our shoe collection and also in finding a more compact, attractive, yet accessible system to house shoes by the front door for a family of five. Ahhh!  (Not-so-happy groan.)  Your ideas are most welcome!

Re-Housed Kids’ Room Books (#17)

We were all satisfied with the Montessori-Inspired Quiet Time and bed Time Book Shelf System we had in place.  That is, until Jack moved in with his siblings and began to wreak havoc on it.  Now, paper-paged books just aren’t safe in his 15-month old curious hands.  Something had to be done.  

I wanted to take the shelf out of the kids’ room, but Luke and Nina protested.  So, we compromised.  We decided to take the labels off the shelf and to fill it with board books that Jack could use without causing too much damage.   

Then, we opted to limit paged books that would be housed in the room to two bedtime reading selections, which are now kept on a high shelf for Mommy or Daddy to retrieve as needed.  

Of course, this required clearing that high shelf, which had collected an entire shopping bag’s worth of odds and ends, which the kids were reluctant to put back where the bits and pieces really belonged or to part with the things altogether.  It also meant stopping to read each of the "I remember this board books" that they had not seen in a while before shelving it.  

And, of course, Jack tried to unshelf the Jack-safe books as quickly as Luke and Nina could shelf them.

So, a project should have taken under a half hour turned into one that dragged on all afternoon.  That's okay.  No one ever said organizing with five- and four-year-old “help” is expedient or easy.  But it sire is worth it. Through “helping”, the children gain a sense of ownership over the end result and also begin learning life lessons about decluttering, organizing, cleaning and maintaining spaces.  Plus, in this case, we now have tweaked our bedroom book system to one that works for little hands and big hands alike.  

And, let me tell you, Mr. Little Hands is happy to be able to select books without anyone stopping him. And, mama is happy to make the room just that much more Montessori-inspired by revamping this corner to allow for more independence and freedom for Jack.

Moving Forward

Of course, there has been far more organizing going on in the house than those three projects – including much time spent slogging through our basement disaster – but it's slow progress down there and nothing  worth documenting yet.

Thus, in week 41, I find myself not even half-way through the 52 projects goal for the year.  I could be disheartened by that, especially as the 52^nd week is just around the corner and autumn always flies by.  But, instead, I am choosing to be motivated. 

It’s time to really rev things up again.  If I aim to reach my goal of doing 52 projects, I cannot keep up the haphazard pattern of work I have been in nor can I simply do one project week.  Nope.  I have got to focus, focus, focus and make this a DAILY habit – over and above other habits and interests. (Um, like stealing moments to blog instead of to clean and organize at times.  Oops!)

Now, I know I have intended to do this before and failed.  Today is a day to begin anew.  Wish me luck!

(And, sorry, no before pictures.  It's hard enough some days to motivate to organize without taking a picture of the small corners of disaster I have yet to tackle.)

How have your own organization projects been going?  Are spaces you've finished working for you or do old habits come back to haunt you?  Any ideas for maintaining "done" spaces would be appreciated.

This post is being shared at I'm an Organizing Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.

Our Fall 2011 Classroom

I sometimes enjoy getting to take a peek at other folk’s classroom spaces and learning nooks online.  Thus, I am finally sharing our Fall 2011 classroom here if others are curious where some of our learning takes place.

Upon Entering 

 On the door entering the room is our Work Room Agreement.  Since our classroom is in a room that has served as a guest bedroom, an office and play-and-learning space, a storage room and a storage room/playroom/office, the children had developed bad habits about its use prior to this academic year beginning.  Thus, when I recreated it as our Fall 2011 classroom, I felt it was important to “make it new” in the kids’ minds. 

We did not let them in it much as I was cleaning out all the stuff that had been stored in it and made it into their classroom and we made a big deal out of how they would wake up in the morning to a new space, filled with fun activities for them to learn and play with.  Then, when they woke up, before we visited the room, we agreed upon the guidelines for it and the kids eagerly signed them and asked to post them on the door.  Luke even wrote “it” on it, which he told me signified that he agreed to it all.

When you enter the room, you see my desk, which only a small corner of is pictured next to some storage shelves (on the left above) covered with a whitish tablecloth to cut down on visual stimulation in the room and topped with the wonderful Shiller Math kit, which we were gifted by a homeschool friend last spring in exchange for some help we offered their family.  (Gotta love trading time, talents and no-longer-needed resources!)  I like having the kit handy so I can easily access it.

Montessori and Faith Exploration Shelves

Next to that are 20 Montessori-inspired cubby shelves. (These are stacked ClosetMaid organizers that have been re-purposed I don’t know how many times over the many years I have had them.)  In each cubby is one “learning toy” or a single tray (dollar store cookie sheets), bin (dollar store fabric boxes or cubby boxes I already had from elsewhere) or basket filled with a Montessori-inspired activity.  On top of the shelves is a puzzle shelf and a cleaning caddy, plus an empty space for the kids to place finished works.

To the right of our Montessori shelves is a light with shelves on it.  We use these for faith-based works, which are sure to include some Godly Play in the coming months now that teaching a lesson inspired by it hooked me this past Monday..

Then, under the print of Jesus is a small reipurposed shelf/magazine holder that will be used as an altar for home Catechesis of the Good Shepherd work when we begin it again.

Work Table

Under the window is a child-sized table and two stools that the kids can work cooperatively at, but, more often than not, it is “Nina’s desk”.

Luke's Multi-Purpose Desk and Workboxes

Next to Nina’s desk, on the wall across from the Montessori shelves is Luke’s desk.  It is not child-height (which some might say is a Montessori no-no), but it is what he wanted.  When we disassembled the kids’ bunk beds, Luke asked if the desk could be his work space.  I agreed, because it provides a three-in-one purpose:

1. It gives Luke ownership and respect.  He requested it and he takes care of it.
2. It offers Luke a sensory-friendly place to concentrate on his work.   The white “walls” of the desk against the light paint of the room’s walls limit distracting visual distraction for him and even cut down on sound a bit..
3. It offers Luke a sensory-friendly place to have quiet time.  Although he has not taken advantage of it yet, we talked about how he could pull out the chair to “hide” under the desk whenever he wished.  He is welcome to bring blankets and pillows in to create a little learning or resting nest for himself when he craves this kind of thing.  

Above Luke’s desk is the dollhouse and a basket of dollhouse furniture that we had to pull out of the kids’ room and have nowhere else to house for the moment.  Right now, it is there just for storage, but we can take it down and use it in the hallway on request or when it is appropriate to enhance certain lessons. It is great for imaginative play, language development and social storytelling.

In the drawers of Luke’s desk, so far, are sensorimotor cards for movement breaks, a body sock and some figurines for playing with when a calming break is needed.

Next to the desk is our workbox tower of drawers topped by the kids’ pencil-scissor-glue boxes.  Luke uses the top five drawers and Nina uses the bottom ones.  I would have preferred to get single-colored drawers to reduce visual stimulation/distraction in the room, but these were the ones that were on sale when I had a coupon. They're working out well as the colors help Luke and Nina discern whose are whose.

Finally, there is an easel with a trash can under it and Montessori work mats behind it.  This is in front of a supply/storage closet.

Planning a Space with Principles and Goals in Mind

As you can see, the room is fairly small and, truth be told, a bit more crowded than might be ideal.   But, so far, it is working nicely for us.  We typically spend Tuesday and Thursday mornings in this room, as well as other times upon the kids’ request.  We also use our yard, other spaces in our home and many walks and excursions for “study”.  I am a strong believer that learning happens everywhere and that young children need ample time to play and explore freely outside.

As a put together the room for this year my three key goals were:

1. to provide a Montessori-friendly space for some of our learning to take place in order to enhance the "I can do it myself" attitude we seek to develop in our children while helping us with our Rule of Seven, in particular, loving learning, loving working,  and loving playing.
2. to be mindful of the children’s sensory needs and input and to key into our Rule of Seven goals of loving moving and loving one another (i.e. taking each other's needs into consideration)l
3. to create a “work room” we could all enjoy, keying into loving beauty a bit, for even if the room is not as beautiful as I would like it to be, it is far more pleasing to the eye, mind and spirit in its current form than it was in its last manifestation as storage area:

I know, horrifying!  So glad that's been taken care of and that so far, our Fall 2011 learning space has been a success!

What does your learning room, nook or area look like?  Please feel free to post a link!

Also, if you have a sensory kid, consider making a last minute entry to the Super Sensory Makeover Contest over at the Secial Needs Network.

Or, if you would like to help us win $250 to make our learning areas even more sensory friendly, start voting for us at the Special Needs network between October 1^st and 31^st.  It would be an awesome gift to us if you’d consider doing so.  Thanks!

Making A Literal “Bed” Room: Our 13th Mini-Project for the 52 Weeks of Organizing Our Home(school) Challenge

The Need for Sleep

As a former teacher, whenever I see articles filled with back-to-school tips, I marvel that what I consider a basic and vital piece of advice is often overlooked:  Get enough sleep!

Ideas for easing into the first day of school, maintaining backpack safety, traveling safely to and from school, eating healthy lunches, dealing with bullying, developing good study habits and the like are all important.  But, without a healthy dose of sleep, no students day can be as good as it can be.  Likewise, droopy-eyed educators can hardly be at their best.  Thus, as we think about back-to-school time here, we think about our bedroom environments. 

For months now, Jack has been able to roll, crawl and scamper, which has made the fact that he has still been sleeping in Mommy and Daddy’s bed a bit nerve wracking.  Momma cannot get much sleep between wake-ups for nursing, tending to the “big” kids and worrying that the baby might fall or crawl right off the “big bed” in the middle of the night.  So, I knew moving Jack to his own bed was important. 

The Dream and the Reality

Since before Jack's birth, my hope has been to change the Office-Learning Space into a third bedroom space, so Jack could have a safe Montessori-inspired bedroom until he is old enough to move in with Luke, leaving the third bedroom to be transformed again – this time into Nina’s big girl room.  That way, I could sleep better knowing Jack was safe.  Jack could learn to sleep on his own.  Everyone could get enough rest.  And, Jack could have the Montessori beginning I so dreamed for all my childen, asleep or awake!

Reality, however, teased that if I waited until I am able to clear the Office-Learning Space in order to make it a bedroom, Jack might be a teenager.  So, I adjusted the plan and decided that Luke and Nina’s room could become a sleeping room for all three of our children with a few slight modifications.  I could simply take out the dollhouse and play kitchen and put down a mattress for Jack.  Then, his independent sleep habit could begin – and Mommy-Teacher might catch a few more worry-free winks herself.

Simple project, right? 

Wrong!

Just as I was about to get to it, Jack changed the plan again.

Reality Changes

One evening earlier this summer as I was reading Luke and Nina a bedtime story as part of their 5 T’s, I turned to see Jack scaling the ladder on their bunk beds. 

Uh oh!  Not safe! 

As I took Jack down, only to have him head right back for the ladder, I began having visions of him trying to climb up to Luke’s bunk in the middle of the night.  I also wondered if I would wake one morning to find Luke and Nina teaching him to jump from the top bunk onto the lower one or onto his sleeping mattress.  Scare-ree!

So, my intended small project for reorganizing sleep spaces became a larger one.

A Multiple Day “Mini-Project”

Over the course of several days, I moved everything but the bunk beds out of Luke and Nina’s room into the hall, disassembled the very heavy bunk beds, found homes for pieces of it in other rooms, stopped tripping over the play kitchen and dollhouse that were temporarily housed in the hallway by moving one to the living room and the other to the Office-Learning space and then puzzled out how I could fit the extraordinarily heavy bottom piece of the bunk bed, lighter, but awkward, top piece and two crib-sized mattresses into the kids’ room as their “safe for Jack to explore” beds.

The result?  A literal “bed” room.  Three beds from wall-to-wall, with a small bureau, a shelf, a book shelf and a stuffed toy bin thrown in for good measure. 

Assessing the New Sleeping Space

Now, is our literal bed-room an ideal set up?    

No.  I can envision many better alternatives, but none that work with the time and budget resources we have.

Is it a move in the right direction as far as my dream of Montessori-izing my home?   

Sort of.  At least Jack has a relatively safe place to sleep, where he can independently get in and out of his own bed.

Is it working for us for now?   

To a degree.  Jack is out of Mommy and Daddy’s bedroom and not scaling high places in his new shared bedroom.  and, it is such a joy to see the kids slumbering together.  However, the slumber does not last through the night.  Mommy is still suffering interrupted sleep, ending up going in with the kids for their multiple wake-ups. 

Plus, an unforeseen glitch has arisen:  Jack has developed an attraction to the window fan that we use to keep the kids' room cool.  During our bedtime routine, he constantly crawls from his bed, over his sister’s and up to his brother’s, where he can reach the fan.  So, we keep removing him and he keeps returning until we simply unplug the fan in order to damper Jack’s attraction to pushing its buttons.  Unplugging the fan, in turn, makes the room get uncomfortably hot as the night wears on, which can make sleep difficult So, I have to sneak back into after the kids have settled, but before their first night waking, to turn the fan back on in order to preclude additional heat-discomfort wakings.  (Thank goodness fall is just around the corner!) 

Additionally, I learned the hard way – or rather Nina did – that the corners of the disassembled bunk bed can be dangerous.  Nina landed on one on her back on one when she was horsing around and got a big, bruised “owie” on her back.  I have since jammed a pillow over and around that corner as a temporary safety solution.  (Yep, that mushy maroon colored pillow in the photo above is the one! And, while we are talking about bedding, please excuse the riot of colors and patterns we are using.  I know they don;t do much to create a peaceful environment, but they are what we have and as we work on night-time incontinence, we find it is difficult to keep matchy-matchy bedding sets on all at the same time.  Quick changes, not coordinating bedding, are the current rule.)

Is creating the space a step in the right direction in developing better household sleep hygiene, and, as a result happy, healthy homeschooling?   

Yes!  In the past few weeks, all three children have managed to get to sleep in their own beds, without a grown up laying next to them, on more than one occasion.  Granted, there were complaints and tears, and staying asleep without adult help is a skill the kids still have to master, but, I am happy with one small success at a time. 

Yes, for now, I am counting the completion of our new children’s sleeping space as a triumph.

Any tips for magnifying our success with our literal bed-room or with improving sleep hygiene are most welcomed in the comments below!  We'd also be glad to hear how others have successfully helped their children master the skill of staying dry through the night.  Thanks!

This post is being shared as part of the Organizing Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.