Homeschooling in a small house ~ Look up

We like to do art projects and paintings.  We have to do them in our small kitchen (mommy says ;0).  And you know what small kitchens have…

no counter space!

You can imagine what happens next.  Just imagine a mom standing in a small kitchen and trying to find space to put the artwork of five children who are now starting on their next projects.  Yes, it is a bit crazy…and crowded.

One day while holding wet painted papers in my hands and mumbling under my breath explaining that we just had no more room for more paintings, I noticed that we had a bare wall.  This wall once held some of  my Blue Willow plates but a nice slam of the door which is on the same wall caused them to crash to the floor.  Since this wall can not support anything heavy, it remains bare.  And then I started thinking:

But paper is not heavy…

So I found some upholstery tacks that I had gotten for another project.  (The upholstery tacks were bought at Wal-Mart.)  I also got out some of my gardening and craft twine.  (I love twine!) I hammered the tacks into the wall and since they are decorative, they look quite lovely.  I tied the twine to the tacks and ~voila~ I have a new place for wet art projects.  Now, you could make this a lot fancier than what I have here but I really like the rustic, country look so it works for me.

After we finish a project, we simply attach it to the twine using clothespins.  By the end of the week, it is usually quite full.  And it is a nice dinner conversational piece.

Here’s our wall a few weeks ago:

Also, even though book shelves are expensive, we buy one every so often especially if we find shelves on sale.  I always keep my eyes open for book shelves being given away or sold in garage sales.  You can never have enough shelves, I think.  :0)

Our hall of shelves aka the library & home school supply closet.  It seems to be in definite need of some TLC!

So my advice for homeschooling in a small house is to think vertically.     Look for unused walls and see if you can make it a space where you can put a bookcase or shelves or maybe even a nice little drying line.