School Room Reset

[mommymonster]

I just spent the last 10 hours cleaning and organizing our school room. The horror.    :svengo: The sad truth is that it doubles as a play room and it is just a mess all. the. time. I did a ton of purging today, which I'm sure will help (please be kind and do not mention that Christmas is in four days, OK?). I also am implementing a work box-like system so that we actually have a place to put books. 

 

My question is how do you deal with all the projects and whatnot that your darling students make? We do a ton of projects each week, with one project usually being wood / something nicer (for example: Goth and Roman shields, wooden Viking longboats, real bows). We do this to strengthen hands and because the boys like projects. But we are getting a pile-up! If I try to photo and toss, there are some serious hysterics... 

 

[SemiSweet]

I don't know, we have the same problem.  I am very seriously considering getting rid of a lot of our books, but as far as projects go, my kids are older and they choose to keep one occasionally but they don't have a fit if I throw it out.  Sometimes I'll use them as a display for awhile, do you have a spot you can hang things that you can change out fairly often? 

[Piper]

I have the exact same setup - and the exact same problem at the moment.  The playroom part of the room has exploded, and I really wanted to get it cleaned up before Christmas, but my chances are fading by the day...

For projects that the kids make, we have a drawer where they go, or if they're larger, a particular table that they can be put on, but it's only for a while.  The kids know that the table is temporary, and that once the drawer is full, we will go through it and toss enough to make space for the next lot of projects.  They know that unless there is a permanent space available, the time will come for photo-and-toss.  They've gotten used to this, through practice, and are quite good at letting stuff go.  I think the key is that there is a space for the projects to hang around long enough for the novelty to wear off. (And then the clutter drives Mom mental and she threatens to throw the whole lot out herself if they don't cooperate with the cleanup!! :lol: )

Good luck! 

[linders]

Any chance you have a high space (like the top of a bookshelf) that could be used to display this year's projects? We have high ceilings so lots of space about our shelves - that's what I do.

[idnib]

I'm a bad mom who often gets rid of stuff secretly and nobody notices. I have a pretty good idea of what they don't notice anymore, even if it's right in front of them.

 

I also spent ours today decluttering our stuff so I'm with you in spirit.

 

 

[73349]

Can you move a project to a shelf in a child's bedroom if he's not willing to part with it yet?

[mommymonster]

linders and Whitehawk, you are geniuses! The boys have a closet with shelves that are too high for me to reach, so nothing gets put up there. Maybe that will become our project "museum." Things might be recycled after they are out of love with the project.

I chatted with DH about the shields and other arms, and I think we are going to try to find a place in the garage. We have been having too man close calls with the golf club 'spears' for the battles to continue to be reenacted in the house.

Now if I could just get fairy glue or something to keep the toys in their places...

[FO4UR]

 

I chatted with DH about the shields and other arms, and I think we are going to try to find a place in the garage. We have been having too man close calls with the golf club 'spears' for the battles to continue to be reenacted in the house.

 

 

 

 

Certainly, our boys must be related in some mysterious and magical way.   :lol:  I would have to gather up every rock and stick in the neighborhood...and they would still find a way to make weaponry for their battles.  

 

 

 

 

I've got a mass of cardboard, packing peanuts and toothpicks in my basement.  It's an ongoing project that involves hot glue.  I turn my head, close the door.

[mommymonster]

Certainly, our boys must be related in some mysterious and magical way.   :lol:  I would have to gather up every rock and stick in the neighborhood...and they would still find a way to make weaponry for their battles.  

 

It is relentless at our house! We started out completely avoiding weapons of all kinds until DS8 went to preschool. At the end of the first week, he came home "pewing" bad guys with his finger. Then came the toast that he ate into the shape of a gun... and then I knew it was over.

 

Both sons profess a deep and abiding love for history. I *personally* think that it is more because history is filled with swords, shields, maces, battle axes and all manner of devices for killing and maiming... History is really quite bloody. :boxing_smiley:

[boscopup]

My kids eat food in the shape of guns too! :lol:

 

I also have a school/toy room. But I don't keep ALL the toys in there. I keep dress-up/pretend play stuff (like swords) in the den. We had a custom bookcase and coat rack built, and there is a large toy chest below the coat rack. It fits a LOT of dressup stuff. So if we made stuff like that, it would go down to that toy chest.

 

For swords, I *highly* recommend making light sabers out of pool noodles. They are the best thing ever! Just get a pool noodle, cut it in half, and wrap the cut end with duct tape to make a handle. I made a bunch of them (like 40?) for my oldest's 6th birthday party. We were doing a sports theme outside and invited his entire K class with families and his Bible class with families. At the end, we did the light saber fight, and everyone was able to take their light sabers home as a party favor. Siblings each had one, so they could continue their fights at home. It was great fun! Even the adults got into it. :D I think we had about 8 leftover, and now it's probably dwindled down to 4 left, but my son is 9.5, so that's not bad! They're sooooo easy to make and very cheap. And now hockey sticks aren't made into swords, since they HAVE safer swords. ;) Hockey sticks are, however, used as guns and bow-and-arrows (my youngest likes to be Legolas :D).

 

I still need to figure out how to contain Legos in the toy area of the school room. For now, all Legos have been moved to my sewing room where my oldest son sleeps on the guest bed (no, I'm not giving up my sewing room :tongue_smilie:), because the younger two wouldn't clean up the Legos and oldest did try to clean them. So younger two haven't had access to them for a few weeks now. It is sooooo nice not having the Legos in the toy room, but they do need to come back. They're blocking access to my sewing table, so I can't actually sew. :glare: I'm thinking I need to give them a sheet to play Legos on, and have a big bin to dump them into. I've been using these 10-drawer carts from Sam's, but the drawers are not completely enclosed, and over time, the drawers have gotten flimsy. They're just not a good solution (though they do have a nice top to place Lego creations on while mid-build).

 

We've filled the "give-away" box in anticipation of Christmas. Thankfully, the kids really aren't getting that many toys... at least from us. One kid is getting a small Lego set from us, but then one set of grandparents got them a huge Lego set, and the other set is giving them each a Lego LOTR set. So we'll have new Legos coming out our ears! :scared: I tried to stick with books and board games (stored elsewhere) for the kids myself, and youngest got Playdoh stuff, but that's contained in a big bin under the kitchen table, so easy to keep organized. I just need to figure out what bins to put Legos in and where to store them. Blah.

 

 

[TXMary2]

I just spent the last 10 hours cleaning and organizing our school room. The horror.    :svengo: The sad truth is that it doubles as a play room and it is just a mess all. the. time. I did a ton of purging today, which I'm sure will help (please be kind and do not mention that Christmas is in four days, OK?). I also am implementing a work box-like system so that we actually have a place to put books. 

 

My question is how do you deal with all the projects and whatnot that your darling students make? We do a ton of projects each week, with one project usually being wood / something nicer (for example: Goth and Roman shields, wooden Viking longboats, real bows). We do this to strengthen hands and because the boys like projects. But we are getting a pile-up! If I try to photo and toss, there are some serious hysterics... 

 

Project storage used to be an issue for me, but seriously, an APP helped me realize I didn't need to save them.  It seems silly.  I use the APP called Artkive, but really, I could just use my camera and an old fashion album.  Basically, I take pictures of the projects and then just throw the projects away.  I do save sketchbooks and special things like home made cards and notes, but all the art type projects go to the trash.

[DoppeltGemoppelt]

Sounds like your boys made some good toys to give to other children in need?

[fourisenough]

I also did a big playroom & school room clean-up last week (two separate spaces for us). After I got over my frustration (how did this get so messy again?!?), I had the realization that playroom neatness is like everything else in life: it is so much better to invest the time for daily maintenance than to ignore the problem and let it worsen to the point of disaster (think fitness, weeding the yard/garden, managing finances, etc). Now that we're organized & tidy, we've been doing a great job of maintaining the space with a brief daily pick-up. I just need to stay the course...

 

As for the projects, we've migrated to making a lot of posters instead of 3-d projects. Not always as much fun, but I'm finding that she is motivated to research, write, and draw quite a lot if the output is a poster presentation. We use 12X18 tag board and can display 3-4 on our schoolroom door at a time. We rotate them as new ones are completed and store them in an art portfolio in the closet. I'm sure I'll have quite a thick stack by the end of the year.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

linders and Whitehawk, you are geniuses! The boys have a closet with shelves that are too high for me to reach, so nothing gets put up there. Maybe that will become our project "museum." Things might be recycled after they are out of love with the project.

 

I chatted with DH about the shields and other arms, and I think we are going to try to find a place in the garage. We have been having too man close calls with the golf club 'spears' for the battles to continue to be reenacted in the house.

 

Now if I could just get fairy glue or something to keep the toys in their places...

One wall of our garage is all pegboard and it usually has an array of arms among the rakes and hoses.

[mommymonster]

My next great battle is to figure out what to do with Legos. Boscopup, I gave up my sewing room long ago, so I don't have a place to even contain them... Good show, though, on sticking to your guns on keeping them cleaned up.

 

It's just so frustrating. How do you contain the pieces, and yet let them play with the sets (and then not destroy the sets)??? Legos, you vex me mightily!

[PeterPan]

Project storage used to be an issue for me, but seriously, an APP helped me realize I didn't need to save them.  It seems silly.  I use the APP called Artkive, but really, I could just use my camera an old fashion album.  Basically, I take pictures of the projects and then just throw them away.  I so save sketchbooks an special things like home made cards and notes, but all the art type projects go to the trash.

I just watched a show on Creative Live about Project Life scrapbooking, and she had a similar suggestion, though she didn't mention that app.  The app would just make it super easy.  She said to take the pictures of everything with your phone using a plain, consistent background (wood floor, whatever) near a door with some natural light.  Place the object on the floor and get *over* it with your camera, looking straight down.  Gives you nice, consistent shots.  Then you just keep the pics organized and throw into photobooks or whatever you want.  That app is a great idea, because then the pics would even be organized and labeled!  When I import my pics, I throw them into file folders and sort immediately for how I intend to use them.  Ds makes lots of guns right now, which I think are really neat, so I've started taking the pics this way.  

 

I threw away a lot of dd's art over the years (after taking pics) and I sort of wish I hadn't.  The time goes much more quickly than you can imagine.  I would buy a bin and just save all the guns and swords they've made.  :)

[Jaz]

When my dc were younger, they loved that I would take photos of their projects and put them in our timeline notebook.

[lots of little ducklings]

My next great battle is to figure out what to do with Legos. Boscopup, I gave up my sewing room long ago, so I don't have a place to even contain them... Good show, though, on sticking to your guns on keeping them cleaned up.

 

It's just so frustrating. How do you contain the pieces, and yet let them play with the sets (and then not destroy the sets)??? Legos, you vex me mightily!

I'm currently madly in love w/ Puzzle Pods from Rainbow Resources (in spite of the price, which I definitely don't love--$3.50ea). We just gave our kids a huge bundle of used medieval playmobil sets we found used on eBay, and w/ our very limited storage and living space (soon-to-be 5 kids in one bedroom) I was worried about how to store them. The castle has a permanent home on our activity table, but all those gazillion little pieces? Ugh. So stumbling upon puzzle pods was a sanity-saver. Might work for legos too??? Each pod is a slightly-smaller-than-8-and-a-half-by-11-inch clear plastic envelope w/ a Velcro closure and, the key ingredient, a solid coating of strong adhesive on the backside. I took hanging files, cut them in half along the fold, and slapped one of those sticky pod envelopes on each half. Inside each pod I slipped a laminated sheet showing pics of every playmobil piece that belonged in that pod (easy to do since playmobil sets provide such a pic, so I pulled the images for each set from the web and just printed them). Then I just dropped the pieces for each set in its corresponding pod, hung the pods in two file boxes, and popped the file boxes on the top shelf of the kids' closet. Now my DCs (ages 6,4, and 3) just ask me for the pods they want, make a huge mess on the table that occupies them for hours, and sort them back when they are done using the pics as a guide. I confess I'm still a little o-c about checking them for missing pieces, but I know that will pass by February. :-) So far, so good, anyway! And it's easy to see what's missing or not missing.

 

One complaint only w/ the pods-- where the envelope expands there is a slight slit, not big, but big enough to allow small playmobil swords and other teeny tiny pieces to fall through. So we keep those items in snack bags inside the pod. No big deal for us, but might be a pain if Legos fit through?? I don't think they would... But thought it was worth mentioning.