Homeschooling and Craft Cleanup

By Marca

I love crafts.  A lot.  I love markers, pencils, and paper.  My daughter does too.  I love to see the colors all organized and lovely sticking out beautiful containers that melt them into a beautiful rainbow of creativity and activity.  Last week, they didn't exactly look that way.  It was, well, more like color had vomited into every crevice of my cupboard.  Well, I did need a craft organizing overhaul.  But, all of it really pertained to the scary closet that was open all day and at night, jammed shut forcing the monsters back behind the sliding door.  But it would literally, creep open when one walked away from it.  I don't have a good picture of the ridiculousness that was this cave.  Well, I do, but that is getting worked out this week while I finish organizing my pictures.  But, this cave is much more than craft and art supplies.  It is my daughter's home school closet.  Of course, art is a big part of part of Ladybug Learns.  And becoming a big part of our whole house as it has been pouring out its den into the rest of the house.

So, I like a beautifully decorated and festive home for the holidays and I don't want that closet to take over the rest of the house (as of only recently, it was seeping out onto the dining room floor, covering the table and making its way to the living room).  We are in the midst of our Christmas festivities here at the Wilson house.  For homeschooling, our focus is on literature and geography and writing.  Away go all the notebooks, tests, and such and suches.  No worksheets or fact sheets.  We are exploring different Christmas traditions from around the world, reading great Christmas classics, writing and creating beautiful little festive crafts from our around the world for her World Christmas Tree.  Our current read is A Christmas Carol.  So, that closet has little use to us this month (except for a few of the craft items and the glue.  You really do use a lot of glue in school).    So, in the midst of a very crazy week, I organized it, one shelf at a time, one day at a time.  To try to tackle the monster in one day wasn't likely, but 5 minutes a day, one shelf at a time, I could do.  I like to call it my 5-minute fix-it.  And the beautiful colorful pencils and crayons have found homes in very cool jars and are being used to create lovely pictures of Scrooge's story this week.  I forgot how much easier school is when it isn't taking over the whole house.  Now, on to the jabberwocky that is my picture file on my computer.  THAT is going to take a lot more than Week 15.  I think my chest just got a little flutter with the week's challenge ahead.  More on that later.