Monday, 21 July 2014

Confessions of the Home-School Hoarder

I have a confession to make. Our book shelves have gone beyond the groaning stage, they practically scream 'take it off!' if I try to balance yet another book on their over-filled shelves. Tonight as I resorted to piling books on the corner of the workroom desk I looked around and had the dawning realisation that I am something of a home-school hoarder. That is my confession - I am guilty of amassing books, tools, paper, pens, craft material, lids, paint, brushes, tape, scissors, cardboard, fluff, feathers, toilet-roll tubes, shells, bones, leaves, beakers, magnifying glasses, scientific equipment and a plethora of assorted learning tools all geared up to provide my children with methods for finding the answer to thier burning questions.  

I read a comment on Facebook about someone's cleaner quitting and it made me think. It made me wonder what would happen if a lovely unsuspecting cleaning lady ventured into our home. As I ponder this scenario I can't help but think that she would probably be a) overwhelmed by the rather intense work room b) gasp in shock, have palpitations and flop onto a chair and c) be found several hours later pawing over a map of Ancient Greece and asking if she could borrow a book having decided that the 'if you can't beat them, join them' approach was her only option. 

I don't want to give you the impression that our house is unclean in someway, it certainly is not but it is 'busy'. One of the boys friends completely stopped moving in the workroom, he just stood agog as his eyes struggled to take in everything the room had to show him. After a few minutes I heard my eldest ask if he was okay which snapped the hypnotised child out of his trance, he looked at Theo, pointed at a cardboard construction and said 'what's that?' 


I have moments when I wonder if a minamilist workroom would suit us more but then I look around our eclectic, colourful, poster lined room with a caterpillar in a bottle and a worm farm on the desk and think 'no way'. The room celebrates everything that my children have achieved and presents them with endless possibilities for learning. It's busy, it's in your face but it smells of books and paint and whilst my book shelves might shriek under the weight of countless books the room itself screams 'we love learning'. 

So I may have accumulated an extensive home-school hoard but I know without doubt that my children will never, ever be bored. 

Do you suffer from home-school hoarder syndrome? I'd love to know I'm not the only one!  



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