I know a guy who works for the county extension department who keeps a small worm bin in his office. So it can be done. Of course, his boss did not flip out having worms in the building.

I am an adult who was homeschooled almost fifty (egad!) years ago and I think that it would be best to have a separated area for the home school activities. I like the idea of French doors (maybe even Dutch style French doors - does that make them Flemish doors?? - so they could contain the dogs on the lower part but still be opened on top) to set the space apart visually and functionally, even if you leave them open a lot of the time. Although you presently use the room for FR-type activities you may find your kids take a more workman-like approach if the room function is dedicated more to schooling. I think I see a VCR/cable box so I was wondering if you also use the space for after-hours TV viewing. That would be a huge temptation, I think. One of the things that is important for homeschooling is to have some demarcation between your time spent supervising home school and your time spent strictly as a parent. Otherwise it can get very intense. So using spatial cues to reinforce the distinction may help. I know when we had a separate school room for home school it was better and when we homeschooled in the sitting room and dining room it was hard to not have one activity spill into the other. It was much better to have a designated school room where we settled down to work and could also leave things set up on desks and tables for the next session. I'd also vote for putting your desk in there, no matter how functional it looks. That will give you something to do when you kids are working and at the same time they can watch and model your approach to paperwork. Your kids' artwork and maps and posters and natural history specimens will make handsome and stimulating wall decorations. Plus, I'd add a big white board so you could use that space collaboratively to work on problems. Molly

Here you go, the uppers have the calander hanging on one side and emergency numbers on right door and all the office things live here. There is an outlet for charging cameras and "my" stuff. On the counter is an outlet for the land line. Antique tray is our magnet board. Top drawer has a powerstrip attached to the back for DH's electronics this is "his" drawer for keys and anything else. Bottom drawer is the coupons, and "junk" drawer as I have found it is inevitable! Basket is home for shoes. There is now a cushion on the dog kennel. Once Buddy is no longer we can pop an end panel on kennel and the lid under cushion lifts for more storage. Hope this helps! From Kitchen before and after From Kitchen before and after

Office Depot or Staples would be good places to go and look.