Why I love blogs... follow the rabbit trail

Today I went over to visit Emma who has one of my favorite blogs. As always I enjoyed her posts, and followed a link to "A quiet simple learning life" another charming blog, about a written morning message. I was rather interested, because an art easel is the next thing on my wish list for our cute little boy. This seemed like something I could easily fit into my evening routine, even after following our little tornado all day.
Of course if you find a blog with an interesting idea, you can not just read that one post. Who knows what little gems you might miss otherwise, right? So I usually at least skim over the first page of posts if I discover a new interesting blog.
In the second post, a learning room was mentioned. Now doesn't that sound interesting?
How could I resist a peek? Following the link, I was lead to a third blog, "By sun and candlelight" which has indeed THE most charming 'learning room' I have ever seen.
I am not an official homeschooling mom. But I am a mom who is teaching her 16 month old wherever I can. AND.... I have a completely empty room in the front of the house. Can you hear the little wheels turn in my head?

When we were looking for a new home, we found this house, which is perfect in almost every way, except that it was a bit too big for us. Still, with a price well within our budget, a national blue ribon winning school district, a big yard, a lovely house move in ready and even decorated in colours that we liked, we counted ourselves blessed. We still do. And having 'too much room' absolutely is a luxury problem.
Currently we have two empty front rooms. One of them will contain a dining room by Christmas. The other for now is designated as 'library' which means that it contains two scruffy, 'moved-too-many-times' overfilled bookcases. And that's it.

Here is how the room looked under the previous owners.



Does it not look like a perfect place for a learning room? At this point, my sixteen month old has not mastered the art yet of sitting still and doing something for a few minutes without mommy having to make a lunge to grab him. I admit, that is exagerated. In fact he can sit for an extremely long time and focus on something, like a buckle, a book or a pair of shoelaces. But sitting on a chair and doing puzzles seems to still be a bit of a stretch.
Still, it won't be long before he wants to sit and colour a bit. Or play with play dough. I think it would be a wonderful idea to have that room reserved for 'quiet learning activities'. It would not need much. A few new nice bookshelves, perhaps my rocker for alphabet books on mommies lap, and a table with a nice booster seat. I want to keep it a room without running around or starting sixteen things at the same time. A room with a bit of order and discipline. And a room for priviledge.

At this age, Joseph learns from everything he does, whether it is taking out the tupperware, poking a stick in the grass or following mommy's finger as she points out a squirrel. But would it not be lovely to have a special room for dedicated learning activities when he is just a bit older? Maybe a room to start the day in with a look at an easel? I am tempted. Oh so tempted.