Do you have a separate school room for homeschooling? If you first just used the kitchen table but then at some point moved into a separate room, did you find it a very good change? Right now my son does his work in the kitchen or in the dining room, and reads on the couch. Because we are planning on homeschooling all our kids, I'm wondering if it would be a good investment of time and money to create a separate school room a couple of years down the road. But it would take a lot of creativity. Our house is pretty big, but making a separate space would be a challenge. Or do you/have you done just fine without?
I personally love having a place to organize most of the materials. So I am definitely pro classroom. It also keeps projects from being shuffled around while they are being worked on. I also was able to hang up white boards which I find really useful for copywork, diagrams, and letting the kids have fun between lessons. And this year we set up a little computer nook in the class. I think having the space also allows them to get into school mode as opposed to the many distractions found in the rest of the house.
I had a school room, then we moved to the kitchen table. The only thing I miss is the storage. But that's all it was: a storage room. We did our schooling all over the house anyhow, and never in the "school room." It was such a waste of a room. So another DS is getting his own room and I'm realizing just how much junk I accumulated because, well, hey, I had the room, so why not?!
We do school work at the dining room table. I have always wanted a room just for schooling but there has never been a "spare" room for it. In our old house we had a nice little space off of the dining room that I turned into a school area and it was nice having everything organized and in one place. Here at this house we just don't have room (husband just had to have an office) so we use our dining room and I store everything in our foyer closet.
I vote schoolroom or dedicated space. Our schoolroom is also our diningroom. Dh hates all the stuff hanging on the wall, I hate the overflowing shelves and having to move the chalkboard out and then back every stinking day. About the only advantage of our current system is when my non-supportive relative visits, he's surrounded by proof that I'm not letting my kids play video games and eat ice cream all day long
We don't have a room either. We have shelves dedicated to school materials in the living but school happens at the table mostly, or the sofa, their bedroom, what ever is working for that day.
I've used the kitchen table as well as a separate room. I'm never had a dedicated "school room" though. Our school area has always been a combo playroom/school room. I find this to be essential while I still have a little one who spends most of the day playing while we are in school. If I could choose anything I would pick a roomy and comfortable separated space close to the kitchen and laundry areas.
I have a separate class room. I love this, although I know it is a luxury that not everyone has. We are very school at home and in the morning we get up, dressed, and "go" to school. When we are finished we "leave" school. It helps us to stay focused and not be distracted by the things that need to be done around the house.
We store all our material that we are using in the computer room mostly. This year we moved to the Living room. I wish the kids would use the kitchen table but they like to be cozy on the couch. I did try a school room and they wanted no part of it.
We have never had a dedicated room, even when we had a huge home. We had dedicated cabinets so I could close the school supplies out of sight. We never were the school-at-home type, so we were all over the place, inside and out. We have always incorporated our school stuff into the decor. I use big canvas "boxes" in the living room and a converted antique toolbox for our 'in use' school supplies set in the middle of the dining room table. We have a couple big book cases nearby with our needed texts, books, etc. We have the computer right there, too. We also use an old hutch my dad made for extra school storage. Someday, I'll have everything just how I want it to look in my home, but not this day.
giving we're newbies to homeschool adventure, we are JUST starting out to plan our "school room", after observing what are the things we used and feel needed in the past 5 weeks of homeschool time. beside hoping for more seriousness out from my 3dds by creating "school room", they also strongly requested for one. seeting up next to kitchen and laundry rooms, walls will be basically for their work to be hung, supplies in cabinets, they each have those plastic boxes for their daily use supplies, table in the middle of the room for lesson, and two small tables against the wall for computers (we are currently doing CM so for their reading. when things are more settle with us then they will get their reading books from either purchase or library). fun yet clean setting is what we all agree on =). but between you guys and me, at the back of my head, i have reservation to see it not being use....lol! good health and happiness.
We have a room that we call the school room, but it's really more like "the computer room". Independent work is done there, but any joint schooling is usually done at the kitchen table or the table on the back patio.
We only had a school room when they were little and as they got older it was used only for storing the material. They would do their school throughout the house.
we have a room. we have sorta two living room spaces in our small 1,500 sq. feet house. we found ourselves never spending time in one, even when it was set up as the kids playroom. so when we began homeschooling i turned it into the school room. i love it. i love not having to move stuff every night. i love hanging stuff on the wall and not having to care about having other activities in the room. i love a space they can decide to go do art, crafts, etc in by themselves when they feel the urge. i love the space to organize too. i would go nuts doing it at our kitchen table and having to find a place to put all our stuff at the end of the day only to get it out again the next day. just what works best for us! good luck! jen
We use the dinning room for all of our schooling. But we also NEVER use our dinning room for eating so we are able to leave things out all week, and then I organize all of our material on the weekends.
I have to go along with the school room idea. Even thought we don't currently have the space for a school room, we have dedicated a portion of our dinning room area to our classroom. Each child has a desk to work at, and we have some storage space, but not much. If I had an extra room, I would move all of my school stuff to this area. This way when the kids enter the school room, they would be in that "school mindset" if you know what I mean. Plus there will be less distractions. Well that's my two cents anyways.
We do our school work at the kitchen table. I have it kinda set up as a class area with our score keys on an end table and maps on one wall. Since our living room and dinning room are one open area, we tend to move and lay on the floor when we are reading or working together... makes it more fun!
