Do you have a dedicated space set aside as a classroom or do you do the majority of your class time in a room with a dual function, such as the kitchen or dining room? I am trying to decide how I want to set things up at our house and I would love to hear how other people have arranged their school spaces.
It depends. All reading out loud is done in the living room, with me in "my" chair, under my flannel quilt. Phillip does his math on the computer; Faythe will do hers AT the computer or in her room, listening to music. I go over the kids' work at the kitchen table. Phillip has recently started doing his language, etc. in his room at a desk.
I'm not quite there yet but my sister did have a school room though I'm sure she wasn't locked in there all the time. I don't have any direct experience but I will say she did have a cute little school room that she decorated and made special not to mention she had all supplies in one area of the house which makes sense to me. She also did experiments and projects and it seemed kinda nice to have all that stuff out of the way in it's place... When the time comes if I have the space I will have a school room. At least some kind of designated area. That's just me though
We have a four bedroom house and I have the boys sharing a room, so that we can have a dedicated playroom. I want to keep it more of a playroom because that gives me a place to send my 3 and 4 year old when I need to work one on one with my 7 year old. I am thinking of making it a little more like a preschool room. The main part of our house is one giant room that includes the kitchen, dining room, breakfast nook and livingroom. It is airy and open, but the design makes it hard to seperate the kids. The breakfast nook has my desk and computer and a table that doesn't have to be cleared in order for the family to sit down to dinner, so that will probably be the main school area. I just have to decide how much classroom stuff I want to have invading what is the main area of our house.
Loriann, I had my girls sharing a room so we could have a library. It didn't work out for us. Sigh.... We finally split them up, and I must admit life is much more peaceful since doing so!
We do not have a designated area for homeschooling. When we are home, Ems will do her lessons anywhere in the house or yard. We have a tree swing Ems likes to use while reading. We sometimes go to the park or lake as a change of pace. We pack or buy a lunch and enjoy the afternoon under a tree or near the lake. In the early years of homeschooling, Ems went through three different desks in different parts of the house. It didn't work for us. So we got rid of the desks and she finds a different spot on different days.
Jackie, the boys have always shared a room. We only had 3 bedrooms in our last two houses, so they are used to it. I do think we will split them up at some point so they can each have their own space. They are less than a year apart and they play with a lot of the same toys, so at this point it was easier to have a room for toys that all the kids can play with. We have things like a tent, a lego table and a train table in the playroom. Emma's#1fan, I see my daughter being a moving around type of girl. This year she did her math homework at the kitchen counter...usualy while I was cooking dinner. She would do her busy type work (the stuff she never needs help with) at her desk in her room. When we actually start homeschooling, I think she will benefit from being able to move from place to place.
The dining room is ideally where our stuff is stored, but my entire home has been invaded. Markers are usually in the couch cushions, clipboards are on the mantel, paint projects get laid out to dry on the washing machine, etc... Most of our work is done at the kitchen table, but when we have days when somebody is sick, it gets done on my bed.
We have a combo room that has the office for our business and our school supplies. We have a small house and it gives us space to put away our school supplies. We do not do school in there all the time though. The kids go and do it where ever they want to, or if we are reading to each other we will find other places to go work. But the school room has really helped to keep things more organized. I also have a place to put up the school posters, and dry erase board.
Well when we started the school year our school room looked like this. Then a couple of months in we moved some things around and the school room moved upstairs. And now, well now we do school wherever we can. Sometimes it's in the living room, but most often lately it's been on my bed. I put Kayd's worksheets on a clipboard and this way I can put a video on for my youngest two and have my older two do school in my room where they aren't distracted by the tv but I'm still easily accessed by the younger two should they "need" something. I think it will look completely different yet again in the fall. But we won't ever have a dedicated school room in our house again. The bulk of our school stuff gets stored in the laundry room on shelving and in drawers in there. I do have a desk for myself in the dining room and a set of sterilite drawers that I use to keep our current books in/on top of. For my oldest I sorted his math and grammar pages by day and put them in a folder. For his content stuff we generally read books from the library together and I print as needed for other activities. I do hope to attain more organization for the fall and esp in more longer term lesson planning over the summer. BUT we still do school all over the house rather than in one set spot.
We are an all over the house family as well. We have a nice office when I keep it decluttered. Even then, it did not last. I think the living room couch and kid's table in the kitchen are used most often. Storage occurs in the office, a dresser in the dining room, and wherever it lands.
We homeschool where ever we happen to be. It isn't confined to one room or even to the house or inside! We do have a classroom though and it is nice to have a place to store everything all organized and a place for messy crafts to be left where we can shut the door. It's nice that our pocket calendar isn't part of our dining room decor. It's nice not to have to clean paint and modeling clay off the kitchen table before dinner But we learn everywhere. Malachi does math games on the computer in my office or in the classroom, Ephram will play educational apps or watch documentaries on the Kindle fire in my bed, we do read alouds all piled in a big round chair in the living room, sometimes we read on a picnic blanket outside (and of course nature study requires time out in nature LOL) We read a little something at every meal (a poem, a few Bible verses or a devotional) I often hook my computer to the TV to let them see stuff. I read them a Bible story or two before bed in their room. We play games in the living room floor. I have a large dry erase board hanging in the class room and a small one hanging in the kitchen and 2 'lap' ones that we tote to where ever we need them. They read books in their room. Actually, they read everywhere! About once a week I notice we no longer seem to own near as many books and we play book round up LOL I have a Bibleman DVD and a CD with a couple of short kid's audio books on it in the van and a 'roadschool' bag for days I have to take my mom to the doctor or we need to drive very far. It has some basic worksheets, box of pencils/crayons a couple of versatile manipulatives and a field guide in it. Toss in the Kindle and we're good to go!
We started doing home school in "the class room/ family room" it was more class looking some years than not, at one point we had the presidential poster covering all the mishaps on one wall, the one from cspan that my mom gave us will be up again in 11th grade when we do US history its a great timeline! HUGE though! Now we do it wherever ds is comfortable for whatever class we are doing at the moment lol.. Bible is mostly done in the living room though as its our peaceful room. But we have done it in the play house, tree house, patio, park, car, church, etc.
All over the house. LOL We have an official schoolroom....but it ends up being used more for play and storage! LOL When I get it nice and clean at the beginning of each year, we do end up using it a lot. Of course, I don't mind doing it where ever they feel comfortable. My oldest did a lot of work in her room this year....
In our old house, there was a bookshelf in ds' room (younger was still a baby, so they had separate rooms). We did school on his bed or on the couch. In this house (been here 2 years), the boys have bunk beds in one room, and my office/school room is the other bedroom. We do the majority of school in the school room, but the boys' room is set up similar to a dorm room with bunks, a shared dresser, 1/2 closets, and matching desks. The older does independent work there. The younger isn't at that level yet, but eventually they'll both do independent work there. They have a shared computer on a very small desk in my office for computer-based work. They fight over it a lot, and since we have nearly as many computers as we have books (LOL), I'm sure they'll eventually each have a computer on their desks so that I can have my office all to myself. (I also run a business from home, so I'd like to take the school space for file storage someday.)
We had a beautiful homeschool room, with a walk in closet for supplies. But it was downstairs, and my kids wanted me beside them, so I couldn't get anything done for housework while we were doing school. Then my DH did a bathroom reno downstairs, so we moved school 'temporarily' upstairs, and everyone was so much happier. So, now the downstairs room is a guest room, and our school room has moved into the dining room. Now I can do dishes or prep lunch while DS does his work. I can set up learning experiences for them that they will choose to do because they are out and visible. It just works better for all of us. Plus all our reading and music happens other places around the house too.
We're going to be converting (somewhat converting) an upstairs bedroom. We use it now for video gaming. My husband's going to make a white board for us. I'm going to buy (used from CL) a bookcase and a table/desk. Something large for school, arts and crafts. My son is ADHD, and his practitioner said that he needs a dedicated space without distractions/interruptions. I thought it would be nice to cordon off an area (the room's big) as a 'classroom.' I thought it might help my son to distinguish school from home.
Some things, like maths, are mostly done with workbooks and therefore need to be at a desk or table. But things like nature study, spelling, geography, etc. we do wherever we happen to be in the form of verbal games. We do science wherever fits the experiment best (kitchen, backyard, nuclear containment facility, etc.) and do foreign languages constantly throughout the day. And yes, there is stuff everywhere in my house. But it makes it easier to learn constantly throughout the day instead of just having a few hours put aside. We want learning to be a completely normal and constant part of everyday life for them.
We tried the school room thing, but we are not a school-at-home kind of family (though I tried to be, everyone was miserable, including me). So now it's just wherever.
