I am gearing up for my first year of homeschool! I am turning our study into a hs room. I feel like we should have a dedicated space for something that is such an important part of our day. So the question is...do you have a room? What does it look like? I'm new on here, so not sure if posting pics is allowed. Excited to see everyone's set up! Melissa
I would love to have a room to devote to our homeschool, but so far we are very limited in space. I am considering putting all three kids in one bedroom to accomodate a schoolroom, but it is still in the planning stages. However, we do have one corner of the living room devoted to homeschooling for now. If you have the space, I say go for it! It's a great idea to have a spot to put all your things and do schoolwork that is separate from the rest of the house.
Our homeschool room is our bonus room. We have a sofa and tv/wii, along with our class pets (2 bunny rabits!). On the other side of the room, ds has a desk on one side and dd a desk on the other. I have a table that I sit at when I am in there and they can sit across from me for individual help and our meetings each week to fill out their "homework" planners! Sometimes it is a little cluttered, but it keeps things in one place and the rest of the house free from hs books and clutter! Have fun setting up your room! I enjoy reorganizing ours before we start each school year! Also, enjoy your first year of homeschooling!
Yes, a combo playroom and school room. Most of the time it looks like a tornado hit. My 4 year old draws, cuts, glues, tapes, and her creations are everywhere. Add to that her fun with toys and you have a big mess. Behind the mess we have a couple tables and chairs, a computer area with bookshelves, my daughter's table and chairs, a couch, and a fish tank. Pictures of creations are on the walls. It isn't anything fancy, but quite comfortable.
We turned our media room into the schoolroom. My kids are older, 11 and 13. One side is filled with white boards as we end up doing math problems on the board during discussion and the other side is filled up with maps of US/World (current events) and the Periodic Table of the Elements. We also have a desk for me and smaller desks for the kiddos. I splurged this year with income tax returns and bought a larger screen to add on my computer so we can watch computer work together (Khan Academy, dvd/video lessons, etc.) I have to say I use it more than I thought I would. Another year, I used the income tax returns to buy some used cabinets and a cheap counter top from Home Depot to do experiments on. The kids go to the loft/family room to write or do their independent work they need alone time for. If I could design a school room, I would like flooring that is not carpet and could be washed down easily along with counters that can be washed down after experiments and a sink, an incubator and a hood (we are very science oriented here). I also would design in more room for bookcases/storage and a bigger screen for the computer that we use as a class but also install a small screen so the kiddos can use it for independent study. Oh, well. Next time. Kim
When the kids were little (baby + preschool), they were in separate rooms, because they didn't sleep at the same times. When we moved to our current house, the crib was the first thing to go! The boys share a room with bunk beds and matching desks (think college dorm style), and the other bedroom is now my office and the school room (I work from home). Most of the instruction happens in the school room. The desks in the bedroom are only for independent work (which only the older is doing for now). The school room has lots of shelf space, a closet full of musical instruments, two craft cabinets, posters galore, and two desks... mine is a large L-shaped desk, and theirs is a small, simple desk with only a computer for online school work. I know a lot of people do school work all over the house and have stuff everywhere, but our house is very organized and compartmentalized because my dh insists that I keep it that way (totally against my nature, but I try... LOL!). We have a 1.5 story house with only a large, open "bonus/media" room upstairs. That's where all the toys are. The bedrooms are very boring, the house is always organized, but the office/school room are almost always a wreck! We just keep that door closed so dh doesn't have to see it. *giggle*
Loralei only has a desk in a corner in the sitting room with all her hs stuff in it. We rent and we're not allowed to put anything on the walls
We have a homeschool room, which is divided from our front room by a screen. We have two desks, and one computer table, our bookshelves etc in the room. It is decorated as a school room. It wasnt easy giving up the space, but I wouldnt be without it.
Last fall we had a combo play/school room. I thought I loved it at first. Then we moved bedrooms around (split our four kids from one bedroom into two and we took the room that had been the school/playroom) and moved the school and play stuff upstairs, had most of the school stuff set up on the landing which is a decent size, with my oldest son's desk and workboxes in his bedroom where I could see him and all my daughter's infant/toddler toys in her bedroom with a gate up to keep her in. That was on ok system for a while. But the kids would get into our school supplies and dump every bucket of toys out in their rooms and it was chaos. So I rearranged again. Took the clothes out of the "family closet" in the laundry room - put all the toys and school stuff in the laundry room with a lock on the door and moved their dressers up to the landing instead. Now we school throughout the house. I've been mentally rearranging everything for this fall and will physically move everything the first week of August. We will have a writing/craft center in the dining room near the table, the kids' computer is also in the dining room, and my desk will be the math center/extra work station and this is also in the dining room. My older two boys will do the bulk of their schooling in the dining room. I will have my younger two kids do the bulk of their "schooling" in the living room, I will have tot shelves with tot trays for my daughter and my youngest son will have some pre-k work. We have two small tables that the kids use in the living room for table work. So my living room will look like a preschool room and my dining room will look like a kindy classroom. :lol: Read alouds we do on the couch or upstairs in the kids' reading nook. On the one hand I'm not too keen on having my house look like a classroom but on the other hand I'm trying to find ways to have the classroom stuff without making the entire house look like a school. But then reality is that our house IS a school.
Depending on what you're wanting on the walls - I've used one of those tri-folding project boards to create a Calendar center before - it can be pulled out and set up for school and then tucked away at the end of the day. This is what I used when I worked in a daycare with a classroom of 2yr olds.
We don't have a deticated school romm, and I'm sorta on the fence about if I would want one or not. I think,sadly, it wouldn't get used because we do so much outside and just walking around. However, my kids are still small. I guess it would be nice if you had an independant middle schooler or highschooler that wanted privacy while they did their lessons.
We use the dining room table. I have a closet in the laundry room where I store curriculum I am not using but other than that everything is in the living room. I have two bookcases with material on them and then some rolling carts with art supplies and such. This way I can move those out when we have company.
We just closed in our garage (which we never parked in) and turned it into the school room. It has a small art table, a couch (where we sit to read), the computer desk (which some school is done on), and LOTS of storage shelves.
I started out with a dedicated space, but then it kind of spread all over the house. I've found homeschooling in general to be a bit like kudzu vine LOL! It goes all over the place! But I do try to keep it somewhat contained to the kitchen/dining area.
I'm hoping we're able to move into a bigger home before we begin homeschooling, but in regard to school I'm just looking for more space for a homeschool "area". Unless we move into a much bigger house than I imagine, I can't see myself designating an entire room to HS. I may change my mind eventually, but after living in this TINY house for so long I'm very picky about the use of space/rooms.
We just have a closet!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!!!! My older dc always joked about how people somehow thought they were locked in the closet 8 hours a day. LOL!!!! Seriously, we don't have space for a separate room, so I converted a closet into our book storage space. That way it's not all over the house, which is helpful for me. As it turned out this was great for us. Now that my younger dc are 11 and 10 they do a lot on their own and in their own way. My 11yo dd is always moving. Math is at her desk, history on the floor, science on her bed, whatever, wherever . My 10yo ds would go insane with her constant movement. He likes to sit at his desk everything neat and in order. On occasion he will sit on the floor. So, while in my mind I thought the perfect scenario was a dedicated room, God knew better and moved us to a house without that option. He showed me another option, one that is waaaay better for us. Yes, His ways are higher than my ways.
This is our first year homeschooling too and we are building a room! We don't watch Television in our house so we decided that our living room was really being wasted with just the couch and the coffee table and decorative tables and lamps that we don't use. So we moved our living room into what had been our office (a much smaller space) and are now converting our living space (the largest room in our house) into a homeschool! We are very excited!!! We have a workspace for Dad (the teacher) a workspace for Ben (the student) a larger table/workspace for projects and working together as teacher and student... a books and materials area .. and a music area (with our piano, guitar, stand-up bass, tamborines, drum kit, and violins)! It may look odd to visitors walking past our tiny living room and into our school house but we're just loving it!
We use our formal dining for a school room with calendar, maps, solar system painting on canvas, magnet board on the walls. Then we have two little tables one for each kid. A desk with our computer and a piano soon.
