Hello, fellow homeschoolers, I am in desperate need of homeschool set up ideas. I have a very small space to worth with, and the space is feeling very cluttered to me. I know what kind of a desk I would like but just can not afford it right now, so I am trying to think of ways to work with what I have. I have a basic bulky computer desk, you know the ones where you only use half of it and it sits in the ocrner. I really need more shelf space. I just don't know where to begin and thought that maybe if I saw some pictures of other homeschool ares this may inspire me. Any help at this point would be appreciated, since the setup we have is just not working.
I got an inexpensive book shelf from Walmart that I use to store all of our school stuff on and we use our kitchen table to do our work. The shelf is on a wall next to the table for convenience. We don't really have a HS room, as we live in a pretty small house.
Ours pretty much looks like pecangrove, except that most of the time the kids sit on the couch or on their beds. I don't particularly like all of our hs stuff (especially on the walls) in the diningroom, but it works out pretty well for us.
Ditto what Pecangrove and Meghan have said. While I love the idea of one room as set aside for "school", I know it's not realistic for our family. Usually school goes something like this: I'm reading to girls aloud in family room, son is in living room reading to himself. When math or writing needs to be done, it's at the dining room table. Computer is in the living room for Rosetta Stone, but there is also a laptop that can be taken to any room for Teaching Textbook lectures. Documentaries are on the TV. Science experiments are usually done in the kitchen (or outdoors). Right now I have a dedicated bookshelf in the kitchen - in the last house it was in the dining room.
We actually have an extra bedroom which we use as a playroom. I had grand ideas of using half of it as a school room, so I set up a couple small tables and a bookshelf and put up our calendar, etc. But what happened was we ended up reading on the living room couch and doing work/art projects at the kitchen table...so our little school room sat empty. This year I'm planning to forget having a school room (at least until my kids are older and can work more independently) and just bring our things up to the dining room and stick them in an available cupboard (finding one will be the challenge ). I'll just put our books in a basket and the kids work for the week in a file folder. Also, my DH found a big bulletin board at work and I'm planning to use that to post our calendar, number line, etc. I'm not going to put it up on the wall, just leave it down so it can be portable and hidden behind the couch when we're not using it. At least, this is my "grand idea" for this year!
I'm new to homeschooling, haven't done it yet, but I'm planning to buy a foldable table and chairs, like one of those picnic tables...Dh works nights, so we cannot be upstairs in the dining toom in the mornings, he needs to sleep, otherwise I would have definitely just used the dining table. Anyway, my plan is to have one of those plastic drawer shelves on wheels, and the foldable stuff, so we can sit in the small bar area e have, and then out everything away when we're done. Dont know if this will work yet, but so far that's my plan.
We have a play room that I'm planning on using, but mostly because that's where we have the most storage for things. I have a tall bookshelf that I got off Craigslist, and a small table for the kids. Nothing too extensive or anything.
Here's an idea for organization of your homeschool. Many of us do this or a variation to keep our day, as well as workspaces, organized. We have a small house and use the dining room as our workplace so this tends to keep things neat and orderly. Original website and author of the idea: http://www.workboxsystem.com/viewvideoonworkboxsystem.html Others who share their takes on the idea: http://www.quickstarthomeschool.com/2011/06/workboxes/ http://www.rubyslippersschool.com/2009/03/work-boxes.html Hope this helps!!
Thanks for all the ideas, I realize having one room dedicated to homeschooling is just not possible where we live, so I am going to try some of the other suggestions. I did go to Walmart and saw several shelving options that may work so thanks for the idea. I am going to try a few things and then see how it works. Once I figure out how to post pictures on here I will share. thanks again.
I know you just posted that you have made some decision but thought I'd still offer my suggestion just in case it can help someone else. I just reorganized for this year. I have a nice tall book shelf in the living room that has become homeschool central. I just found some really nice fabric boxes at Target and bought one for each child. Each child will have one box that can be taken down during school time and taken to the kitchen table, their room, wherever then every thing will go back into the box at the end of the day. I have a frosting cup in each one for pencils, crayons, etc. I hope the fabric baskets won't scratch the bookshelves and work well for us. The baskets are called iTSO fabric baskets. I also hope the baskets force me stay streamlined.
