Where does your child "do school?"

[MommyThrice]

I am starting to think about next year and looking for a change... and hoping to end the "chit-chat" that happen every time I leave the room. I have 3 boys - 9th, 8th & 6th - with VERY SHORT attention spans when I'm not standing guard over them.

 

Where do your kids do their school work? What works for you?

 

At the kitchen table?

In their rooms?

In a school room?

All together in one room or far apart?

[Susan C.]

I have one graduated, so at one time I did have two homeschooling. We did a few things together, but most of their work was separate. The older they got, the more they did in their rooms with me checking regularly so they didn't drift too much. I also worked with the younger one while the older worked on his own.

 

My two get along very well, and if they were left too long together, it was a party!!!

[gingersmom]

The younger one is at the kitchen table.

 

The older one is in another room about 30 feet away.

[MamaT]

My three youngest are required to stay on the main floor of the house so that I can be available to help, keep them on track, etc. Their rooms are upstairs and I don't want to have to run up and down stairs every time they need help!

 

My oldest does his work in his room in the basement. He gets too distracted by everyone else if he is nearby. I go down periodically to check on him and make sure he is staying busy.

[AHASRADA]

We tend to alternate between the kitchen table and the living room, with a trip upstairs once in a while. We started the year with dd in the kitchen with me, and ds in the living room with dh. Sometimes one or the other will get tired of their location, and ask if we can do read alouds in someone's bed, or dd wants to finish her work at her desk in her room.

 

Lately, everyone is sick of the hard chairs at the kitchen table, and we have all ended up in the living room, with the dc on different couches on opposite sides of the room, but facing each other, and me sitting next to whomever I'm helping at the moment. I am getting fed up with the off-topic chit-chat between my breaths :glare:, especially since ds is soooo easily distracted, and will say "Hey mom, you know that new Wii game I wanted, well, you know the cool thing it does...?" in the middle of reading a history chapter!! When he is simply reading, I sometimes send him up to his room so he can concentrate better, and not interrupt dd and I. Dh also sends him to the kitchen to do math, since he really needs an appropriate writing surface for that (as opposed to his lap, which he prefers :confused:.

 

Ideally, I would love a school room, if for no other reason than to keep our "work" life separate from our "home, relaxing" life. It is hard to see the living room as a comfy, inviting place when you have just spent 5 hours working there!

[AngieW in Texas]

My 17yo and 14yo both do school in their own rooms. My 12yo does school in the living room.

 

I am done trying to deal with my 17yo. Any course she can't take through the cc for next year will be done through either an online class or an in-person class. We just don't work well together anymore.

[MommyThrice]

So, maybe all 3 in one room is my problem!?!

[EKS]

We have a room that is mostly dedicated to school. And I do stand guard during school hours because of the attention problems that ensue if I don't.

[rootsnwings]

DS9 does his work in his bedroom. He would prefer to work in the kitchen but the littles are constantly running in & out and distracting him. I do keep all his workbooks & folders/binders, etc organized in the kitchen so that he can come in and hang with us between subjects, and so that I know he is staying on task. We do the work we need to do together (FLL & WWE) in the kitchen since it's easier for me to set the white board up in there where he can see from the table. :) He likes to take his tests outside, so I allow that on Fridays. :)

[Brindee]

We did ours wherever. Oldest needed quiet, so he often worked in his room. Middle needed movement and talking out loud, so, really, he did his work in any room of the house, on the front porch in the back yard, laying on the floor, pacing around a room or two....(he was a good one to homeschool! ;) ) DD often lays on the floor in the livingroom, and does much of her reading in bed in the morning when she wakes up. Well, she reads almost all the time, but that's one place. :) She does Logic and Math and Grammar stuff in the vehicle on the way to/from her piano lesson or riding lesson.

 

When my 3 were younger they worked in a little area set aside for that in the livingroom, or at the kitchen table, which wasn't far away from that. But as they got older, and oldest ds got more sure he needed silence to be able to get his work done, it morphed into them often being in different rooms.

[LisaKinVA]

We had been doing ours in our "multi-purpose room" (family room/school room/dining room). It's been rough. Not enough table space.

 

DH and I are pulling out our big desk and bringing in our kitchen table which has been in storage for 8 years. This will give us more space to do school.

 

I have to be "right there" for all of my children too.

 

Hopefully, this will work better... they can still read on the couch, but their book work will be done at the table.

[jvenice]

We have a dedicated schoolroom and some days we are all in there, but many times we have to spread out with one at the kitchen table, one at a desk in the library, one in the school room, one in the living room, and one in the dining room. I have to 'patrol' and work with them all. For nature study of course we are outside. The main thing is that it can't get stagnant. I think we all need a change of scenery once in a while.

[Joan in GE]

We have a dedicated room unless there is an online course or it is a beautiful day and there is a class that they do together where we can sit on the swing and look at art history books, etc.

 

We've always worked in this room even with babies (but I've never had more than 3 at a time as by then the oldest was in school)....

 

My comparison is the typical classroom or even the common workspaces in some office worlds today where people have to learn to work with some distractions.

 

But I cannot be gone for an hour or more or the work quality tends to go down.

 

Also, since some of the time I'm working at my desk, when they were little they seemed to follow my example very easily...

 

We don't have internet in the room though so sometimes ds3 has to work in the dining room where the connection is (where dh is also working).

 

Joan

[Beth in SW WA]

Dd 12/7th does her school work in her room near her computer. She does everything independently -- even correcting her own prealg this year. :001_smile:

[Quiver0f10]

My highschoolers usually do any independent work in their room at their desk. If its something we do together then we are either at the table or in the living room.

[jewellsmommy]

We had a school room set up, but never used it for that! I have come to accept that I am just not a school room type. Math is always done in the dining room because I have a white board mounted to the wall there and it is so much easier to teach math that way. Most everything ends up in the dining room also, although we will go into the living room whenever we feel like it.

 

But, I only have one, sigh. I do have to keep her and the cat separated sometimes, though. He tends to pick a fight with her at the most inconvenient times. He will jump up on the table, knock her pencil or math manipulatives to the floor and then sit on her book. All while I'm trying to teach some complicated new concept. I wish I was exaggerating. They fight like brother and sister. It's sad when you have to fight with a cat because you don't have a sibling.

[Sasharowan]

Mine tend to do written work at their desks in the dining room. The desks are built into the bookshelves on the walls, so they do not face each other. They tend to wander off to beds or the couch for reading work. I haven't found any arrangement that makes a difference on their distractability though. It has nore to do with mood, what else is happening, and probably mooncycles. For instance, if we have a fun thing planned for Fri. that depends on the weeks work being done, they are more likely to focus, but if they had a late night or a disruption in schedule early in the week, they are more likely to drift or wander off whenever I do something other than sit and watch them.

[Violet Crown]

My oldest does her work in dh's office, where she has her own desk and computer, and can focus without deciding to go play with her baby sister, distract her 7yo sister (and herself, of course) from her work, and pick a fight with me.

I am done trying to deal with my 17yo. Any course she can't take through the cc for next year will be done through either an online class or an in-person class. We just don't work well together anymore.

Angie I feel your pain. That's why last semester I required dd14 to spend every day on campus w/ dh, and this year she's "hacking college" for half her courses (must start a thread on that, to see if we've just lost our minds with this idea) and doing the rest under dh's tutelage or by correspondence. I cannot, cannot, cannot be her teacher anymore. Or one of us won't survive her teenage years.

 

My 7yo does her work anywhere she wants on her little clipboard, unless it has to be done at the computer. That way she can bring her clipboard right to me instead of shouting across the house in the middle of dd2's diaper change that Mommy must come right now. I keep my red pen in my pocket.

[momofkhm]

Where do your kids do their school work? What works for you?

 

At the kitchen table?

In their rooms?

In a school room?

All together in one room or far apart?

 

For each kid it's different. Oldest, 15 yo dd, does everything at the school table. She even sits at that table and read her literature assignments. It drives me nuts. Why not at least get comfortable?

 

Middle, 13 yo dd, does everything she can on her bed. She does math up there if I let her.

 

Youngest, 9 yo ds, is the one who moves. He reads in the family room (comfy!). He does his seat work stuff at the kitchen table. He does some stuff at the school table too. He really is all over the place!

 

It all works for me. And I don't worry about the chit chat. DS is usually the instigator. I just look at it and think, "It's a good thing he doesn't have to sit in a seat all day. He just couldn't handle it!" There's wrestling between subjects. There's playing. There's a lot going on. My house is rarely quiet. I let it go for a few minutes and then get them all back to work.

[Gamom3]

Ds-14 told me the other day that he did his work faster in his room..since there were no distractions---his sister, she has a tendency to argue with me about her work, which distracts ds. SO I am going to allow him to work in his room..hopefully that will work for him.

[krstbrwn]

I have a small house. My highschooler does her work at the kitchen table. My other two do theirs at the dining room table about 30 feet away. I do, however, think that I am going to have to do some rearranging. This will be my first year that all three of them will be doing their own thing. I don't know what we'll do, but I know that they do need some space of their own otherwise they get distracted when I'm "teaching" on of their siblings.

You've made me realize that this will be a challenge for us, and I need to put some thought into it for this school year!:D

Kristi

[momteaches2]

We have a school room that serves as our 'base of operations'. This is where we do all group work. It has an old kitchen table and all of our school stuff (except the kids' computer which is in the hallway). Then, the kids are free to take their independent work anywhere they want as long as they can stay focused. My oldest usually takes his work to the computer desk in the hallway or reads on his bed. My middle one takes his work to the kitchen table or reads where ever the mood strikes him. My youngest usually puts her work on a clipboard and works on the floor in the school room (she likes to be near me). As long as they can work where they are, I don't mind where they work.

[Peela]

We have a schoolroom and up till recently, we would all be at our desks in here. I stay in here to stop the bickering and shoe throwing that happens when I leave the room. However, ds14 recently complained about not being able to concentrate well and after long discussions about what might work, we have set him up at our dining room table in a separate room. He needs the isolation and quiet, although its not as isolated as his bedroom, which is on another floor.

It is working well for him AND for dd who used to have to put up with me telling off ds umpteen times a day.

 

The only issue now is....catching him and keeping him off Facebook and his ipod.