Does anybody not have a homeschool room?

[Nicoleab2]

Most of our work is in the living room. We also spread out over the house. A lot of reading happens on beds or on the screen porch. When it is nice out, they like to study out side. I used to think I wanted a school room, but now wonder if we would feel too closed in. We hung a couple of maps in the hall along with a time line. We put shelves in an old wardrobe in our living room as a place to keep all of our current books. It has been wonderful to have one place for everything. I don't mind projects and things they are working on out, but I don't do well with clutter, so it has helped to atleast consolidate the clutter!

[Georgiana Daniels]

Our home is cozy and does not allow for a dedicated homeschool space.

 

 

Like you, our home is cozy too. When I hs'd my oldest through middle school, we worked mostly in the living room at a desk. BUT, the biggest problem was where to keep all her books/notebooks/supplies. We ended up buying a crate at the office supply store to keep all her vital stuff in, that way we could do school at the library and on the go.

 

Now that I'm starting with little ones, who are particularly interested in maps, we use a hallway for all the maps and books.

[Orthodox6]

School computer is in the office. So are about three hundred books.

Several hundred books are in the family room.

Several hundred other books are in the living room, in the upstairs hall, and in all of the bedrooms.

Curricula and supplies not in current use are in a walk-in closet.

Curricula and supplies currently in use are in the master bedroom, from which they are taken out as needed.

 

Teacher-student direct interaction lessons take place at the dining table. Projects are carried out all over the house.

Music practice takes place in the living room.

 

A "real" school room ? Only in my most extravagant dreams !

[10Newtons]

Another kitchen table fan, here!

[Joy at Home]

Nope, small house, kitchen table here. Though I've always dreamed of having a library. I'd take that over a homeschooling room.

 

Lisa

[SherryTX]

We do not have a dedicated school room. Rebecca does all her work in the living room, either on the couch, or in a chair, or sometimes sitting on the floor. We just remodeled the living room, so put home school on hiatus for a few weeks - but we normally have several book cases in the living room and have one dedicated shelf on one for books, and a two dedicated shelves on another. She has a banker's box that holds all her math manipulatives.

 

My husband turned most of our 2 car garage into an office several years ago, since he and I were both working from home at the time. However, there is no heat in there nor A/C so winter sucked working in there, and the summer was BRUTAL. (I was so excited when I got a laptop and could work in my bedroom and living room!) Right now all the book cases and other items we need to move in the living room are there, plus a lot of JUNK. The plan is to extend it out to the rest of the garage, add a couple of windows and make it a play room. I think once that is complete we will put in a table there for work when she needs a quiet place, or somewhere that she needs more surface area.

 

I am not especially keen on having something duplicating a school room. However, I do want some where to put up wall charts, maps, etc., and I think we will do that in there. For now, we will just continue using the living room for the most part, and once she has her own room (my son moved out a month ago and we are doing his room over for my oldest girl), I plan on getting a little table so she can work in there as needed.

 

We sometimes will go to the library or even to The Corner Bakery or another place during off peak hours. I will get something to eat, and hang out for about an hour, to two hours and do some school work there. I find it is a nice break from the clutter of the house, and helps myself and Rebecca avoid cabin fever haha.

 

I mentioned to my husband we could stick all the book cases in the play room when it is done, but he almost turned white! Books are so much a part of our lives that it just seems wrong to not have them in the living room. I think I could convince him to get rid of the tv before him agreeing to move the book cases out of there hahah. And, I think over all I agree haha.

[angela&4boys]

We used to and I don't miss it a bit. I spent several months saving for a table and storage unit from Pottery Barn Kids only to sell it on craigslist for a fraction of what we paid for it.

 

My boys gravitated to the couch to read and the kitchen table when they were doing written work. It was like it was innate. Honestly, for us, it just feels right *not* to have a designated space.

 

We have a small jelly cabinet in the kitchen with various books and supplies, but no one would know what was in it unless they asked or looked. The boys also have a small desk in their rooms for when they need quiet study time. And our bookshelves are scattered throughout the house... just the way I like it. ;)

 

Looking back, it was wasted space. That same space now serves a more practical purpose as a bedroom. So, for those dreaming of a glorious schoolroom, don't feel deprived. I learned a hard lesson and lost a pretty penny.:glare:

[Carrie12345]

Tiny house, open floorplan.

Our foyer/kitchen/dining room/living room is basically one big room.

 

My 10yo does a lot of his work in his bedroom, so most of his books are kept in his bookshelf.

My girls do their written work at the table and most of their reading in the living room.

 

I did stick a side table in the dining area. That holds our printer, most of our school books, and other odds and ends. Art supplies are in baskets over my kitchen cabinets. The rest of our books are in a bookshelf on the staircase landing.

 

We have a loft that we use mostly for the dogs and storage, which is where I have piles of printer paper, notebooks, extra pencils, folders, and who knows what else?!

 

So, basically, my house is a jumbled mess, lol.

[Mallory]

We don't right now, we either do school in the boys room or the living room.

 

My kids never sit at the dining room table. Maybe they are just too little? The heights of dining room tables and chairs are not like desks. It seems that between swinging feet and too high table tops, things like handwriting wouldn't work well there anyway. We do have a smaller table and desk that get used.

 

I also don't see how you do chores during school times. Again maybe it is because my kids are so little? But when I am trying to get laundry, cooking, sweeping, ect done during school, then school falls apart. I can read or plan near the boys, or pick up the room we are in. I find that I have to be focused on school for that couple of hours and worry about housekeeping some other time.

 

We are moving next week (our closing date is Tue, it is our first house and we are so excited!). We will have almost twice as much space, about 2000 sq. ft. I haven't really figured out how things are going to be, but I think the family room will be part school room. At least supplies and books will be in there.

[swellmomma]

We don't. Right now we use the kitchen table and their desks are lined up in the livingroom. The houses we have been looking at to buy are even tinier then where we are now and do not even have a basement so I am not sure how I will organize our school stuff once we move but again we will not have a dedicated school room.

[InHisGrip]

and my husband just affixed a small Ikea table (more like desk size) to my son's wall -- it lays flat against the wall when not in use and then you pull it up when you're ready to use. My son loves this as he likes quiet when he's doing certain subjects (math, etc.).

[Barefoothomeschooler]

I have homeschool where every I am. Meaning if I am in the kitchen cooking, they are at the table. If I am on the computer in my room, they are on my bed. They will retreat to their rooms for quiet study in their beds. I have books on every wall in every room. I would love a room that I could put everything it and not have it all over. We are in the process of building a house now and it will have a homeschool room off of the kitchen/livingroom area. It will be where all homeschool stuff is stored and where they can work at desks, either on the computer or paper. It will also hold all of my craft stuff. So I guess it will be a homeschool/craft room! I am very excited!!!!

[LivingHope]

We live in a 1000 square feet "school house" with six children. It is tight and filled with wall to wall Ikea Billy bookcases and two large Ikea tables with benches (one for dining, the other for studying). Just to let you know...we don't have a couch.:mellow:

 

Janell

[3lilreds in NC]

I had a school room/office for about 2 weeks, before I found out I was pregnant with Schmooey. :D

 

We mostly do school at the kitchen table and on the couch. I have been trying to move school upstairs to the bonus room, but without a great deal of success. I just can't get a setup I like. I was hoping to move up there because it would be easier to keep Schmooey contained. However, I think we're going to have to keep school downstairs and do it when he's asleep.

 

We really don't have a place for a school room. Our house isn't tiny, but every bit of it is used up. I could possibly convert the dining room if I could put books in the china cabinet, but then I would have to figure out what to do with all the stuff that's in there now. I keep trying to get rid of stuff so it's not so chaotic but that's not working right now either. Could be because we're in Michigan. :lol: You KWIM.

 

Anyhoo - no school room here, just school stuff all over the house. Still working on the ideal setup, if there is such a thing.

[Lady Q]

My whole house is one big homeschool room. Except for maybe our study which we guard jealously from kid encroachments. :D

 

We do worksheets and manipulatives and art at the dining table and read-alouds anywhere comfy (couch, futon, various beds). The kids have a play room. Schooling stuff is put willy-nilly into various bookshelves (I need to organize!).

 

~Rabia

[Sasharowan]

The dining room has become our dedicated schoolroom that we eat in occasionally. Dh put in floor to ceiling bookshelves with 3 drop down desks. The kids keep their books on the shelf that the desk covers when it is in the up position. We have a blackboard created by painting a large piece of wood with blackboard paint. We keep the whiteboards between the dryer and washer (which are also in my dining room) and pull them out as needed. We have a worldmap up and I also want to get a US map and a timeline up somewhere.

[apmom]

DS got a new desk for his birthday in March, and we put it in our family room, along with a small 2-shelf bookcase. The desk has drawers and cabinets in it, so we store textbooks there, then put the notebooks in another drawer, with other school-type books on the shelves. It's working out well. We do not have a TV in that room, the computer is there, but in a closed cabinet. It allows me to see out the back of the house when dd is playing outside, and is comfy enough for me to sit with the little girls to play while he works. Then again, we often "do school" in the van on the way to someplace, sometimes on the floor, sometimes on top of the dining room table (ds likes to sit on the table top for some reason...), and sometimes at grandma's house at the table.

 

We don't have maps hanging up, either, but I'm considering it. We'll see what the new school year brings.

[elw_miller]

Well our living room has maps on the wall and homeschool books. We have a homeschool house instead of a dedicated room and we usually do school in the den unless it involves experiments and then it is done in the kitchen :)

 

Sounds like my house! We have a world map in the hall and those great Monet pictures for Harmony Art Barb's summer course. I have our nature books and various manipulatives on a bookshelf in the dining room. And, of course, bookshelves all over the house. We do have a playroom with all the kids' toys, but there we also have a map of the US, a dry erase board, a small desk mainly used for freehand drawing, and the alphabet across the top of the longest wall.

 

I would love to create a beautiful schoolroom like some folks have posted, but we're currently renting a rather snug house so that dream will have to wait...

[LaurieinCA]

We don't have a homeschool room, either! We have a large house for the 4 of us - 3300 sq. ft., 5 br, 4 ba, but we homeschool at the dining room table, or the kids take their work to the couch. I like to be nearby, in the kitchen or laundry room, if they have any questions or need help.

[elise1mds]

We don't have one at all and have no place for one, either. I found school desks cheap on Craigslist and will use them as long as I can for any paperwork. They're in my living room. I've got a couple of maps and a bulletin/whiteboard on the wall behind the desks and there are shelves below the desk for some supplies. The rest of the supplies and books are in cabinets and shelves all over the house. Most of the schooling will take place wherever it's convenient. He asked to do a math worksheet yesterday and did some at the desk, some on the floor, and some on the couch. I figure he'll bounce all over for a while before he learns to be independent.

[HomesteadMommy]

I would love to have a school room. We just don't have an extra spot right now. So we work at the kitchen table, couch, sun porch or outside. Just about any place.

I have plastic "drawer" type storage units in the kitchen. These have have most of our art supplies. I have a large pantry cabinet that holds paper and other things I don't want the kids into. Our book shelves are in the living room.

[rockermom]

We have no extra space. What does the hive think of this, we could use our bathroom:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol::lol: :tongue_smilie:

[coralloyd]

We have a play room right off the kitchen and great room. I hope someday it will be a school room, but for now we have too many toys:tongue_smilie:. If I were to put all thier toys in their rooms, they would be dragged all the way out to the great room everyday. At least this way most of the toys stay in the play room, and it's not a long treck to put them back if they don't. For now we have a school set up the dining/great room area. All the books that aren't part of our current curriculum, are in book cases lining our foyer walls.

[sassenach]

No school room here. We have 1 dining area in our home and it serves as our school area. We have a dining table, dog crate, recycling center, large white board, several cork boards, 2 book shelves and a small computer armoire in a 10 X 14 foot area. It's cozy, but it's all we have!

[Melissa in Australia]

we have a large living room. it has a few desks at one end, where the kids do their work. the other end of the room has the lounge furniture, computer and T.V. the whole wall is lined with bookshelves. all the wall maps, and timelines are in the hallway.

[Moni]

Lots of folks don't have a dedicated schoolroom, perhaps most folks.

 

We don't.

 

:seeya:

[BlsdMama]

We have no extra space. What does the hive think of this, we could use our bathroom:

 

 

 

 

 

:lol::lol: :tongue_smilie:

 

lOL! Too cute! But, I'd have to call that a dedicated school area. Sorry! :lol:

[seewah]

I used to find myself always drooling over school rooms ... for we do not have a dedicated school room in our house. We use the dining room area (which is our kitchen/dining room table) as the main area for school. I have a beautiful black buffet which houses quite a bit of our schooling materials and my trusty printer/copier/scanner machine. There is a bulletin board hung up in the dining area and when school is in session we have a huge world map hung on one of the walls. The buffet is generally covered with our school materials (but it is quite organized and tidy) ... but in the summer I take it all down so I can reclaim that room for a few months! :)

 

My oldest has a loftbed in his room and uses the desk under his bed extensively. There is also a cabinet with doors in his room (we call it the "school cabinet") that houses more of our materials. He is not thrilled with having that in his room, but we don't have room anywhere else in the house.

 

We generally do our read alouds on the living room couch and do our written assignments sitting at the dining room table.

 

I know several friends who have a dedicated school room and rarely use it. They tend to migrate out to the kitchen table or the living room couch. Funny how you always seem to want what you don't have!

 

We have lived in our tiny, cozy home for almost 8 years. I have come to realize that while I would love a bigger home and a dedicated schooling area, I am blessed beyond measure for what I do have. The ability to instruct my kids at home is what matters ... not the space I have/don't have. That has helped my perspective on the matter quite a bit. :)

[beezus]

We don't have a dedicated school room either. I think my 12 yo's favorite place to study is on her bed! She has a computer to use that is on the desk in our dining room, and she does have a small desk in her own room. We do keep her notebooks in a magazine holder and the books we are currently using for school are kept on a particular shelf, but other than that we don't have a special school area, because there's just not room in our house. We have a map box and her timeline is folded up and put away in a folder after we are done working on it. Sometimes we like to pack up some things and go to the library to study just for a change of environment.

 

Kathleen

[rockermom]

lOL! Too cute! But, I'd have to call that a dedicated school area. Sorry! :lol:

 

I think you're right. :glare:

[TravelingChris]

We are in a very large house and no school room. We have an office where I am typing right now and have files, my youngest's school box with her books, and shelves with school books. We don't do school in here since they aren't allowed on the parents only computer and it is a small room with only one office chair to sit on. Occasionally I read to the younger or go over questions in the living room. The older mostly does her work in her bedroom. Sometimes she decides to watch a video in the family room instead of on her computer. She does her work with me (chemistry, discussions, in the kitchen or in the sun room). The younger one mostly does her work with me in the kitchen but sometimes in the sunroom and very occasionally my bedroom if I am feeling poorly. Sometimes the younger does reading in her room or her work by herself in the living room. Experiments tend to be in my husband's engineering room. Testing and crafts are in the craft room, Why should we do it in one room?

[mommix3]

Our diningroom doubles as our school room. We have bookshelves and the computer in there. A big white board is seperating it and another room where there is more bookshelves and another table. That way I can split the kids up. LOL It works out well for us.

[Geo]

After homeschooling 22 years, we still have no "schoolroom", even after building our own home from scratch. I guess that's probably because,

subconsciously, I don't really want one. But, I do have a library! Complete with wall-to-wall built-in bookshelves and an old-fashioned roll-top desk.

It's my dream-room.:001_wub: We do 90% of our learning in the living room; I think it's because we largely use real books, and not workbooks. Even our R&S

grammar is done orally (well, mostly...diagramming is done on a whiteboard while sitting on the couch). When writing neatly matters, (handwriting,

copywork, dictation, or occasional science notebook) they move to the dining room table. My 10yodd retreats to her bedroom for independent math

and devotional journaling.

So...after so long, and so many kids (6), a "schoolroom" would feel too artificial, and not like homeschooling at all.

 

Geo

Edited June 30, 2009 by Geo

[Annabel Lee]

We live in a very small home to begin with - I feel we're busting at the seams even w/o homeschool happening here. We don't have a homeschool room at all. We've made the dining room portion of our eat-in kitchen (no separate dining rm to speak of) the main homeschool area, but hs has "leaked" into almost every other part of the house. There's a tall bookshelf by the computer area, a short bookshelf behind the loveseat with more books piled on top, overflowing book baskets on the living rm floor, and books in all bedrooms spilling out of their shelves.

 

If I could design a home on a larger budget, the main school area would be somewhere off from the kitchen - open - maybe with French doors to close it off if we needed quiet in there. There would also be another room for the piano, drums, guitar, and more bookshelves :D with a fireplace or woodstove - that would be the cozy family room. The TV and games would go in a separate room, with the TV tucked away out of sight (maybe recessed into the wall with a sliding door or cabinet-style doors over it) - the emphasis would be on games with a chess table, dartboard, pool table, mirrors along one whole wall with bars for ds' TKD & dd's ballet (and the correct flooring for it), etc.

 

I definately agree with the above poster that I don't want a single room to stuff all things homeschool into. I saw a friend try to do that one year, and they ended up at the kitchen table or on the couch most of the time despite the freshly decorated schoolroom.

 

My dd has friends that have a really neat setup, much like I described - but the laundry room is in the homeschool room (genious!), and the hs room is open (large archway opening) to the kitchen/family rooms.

 

Pardon me while I go take a much-needed dose of contentment. ;)

Edited June 30, 2009 by Annabel Lee

[Karenciavo]

One thing I notice when I look at other people's school rooms is that they have usually have young children, you don't see a whole lot of school rooms for rhetoric and dialectic students.

 

We live in a medium size house, 2200 sq ft, and we don't have a dedicated school room either. We use our dining room which is off a living room, the living room has bookshelves, a comfy couch, instruments, and a couple of computers. I like to be able to convert my dining room back to a dining room relatively easily so I have a removable white board that I switch out for a painting, I hang my young son's work (he likes to showcase his stuff) on a mini clothes line from Ikea, and I have a table top easel (looks kind of like this) for items like Latin and Greek paradigms and other charts/memory work.

[Stacy in NJ]

yes and no. We use a spare bedroom has a storage/work room. I have a large white board on one wall, and we use that for instruction time. I store most of my curriculum in that room, but we work all over the house, mostly in the kitchen. In the kitchen, I have a large, free-standing bookcase. I use that as an organization center. Our schedules, reference material, and daily lesson plans are stored there. I probably sounds confusing, but it really does work for us. Most days we manage to keep our books and supplies mostly neatly stored and organized.

[homeschool_mom]

We have a school room now, but before had all of our supplies and books in the kitchen. Even though we have a school room, we don’t do all of our studying there. Many times, we’re in the living room, kitchen or deck. The best thing I like about having a school room is that it’s a place to hang endless items on the wall and store all of our books, files and supplies.. Before the school room, my kitchen table was always piled high with books.

[Brindee]

We just finished our 11th year of hsing and have never had a dedicated schoolroom. Someone gave us old school desks when the kids were young, and they liked using those some, but, really, they've liked sitting in comfy chairs or on the couch or floor or head on floor--legs on couch, or other strange positions, better than anything. We spread out over 2 or 3 rooms, depending on what we're doing. Science often ends up in the kitchen for experiments, researching things ends up in the "computer room" (which was touted as the "formal diningroom" when we first looked at the house. HaHa, us? Formal diningroom? Naaahhhh! ;) ), where we also have 2 large bookcases with the school books and dictionaries, Bibles, etc. We ALL like it better this way, and haven't wanted a formal school room. When they were little we put a Little Tykes table against one wall of the livingroom for dd, and the two desks up to that table, and handwriting and other posters on the walls near there. Homeschooling was our lives, so we did what worked best for the kids, even though it was not usual livingroom decor! :D There was a little bookcase with lots of books to read and a few soft pillows near the desks/table, so that little area was the "schoolroom." People coming to our house had no problem with it, and the kids liked to show what they were working on. I felt better being here and there in the house, so I could more easily keep up with housework and cooking and things, and I could still easily help them if they needed.

 

Now my oldest is heading off to college, my middle is heading off to a Christian Highschool, so I will only have dd12 left to homeschool! :( Times change so fast! We will, however, still work wherever we feel most comfortable still, and NOT have a schoolroom.

Edited July 3, 2009 by Brindee

[matrips]

we don't have a schoolroom, but my kids are still pretty young. we use the couch most of the time for reading, and then either their playroom or the dining room table for other stuff. it would be nice though! we do have lots of bookshelves, though I need to get them reinforced since they weren't built to actually hold many books apparently!

[SheWillFly]

We do not have a school room.:)

We do our reading lessons in the living room. Spelling and other seat work things are done at a few desks we have in the play room. Math is often done wherever they feel like it. Literature is outside as often as the weather permits. Science and history move all over our house. Works great with fidgety children.

 

A school room would kill any shot at success we have since we are bringing our oldest home from a very negative school experience. She wants it to be as not like traditional school as possible and I'm totally okay with that.:D

[mompotter]

No school room here either. We do have a school table now and a corner that is dedicated to school books. That helps although I get school room envy whenever I see pictures of cool rooms. :glare:

 

We rent a small house and there is just no room. I dream of my own house so I can paint a time-line on the wall in a school room. I think that would be fun to have up.

[homeschoolmom4]

No room here either. I think I have school stuff in almost every room. Before I had 4 kids, I did have a school room and love it. Maybe I will have another one some day.

[newhsmommy]

We do have a school room and really love it. Some of our favorite things about having the designated room is that when the kids are in it they know it is school time and they seem to take their work more seriously. The favorite part is if they are in the middle of putting a large project together they can leave it where it is and do not have to worry about cleaning it up for dinner, company etc. Speaking of cleaning up, they rest of the home seems to stay cleaner because their books, supplies etc is not being left all over. The kids are also responsible to keep the room clean and tidy. My 2 cents

[Radish4ever]

In our dining room, we have the regular kitchen table that the grownups eat at and close by we have a kids Little Tikes table that the kids eat at (yes, they're still little and have a kid table. LOL)

That kid table is located directly next to a book shelf with all our HS and craft items and is also where we do school.

This works very well for us! They know that if food or spills are on the table, no school stuff can be brought down from the shelves

[prairiegirl]

We have a school room in the basement but we do not use it. It is too dark down there for me. I am much happier doing school upstairs. We spend most of our time in the living room, sitting on the couch or on the floor. If the kids need to do some writing then they will use the kitchen table but we don't spend alot of time there. If the kids need some quiet to read, then they will go into their rooms. I am very happy in doing school 'everywhere' it is much cozier and calmer.

[leaird]

The summer before I began homeschooling, I changed our rec room into a school room. I had a very nice school table with four chairs, tons of bins for storage, 4 bookshelves, a large dry erase board, a decorated bulletin board, etc... I used the room for about a month before I realized we were much more comfortable just lounging in the living room with our school stuff. After a year of not using the school room, we removed all of the school stuff from the room and filled it full of exercise equipment. The bad thing is that we use the exercise room even less than the school room. :lol: