Need opinions on school room location

[HollyBee]

We currently have our school room set up in our upstairs spare bedroom. It has a nice big walk-in closet for supplies, but the walls are sloped past about the height of my head (if that makes sense), and it's not a huge room. I'm starting to feel a bit claustrophobic in there.

 

My alternative is to set up shop in the basement. There are windows on one side, and I'd have a lot more floor space for the school room. The room right next to where the school room would be has a sofa and loveseat for read-alouds (nowhere to do that with current upstairs set-up). BUT there's no closet.

 

Is it worth giving up the closet to gain the floor space and the close proximity of a read-aloud area? Help! I can't seem to make a decision. :tongue_smilie:

 

Thanks so much!

Holly

Edited September 15, 2009 by HollyBee

[swellmomma]

I say yes it is worth it. You can buy pantries/bookshelves for storage for much cheaper than you can raise the roof on the upstairs room. I saw head for the basement.

[MariannNOVA]

The kids and I are in a large (really large) room on the ground floor of our home with a room that we use as our 'quiet' room or read-aloud room a few feet away and it is working well.....incredibly well. IMO, the positive in having a separate read-aloud space outweighs a large closet - but that is just me. Perhaps your closet can be used for materials that are not being used if you move to the lower level room, and bookcases, free-standing storage closets (with doors) or something similar could take its place. CL is a great place to find interesting pieces that may provide storage and are attractive and multi-functional. HTH :001_smile:

[birchbark]

I would say go with whichever room you are drawn to more. If you like the basement room, you can get cabinets or shelves for storage.

[EKS]

I'd get some good shelving (Ikea has some) and make sure the lighting is good and move to the basement.

[The Girls' Mom]

Go for the basement! That's where we are. You can make up for the closet easily with shelves and cabinets. I have a wall of bookshelves that I got cheap at Big Lots, and most of our supplies are stored there. I love having the big space.

[MrsMe]

Yes, absolutely it's worth it! Find double duty type storage or enclosed storage. The right infrastructure is so much better than finding hodgepodge.

[Chris in VA]

I'd say go for the basement, but mine is a walk-out basement, and that makes a difference for me. I need the light.

 

Having a close reading place wouldn't even really be a consideration for me--we read upstairs on the main floor of the house.

 

My ideal schoolroom would be just off the kitchen, so I could do some work there while the kids (kid singular, in my case! :D) finished maths or grammar, and so we could have water and heat sources for art and science.

 

But I honestly like being able to do some things out of my school room, because I get a little antsy being in one room for several hours, so I really don't look for an "all-in-one" type school room situation.

[HollyBee]

Thanks everyone! I have some work to do to get the basement ready, but I think we'll be more comfortable down there. I will, anyway--the room we're in now is at the end of the hall of bedrooms upstairs, and I always feel so secluded in there. Which can be good or bad, depending on what your goal is, but some days I can barely bring myself to go back there!

 

Thanks again, and if anyone else has input, I'm all ears! :bigear:

 

Holly

[Verity]

:iagree:

 

I agree with everyone else... go with the basement and add in some bookshelves! I would hate to feel claustrophobic in a school room!

[PeterPan]

Why not do both? School in the basement, but use the upstairs for storage and a cool play/reading room. (Throw reading nests on the floor in there.) We're doing that right now, schooling in one room and using another room for storage/library. Works just fine! I keep vertical metal dividers on our table that have all the tms and notebooks and things, and everything else is downstairs.

[Brindee]

I would be claustrophobic in one upstairs room too! I need to see/know what's going on! :) We never used one specific room for schooling. When we moved into this house, we turned the "formal diningroom" into our computer room. It has bookshelves in it that house our reading books, mids school books, and my teacher books, plus dictionaries Bibles, Atlas books, etc. We use it as a base to draw from, but the kids go upstairs to a spare room that has a couch in it, or in the livingroom or sit at the diningroom table, or lay on the floor---wherever they can best get their work done. My kids don't do well sitting in desks, or in just one room! It's worked out well for us.

 

Sooo, I agree with the poster who said to go with the room that makes you and the kids most comfortable while learning! Change and adjust until you come up with a solution that fits your family. You got many great suggestion here!

[angela&4boys]

My vote is for the basement! The mental picture of read-alouds on the couch sold it for me. :)

 

Also, there are *so* many great economical storage options out there now. I have found some wonderful storage at Target and Wal-Mart.

 

Let us now what you decide!

[Satori]

I say do both as well. I worked all day today on our basement, making a little science activity corner. I already have a craft room down there. Just needed some cheery paint first, and now I LOVE it down there.

[Veritaserum]

We were using an upstairs spare bedroom and switched this year to using a room on the main floor (was dh's office). Having the extra space is soooo helpful. I can set up one kid at the kitchen table, one in the dining room, and the littles in the family room with toys while I work one-on-one with another in the school room. When we're all working together we use either the kitchen or the dining room (depending on what we're doing). Read Alouds are on the family room sofa. :)

 

I still have extra school stuff in the upstairs bedroom closet. :tongue_smilie:

[HollyBee]

I'm reviving this to say thanks again for all the input!

 

I decided to move out of the upstairs room and set up shop in the basement. Then, during the flooding in GA (we live just north of Atanta) the basement ceiling fell in! :eek: We had water enter the stove downdraft vent on the back side of the house. The vent pipe filled up and burst, and there went the basement ceiling.

 

So there went my plans for the time being. Sigh. We have been having school on the main level, though, which feels better from a claustrophobia standpoint, but I keep having to run upstairs for stuff. I just need to figure out how to get it organized. DH doesn't want school stuff all over the place downstairs, and I agree.

 

Again, thanks all!

Holly

[Robin in DFW]

I mean...do you have a family room (den) and a formal living? Or a formal dining and an eat-in kitchen space? I ask because our house has these rooms and we decided to use the formal dining for our school room. Although we have a very open floorplan, everything is organized in the dining room. Everything can be seen, but it's very neat and organized and it isn't all over the other parts of the downstairs. We don't have a basement or an extra room upstairs, so this was our only choice. I have two older kids, though, so that might help with the tidiness...

 

We have one wall with three inexpensive bookshelves from Target and those cubby three-shelf closet organizers. Each kid has two sets, stacked. I had extra shelves cut at the hardware store and bought extra pegs...each bit of work of work has a slot...kind of like workboxes, I guess, but everything stays the same everyday. Art stuff is in a large white rolling cart. Science is also.

 

There are so many organizational things now...you can get your closet set up in no time downstairs.

 

Good luck.

Robin