Does your house look like a homeschool house?

[Karen in CO]

Today, I have housekeepers here for the first time. The kids are gone and I'm working at home. One of the housekeepers asked me, "Do you homeschool?" When I said yes, she said that she could just tell. Not in a bad way, but she could just tell because of the books and the science things. She said that homeschool houses are different.

 

I don't have a school room or school desks. I don't even have a timeline or educational posters on the wall. It never occurred to me that my home looked "homeschool."

 

Do you think someone who didn't know could tell that you homeschool by walking around your house? What do you think gives it away?

[Gratia271]

I would conjecture yes particularly when the housekeeper enters walk-in closets that are floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with books.

[tofuscramble]

Every room in my house has a bookshelf and every bookshelf has educational books on it, we have science things all over the place, a telescope, microscope, several laptops, dictionarys lying around and every room looks lived in. Although its clean, it looks very lived in. I think those are the things that give us away. :)

[Impish]

I'd have to say yes, with books everywhere, a microscope out, etc.

[Dawn in OH]

I think the maps and the whiteboard hung in the dining room might give it away.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

oh, surely, yes! we do have a dedicated school room, tiny urban farm, lots of animals (by the standards of many), projects going on everywhere. Good papers, cool artwork, et c. are posted on the door b/t the living room and school room. The books . . . speak for themselves.

[hsbaby]

Well, only if you actually go unto the school room. There is no "evidence"in any other room:)

[Gratia271]

Every room in my house has a bookshelf and every bookshelf has educational books on it, we have science things all over the place, a telescope, microscope, several laptops, dictionarys lying around and every room looks lived in. Although its clean, it looks very lived in. I think those are the things that give us away. :)

 

I forgot about that! :) Multiple laptops/computers might be a give away too.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

I'm not sure it necessarily looks like a "homeschool" house, since we don't really have much in the way of curriculum right now (DD is only 4.5). But anyone who came in could tell that I do a lot with my daughter, and it actually looks similar to a preschool. We have workbooks, lots of arts and crafts supplies, my DD's artwork displayed, lots of blocks and cars and dollhouse stuff... There isn't a room in the apartment without good quality toys, educational materials, and DD's work.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I think the maps and the whiteboard hung in the dining room might give it away.

 

:lol::lol: Same here! I just hung the map back up today after re-painting the dining room. The white board is still sitting on top of a low book shelf, though!

[Pink Fairy]

Oh, definitely. We have two rooms fully dedicated to "homeschool decor" that are the first thing you see when you come in the front door.

[Karen in CO]

I think the maps and the whiteboard hung in the dining room might give it away.

 

Goodness. What do "normal" people hand on their dining room walls? I thought the whiteboard and maps were normal. The timeline would cross the line, but surely not a map. And the two globes? And the microscope and telescope. Kids artwork isn't normal either?

 

:lol:

[m0mmaBuck]

Yup. Let's see what might give it away. A huge library-style book shelf behind the kitchen table loaded with curriculum and books, learning games, art supplies, and science projects, another book shelf with "fun" books for DD tucked under the kitchen counter/island, two more huge bookshelves in the living room, another in each of the kids rooms and one in our bedroom as well... A solar system mobile drying on the kitchen counter... An "aquarium" swarming with triops... Educational videos out on the entertainment system... Or maybe it's the stack of homeschool catalogs and books next to my chair.

[Lara in Colo]

Since I recently converted my living room to a classroom and put a HUGE table in the center of the room, flanked by 4 bookshelves and centered on a 6x4 whiteboard......I'd say we look like we homeschool.

 

Lara

[TXMary2]

Upon walking into my house, immediately to the right is the classroom in what should be the formal dining room. So, I'd say immediately they should know we are homeschoolers. The bulletin board next to the backdoor might give it away too. :)

[The Girls' Mom]

Well....

 

Our entryway closest is stuffed to the brim with school and art supplies.

 

The dining room (first room you see) has bookshelves on every wall, two computers, and science equipment out.

 

The kitchen has a map and two white boards hanging in it. The refrigerator currently has a human body poster hanging on it.

 

The half wall between the kitchen and living room always has our big SL binder sitting on it.

 

You are very likely to find various experiments in the kitchen.

 

Every room in this house contains books.

 

Maybe it does? :lol:

Edited June 9, 2010 by Apryl H
need a dictionary :(

[Impish]

Whoops, I forgot about the map on the kitchen wall, and the 3 maps in the computer/homeschool materials room (supposed to be the dining room :lol:)

[Wheres Toto]

Two bullitin boards, two chalkboards, one whiteboard, two loaded bookcases, balance scale, globe, US map, world map.... Yeah, I think they can tell.

 

That's my living room, BTW.

[hsmamainva]

I think the maps and the whiteboard hung in the dining room might give it away.

 

LOL! Mine, too!! :lol:

 

And I have one wall painted in chalkboard paint. *snicker*

[Dmmetler]

Pocket charts (spelling review, Latin, Spanish, Math facts, grammar rules), whiteboard, maps, workboxes, lots of artwork, a castle on the floor built of C-rods, ladybug larvae on the table, worm hatchery, and books everywhere? I think we qualify!

[WeeBeaks]

Yeah our "formal dining room" now sports a desk, what used to be our nice table now covered with lapbooks and art supplies, a gigantic bookcase and a coffee table pushed against a wall to be a little table set up Montessori style for my little one with little bins full of various activities underneath ... it kind of gives it away.

[misidawnrn]

yes, it does infact I am taking a break right now to eat lunch and surf ;) in the process of rearrainging it all. We had DD's desk and 2 book shelves in the living room, along with the 2 chairs, couch, gun cabinet, entertainment center, high chair, toy box, coffee table, 3 end tables, 4 baskets of cloth diaper stuff... and the big stuffed chair for the kids to sit in. Our living room isn't that big and lately I have felt like the walls are closing in on me....giving me horrible anxiety. So I have thinking about it and this morning I woke up and there are 4 boxes of stuff that UPS delivered yesterday but DH is out of town so they are just in the middle of the floor and that was the last crumb on the cookie.... I am putting all the HS stuff in the dining room and so far I am LOVING it. I will post pictures when I am done.

[KidsHappen]

Only on the second floor. I do have a library/reading with three double wide sets of bookshelves but they are full of fiction, art, music and family games so that might not gives us away. But my room definitely looks like a homeschool room. Four double wide sets of bookshelves over flowing with textbooks, math manipulatives, globes, microscopes and various other schooling items.

[swimmermom3]

Well, I suppose the Office Depot computer desk next to my antique mahogany buffet in my great room could be a clue. However, if you saw the way my decorator mother's face blanches ever time she enters the house, you'd know for sure.:D

 

Hey, I don't have any charts hanging on the wall. I don't know what she has against mold growing in the kitchen. It's in a jar.

[justamouse]

It has to be the kinds of books and tools. It's all there. Most definitely, I have a homeschooled house.

[Mejane]

Nope. Except for the basket of books in each child's room, there's no indication we school at home. We don't have desks; the kids work at the kitchen table. Maps, white board, all that stuff gets used and put away.

[Jennifer in MI]

I don't think anyone visiting here would know. Maybe if they were to go up to the one closet I have dedicated to our supplies they'd know. Or, if they read some of the titles of the books on my bookshelves they might guess. But, we keep our school books in bins and they get put away every night.

[tricia]

With 12 kids and homeschooling for 23 years. I don't know any other way for it to look!!:lol:

[Guest janainaz]

No! I keep it all in my hall closet. No one would know and I like it that way. We do school at home, but it's not our identity.

[iquilt]

My grandmother was just here for a visit and commented, in a very nice way, how it appears that we have plenty of books! I don't have any posters hanging up, either, but we do have shelves upon shelves of books in practically every room of our house. That leads many visitors who don't already know to ask if we are homeschoolers.

[freeindeed]

Today, I have housekeepers here for the first time. The kids are gone and I'm working at home. One of the housekeepers asked me, "Do you homeschool?" When I said yes, she said that she could just tell. Not in a bad way, but she could just tell because of the books and the science things. She said that homeschool houses are different.

 

I don't have a school room or school desks. I don't even have a timeline or educational posters on the wall. It never occurred to me that my home looked "homeschool."

 

Do you think someone who didn't know could tell that you homeschool by walking around your house? What do you think gives it away?

 

Yes, my house looks like a homeschool house.:) I have two large bookshelves in the dining room and one large bookshelf in the living room. Also, I have books we're currently reading on the coffee table and end tables. We have a number line and a dry erase board in the dining room. We also have various projects and nature walk finds in the dining room on shelves or on top of the piano: lighthouses made out of cardboard, paper towel rolls, construction paper, etc.; Chinese New Year dragons made out of egg cartons; pinecones and leaves; and miniature paper tipis and pyramids--just to name a few.:D My veteran homeschool friends told me when I decided to start homeschooling: "You've got to get over your 'Martha Stewart' tendencies." Obviously I did & I'm proud of it!:lol:

[kewb]

I think the maps and the whiteboard hung in the dining room might give it away.

 

Same here.

[Frontier Mom]

Well, the fact that my four dcs would meet adults at the door and start talking is a pretty good giveaway. Beyond that, we have 4-H projects in the dining room with a computer, chalkboard wall, whiteboard in the breakfast room, Teaching Company DVDs in a Rubbermaid bin beside the TV. Oh, don't forget about the blankets on the couch and chair with books and games on the coffee table. Well, that's before you even get to our learning room upstairs!!

[Ellie]

Maybe. We didn't have a family room or other place to keep things, so we hsed at the kitchen table. There were maps on the wall, and books in the one small bookcase. I tried to keep the table tidy. The rest of the house...definitely not. I wanted our home to look like a home where we learned things, not like a school. John Holt groupie here.:D

[Supertechmom]

having been in and out of several public school homes, I think the big difference is when they know you have school age children. And you don't have a backpack park are somewhere. Or the "docking" area. Even my neatest most decorated OCD friend has the spot that indicates kids get ready to leave or go somewhere for large amounts of time. There's usually something that screams " leave home for hours " in place.

 

In contrast, homeschool homes might have something similar but the area is much smaller or a basket. Nothing that would suggest my kids ever leave the house.

 

I worked as a maid and it was always apparent despite the clutter and filth (or clean and neat)those that were out just to get out of our way and those that simply were not there during the day. you can just tell.

[angela in ohio]

I think the walls of booksshelves filled with old and educational books would give it away a little bit, though, other than the shelf of books on educational methods and classical education, it could just be that we like to read. :001_smile: Then we would open the door to the rec room, and they would see the science, art, and craft supplies, and the giant whiteboard and posteers on the wall.

[HRAAB]

Probably from the minute they enter the front door - there's a large model of the solar system hanging in the living room. Not to mention the books, science and art supplies and such scattered around the house. I have a room dedicated to school supplies, but since learning occurs all over inside and outside the house, that's where most of the supplies are usually found.

[MaMa2005]

Only when someone steps out onto our 4 season sunroom. And even then, they might not suspect. We do have 3 computers out there as well an antique desk (which DS uses) next to my worktables.

 

Now if they looked INSIDE the cabinets lining one wall, it is immediate that we homeschool. Or if they look at what is inside my two Desk Apprentices sitting on my worktable. Or the fact that we have one huge monitor sitting between DS's laptop and my laptop (to better see the really cool things on the computers!)

 

I am a neat-nick and I think that is why things are contained or else it would drive me crazy :D.

[abbeyej]

If someone looked at my bookcases, they could tell. ;) And there are a lot of bookcases. Otherwise, I don't think we scream "home schoolers".

[Jean in Newcastle]

I've had repairmen ask if we were homeschoolers. It could have been the puzzles and other hands on things being actively worked on in the living room. It could have been the books waiting with bookmarks to be picked up again in a moment. Or it could have been the kids following them around asking them questions about what each part was and how it worked.:lol:

[H0MEFree]

The bookshelves full of NON-crap books may give it away here.

[Margo out of lurking]

Absolutely, positively NOT. I can't stand any kind of clutter and I certainly don't want hs stuff up on my walls, ugh! My refrigerator has not even one piece of anything on it, magnet-free.

 

Early in our hs years, dh came home early one day and was horrified by the spread that had come out of our cabinet in the kitchen. As my kids have grown, we've graduated to a big buffet-type thing that just looks like a big piece of furniture. But everything always goes away at the end of the day.

 

Yes, I am a neat freak, and my whole life just feels more orderly when everything looks nice and neat. Yes, I have issues, haha.

 

We're in the throes of moving, and even this is stressing me out, all these boxes and stuff around, nothing where it's supposed to be.:w00t:

[dragons in the flower bed]

Do you think someone who didn't know could tell that you homeschool by walking around your house? What do you think gives it away?

 

The bright colors on the walls seems to scream, "space for children!" to people who walk in. The walls lined with bookcases, the shelves of nature things with microscope and field guides tucked in, the Waldorf toys. The yellow boxes of craft supplies all lined up neatly on one shelf in the blue/yellow/purple room. I hope that our blackboard just looks cool and not schooly; it's painted on and in the motif of the room and never has school stuff on it because what we really use it for is games. There's a map, too, but it's a pretty satellite photos one, not the plastic labeled pastel thing that hangs on many school walls. I don't want timelines or educational posters and won't even put up a schedule because I want my house to look like a home, not a school But if people don't immediately peg it as a homeschooler house, they at least can tell that I put a lot of thought into raising my children. They can tell that the spaces are meant to be used. They see the blanket and the bookmarks right there on the couch, and they just know. Yeah. I think so.

Edited June 9, 2010 by dragons in the flower bed

[StartingOver]

For sure. When you walk in my house the first thing you see is a huge cabinet and 4 book shelves, all full of homeschooling stuff !! My yard looks like a daycare too !

[happyWImom]

Well, we are the cluttered type, so I'm sure they would know we homeschool!

 

There is a jar full of feathers on the table next to the door.

 

Our low bookshelf is our "nature table", and it has nature guides, as well as anything the dc find outside or on nature walks.

 

Our other low bookshelf is covered with US books, a globe, and 4 placemat "maps".

 

There is usually at least one or more bugs of some type in the few bug jars we have around.

 

Multiple seedlings/cuttings we're growing, in handpainted pots.

 

The windows and walls are always covered with whatever drawings or paintings the dc have worked on.

 

Despite having a schoolroom, we do most of our stuff at the diningroom table, so it is always covered. If not with schoolwork, with drawings, cuttings, books, you name it!

 

Diningroom china-hutch has been converted into an "art cabinet" and has a dictionary, 2 large crayon bins and a basket with tape, scissors, markers, etc... on it.

 

Books, books, everywhere.:001_smile:

 

Now, all of the above could simply mean we are a messy, artsy, book-loving family, but....

 

My endtable is constantly covered with hs catalogs, and I have a huge box full of curriculum that I am "contemplating". Kind of a dead giveaway.

[Jennifer in MI]

I've had repairmen ask if we were homeschoolers. It could have been the puzzles and other hands on things being actively worked on in the living room. It could have been the books waiting with bookmarks to be picked up again in a moment. Or it could have been the kids following them around asking them questions about what each part was and how it worked.:lol:

 

:lol::lol::lol: We've had this happen too!!! We just had to have a tree removed from our back yard and the boys were out there after they were done, asking all sorts of questions!!! That would give us away before anything in our house would!!!

 

 

Absolutely, positively NOT. I can't stand any kind of clutter and I certainly don't want hs stuff up on my walls, ugh! My refrigerator has not even one piece of anything on it, magnet-free.

 

Early in our hs years, dh came home early one day and was horrified by the spread that had come out of our cabinet in the kitchen. As my kids have grown, we've graduated to a big buffet-type thing that just looks like a big piece of furniture. But everything always goes away at the end of the day.

 

Yes, I am a neat freak, and my whole life just feels more orderly when everything looks nice and neat. Yes, I have issues, haha.

 

We're in the throes of moving, and even this is stressing me out, all these boxes and stuff around, nothing where it's supposed to be.:w00t:

 

We'd get along!!! I know about moving!!! ACK! It drove me NUTS!!! But, I found if I put the boxes I'd packed into ONE corner of one room (where I could shut the door) it helped!!!! Good luck with the move!!

[LNC]

You can see what is suppose to be the formal living/dining rooms by our entrance on my profile page. In the school room we have framed Mary Englebreit posters - one says "A Book is a Present You Can Open Again and Again", the other says "Books Fall open You Fall In". Kinda gives us away :).

[Sasharowan]

Let's see: Floor to ceiling bookshelves in the dining room full of educational books, built in desks, maps in the hall, electic wire kits stashed here and there. Nope, can't tell at all. :)

[Momma2Many66]

My living room has become our "homeschool room central" with a huge whiteboard over the sofa and 4 classroom desks in bright fun primary colors that we picked up from an old Catholic school and repainted. The living room walls are filled with tons of bulletin board classroom charts, posters and cut outs on the human body, the solar system, plant photosynthesis, the rainforest, Important U.S. History documents and shelves filled to the brim with lots of books, curriculum and educational toys and manipulatives.

 

Our living room also has those giant 5 foot tall Collosal posters of William Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in each of the four corners.

 

The living room also features large 24 inch inflatable insects (bee, grasshopper, ant, ladybug and dragon fly) suspended from the ceiling as well as the entire inflatable solar system.

 

I also have this Click here: Amazon.com: Davis Instruments 6250 Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station: Home & Garden sitting in a corner of our living room which allows my budding meterologist children to record and track all the weather outside everyday onto weather charts and graphs.

 

Our hallways, bedrooms and dining room (now a library) are all filled with tons of bookshelves, homeschooling posters and bulletin board cut outs in various educational themes.

 

But my biggest giveaway that we homeschool would be our bathroom, which is filled with large laminated posters with themes such as "Parts of Speech", "Factoring", "Prime Numbers" and "Spelling Rules". Not to mention that Periodic Element Shower Curtain I got from thinkgeek.com. :lol:

 

In our house, we live, eat, sleep and breathe education everyday !:001_smile:

Edited June 10, 2010 by Momma2Many66

[Mrs Mungo]

I have a schoolroom, it's attached to our unattached garage (does that make sense?). You probably would not be able to tell from my downstairs. You probably could tell if you saw the upstairs, due to the large amount of bookshelves. You could definitely tell if you saw the schoolroom.