woolybear Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 I have never had a completely dedicated schoolroom. It has always been in the living room. Last year towards the end of the year I tried moving it into our dining area, which didn't really work. That may just be because it was the time we were ready to be done with school. So, today I rearranged some rooms and now have a play room again. Yay! I'm not sure where to plan to do school. Is it too distracting to have it in the same room? Would it be better to have a big chunk of it dedicated school space? Should I keep us in the living room? Kitchen? Doesn't matter?:) I know pictures would be helpful, but that is beyond my cyber challenged abilities at the moment. So, for now, tell me about your spaces. How does it work if you combine these two or any other two. TIA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaT Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 I did combine my schoolroom with a playroom when my three littles were 1, 2, and 3. My older boys weren't that easily distrated - they were used to the noise! It worked out great for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 We have in the past combined play room and school room and currently are attempting that again. It is sorta cramped as it's only 9'x9' and there are regularly 4 of us in there. It's nice in that it keeps the mess out of the kitchen and living room! No more running around trying to track stuff down, though sometimes things disappear in the masses of books and supplies in the small area. I would LOVE to have floor to ceiling shelves, with cupboard doors on the bottom for toy and supply storage. <sigh> What I did to facilitate being able to work in there was purchase a folding table, 10 drawer storage cart, and a "club chair" which is roomy, comfy, but foldable. (like a futon chair). I got rid of our individual desks. We are just using adjustable small computer chairs at the moment. The club chair accomodates both students for listening to read aloud time, or mama and nursling at other times. It's nice to have the toys there for the toddler and so far it is less distracting than the snack cupboard in the kitchen, LOL. I have to do much less redirecting so far although the boys' silliness toward one another can be distracting to *me*. It has been exciting to the kids to have a dedicated area with posters, alphabet chart, etc. They were tickled to start back to school in the new setting. I have not had to enforce school time with the younger ds, which was a problem last year... he saw school time as his brother's alone and I had difficulty "folding him in." This year he is participating animatedly in much of what we do. I like being contained *myself* in the school area. It helps me concentrate and keeps me from feeling guilt regarding the ever-present dust and clutter I could/should be addressing instead of educating my children (tongue in cheek). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outdoorsy Type Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 I don't have pictures of it right now, but it's a large upstairs bonus room. One wall has the Ikea Trofast system for toy storage, second wall has bookcases, third wall is a futon with windows on either side, and the fourth wall has a large table and small table. This works well for right now since I have an almost 3yo in addition to my 6 and 7yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffodilDreams Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Our school room is currently in the playroom, and I'm always telling my friends that I wish I had room for it elsewhere. But, it's somewhat practical because I tend to find myself gathering up "play" items to use in our learning sessions. While probably not ideal, it works okay for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 We have a huge kitchen (400+ sq ft.). It serves as a regular kitchen/dining area as well as our school area with posters on the underside of the kitchen bar and a bulletin board on the wall. On the other side of the room is a few shelving units with toy buckets and a big train table. My 7yo plays while we do school. He gets a little loud sometimes but I just have to remind him to keep it down. We've been schooling this way for 5 years now and it's worked for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellyinPA Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 We have a combined playroom/schoolroom. We have dedicated one of the upstairs bedrooms for it. My boys are 9 now and really only play with Lego's most of the time so it's not too distracting for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athome Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Huge minimalist here. We do school at the kitchen table. Each kid gets a cute spray painted box from Sam's Club and I deck it out with fun stickers. Hard to explain, but it works as a potable desk/organizer. This year I got one with a tall back and shallow bottom to double as a personal bulletin board for my son. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 We have had a set up this way. Our house has a long room 16x 40ish... kitchen, kitchen eating area, living room. We changed the living room into the dining room and just use bar stools at the kitchen counter. This made it possible to have dd3's toys in the back of the dining room. She has an area that is about 16x6 that has her toys and 2 tall bookcases in it. We homeschool at the dining room table and put our school books in the book cases. She could play under our feet and it worked fine. DD11 doesn't like distractions so when she really needed to concentrate, she would get her lesson from me and then move to another room in the house. Other times, dd3 would take her toys to another room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 I used to, and had kiddo's back to the play part. To keep from being claustrophobic, he faced the bookshelf and had a large window on his left (I sat on his right). When we could, we moved the the dining table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 The room that should be our dining room is our school room and also includes a train table which has been converted into a lego table. The room attached to the dining and only separate by a partial half wall, is our playroom, but also has my son's desk in it and a chalkboard. I have always had things set up this way and it's never been a problem. Right now, my children are 10 and 8, and starting to outgrow a lot of their toys, but even before, it was never a problem. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted August 1, 2010 Author Share Posted August 1, 2010 I am thinking because of space issues I may leave the playroom as is and do most of our school at the kitchen table. The table is about 5 feet from the playroom. There is still some things we would probably end up doing in there as well. I am thinking some of the independent work, reading, some projects will overflow into there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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