homeschool room/dining room

[mommyoftwinboys]

We are going to be new homeschoolers this fall:001_smile:

and when we bought this house earlier this year(we downsized by choice) we didn't plan on homeschooling. So...at this point our larger home we sold would have been perfect for homeschooling, but hindsight is 20/20.

So...in this house our homeschool room has to be shared with the dining room. We have already moved the computer down into the dining room with a small desk. I need some creative organization ideas because we still want to use this room as a dining room as well. Pictures would really help too if you don't mind sharing!

[clwcain]

I don't have any pictures to offer, but we started with "kitchen school" a few months ago. We've since moved the table into the "living room". We keep the computer in the office, and the home schooling materials in boxes on the bookshelves of the living room/dining room (it's the same room, not a combo space).

 

Home school stuff gets pulled down, used, and put away.

 

I'll see if I can get some pictures out of my wife's camera.

[Sue G in PA]

First, I feel your pain! Our dining room doubles as the school room (or is that vice versa :)). We are lucky to have built in shelves right in the dining room (which the previous owners used to house knick-knacks and such) but are perfect as bookshelves. There are five shelves (top row has all my TM's and misc. curriculum, next shelf has ds10 and ds8's books, next one has ds5 and ds7's books, next one has 2 plastic drawers (sets of 3 drawers) sized 8 1/2 x 11 where we keep scrap paper, notebook paper, some extra workbooks for my toddler, other paper suppies, etc. and the extra shelf space has our thesauraus and dictionary and other reference books. The last shelf has misc. books we are using to supplement our studies (science books, atlases, history encyclopedia, etc.). Right off our dining room is a nice-sized room that was added by the prev. owners after the house was built. It is our laundry room but also houses our computer and another set of bookshelves. There is so much more we could do w/ this room if finances allowed, but for now it's just an extra space. Some people really love those Desk Apprentices from Staples for holding books and supplies. I'd probably use that if we didn't have those built-in shelves and I had to drag the books back and forth.

 

Honestly, I've surrendered to the fact that our house is a school, too. Our dining room will never be for entertaining formally and our visitors will just have to deal with that! Oh we also have 2 sets of rolling carts with 6 drawers each in the corners of the room and each houses math manipulatives, misc. school supplies, my ds5's K supplies, puzzles, markers/crayons, etc. They are supposed to have wheels, but we lost our wheels! They might work well for you if you have to wheel them to and from the dining room/schoolroom. I wish I had pictures, but I'd be embarassed to post them...the room is a WRECK almost constantly. Certainly not the stuff inspiration is made from!

[tnmomofboys]

We also downsized a couple of years ago (reducing by 1200 ft2) in a move to another state.....sounded like a good idea at the time. The moving truck arrived and the movers looked at me and said you want all this stuff to go in there?! We have bookshelves in most rooms, but I try to organize by theme. My husband says we could get more on the shelves if I weren't trying to decorate them as well. My dc have a desk in their room. We also went with a laptop which has been great!

[Ferdie]

We homeschool in our dining room also. We use the room for homeschooling M-F and then put everything away for the weekend.

 

My children keep their school books and supplies in a crate. The crates stay in the dining room for the week and then we put them away on the weekend. My TM and supplies are stored in the dining room in a plastic two drawer filing cabinet on wheels.

 

We do our reading, read alouds and history in our family room so those books and a globe are kept in that room.

 

To protect the dining room table I got a clear plastic table cloth from Walmart. I love it because we can store checklists, maps and posters under the table cloth so they are out of the way but still visible.

 

I have a table top white board that I keep stored in another room that we use several times a month. We have a bookcase in our den forlong-term storage of books and math manipulatives.

 

The other thing that really helped this year was to make table top cubbie partitions. Sometimes during independent work it is better if my kids can not visually see each other. It helps them to focus and cuts down on the chatter. Someone on the board suggested using a tri-fold presentation board. Cut in half, it makes two table top partitions that are light weight and easy to fold up and store. Plus the white color is a great background for the kids to decorate.

 

Welcome to homeschooling!

[iquilt]

We use what would be our dining room for our school/playroom; everything is organized on those cubby organizers from Target and a label maker so that we know where things go when we are done. We are lucky enough, though to have an eat-in kitchen area that we can use most of the time for meals. When we need more room than for us we put away our school stuff and art projects in the school room and use that table, too (they are next to each other). We keep our school stuff on 2 shelves but do a lot of school actually in the living room on the couch, reading books or listening to CD's. HTH

[percytruffle]

Before we moved, three years ago, we lived in an old farm house that had tiny rooms. The kitchen was the center of activity and the general "hanging out" place so we ended up hsing at the kitchen table. One thing I would suggest is a few white boards and cork boards on the walls. We used the white boards extensively and the kids loved seeing their work pinned up on the cork boards. If you want to still be able to use the room as a dining room for company, just decoupage nice posters to the backs of the white or cork boards and flip them around when it's dinner time. I would also invest in a large cabinet to store your supplies, one that is nice enough looking on the outside that it can be decorative when closed. Also, if each of the dc stores their day to day supplies and books in a small suitcase with wheels, they can wheel them into their rooms at the end of the day and the dining room would be kept more neat.

[Tammyla]

Our dining room doubles as a classroom here. No pictures available, but don't look inside the bottom of my china cabinet or behind it.;) I like to be able to clear the table and transform the room back at the end of each day. I used tr-fold boards that store behind it for posters and the like. The bottom stores our daily books. We have bookshelves all around the house.

 

Don't stress this one. I've had a school room and prefer the big old table near the center of the house.

[Karenciavo]

I have a dining room school room. I keep my books in my adjacent living room, the drawers and cabinets of the buffet and china cabinet serve as storage. I have a few string devices that are tacked in the wall, pictures, maps, graded papers etc. hang from it held on by mini clothes pins (I think these were .99¢ at Ikea.) I also have a few inspirational sayings in Latin and Greek framed and hung on the wall. Truthfully, most things on the wall begin to blend in with the scenery after a while. We have a white board on the wall as well that can be switched out for a framed painting before company comes (although usually I don't bother.)

[Quiver0f10]

We always had a school room and since we moved here we are schooling in our dinning room and I actually prefer it. I have a corner desk with my computer, then one wall is lined with bookshelves and we have the kids computer desk against another wall. The room is large so it works well and can use my big table for school rather than the folding tables we used in our old school rooms.

[mommyoftwinboys]

Thanks everyone! I love all of your ideas...

If anyone finds any pictures, please share. I've been googling constantly trying to get more ideas but not coming up with much. I'm a visual person.

[charlotteb]

Our kitchen is our school room. I have commandeered( sp?) one wall for all of our school things. The kitchen table is near that wall. On this wall, we have a large bookshelf to hold our school books and supplies, a white board, maps, and a few educational posters. There is no way for me to hide this stuff for when company comes over, so we just live with it :). We only have about 1200 sq ft in our house, so there's not really any other option. I would love to one day get a bigger house with a school room... <sigh>

[Retired]

I have a dry erase board in my kitchen. I have the portable plastic storage on wheels with art supplies. I have a small shelf by the kitchen table for holding containers with pencils, etc. The book shelfs are in the office(dining room). The kitchen table is covered in books during the week. They put everything on shelf for the weekend. The book are put in floor during supper. The books all over the kitchen bothered my DH for awhile. He has now accepted this is what a home school looks like.

[fruitful vine]

We have our school area in our dinning room.

 

I bought lots of cabinets with doors for in the dinning room and also in the adjacent living room.

We didn't want the main part of our house looking like a school, so everything is behind closed doors.

 

I bought them at http://www.homedecorators.com/

 

Like this one:

http://www.homedecorators.com/P/Craftsman_Six-Shelf_Bookcase_with_Wood_Doors/540/

 

They work great, we also use the inside of the doors for posters, school reminders, small maps, and art work. Easy to put away, just close the doors!

 

 

Having the school room in the dinning room can make doing projects hard since it all need to be cleaned up at each meal time, but the plus side is it forces me to keep things cleaned up!

 

Good luck with the new school year!!