Anyone's school room situated where you see it right when you enter front door?

[ChristusG]

Right now we school at the kitchen table. While it works, there's just not enough space. I have piles of books on the kitchen table right now with nowhere to put them. This is the same table that we have to eat at! So I can't leave any projects or unfinished papers even lying on the table.

 

I was thinking of moving our schooling area to our formal dining/living area. I love how I have it set up and decorated, but it really doesn't serve a purpose. We never sit in there or anything. Mine and DH's computer desks are in there too. So we'd have better access to a computer so that DD4 can play Reading Eggs online while I school DD7. But it's the kind of living/dining combo where it's seen immediately when you walk in the front door. I mean, it's not like we have house guests a lot, but I do take pride in my house looking nice, streamlined, and uncluttered.

 

If anyone has their school room situated where it's seen immediately upon entering the house, how has it worked out? Would you change it to somewhere else if you could? We have no where else it would work in our house.

[kalanamak]

 

If anyone has their school room situated where it's seen immediately upon entering the house, how has it worked out? Would you change it to somewhere else if you could? We have no where else it would work in our house.

 

My school room has three windows (one whole side) facing the walk people take to get in the house. I have the blinds open for light. Anyone walking up to my door sees bookshelves, globes, skeletons, a computer, a Desk Apprentice, and a desk. It looked cluttered, but it isn't a sty.

 

I'm sort of proud of it. I wouldn't move just because it could be seen. YMMV.

[RahRah]

Yup....dining room is to the left as you walk in our front door foyer....my office is to the right.

[dakarimom5]

When you walk in my front door you are standing in my schoolroom. I love it. It has to be kept tidy because of where it is. And since I have big windows next to my door I can always see the neighbor kids before they knock on my door and interrupt my school day.

 

My in laws thought we were crazy to get rid of our living room but since we don't entertain at all, I'm good.

[zenjenn]

Yup....dining room is to the left as you walk in our front door foyer....my office is to the right.

 

This is exactly my setup. EXACTLY.

[LucyStoner]

Ours is. But it is a different set up than yours. There is a door to it though, but we never close that door much. We live in a townhouse. So when you enter all you see is a door to the ground floor room that lets out into the yard (which we use as a school room, painting it this weekend!), a door to the garage ad stairs that take you upstairs (plus our shoe racks and coat hooks in the hall). It just makes sense for the school room to be that room because it is smallest, has a little 1/2 bathroom and opens to the yard which means both that we can keep an eye on our 2 year old running around and playing in the sandbox while we help the 8 year old with school AND that the 8 year old can go outside to read, take a break, play etc.

 

I have seen some really nice looking joint school and dining rooms. I think you could still have a nice visual on entry, and have school in there. Perhaps get a buffet to store school supplies in out of sight when they are put away? Make the art on the walls cool maps etc?

[tadbhoward]

We turned our dining room into our school room and just eat in the kitchen now. It works great for us. Our living room and dining room are just one large room essentially, and the front door is in the living room so you can see right into it all the time. It does not cause any problems for us.

[Wyndie]

:lurk5:

[howie4]

When you walk in our front door our school "table" is visible, but I usually don't mind :) We had a separate school room (our third bedroom) before we moved a year ago, but now the boys have separate rooms and {althought they're sharing the same room for fun right now} we need the spare room for friend and family guests. So we moved school to the kitchen. Once I got fed up with having to move EVERYTHING off the table for lunch and dinner I pulled out one of our card tables. The height is better for our boys (our kitchen table is bar-height) and we have just the right amount of space for math and language times. We usually take science and history to the living room, anyway. If we're in the middle of something it just stays on the table and we move on to the meal, but I do pick up finished work each day to file away. It also comes in handy when we have guests~a "kids" table is already set up and ready to go...as soon as I clear off the remaining school stuff!

As to tidyness...I like a tidy house, too, but I don't stress over a busy school table/counter~it means we've been working. I did not like it all over our kitchen table, though.

[SkateLeft]

In our first house, our schoolroom was in the formal dining room/living room, just inside the front door.

 

It was great at first, but eventually it wore on me. I kept it clean and uncluttered, but after a couple of years and a few more bookshelves, it really bothered me that it was the first room people saw as they entered my house. Actually, with our open floorplan, it was visible from the whole rest of the house too. I battled constantly with displaying artwork and projects, because as much as I loved them, I hated how busy and cluttered they made the room look!

 

Oh, and solicitors and neighbor kids could see us right through the front window, which made for far more interruptions. It's easier to ignore the doorbell when you don't have people looking at you through the window!

 

I was very happy when we moved into our next house, and it had a suitable schoolroom in the back of the house!

 

Ironically, now we've come full circle and are back at the kitchen table. We moved to MN and made our basement our schoolroom, only to find out that it is WAY too cold down there in the winter.

[LNC]

Mine is, formal living/dining. If you click on my profile name, I have a photo album.

[bbkaren]

We use the dining room table but have a setup for books, etc. that slides under the table. We took that chair out, and the one across from it, and set them against the wall in another room for occasional seating.

 

The binders are kept in a set of two milk crates - one sideways and one facing upward, bound together with zip ties; and the other stuff is in the little set of drawers. Behind the little drawer thingie is another milk crate with books and supplies that I don't need yet.

 

I just slide them in and out as needed.

 

That said, Yes, there are some things that we keep on top of the table (pencil cup, white board, stapler, etc.) and we don't eat at the DR table very much at all and it's a fairly large table. I also only have one to school...

 

[endurancerider]

I've lived in 3 different houses while home-schooling.

 

When the homeschool area was in the entry room of the house, I had tall bookshelves to store school supplies. I put shallow bins on one shelf to put papers that were finished, and another for papers that still needed to be worked on. This kept the area picked up when not in use.

 

Now, I have a room upstairs that I use for homeschooling. I have doubled the bookcases, and I purchased two sets of these http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20079342 wire wall hangers to hang up artwork, memory work, etc...

[AuntPol]

Mine is the former dining room too. I'd like to put up French doors to hide it though but at the rate home improvement projects get done here, I'll be lucky to have them up by the time my future grand chidren graduate.

[Alte Veste Academy]

My schoolroom is in the dining room, which can be seen off the living room as soon as you walk in the door. I don't mind but we also don't do formal entertaining. If I were having elegant dinner parties, it might bother me, but mostly we're patio grilling get-together kind of folks. However, because it is constantly visible, it was important to me to have very attractive storage furniture rather than lots of plastic. I wanted it to feel warm and homey and I do think I accomplished that.

 

I actually had the schoolroom in the biggest bedroom for a while (had a spare as my boys share a room) but I decided it was more convenient to HS right off the kitchen and converted the schoolroom to a playroom.

[Maeintx]

You walk into our house and into the dining room. I haven't officially changed it to the school room but since it is where we spend our days, I tried to hide all of it.

 

Computer hutch with doors to close up for guests, book case with magazine holders turned around to hide the books, photo boxes that hold our supplies.

[Pink Fairy]

We have an entryway, and then you go into the office (mine) and schoolroom (I have a photo album in my profile if you want to take a peek). I'm sort of proud of our schoolroom, which would have been the formal living room, but there are plenty of moments when it's a disaster in there and I don't want to look at myself, let alone show it to anyone else. Still, I have zero use for a formal room, but our schoolroom gets a workout every day of the year.

[Mrs Mungo]

Yes, it is in the formal living room. I much preferred having a room that I didn't have to worry about.

[JZMom]

We have a similar setup. It would be nice if I could close it off, but at least I'm motivated to keep it neat this way.

https://picasaweb.google.com/115524806165871091005/OfficeSchoolRoom?authkey=Gv1sRgCKOfi6LPsYeecA&gsessionid=9hSlzi2u4FnPBbahWKcRFg

[swellmomma]

We school in the kitchen and livingroom so no matter what as soon as you walk into my house you are in the "school room" and you can't escape it unless you are in the bathroom or a bedroom.

[Upward Journey]

We have an open floorplan, so you walk in the door and there is the living/diningroom and we don't have a schoolroom, not enough rooms in our house. My main living/eating area usually resembles a library because of this :)

[Mommy22alyns]

Our school area is obvious when you come in the front door. There's no escaping it, no hiding it, and no moving it. It is what it is.

[suppleasthewind]

My schoolroom is set up in the dining room, right next to the main entrance. There are books and educational posters everywhere. There is no hiding it.

 

I just put up a new timeline in the living room, so that room will probably be taken over too.:001_smile:

[kwickimom]

Ours is. We have an open floorplan so you can see everything when you walk in :) I have to keep it neat as a pin because I hate clutter. Aside from one set of shelves and a globe you cannot tell it is a schoolroom. We dont have anything hanging on the walls. My map is on the back of the whiteboard which is on an easel that is taken down everyday, everything else is on a shelf in my bedroom or in a cabinet. I made boards for each kid out of those presentation boards that have all the info they need....letters, mult chart, etc. and those get stored away everyday also (these double as a little "cube" or mini office for them if they need less distractions)

 

I display artwork in the hallway.

 

If I could have a schoolroom I would take it in a second. I dont want a main area of the house cluttered up with school stuff.

[Quiver0f10]

Our school room is also our dining room and the first room you enter when coming in our house. The room is very large and I have a lot of bookshelves and storage cabinets(with doors) so it doesn't look cluttered.

[Samiam]

Yep, when you walk in, you are in the large entrance way....look the left and you see our school room (formal living room) and look to the right, and you see our "library" (formal dining room).

 

There ain't nothing formal about our lives, and these rooms are wasted space.

 

In other houses, these rooms have also been used as toy/play rooms, but we are lucky to have a another room for those now.

 

My blog has pictures, it is a post from about 3 weeks ago if you look for it.

[MrsMe]

Mine was and probably will be again, and in fact you have to walk through it to get to the secondary bathroom and bedrooms.

 

I don't mind it. Looks more like a library. I rather have that than a kitchen table full of books. I tried that and it drove me batty. Never a clear space. This way, it's by my desk and the bookshelves and it's comfy.

 

My only problem is that dh works from home and when he comes in the house from the office in our garage he can be an interruption when I'm reading a story or dd is trying to do drills or whatever.

 

I have a back bedroom, that we are doing schoolwork in as I moved it back there this summer as a change. I don't like it. I can't get my work done as I'm constantly running back and forth, even with dd's questions and checking her work. So I'm debating whether to move it all back out here in my front room again. I'm now not sure whether to make that backroom my office with my computer and a quiet spot, or leave my computer out here and having a room I know not what to do with. Either way it's hard to fit my computer and the school stuff all in one room. I love the thought of a nice quiet office in a newly painted room, but for school, printing and creating stuff, I don't think so.

 

But I vote for the unused living room. My front door is the first pic, between the recliner and this desk/bookcase.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2011 by alilac

[Forget-Me-Not]

Yes, our formal dining room is our schoolroom and it's to the immediate right as you walk into the entry way. I can't stand clutter, so part of our school day routine is to clean it up when we're done.

 

I would like to use another part of the house. At the moment I have two rooms that could reasonably be turned into schoolrooms, but both are carpeted where the DR has hard wood floor and I like that messes can be easily cleaned up in the DR. Yesterday, for example, both girls had gone crazy with scissors, puffballs, foam stickers and gluesticks and glitter, and it all just swept/vacuumed up.

 

When my youngest (almost 3) gets a little older,we may move to a different area of the house. We're hoping to move to a different state in 3 or so years anyway, and if and when we shop for a new home, a dedicated schoolroom is on my list of wants!

Edited August 21, 2011 by LemonPie
directionally challenged

[ChristusG]

Wow, looks like a lot of people use their formal dining/living as a school room!

 

I would definitely have to buy some bookshelves that look decent to have in there. And that could be expensive. Hmmm....decisions, decisions! Hopefully I can work this out this week.

[Mommyfaithe]

Mine is...but it has a door I can shut. I am now renovating this room. It is my first try....on my own...and I am having a ball...

 

Faithe

 

Eta...our office is located in our dining room...sigh. We work from home...the schoolroom is off the living room...originally a small bedroom....planned for aging parents.

 

Faithe

[KrissiK]

Ours is right off the front door. We, too, are using our "formal" dining room. I guess it works. It's fine.

[scrappyhappymama]

Our school room is in our large formal living room, just as you come in the door. In fact, the first thing one sees as they come in is our entire wall of bookcases. Unfortunately, the next thing anyone would see is likely the books stacked on the floor near the bookcases. :glare:

 

I've never minded having our house say "this is a place of learning!" So we have maps and picture shelves for more books and dry erase boards on the walls. But, our school room does tend to get a bit cluttery, especially during the middle of the week, when we are schooling and going from here to there for various activities. So, I real don't like that aspect of it being so public and in your face to visitors. I also have my office space in our school room, and I tend to have lots of "projects in process" on my desktop, so that adds to the cluttery feel.

 

We're moving in a few weeks, and our new house has an upstairs game room that will be perfect for a school room. I'm really happy that we'll still have our open space, but have a little more privacy from folks who stop by.

[Mynyel]

.

 

I'm sort of proud of it. I wouldn't move just because it could be seen. YMMV.

 

 

Here too, although we don't really have a "dining room". I call it that but it we live in a double-wide so the "living room" and "dining room" are really one room.

 

I like having all the school stuff around. Makes me feel smarter :D

[2cents]

Our formal dining room is on the right as we enter the front door and it has a large window. We made that room the schoolroom and have all our books, supplies, whiteboard, planner and maps there. It was a good use for that room since we have an informal dining room and only use that for eating.

[Parrothead]

Yes. My living room (where we do school) is within view from the foyer.

[Julie Kirkwood]

Our school room is our formal dining room, just off the foyer, visible from the front door. We jokingly called it our "formal playroom" for years when it contained all the kids' toys. Now it is our "formal learning room". :tongue_smilie:

 

What is supposed to be a formal living room on the other side of the foyer is our home office.

 

I just couldn't see buying formal dining and living room furniture for rooms that I know my family and I would rarely use. I much prefer to use the space I have for what we need it for.

 

I find that most people that come over who are not homeschoolers, love seeing our learning room and enjoy looking at all of the things we have in there.

[silliness7]

Right now we school at the kitchen table. While it works, there's just not enough space. I have piles of books on the kitchen table right now with nowhere to put them. This is the same table that we have to eat at! So I can't leave any projects or unfinished papers even lying on the table.

 

I was thinking of moving our schooling area to our formal dining/living area. I love how I have it set up and decorated, but it really doesn't serve a purpose. We never sit in there or anything. Mine and DH's computer desks are in there too. So we'd have better access to a computer so that DD4 can play Reading Eggs online while I school DD7. But it's the kind of living/dining combo where it's seen immediately when you walk in the front door. I mean, it's not like we have house guests a lot, but I do take pride in my house looking nice, streamlined, and uncluttered.

 

If anyone has their school room situated where it's seen immediately upon entering the house, how has it worked out? Would you change it to somewhere else if you could? We have no where else it would work in our house.

 

Our school room is in our "formal" living/dining area which is what you see immediately upon entering the house. I love it being in there because it is so spacious and because of the enormous picture window in the front. It's a great morale booster to have a wonderful window. I did my tutoring in the laundry room for a good portion of last year and I sorely missed that window.

 

However, I don't identify with the bolded. I can't keep things picked up to save my life and I can let things go for days at a time before we do a whirlwind pick-up. I also don't have any dining/living room furniture to put in there so it really was a waste of space. An empty room.

 

It's filled with a piano and a half, mis-matched wall to wall book shelves and several desks. Not school desks but regular desks. I did move an easy chair in there and this year we will have our old kitchen table (since I replaced it with a much needed larger one) in there which I painted blue and mod-podged a world map onto. Fun. Fun. :D

 

So yes, people can get an eyeful of our disorganization upon entering our home but, well, that's just the way it is. I truly envy people who can keep it all picked up. I can't. :blushing:

[texasmama]

We school in the formal living area, which is right inside the front door and open to the living area, kitchen area and eating area. It is the only place we have enough space for our things. It works out just fine. We ditched the dining room table and a large armoire a few years back to make it the school area and haven't looked back!

[BeautifulLife]

When you walk in my front door you are standing in my schoolroom. I love it. It has to be kept tidy because of where it is. And since I have big windows next to my door I can always see the neighbor kids before they knock on my door and interrupt my school day.

 

 

This is the same for us as well. We turned our formal dining into a schoolroom and, although I really enjoyed decorating it for the seasons before, we only used the dining room a few times a month. It is right off the foyer, the first room you see when you walk in. I love it! I like that it forces me to keep it organized and clean, and we enjoy having all that natural light. (We have never had to turn on a light during school.)

[Mom-ninja.]

Yes, I have one in the front formal dining room. We never used it either so it became a school room. We actually don't use it now because we moved upstairs since we've finished the bonus room. The front room is still set up like a school room though. We put school things in there when we are too lazy to walk upstairs. Plus, the boys like to use the table in there for puzzles and games because they don't have to clear it away for dinner. :)

[kristinannie]

Yes! I actually thought about not putting the school room there, but it is the perfect space. The lighting is great. There is a large window. It was completely empty! I love having it there. I have to get over the fact that people will see some clutter when they enter our house! It is so worth it!