Small schooling homes?

[Juniper]

Ugh! I am really beginning to feel the smallness of my 100 year farmhouse. So, any creative ways to homeschool in a small house? :D

[PeacefulChaos]

Ugh! I am really beginning to feel the smallness of my 100 year farmhouse. So, any creative ways to homeschool in a small house? :D

 

I'm feeling it, too. How small is small?

Our house is about 1500 square feet but half the house is the bedrooms and bathroom. The other half has the kitchen, laundry room, dining room, and living room. We just happened to be lucky enough to have space in the dining room to build a desk and shelves in the corner for the boys and put a big armoire (affectionately referred to as 'the monolith' :D ) on the other wall.

That's all the space we have, unfortunately. I would LOVE to have a whole room like some do! SOMEDAY! :)

(I was really hoping that someday would be before Pink started school.... but now it's looking like that isn't going to happen. :glare: Oh, well. )

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Waving the white flag over here in my small brick ranch...we're converting the garage. I am so tired of living in my schoolroom.

[Juniper]

I'm feeling it, too. How small is small?

Our house is about 1500 square feet but half the house is the bedrooms and bathroom. The other half has the kitchen, laundry room, dining room, and living room. We just happened to be lucky enough to have space in the dining room to build a desk and shelves in the corner for the boys and put a big armoire (affectionately referred to as 'the monolith' :D ) on the other wall.

That's all the space we have, unfortunately. I would LOVE to have a whole room like some do! SOMEDAY! :)

(I was really hoping that someday would be before Pink started school.... but now it's looking like that isn't going to happen. :glare: Oh, well. )

 

Yeah, this is my set up to. We do school in the dining room and kitchen. I am trying to edge my dd into her room, but we shall see if that happens. :)

[sbgrace]

900 SF here. We just don't have pretty anymore. In my old house I could school in the family and dining room and still have nice looking rooms. I don't have that here. I should add we hope to double this space eventually so I still have hope of nice rooms in the future. But now:

 

The bedrooms here are tiny. The living/dining is combined and even then the table is cramped. The kitchen has no extra usable space. So we have to school in that living room. I used Ikea.

 

I bought one of those Ikea tables that's big enough for all three of us to pull up. It's right in the living room with the computer on it too...not pretty but it works. I've got three Ikea bookshelves (1 billy, 2 expedit) in there, one in my son's closet, and one in the master bedroom. I'm using the linen closet also for supplies. We paint/do messy stuff on the kitchen floor.

 

In I previous house I would work with one child at a time and let the other go to another room to play. I can't do that here as we're all in the same room no matter who I'm working with. But being in each other's space all the time is the biggest struggle of this house even outside of schooling.

[Jpoy85]

I have HSd in a 1bdrm apartment (500sf) and we now HS in a 2bdrm apartment (800sf). Its HARD. We school in the dining room. I keep the every day books in a piano bench (converted to a dining room table bench) and everything else as far as supplies in a wardrobe in the living room. Then all our books (read alouds, etc) are in the buffet table that the TV sits in in the living room.

[Arcadia]

865sqft one bedroom condo here.

 

Kids have a Ikea micke study table each in the living room. Our science experiments are done in the patio (6ft foldable table) in good weather and in the kitchen in bad weather. Piano is in the living room and art is done in living room too.

[LittleIzumi]

We're in a mobile home. ;). I have a bookshelf holding current homeschool/reference books in the living room, plus workboxes and a small desk in one living room corner. I have all the other books in a bookshelf in my bedroom. We usually School on the couch with independent Work at the desk. Some is done via computer in my room or iPad.

[Lori D.]

Seriously, how about building a small, one-room school house on your property that can easily convert to helpful tool shed/workroom or extra out building when homeschooling is finished?

 

A good-sized shed with a window or two, add a small heating/cooling unit and run an electrical box out to it; build in floor to ceiling shelving along two walls to store the school supplies, add a few comfortable chairs and a desk or table for workspace... voila!

 

Even better, turn it into class credit by having DH and DC build it from scratch! ;)

 

Or, build one of those do-it-yourself little log cabin kits and rent it out over the summer as a B&B or a vacation rental!

 

 

Just some out-of-the-box ideas for the day... BEST of luck in finding what works! Warmly, Lori D.

[Jpoy85]

Seriously, how about building a small, one-room school house on your property that can easily convert to helpful tool shed/workroom or extra out building when homeschooling is finished?

 

A good-sized shed with a window or two, add a small heating/cooling unit and run an electrical box out to it; build in floor to ceiling shelving along two walls to store the school supplies, add a few comfortable chairs and a desk or table for workspace... voila!

 

Even better, turn it into class credit by having DH and DC build it from scratch! ;)

 

Or, build one of those do-it-yourself little log cabin kits and rent it out over the summer as a B&B or a vacation rental!

 

 

Just some out-of-the-box ideas for the day... BEST of luck in finding what works! Warmly, Lori D.

 

I live in an apartment so those arent options for me plus the money aspect of those options. One other poster said she lived in a condo so im not sure its an option for her and the poster who lives in the mobile home- some of us DONT have the land/yard/or patch of grass to build much of anything.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Jpoy85

[GSOchristie]

I have a school room and my kids don't want to do school in there (it's hardwood floors):tongue_smilie:. They whine and beg to do it in the playroom that's carpeted (and wall to wall windows so it can't be a schoolroom). So I always have stuff dragged out all over the playroom with all the toys. What a mess! P is throwing phonogram cards everywhere, Jax is setting GI Joe up on the math book, they're whining and fighting while A is trying to read. It is not at all the Pottery Barn-esque experience I had planned in my head :glare:.

[PeacefulChaos]

You know, I even have in my head what my 'perfect' school room would look like... sigh... :tongue_smilie:

[OnTheBrink]

800ish sq ft house here. We do school in the living room. However, dd is wanting to move her room into the basement, so her bedroom is going to become the school room. Her bedroom is 7x9 feet. I know people with bigger closets! LOL

[LittleIzumi]

We do pull IKEA mats out of a box for circle time in front of the couch. That part looks all cute and homeschooly. :lol:

[LibraryLover]

Ugh! I am really beginning to feel the smallness of my 100 year farmhouse. So, any creative ways to homeschool in a small house? :D

 

 

Same boat. But only hsing 1 this year.

 

I am always donating, giving things away, and I even had a yard sale.

 

We are not packrats, and I am a very tidy person. None of us are shoppers. I like things to be in their place.

 

I find keeping my desired level of tidy is difficult for my family.

 

Baby shoes are teeny. Toss in a basket.

 

What to do with college art materials? All the wire, all the paint, all the clay?

 

And the hsing one. Who is also creative. And a knitter, and a lover of sewing, plus a voracious reader?

 

Sometimes I look at other tidy homes. There are few books, no art supplies on counters or tables. Sometimes with kids sitting in front of a huge wall TV screen. Everything looks so neat and clean and tidy. There is nothing out of place. Not a scrap of paper, not one book, no wire cutters. ;)

 

I really thrive on order. My family seems to need 'supplies'.

 

I have baskets, purge boxes, frequent runs to Goodwill etc.

 

My kids aren't even slobs.

 

I got nuthin' to offer you.

Edited September 28, 2012 by LibraryLover

[missmoe]

We have 6 people in a 1000 square foot home. I've been thinking about this alot lately as it seems we have so much school clutter everywhere. I think I need to get rid of things after every school year. I'm schooling my youngest now, so I don't need to keep things for the next set of kids.

 

Here is a post I did several years ago about our school home.

 

http://missmoe-thesearethedaysofmylife.blogspot.com/2010/08/our-school-home.html

[LittleIzumi]

Vertical storage! Bookshelves, rolling carts with shelves, wall pockets, stacking metal shelving thing from IKEA, more bookshelves.

[swellmomma]

I hear you. I live in just about 1000 sq ft home. The backroom is not usable for anything other than pantry and dryer since it is not insulated and has no furnace vent (in an area that spends 6 months of the year between -30C and -40C that is not good). Then the bedrooms, bathroom and weird dressing room I turned into my office. Generally we do our schooling at the kitchen table, but in nice weather we sometimes take all our stuff to the "hidey hole" and school there. That is what we are doing tomorrow. It gives us a good outdoor space to spread out. We set up school in the shelter there, and then in between lessons we walk around the trout pond, play board games in teh grass etc.

 

Since leaving all the time is not possible, we also sometimes do school in the yard here when the weather is nice. The key is to try and expand our space as much as possible.

 

Storage wise we have things stored all over the place, there is no centralized location for all the school stuff BUT my livingroom reno is to transform my livingroom into a school room

Edited September 28, 2012 by swellmomma

[Jpoy85]

We do pull IKEA mats out of a box for circle time in front of the couch. That part looks all cute and homeschooly. :lol:

 

Linky? :D

[mellifera33]

Seriously, how about building a small, one-room school house on your property that can easily convert to helpful tool shed/workroom or extra out building when homeschooling is finished?

 

A good-sized shed with a window or two, add a small heating/cooling unit and run an electrical box out to it; build in floor to ceiling shelving along two walls to store the school supplies, add a few comfortable chairs and a desk or table for workspace... voila!

 

Even better, turn it into class credit by having DH and DC build it from scratch! ;)

 

Or, build one of those do-it-yourself little log cabin kits and rent it out over the summer as a B&B or a vacation rental!

 

 

Just some out-of-the-box ideas for the day... BEST of luck in finding what works! Warmly, Lori D.

 

I love this idea--I wonder if DH and local zoning laws would allow it? :lol: I'm thinking a Tumbleweed type building...

[Spryte]

Sometimes I look at other tidy homes. There are few books, no art supplies on counters or tables. Their family sitting in front of a huge wall TV screen. Everything looks so neat and clean and tidy. There is nothing out of place. Not a scrap of paper, not one book, no wire cutters.

 

:lol::lol::lol: Yes. That is so true!

 

Thank you for pointing that out. I crave more order, too, but seeing it laid out that way makes me appreciate my super creative family. We are not TV people, we don't often line up on a couch to watch TV. Even DH pulls out the easel and canvas fairly often. DS is always creating with paper - at least I've got him somewhat trained to use a "trash bowl" for the tiny bits! My mother visits often, and she is a working artist, trailing her supplies - metal sculpture supplies - wherever she goes. Wire cutters galore!

 

OP, we too have a tiny house. 1200 SF, but approximately a third of that is DH's home office/studio. (Wow, I've never thought of it quite that way before, and it's enlightening!)

 

We school in the kitchen and living room, and on the back deck and patio when the weather is nice. We use the library, the park, and I would love to use coffee shops but those are out due to food allergies.

 

For storage, we have tons, just tons of bookcases. We do use a hallway in the otherwise off-limits studio part of the house for rows of bookshelves. Other than that, our books are in the living room on tall shelves with cabinets on the bottom to hold toddler toys and games. Every piece of furniture in our living room (aside from seating, hmmmm, ideas?) does double duty for storage. My teaching supplies & manipulatives, etc, are in a secretary type desk which DS uses as a writing desk in the living room.

 

I am in the process of rethinking this system, but for now - adult-required science and art supplies are in a kitchen cabinet above a built in desk. Said desk has been converted to an art supply station - we use IKEA Trofast units on top and below it to sort art supplies. Beside that we have 2 Trofast units for specific subject bins (part of the modified workbox system we used last year), and science bins. Some drawers also hold toddler activities now that we have a little one on the loose.

[LittleIzumi]

Linky? :D

 

Like these

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10162600/

But I think I actually found some similar at Target and got those.