School on the couch, the floor, outside....

[Wheres Toto]

I've seen posts in the past about homeschool rooms where a lot of people talk about doing school all over the house, as well as outside, in the park, etc.

 

If you don't use a table or desks for school, what do you use when the kids need to write? Do you pull tables up to the couch? use lap desks? clipboards? How do these work with younger kids?

[*Lulu*]

When we do seat work outside of our school area we either use another table, (like at the library or a coffee table), or we use lap desks. I have enough here that each child can have one.

[*Lulu*]

I wanted to add that most of Bug's school involves manipulative based exploration/learning so he doesn't need the lap desk. O the two written items I let him sit between my legs with the lap desk to help sturdy it.

[MtnTeaching]

We use lap desks. We also started using clipboards when they were very young. They have a special colored clipboard that they keep their daily schedule on and they pretty much carry it around all day using it when they need to work on loose-leaf pages (and not workbooks, etc.) It helps to keep papers in one place even when we are all over the house, porch, yard, etc.

[Luanne]

We had a clipboard my daughter used while sitting on her bed, the floor, or whatever. She was made to sit in a desk by my ex for the greater part of the day (even when not doing school work) so she couldn't stand desks after we left.

[KungFuPanda]

Clipboards if we're sitting on a bed or couch. A Korean floor table if we're on the floor (we have two sizes). Sometimes we resort to real tables or picnic tables.

[Dmmetler]

We have a school room,but DD does most of her work sprawled on the floor on a clipboard. She doesn't sit, so while she has a desk, even when she's at it she's hovering, perching, balancing, and not exactly exhibiting good posture, and she gets more done sprawled across the floor.

 

FWIW, one friend of mine's DD applied for next year to a competitive magnet high school, and one part of the application was writing an essay on-site. When she was given the prompt and the paper, she got out of her seat, sprawled across the floor, and wrote the whole thing, lying down-apparently oblivious to the fact that the rest of the room was sitting at desks (with the occasional side eyed look at her). She got in :hurray: . I figure that there's hope for DD yet!

[AdventureMoms]

DD has a clipboard that you can store papers in. I put some work in there, plus some pencils, crayons, and plain paper. The clipboard starts out on the dining room table, but she grabs it and goes wherever she wants to sit. or stand. Standing at the table or on a chair at the counter is popular. Laying under the table is too. Outside laying in the grass, sitting in the fort, at the picnic table...i find her all over the place. She's only just turned 5, but she likes to write random letters or draw pictures of a horse on the blank paper and do a few sheets of EtC or whatnot. I cut up her workbooks so she can have a few sheets in her binder. Her absolute favorite activity is to trace the SOTW coloring sheets onto the backside of the sheet while I read the chapter. Math for her involves manipulatives so we usually sit at the table for that. If this continues to work, my plan is to get the boys color coded clipboards when they get a little older for their work. I imagine it will start out as 'work' like coloring pages and end up as actual work when they are ready.

[dbmamaz]

when writing is needed, we sit at the dining room table, but things that are just read can be done anywhere. we are light on worksheets. oh, and most longer writing gets done on the computer here. but history, we just sit together and read, then the older one does additional history reading and takes notes on his ipod touch. other reading he sometimes takes outside, and they've even done math on a blanket in the yard

[kiwik]

We have had a lot of pictures and articles about proposed new schools mainly part of the Christchurch rebuild but not all). Most of them seem to favour hardly any desks. Apparently the kids are supposed to sit on beanbags and work co-operatively or stand at high desks.

[Alenee]

We use clipboards, lap desks, other tables, larger books, etc. We used to have a dedicated school room but as the girls progressed, they have all found their comfy place.

[Swimtaxi234]

We are Relaxed Homeschoolers in that my children prefer doing school on the sofa. We don't have lap desks, but I have seen my children use their laptops as a desk. :D

[Wheres Toto]

Thank you for all the responses. Sounds like clipboards or lap desks could be a good option.

 

Neither of my kids are actually sitting with great posture even at the table. We have a real shortage of space, so I'm looking for inspiration about ways to make better use of our space, including losing the extra tables we have now.

[texasmama]

We school on the couch, primarily. We use clipboards when a firm writing surface is needed. This has worked very well.

[Night Elf]

We've always used dry erase boards as lap desks if we need something hard to write on. We've also just used the dining room table if needed, but it wasn't our usual place to be. We're sofa schoolers.

[Joyofsixreboot]

Picnic. Table, floor, kitchen table, computer desk, whatever. My PS kid does the same.