Classroom, kitchen table, or wherever we find ourselves?

[Geek]

I'm sure this has been discussed ad nauseum on this board. But I'm tired of searching the archives! ;) I honestly tried to find this information in previous posts but had no luck.

 

So, where do you homeschool? What would you change if you could?

[Snickerdoodle]

At the kitchen table because there is no other place to do it. However, it's a lot of work to clear the table for dinner. Hopefully our new place will have a better layout and I can get the kids a separate work table.

[nutmeg]

We put our large dining room table in the family room, and added bookshelves to fill the wall surrounding the fireplace. So this is our combo dining roomm/library/school space.

[Elaine]

I have a school room but we always end up at the kitchen table.:001_smile:

[JudoMom]

We have a school room (the couch has a hide-a-bed that pulls out for guests), and I can't imagine getting school done any other way. It might be the ages of my boys, and I could see us not needing a school room as much when they get older, but right now I love it.

 

It's in our basement, and the only other rooms down there are a bathroom and the playroom. There is a door that I can shut and latch so no boys can escape upstairs. The playroom is boy-safe (although is anything really boy-safe?), so I can work in the school room, with or without the door shut, and know that the younger boys aren't getting into anything dangerous.

 

Here's a link to pictures on my blog. I've changed things up a bit, but you can get the gist of it.

[Melissa in FL]

I put "wherever" but that's not really true. ds (12) has a desk in his room where he does most of his work, he also does all his reading while sitting on his bed. He dislikes his sisters distractions and is pretty independent. When he needs one on one with me, he comes in the kitchen and we sit at the kitchen table working together.

 

dd (7) also has a desk in her room. She will use it for handwriting, but really, that's all she can do on her own. We do phonics and reading on the couch in the playroom. She brings Explode the code to me in the kitchen when she gets stuck and tends to do that "whereever". For her math, we sit in the school room (dining room: covered with maps and lots of books in there). When we do group work (all of us) like history, we do it together in the school room. Art is done in the school room, or more often the courtyard (where it's easier to clean up). Science is sometimes in the school room, or the kitchen, or outside: depending on what we are doing.

 

So, we do have a plan where things are done. There just isn't one place that we do everything. Our whole house is used for school everyday. I hope this helps you!

Melissa

[JFSinIL]

Dining room table. There is no room for a table in the kitchen - I envy you gals with kitchens that large!!!

[Kim in Appalachia]

we have a breakfast nook, which is our school area. I do most of my "teaching" back there, and the all of the books are there. But school is done all over the house. I have 5 kids. They work where ever they want. If I made them all stay in the school room there would be a lot of fights.

[nmoira]

On DD's bed.

[Colleen]

So, where do you homeschool? What would you change if you could?

 

My guys do their seatwork at the table (kitchen/dining table ~ we only have one table) and we're on couches our outside when we read. This is fine by me. I wouldn't want to devote an entire room of a house to serve as a "school room". Moving things off the table to eat lunch isn't a big deal. The hardest thing right now is that the table itself isn't huge so having four or five guys sitting there with school books open can be a squeeze. My oldest is at the point, though, where he sometimes goes upstairs to the desk in his bedroom to work, so things are changing up a bit in that respect.

 

There are definitely things I'd like to change in my house ~ e.g. not having the bathroom open directly in to the family room area:tongue_smilie: ~ but creating a school room has never been on my list of things to do. I like the fact that we're in the main part of the house, central to everything, as we do school.

[frogpond1]

but my junior high age need lots of absoloute quiet and so we use all areas of our house. I have an office with homeschool books and computers, a library room with chairs and homeschool books, a bookcase in my dining room with homeschool junk, a living room with all our library books.... We end up working everywere and our house is filled with homeschool items. 2X a week we are in co-op classrooms outside of the home too.

[asher]

So, we do have a plan where things are done. There just isn't one place that we do everything. Our whole house is used for school everyday. I hope this helps you!

 

 

 

I agree with Melissa :) We do school mostly in our schoolroom. I used to do it at the dining room table, but the structure and boundaries for a schoolroom work well for us. That said, when we do reading for social studies or science, we sometimes do it before naptime. Too, when ds reads aloud, it can be on the couch, in his room, in the car... LOL.

[Quiver0f10]

Dinning room/school room. I posted pictures this week : http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Quiver0f10/574047/

[Gretchen in NJ]

We started here, then there, and then over there.:001_huh: Then we decided we needed a separate homeschool classroom. I am not locked into it unless I am here on this board.;) We still do all of our group lessons at the kitchen table. I try when the weather is nice to have school outside. We do our reading all over the place.:D

 

Our homeschool room is where we store everything schoolish. Except for books. We have them in almost every room in the house. It is also where we complete our individual work.

[Tammyla]

I voted kitchen table, but we actually use the one in the dining room. That way we get to eat at a book free one.:001_smile:

 

We homeschool downstairs between the dining room, kitchen, computer room and even the living room by the fireplace, but most of the work is done in the dining room. Our books fit in the bottom of the china cabinet and any large poster boards and dry erase board slips behind it. Once school is done it's all out of sight out of mind.

 

We've had a school room, but this works better for us. I like having access to the everything without being stuck in a room. Just find what works best for you.;)

[elegantlion]

Our dining room is our classroom. We now eat in the kitchen. We do our reading in the living room so ds can "move about".

[sleepy]

At our small dining room table. It's less than ideal, we really need more room.

[Happy]

You didn't have living room on the poll, but that's where we spend the majority of our time.

 

We turned our 'formal' dining room into a library with a dining table in it. That's where ds does much of his work. But the reading, discussing, and other aspects of homeschooling happen on the couch.

 

It works well for us.

[TammyinTN]

Actually most of it's done on the sofa...we lost our school room in the move and well...we just find the sofa much more fun. We use a lap desk for writing.

Think I'll ruin him because of this?

[Desert Rat]

We're at the kitchen table. But our kitchen is huge and also includes our playroom. I like our arrangement. If given the opportunity and space though, I would love to have a classroom. We also spend some time on the couch reading.

We'll see what my little man does. We may end up schooling wherever I can get him to sit still!

[cindyinTexas]

We tried a school room for years. It just didn't work out, it was away from the hub of the house. Because they were little if I left the room not much work would get done by them, and I was falling behind on my work not being in the living area of our home.

 

We now keep all the books in the school room, except the ones we are using for that week. I just bring out the books we need and put them in cloth baskets. We put them up at the end of the day. Oh, I also purchased the desk apprentice to keep items in. I also like the fact that the computers are in this room so I can monitor them closely. We re-did our home and made it an open concept: living, dining, kitchen all in one huge area with a large desk/workstation/can double as a eating bar. They actually sit in the living room/eating bar/dining room table, sometimes they just go lay on the floor in their room, or we head outside when the weather permits.

 

This has worked out much better. I can tend to the housework if they are working independently, and I am right there if they need my help. ;)

[LauraGB]

At the kitchen table because there is no other place to do it. However, it's a lot of work to clear the table for dinner. Hopefully our new place will have a better layout and I can get the kids a separate work table.

 

This is us and I have nothing to add. Except maybe that I wish we had a real room in which to do it. There's always fixing up the basement, but I don't want to be stuck down there with no good windows all day, either.

[RebeccaS]

We have a room that we've turned into a school room, but we don't always use it. It houses all my materials, the white board and the bulletin board. I have a couple of desks for the kiddos, but we move about as needed. I like to snuggle on the couch for reading rather than have them sit at their desks. Oh and the desks are there by request of my kids. They like the school feel.

[JoyfulMama]

We moved six months ago - new part of the country, new (to us) house, new people.

Our old routine: Dining room housed our daily school needs, and table was primary work space for writing. (But other activities were free for any floor or flat seating surface.) No eat-in kitchen, so it was hard to have to stop a project and clear space for lunch. Often times we'd throw a blanket on the floor or in the yard for a picnic. Basement housed majority of play space, including additional school stuff.

New routine: Eat in kitchen with separate DR. Kitchen table is used some, but we now have more room, which allows for a more dedicated 'school/play room'. This space houses the majority of the things we use for school, including a small height and regular height table for writing. We do try to do some work down there, but all painting and 'messy' art and science is still done in kitchen. And any floor/seating is still open for games.activities. And, of course, the favorite reading spot here is in the backyard under the shade of the trees!

[Jenny in Atl]

I would say ~60% in the school room, but often in the kitchen, upstairs in bed, at the pool, the park, really all over.

[DB in NJ]

We have a school room (which I'm going to be posting pictures of in a second. I promised the pictures about a month ago, and I'm just now getting around to it), but we mostly do our work at the kitchen table or in the living room.

[Crissy]

It really depends upon the subject.

Reading is usually done on a bed or a couch. Math is done at the bar in the kitchen or at the desk next to mine. My older son does much of his work on his laptop, so he sits outside when the weather is just right or in his room when it's not.

 

We move all around the house.

[neesek]

I put in our school room because that is our home base and it is where all of the books, supplies, papers, etc. are kept. We spend much of our time there, but we will move around as desired or needed. For example, yesterday my dd was on my computer watching a US video, so my ds and I went out on our enclosed porch to do some one on one time. We were at the dining room table today, so we really do move around.

[newlifemom]

I checked kitchen table and really that is what it is. It just happens to be in the dining room. :001_smile: Dd#1 has a desk in her room and will do most of her independent work up there. The other two need to be sitting at a table where I can watch them. I do reading lessons on the couch though.

[Geek]

We have a school room (the couch has a hide-a-bed that pulls out for guests), and I can't imagine getting school done any other way. It might be the ages of my boys, and I could see us not needing a school room as much when they get older, but right now I love it.

 

It's in our basement, and the only other rooms down there are a bathroom and the playroom. There is a door that I can shut and latch so no boys can escape upstairs. The playroom is boy-safe (although is anything really boy-safe?), so I can work in the school room, with or without the door shut, and know that the younger boys aren't getting into anything dangerous.

 

Here's a link to pictures on my blog. I've changed things up a bit, but you can get the gist of it.

Ah! So you're the Classical Circus lady! <big grin> Do you realize what you've inspired?

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschool_loopers/?yguid=292374066

 

I have your blog linked on my blog. I hope you don't mind!

 

BTW, your schoolroom looks wonderful. You say that's all in your basement??! We don't have a huge basement, and we need to use half of it for laundry and storage. I'm wanting to remodel a bit down there to allow for more effective use of the space, paint a cheerful color on the walls (like your pretty yellow), and install GOOD lighting.

 

The lighting situation has kept us from really enjoying school in the basement classroom. We always wind up back at the kitchen table in front of our bay window with a wonderful view of the woods and lots of light. But like you, I lose kids this way, LOL.

 

Are you happy with the lighting in your classroom? Why or why not?

[Paula in PA]

We do our sit down work at the dining room table and have most of our school things in there as well. Reading happens pretty much wherever, her room, the living room, our room. I would love to have a library / school room, though.

[~Tara~]

We've been kitchen/dining room table schoolers up til now as we just haven't had any other option.

This past year they have plopped wherever here in the living room and library because when this year started, I was sick pg and NOT moving anywhere else in the house.

But we're going to try the school room this year. Moving upstairs. :) It all *sounds* good, but I honestly don't know if we'll make it. Thinking positive thoughts though...we don't have room for all of our stuff down here and I don't like us having to go up and down to retrieve everything. Yes, I know "totes, they are wonderful things" but still, really...I just don't want us to have to tote things from room to room on a regular basis.

[Geek]

Dinning room/school room. I posted pictures this week : http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Quiver0f10/574047/

Very nice! Tell your son he did a wonderful job helping Mom with the pictures and it looks great.

 

That's one big table. :001_smile: Do all your children do well at the table together?

[Geek]

Actually most of it's done on the sofa...we lost our school room in the move and well...we just find the sofa much more fun. We use a lap desk for writing.

Think I'll ruin him because of this?

Nah! If I had one child, that's exactly what I'd do. It's just not working for three of 'em, darn short people. ;)

[Tina]

We're at the kitchen table and in the living room. We don't have a classroom.

[Susan in TX]

I chose "At the kitchen table" because that's where my younger kids do school (11, 9, 7, 5) but my 13yo does school in her bedroom.

 

Susan in TX

[mom31257]

We're at the kitchen table and in the living room. We don't have a classroom.

 

We do the same. I tried to turn half of our bonus room into a school room last year; however, it didn't go well. It is our playroom for the kids, which wasn't a problem. It can get really hot up there, and the only way to keep it a good temperature is to keep the door from the stairs closed. Our youngest was not content to stay up there long enough each morning for our dd to get all her work done. I didn't want him downstairs doing who knows what while we're up there with the door closed. I haven't even tried this year. Maybe in a year or two when he has more work and is older, I can try again.

 

If anyone has ideas on how to keep it cool with the door open, I'm all ears!:bigear: It's above our garage, and at the top of the only stairs we have. It doesn't have it's own air, because it's the only room upstairs.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Our classroom has been a factor in deciding how to lay out the last two places we've lived. We do move to a sofa for group reading and the kids often play chess at the dining table during lunch. We sit in the family room for anything TV based ie. latin lessons, Teaching Company Lectures and documentaries.