To Have or Not to Have? (Homeschool Room) --and if so, dream room descriptions?

[Amy M]

For the first three years of my homeschooling journey, I've taught at the kitchen table, and used a kitchen cupboard with two deep shelves to hold books. Now we are very close to converting our garage partly into a homeschooling room. It would be a pretty nice size--would have to get dimensions for you if it helps--maybe 4 meters by 4-5 meters.

 

So, after reading another recent thread on here about homeschooling rooms, I'm wondering first--should we make a homeschooling room?

 

Secondly, and more likely, what suggestions can you make for a homeschooling room (almost) from scratch? Give me your dream homeschooling room, including furniture. Help me remodel!

[Guest Mamabearjd]

I will be watching this post - we are about to build a house. Right now I have added a large closet to a study. I'm opting not to have built in desks because we prefer to work at a large table, but I'm budgeting room for individual desks later.

[Silverwood]

I love my school room! It is so much easier to stay organized.

 

Currently, I have a square table in the middle of the room with four chairs. My DS (5) and I sit at this table since he needs me to be close by for all of his work. Against one wall we have a desk for my DD (7) for her to do independent work. When I am introducing a new lesson or if she needs my help, she joins me at the table. I have a whiteboard, bookshelf, and a computer also in the room. I store all of the files/records in the closet. It is a large walk in closet, so I am thinking of adding more bookshelves to the inside of it to make a little reading area with pillows and blankets.

 

So far, my schoolroom has worked out well, and it is nice to have a separate place for all of the school stuff!

[Mandy in TN]

That is about the size of our gameroom/ office/ homeschool stuff space. It isn't as big as you think once you stick a 2.3 x .75m farm table in it! After you add a couch and shelving, that is about it. So, think about how small everything can be and still handle what you want it to accomplish. I had to use what we already owned, but if I were able to start from scratch I would have smaller pieces. I still wouldn't build-in anything, because it limits how you can move things. It limits seating arrangements as well as future use of the space.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[craftyerin]

I had my homeschool room in what was formerly our garage, and it did not work for us at all! Your floorplan may be different, but in ours, the former garage was no where near the "hub" of the house. It was not near the kitchen, bathrooms, or any other work that I needed to be doing during the day, like laundry. It felt very isolating to be in that room with my children for several hours, and we found ourselves not using it as a result. We would drag school stuff out of that room to do school in the middle at the house. So instead of the homeschool room containing the school clutter, it meant the school clutter situation was worse. Nobody wanted to take stuff back to the school room at the end of the day, so my main areas got all junked up. YMMV, but until I have a house with a room right in the middle that can be used for school, school rooms do not work for us.

[jnaj]

We have only been homeschooling for a year, but here's what works for us. We have a homeschool room, but it's central in the house. It has easy access to the kitchen, bathroom, backyard, etc. That way when I am doing individual work with one child, the other can be in another area nearby with the 2 year old, etc. We need the designated homeschool space, because I cannot stand lugging their work and books etc all around. It's so nice to have everything clean and organized. The kids are focused when they are in that space as well, there aren't any distractions etc. 

 

If I need to fold laundry, the laundry room is right there and I can bring it in there if needed. It's just super convenient. I would not have the homeschool room in an isolated area because the easy access to the rest of the house is important to us, and I think having the room "out of the way" would make me not want to use it if that makes sense. 

[Storygirl]

Our homeschool room is in the basement, far away from the main part of the house.  It's okay for me, because the room is always messy and we can keep the school mess there, away from the main house.  But I do not do housework during school hours (other than making and cleaning up after lunch).  During school time, I am actively teaching, grading, answering questions, listening to them read aloud, supervising projects, etc. The kids have a play room right next to the schoolroom, so if they have some free time, they can play in their own space but still be near enough for me to know what is going on. It works well for us (though our housework does not get done). So I agree to think through what you really want your days to look like. If you do housework while the kids work independently, you might want to keep them in the kitchen.

 

We have a large table in the middle of the room, but they each have their own desk against a wall as well to use when they are doing independent work. I also have a desk for myself at a right angle to the big table so that I can sit in that corner.  I keep my teacher's manuals, books, papers, pen and pencil caddy, tissue box, office supplies, etc. on that desk so that I only have whatever I am actually using at the moment on the big table with me. I find that I need a lot of stuff, and I need a place to keep it that is not right on our workspace. I also don't want those things in a cabinet or bookshelf that will require me to keep getting up to get them; I like it all within reach.

 

The furniture in our room is a really mishmash of things in all colors of wood. The kids' desks are white (they do match; got them at Target); the group table is an old  medium brown dining room set; the storage cabinet is mahogany; the bookshelves are a natural wood and are not all the same size.  I hate spending money on new things when I have things that will work, but I'd really rather it all matched. There is a peacefulness that comes from having a pleasing visual environment. If I were starting from scratch, I'd pick one finish color for the furniture (most likely white) and stick with it.

[Saddlemomma]

We were fortunate enough to have an extra study in our house.  For the first few years, it was our homeschool room.  I keep our books in there, a whiteboard, my desk, file cabinet,  huge Ethan Allen bureau/chest bookcase which holds all our art supplies and books, and DD's desk.  It was great at first.  However, when we started 5th grade this year, DD felt stifled in there.  She is so much happier doing school on OneNote with her laptop.  Now she can go anywhere in the house and do school.  Sometimes, when she doesn't need me, she'll spend half the school day in her room plugging away.

[jnaj]

I don't do any household chores while I am actively doing school with the kids- but I do supervise the computer time (my 11 year old has figured out he can do other online things when he is suppose to be on specific sites doing work, and my 6 year old will sometimes need help with something on the computer) and that is when I will do laundry or clean up in that area etc. Also I found that when we had our school area in an out of the way area (we moved in the middle of this year) that I was likely to leave it messy instead of cleaning it up and organizing it everyday. This is just ME though, obviously everyone is different. I think we have finally found an ideal situation that works for us, and all in all I love having a designated space for homeschooling and our homeschool stuff. This isn't to say that we don't take out work on the back porch to work sometimes, but it's super convenient because the door to go outside is literally right there.

[Indian summer]

I've had a dedicated homeschool room and didn't like it because it was too far from the kitchen and it was on the top floor. Every time the doorbell rang meant running down stairs, the library is also on the main floor, I couldn't prepare lunch while supervising the kids and letting the pets in and out was also a hassle. I've switched to doing school in the dining room or at the kitchen table, more often, and it's perfect! Who knew?

 

So, if your garage is just off the kitchen, I'd say go for it. It is nice to have most of the homeschool stuff in one room. The only tip I have would be lots of storage compartments or shelves and a rolling shelf for the currently-in-use materials. I bought a laundry cart for this purpose because it was cheaper than a library cart and the right size for us.

[Amy M]

My blog shows some pictures in our weekly report of our kitchen table (which is actually in a dining room space--the kitchen is beside it) as well as the garage. The garage would be right by the kitchen and laundry area (it holds the laundry stuff now), but the bathroom is one room away, and the kids toys are in their bedroom half a house away. That said, our house is small by American standards, so half a house isn't far!

 

We're thinking of putting a wall up to separate the garage into bigger homeschooling area, smaller laundry room-type area.

 

At this point, the only housework I can get done during our school time is a bit of laundry. My kids are little and have teacher-intensive curricula. So I'm not expecting them to be independent. However, it would be nice if they could each have their own desk to go to for independent copywork or worksheets. Right now each of my children gets distracted by what the other is being taught while they're trying to complete their "seatwork" type stuff.

[AimeeM]

We do not have a school room, per se. We *did* before the birth of our youngest, but then sleeping space became more important (lol!). With DD coming home again next year, we WILL be utilizing the office as a space for her to go complete assignments and do any independent work, as well as a lab area in the basement, but the main hub will still be the dining room table.

[EmilyGF]

Our homeschool works well because it was an under-utilized room that happens to be the nicest in the house (tons of natural light, above the furnace and A/C, so the temperature is perfect, with a porch off of it).

 

Our dining room is cold in winter and quite dark. While our dining room is on the first of three floors, our school room is on the middle floor, so I can keep better tabs of what is going on in the house. As soon as we moved into it, during the cold spell, I wondered why we had never thought of it before. If our floor plan were switched around, and the dining room were sunny and comfortable, we wouldn't have a school room, just a big school cabinet.

 

Emily

[Heathermomster]

I like this room.

[PeacefulChaos]

Oh, boy lol... you want full descriptions, huh? Lol!  :D

 

Ok, so first off, we homeschool right now in our dining room.  It's not optimal, but it works - DH built a corner 'homeschool desk' and some shelves, and I painted a small 'chalkboard' on the wall above the desk.  We have 2 whiteboards, both like 2'x3', one of which has our weekly calendar on it and the lower of which is used for homeschooling or other (whatever they want) purposes.  We have one large bookshelf (originally I think the purpose was as a computer desk, but we don't use it for that) that is more of an armoire - shelves inside and in the doors, etc.  That stores most of our supplies, books, etc.  Books for reading take up another spot on a shelf in the living room.

They do their work at the table a lot, and just sit their books on the desk when they are done, because i don't always get around to grading immediately.  When we started homeschooling, it looked like this.  Well, time is not kind sometimes lol... we have SO much more stuff now it isn't even funny.  :D  But the basics are still the same.  (We also don't do activities like we did in that blog post - Lol!!!)

 

Optimally...

 

When we build a house or buy a house someday, I want to have a formal dining room and an eat in kitchen/'breakfast nook'.  My plan is, while my kids are at home, to never eat in the dining room - I actually never wanted one until I began homeschooling!  Now I want one as a homeschool room.  (I can see a dining room coming in handy when the kids are adults, coming to visit with their families, etc, so I would probably turn it back to a dining room once Pink is done with school.  It wouldn't be used on a regular basis, though, even then.)  

The reason I want to use that room in particular is because of it's convenience to the rest of the house.  While an 'extra' room above the garage or something would be nice, I can't sit still, so I wouldn't be able to sit and just hang out while the kids did their work in a completely separate part of the house all day - I'd want to be up, doing dishes, doing laundry, etc.  But I also don't want to be leaving them up there unsupervised forever, because that would usually equal not a whole lot of work getting done!!  :)  So a dining room is nice, IMO, because they are usually at least a little bit separated from other areas of the house but not completely.  

 

Now, the fun part.  :D

 

I want a big, bay window.  Bookshelves on both sides of it, and under the window seat portion (either shelves underneath or just a storage bench) - bookshelves probably of a dark wood color - I don't like light colored wood or white, usually.  Or that medium oak color that sort of just looks like 'new house standard'.  As for the floors, I like something like this.  What I have seen that I like the best is actually a bit more dramatic than that, actually - it's lighter with darker grain going through it.  When I first saw it (not this one, but the original I'm thinking of), I thought it was really ugly.  But then I couldn't get it out of my head, and the longer time went on, the more I fell in love with it and knew that I could make it work perfectly. ;)  Ideally the homeschool room would be just inside the front door, so it would come off a tile floor and step up into it, and the kitchen tile would be the only other tile next to it.  I like the river rock transitions between flooring (wouldn't be necessary between the entry and homeschool room, but it would between the homeschool room and kitchen).  

I would have a big rug of some sort in there - not sure what yet.  I'd know it when I found it.  Something Turkish authentic, possibly.  

I was trying to bring up my optimal floor plan, but it isn't working - anyway, so picture you walk in the house, the homeschool room is on the right.  The doorway/opening is pretty large here - not a very long wall on either side on that wall.  When you're in that doorway, looking into the room, the large bay window is to your right, in the middle of the wall, and the bookshelves are on either side, taking up that entire wall, and there is a window seat.  

Make sense?  :P

Ok, so the wall directly in front of you at this point - that wall will have a table which will serve as a workspace.  Like regular size dining table (seats 6), something dark wood.  Not sure yet whether that table would have one of the shorter ends to the wall - I think that's probably the way I'd want it.  Chairs on the sides - just 3-4, don't care whether they match or not.  These would be more like desk chairs (not wheeled ones).  A world map like this on the wall above the table.  Lamps and good lighting, plus the light from the window.

The wall to the left (still standing in that doorway) is where the doorway to the kitchen would be.  More bookshelves - these would be more like these, though.  A globe or two sitting around.  

Hopefully there will be room around the room for a couple of comfy chairs, something like this in off-white/cream.  

Oh, the walls - probably this color. Something similar, anyway.  Off white/cream colored curtains of a sort of thick material.  Possibly wooden blinds or shutters on the window - not sure.  The window seat could be any combination of cream, light sagey green, and navy blue, possibly with a bit of brick red or orange thrown in.  

 

Now, I say all that... 

BUT...

Were I to find other things that I totally fell in love with, I'd do those.  That's just what I picture in my head, but I'm not tied to it.  I wouldn't even say I LOVE it more than anything else - what I would really LOVE is a house that I love that I can fill with things that I've picked myself because I love them.  :)  We're still at the place in life where a lot of our stuff is hand-me down, free, or cheap.  :)  Not that cheap is always bad, but when it's a dining room table and chairs from WalMart, well... it is.  :lol:  

I don't really have like, the ultimate house in my mind.  What I'd love more than anything else.  I think it would just depend on what I could find.  I'm sort of eclectic, and when I'm typing the above, it sounds pretty enough but a little boring.  So... yeah.  :P

[Ethel Mertz]

I covet this homeschool room:

 

http://wildflowersandmarbles.com/2009/06/17/a-detailed-look-through-the-learning-spaces/ 

 

Ours is currently in our tiny dining room. Even though we only have one kid, when we move, I want a house with a separate room on the 1st floor than can be our homeschool room. I would have a couple of comfy chairs in there as well as a table to work at. I'd probably have a braided rug and as many bookshelves as would fit. 

[boscopup]

I love our homeschool room. Ours is upstairs in a bedroom. It's 2/3 school room and 1/3 toy room. It's not as big as a garage, though it's a decent size for a bedroom. I have book cases as a divider (those 9x9 cube type - 4 of them, placed 2x2 back to back). We have a large white board on one wall and a LOCKING teacher supply cabinet (big metal cabinet) in the corner. I have a closet where I keep curricula we're not currently using. The stuff we are using goes on the bookshelves in the middle of the room, plus all our other books go on those shelves. We have 3 school desks (public school castoffs)... 2 are next to each other, and the other is a bit behind and off to the side. That has been my preschooler's desk. I can't fit them all next to each other or front-to-front or anything. But this is working fine. I have a bench against the window, next to my 7 year old's desk. I sit there through the day, and I can help the 7 year old as needed.

 

Ideally, if I could fit it, I'd want a couch in there. I also thing a large table might be a good idea, though on the other hand, sometimes the individual desks are beneficial (no one gets in each other's space).

 

Being away from chores hasn't been a problem, because during school, I am teaching. If I am done teaching, my oldest can still do school work in the school room while I go do chores. I try to get all our mom-intensive teaching done in the morning. We're certainly done by 1 or 2pm, leaving 3 hours to do chores and make dinner.

 

I started out schooling at the kitchen table, and I much prefer the school room. We also school on the couch in the den (total opposite part of the house from the school room) - history, science, general read-aloud. But our seatwork happens in the school room. My oldest will also sometimes take his work to his room or my bedroom (he teaches our cat Latin :D). Home base is the school room though, and all materials must return there when done.

[Julie of KY]

I don't have a schoolroom per say, but lots of people drool over my shelves. In the formal dining room, we built floor to ceiling cabinets and shelves (started with unfinished cabinets, stained them, built a counter top and then shelves on top to ceiling). We have a dedicated table that we can leave school stuff on all the time. In my kitchen I have a 4x4 ft write on wipe off board. We have a sofa next to a couple of windows that is frequently used for reading.

 

I'd put a computer in a schoolroom.

 

I'd be happy with a schoolroom to store all my stuff in, but we'd get cramped all trying to do school in that room.

[CrunchyGirl]

We suddenly have space for one so I'm starting to make plans. It's half a family room where the other half will be a work out area and a second living room (with couch) that we will share with a family friend who is coming to live with us while she goes to nursing school. Right now I want:

--Lots of shelf space for hundreds of books.

--A central table with chairs

--A 6'x4' white board

--A desk and storage for art supplies

--A desk with a computer for typing and programming

--A space for The Monkey with toys she only gets when we are doing school.

 

I'm thinking IKEA and inspired by Confessions of a Homeschooler's space. But I also worry. My space is downstairs but there is a bathroom. It's not the most convenient but I need to get the mess out of my main living space.

[SevenDaisies]

Our homeschool room is in the basement, far away from the main part of the house. It's okay for me, because the room is always messy and we can keep the school mess there, away from the main house. But I do not do housework during school hours (other than making and cleaning up after lunch). During school time, I am actively teaching, grading, answering questions, listening to them read aloud, supervising projects, etc. The kids have a play room right next to the schoolroom, so if they have some free time, they can play in their own space but still be near enough for me to know what is going on. It works well for us (though our housework does not get done). So I agree to think through what you really want your days to look like. If you do housework while the kids work independently, you might want to keep them in the kitchen.

 

 

Ours is in a daylight basement and we love it as well. My oldest is not very independent, and if I were to leave to do chores, she would vanish. I love that it is tucked away from the rest of the house, and I love that, for the most part, school stuff stays downstairs.

 

I have two rooms in the basement. The smaller one has a round table in the center, a large white board, bookshelves, filing cabinet, a comfy chair for reading, and my desk in the corner. The other, larger room is half school/half play room. It has a smaller rectangular table, a smaller white board, a bookshelf, and a couch and chair. We started out with everything in the one big room, but found it better to work with the two younger ones in the big room and with my easily distracted oldest in the smaller room. My younger two like to be nearby even once they are finished, so having some playthings in the room is helpful.

[Amy M]

Oh, boy lol... you want full descriptions, huh? Lol!   :D

 

 

Love all the links, thank you very much! I stink at interior design. I did think, "She must not have little kids anymore" when I saw your choice of off-white chairs, lol! When I think of our red African clay during rainy season and those chairs...shudder. Your paint choice would go nicely in my house, though!

By the way, your children are adorable.

 

Love the link from Ethel Mertz too!

 

We can put in any kind of window for the wall where the garage door is (when we take down the door. I think it needs to be big, or two nice-sized ones, because otherwise the garage is very dark. However, too much light, and it's HOT in summertime here (and no AC). So trying to think about a window like you described, or two with shelving in-between like in Ethel's link.

 

Keep the ideas coming!

[heritagelearningacademy]

We use our 5th bedroom as a homeschool room/office space.  It is where our printer is, my desk and laptop, craft shelves in the closet.  We have 2 bookshelves in here too that are full of the kids work/texts, etc.  There is also a small desk traditional school desk for my 7 year old.  Our white board is here too.  Maps on the wall, a calendar with pockets on the wall.

 

Now, where do we actually school?  that's the funny part.  I had this room originally set up with a table and an extra desk.  But, my oldest (14) needs more quiet and less distraction when he studies.  He sits in his room to read his history and science.  Math is done at the dining room table with him.

 

My middle (10) likes to work at the dining table too.  My youngest she will work in the school room at her desk or at the dining table.  I usually move back and forth between the two littler ones. 

 

What I love about having this dedicated space is that we have a place for all of the stuff after school is done.  It goes back on the shelf and we can clear off the table.

A dedicated room is great and I would still keep one as long as I can, but truthfully, we don't use it like I thought we would based on my kids' needs.

 

And, that's okay. 

[NoseInABook]

I have a school room because otherwise I wouldn't have any place for the books, art supplies, random materials, etc. Most of the time the kids use the table in there for art projects and we do the actual schoolwork at the dining room table. If we had a bigger room to work with, I'd just have a giant table in there and we'd do school like that. But it's the smallest bedroom in the house that we use for the school room and it's difficult to squeeze five of us in there to work.

 

I'd personally love a huge room with bookshelves around all of the walls, an art closet, a huge white board and a cork board for art display, lots of windows for natural light. I love my shelves that I had DH put that are maybe a foot and a half from the ceiling because I can stick books up there too and not worry about them being destroyed by little hands while the toddler safe ones are in baskets. I should take a picture of my school room because I'm not sure if that made any sense... haha.

[Momof3littles]

We have a room, but mostly for computers and materials.  We still work elsewhere in the house (couch, kitchen table, dining room table, etc.).  I do like having a central place for the "stuff" of HSing.  We also have an armoire filled with art supplies in a different room (sunroom). 

 

If I was building a house, I would probably want a workroom, ala the blog lifeingrace.  Larger room with washer, dryer, utility sink, easily cleaned/durable hard flooring, largeish table, lots of bookcases. I'd like it off the kitchen, with a door that closes :)  Lots of light, windows, but enough wall space for shelving.  In an ideal world, maybe doors that open to the outside to allow for easy in and out for painting outside and then schlepping stuff back into the house to clean up.

[LNC]

Dream homeschool room is 2 rooms. One larger room with 4 walls of bookshelves with cutouts for windows on side walls. On the opposite wall from fireplace, bookshelves surround high quality console piano. The opposite fireplace wall has bookshelves around large stone woodburning fireplace that is open to the sunroom. A large comfy leather couch and 2 reading chairs arranged around the fireplace. 2 symmetrical doorsways on that same wall enter the sunroom.

 

The sunroom has more builtin bookshelves around fireplace. The remaining 3 walls are all 3/4 height windows with the long wall with built in desks and storage that over look a beautiful backyard. :)

[In2why]

When we began we had a school room.  We never used it.  We always wind up on the couch, the kitchen table, or in my bed.  Crazy as it seems we get the most focused work done on my bed. 

 

I changed our school room into an office area and kept the bookshelves with our books and materials which I can't live without.   We also have the cloth square bins with handles for our current books and we carry them around with us.  

[Walking-Iris]

When my oldest was K-2nd grade we used a spare bedroom as a school room. It was really nice to go in there, sit at the little table with him, have the chalkboard nearby, all of our stuff organized on book shelves. It made a special time for doing something separate from regular play time.

 

I don't have that space any longer, now with three kiddos. (The baby ds/toddler slept in our room, and then shared a room with brother. Now the space is my dd's bedroom).

 

We have organized our homeschool in the front/living room now, but that cause issues. I'm limited in where to put items and furniture, but there are also distractions.

 

The idea has been floated to turn our garage into a homeschool room or living room and then our current living room could be the homeschool room. BUT logistically there's issues. I sort of like having a secure place to store outside tools and toys, bikes, etc. That would be missed big time!! And our garage has an extra room added that is heated and cooled that currently houses our home business. We have a business partner who comes in and out constantly. That would be a distraction and would have to be dealt with differently.

 

Sigh. But I do miss the extra non living, non sleeping space that we used to have.

 

Ideally I would have a wall floor to ceiling with book shelves and cabinets, table for messy projects, table for sit down work. shelving for supplies and materials, wall space for maps, posters, timeline, white/chalk board. It would have the air of the little one room school house and busyness. I'd have room to separate subjects---here's the math books and materials, lang arts, history,  reading nook, science area and so on.

 

I can dream!

[Cheryl in CA]

I've had a "school room" off an on over the years.  When it was upstairs it didn't work at all (too inconvenient).  For a long time I made the living room (we have a very large family room and have never used the living room as a living room) into a school room and it worked much better.  It had a U-shaped computer desk with a table along one side for my students, was filled with book cases, and had a huge white board (actually a piece of shower board).  It worked much better for us and we had it for a long time (my oldest graduated a year ago).  However, kids still ended up at the dining room table (the dining room is right next to the living, basically a large room), and we never really used the white board.  So, when we redid the flooring, I made the "school room" into my "school office" because that is basically how I'd been using it.  My computer desk is in the center with book shelves on one end and book shelves around the room.  The white board is gone and I haven't missed it (thought I might but I don't).  I really love this layout because it's in a convenient location and serves our needs perfectly!  Even once we are done homeschooling (my youngest is 6 so it won't be for quite a while) the living room will remain my office :-)