For those of you who don't have a homeschool room....

[Julpost]

How do you organize everything? We do most of our work in the dining room w/books on a large set of shelves in the room as well as in the hallway. I'm having a hard time organizing other supplies such as pencils, art supplies, etc. What do others do? I wish we had an extra room to use as a school room, it would be so fun to decorate!

[gamommy]

My kids each have a milk crate type storage bin that holds their binders, folders, and pencil boxes (for scissors, glue sticks, colored pencils, etc. Books are kept on a bookshelf in our family room mostly. They carry in their crates with them in the morning and stash them in their closets when not in use. They are stackable if we're short on space.

 

Being formerly public schooled my kids refer to them affectionately as cubbies or lockers. They are pretty in expensive and durable. We like the milk crates as you can see into them from the outside without dumping. Solid containers didn't work as well for us.

[Closeacademy]

I have a small bookcase for our curriculum that we use every day and I have a small cabinet in the kitchen to keep our paper and other supplies.

 

In my basment I have a large cabinet for art supplies. Several plastic boxes for curriculum/books that we are not using now. And bookshelves with books and curriculum that will be used within the year.

:001_smile:

[hsmamainva]

I have an old hutch in my living room that has three large shelves, four drawers, and two cabinets underneath. That's where I keep our current school items.

 

Each child has a shelf (my oldest keeps her books in her room, as she has her own schedule, since she's taking classes at the community college this year). Anyway, on that shelf are their schoolbooks, notebooks, literature books, etc. They each have a large pencil box (found at Target, btw!) which holds their crayons, glue, colored pencils, pencils, scissors, pens, etc.

 

In the drawers, I keep "mom's items"...construction paper, felt, stickers, glue gun, etc. Anything that I would need to use during the average school day.

 

In the bottom cabinets, I keep large items such as extra paper, 3-ring binders, etc.

 

We bring out what we need, as we need it, and usually do school in the dining room.

 

The items that I'm not using (such as curriculum that I'm saving for another child down the line) I keep on a bookshelf in the basement. I have three other bookshelves in the basement, too. One is for literature / reading books. One is for science and history books (historical fiction, nature books, etc). And one is for mom books (homeschooling books, magazines I want to save and read later, my own fiction and non-fiction books, etc.)

[mrscopterdoc]

We have a bookshelf where all the books and notebooks go. DD has a desk where all the pens/pencils etc go. We actually do have a 3rd bedroom that we call "the schoolroom" where the shelves and desk are, but we tote everything out here in the living room to do work. :D

go figure.

[Carrie12345]

We have a pencil box for each child (pencils, crayons, markers, colored pencils, glue, scissors) that sits on top of my kitchen cabinets. There's also a separate basket up there that houses community property (broken crayons, misc. markers, pencils with bad erasers) for when they just want to play.

 

Our sideboard has a cube shelf for construction, drawing, writing, and copy paper, plus a few workbooks.

Next to that, we keep most of the textbooks and binders, and a printer to hook up to the lap top.

 

There are shelves in the kids' rooms full of reading books, and our landing has a book shelf for reference books, text books for "later", and most of our supplements. Oh, and all my hs magazines and catalogs.

 

The bulk stuff- tons of notebooks, papers, art supplies for a later date- are boxed up and kept in our loft.

 

I've seriously considered turning our loft into a school room, but I just don't think it would work well with a toddler running around!

[3lilreds in NC]

We have a "craft cupboard," which is an inexpensive thing we bought at Target, which houses any art supplies I want locked up. For school days, we have a scrapbook bag - I got it at Michael's last year. It has lots of pockets, and holds our pencil boxes, markers, and big boxes of crayons, with a pocket for stickers and places to stick other little things.

 

I have a rolling crate that I keep my stuff in. I am not sure what I'm going to do this year with the books. I have homeschool space on our bookshelves, but I cannot convince my children to leave the books alone, so they are missing in action sometimes when I need them. I also have another cupboard just for homeschool stuff that is currently full of stuff I don't use - time to clean it out, I think! Then I would probably have room for all the things I need to keep out of sight so I can find them when I need them.

[Tammyla]

We keep most of the books and supplies in the drawers and bottom of the china hutch, but our computer room is a few steps away with bookshelves. Need charts are slipped behind the cabinet. My kids are older, but I like having the dining room look like a dining room on weekend and at the end of day.

 

Find what works for you.;) Be Creative~

[LisaKinVA]

I have a family room table whose top "pops up" to a desk height. Complete with 2 big drawers at the bottom, and a file drawer towards the front.

 

I store my 2 youngest's supplies (work books, pencil boxes, daily-use manipulatives, ruler) in the drawers. The "file drawer" holds materials we don't use daily, back-ups, or curriculum to be used later in the year.

 

My oldest has a desk opposite mine. His school books are in the hutch in easy reach of the computer/desk. Our reference books (encylcopedias, dictionaries, thesarus, etc.) are also in the hutch. Science & art materials are close to the desk on another set of shelves (adult-level), or in a locked drawer.

 

We do work-book related things, Latin & music in the a.m. together in the "family room" (on the back-side of the desk space), my oldest does K12, computer-dependent things with me on the desk-side of the room.

 

Everything has to be cleaned up in the "family room" by lunch, because the "school desk" is also the kid's "dining table" -- as we don't have a dining room. Thankfully, the youngest two are K & 1st... so they are usually done well before lunch.

 

Hopefully, a year from now, this will no longer be the case and I will have my entire basement as a "school" area (I've already divided it out into a kitchenette (for science experiments, art & school projects), TV/lounge area (Latin... and for later gameing time), we plan to have a library room, a full bath, a separate play room (for the youngest of the bunch), and a "study area" --- my dh is going to make a pottery-barn like desk area that seats four, plus we'll have a built in desk/study unit as well... but for now, it's just a dream. A wonderful, life-altering dream.

[Melissa B]

Our glue, crayons, pencils, etc. are kept in a cupboard in the kitchen. We use the two drawers closest to the livingroom. The small silverware sized one for pencils, crayons, etc and the larger one underneath, usually for pots and pans, stores bulkier things. All of our paper is kept at the computer table in the living room. We have four bookshelves in the living room for school books. And we have one of those flat file folder holders that you see hanging on walls. It has twelve pockets to hold folders and lies flat against a wall. I have it nailed on the inside of the utility closet door in the living room. So no one ever sees it. The rest our our books are on bookshelves in each of the bedrooms. Our large whiteboard sits atop our wood stove in the living room. This is something of an eyesore, but I haven't found anywhere else for it at this time. :)

[Nestof3]

Honestly, our stuff is all over our house. We have a very small house with an L-shaped living area. Picture the L upside down, if you will.

 

Starting on the little part of the L is what we call the "computer room" or "office." It blends into what we call the "living room" and then that leads to the long part of the L which we call the "toy room."

 

All of the walls have bookshelves.

 

Computer Room:

I have a cabinet with doors in the computer room that holds language arts and math books and also math manipulatives and games. Next to that is a desk with our computer. We then have two filing cabinets which hold homeschooling, home management and also scrapbooking stuff. Behind this desk, on the other wall, is my desk which holds this years curriculum binders and books we use at the table, my rotating organizer with our school supplies, and this years' math games.

 

Living Room:

Here we have two bookshelves -- one American History, one World History. I have stored away the government books until we plan to use them as they don't fit on the bookshelves anymore.

 

On the floor near the sofa we homeschool on are two bins -- one is for library movies, the other is for books we are currently reading -- their readers and our science and history readings. I keep these here since this is where we do the work.

 

Toy Room:

I have the boys' craft items in here in Sterlite drawer units. This is also where they play with Playmobill, Legos, Lincoln Logs, etc. At the far end of this room (near the front door) are four bookshelves which contain books on literature, poetry, fun math books, early learning, art, music, physical science, earth science, and other miscellaneous books.

 

Along the wall next to their toy tables are three bookshelves which hold our life science books. Atop these shelves are a globe and life science objects we find or buy like shells, paper wasp nests, and such. We also have a little Ikea drawer unit to hold things like shells, feather, insects. My son labeled them.

 

** Note: I have educational games on top of the bookshelves with geography on one, history on another, language arts on another, trivia on another, and science on the last three.

 

Kitchen:

My husband made a corkboard/whiteboard combo which I use to display items we are currently learning. Our artist of the year is included here, with the current picture of study posted. Once I start to use the whiteboard with the boys, I'll clear the stuff off it. I used the whiteboard with my oldest, but I haven't felt inclined to use it with my younger ones. We do everything but simple reading at the kitchen table. This allows me to work in the kitchen while they are working semi-independently. Besides, there's nowhere else in the house for them to do their seat work! LOL

 

My crafting stuff -- cardmaking and scrapbooking are also scattered around the computer room and the kitchen.

 

I'll post pictures sometime.

[TXMomof4]

We school in our breakfast area. I found some cute metal boxes at Tuesday morning and all of the pencils, crayons, glue, etc. have their own boxes on the bottom shelf of a big bookcase. For the girls workbook type things, I got each girl a magazine holder and their books are put in there. All of my teacher books, history encyclopedias, science encyclopedias, etc. are on the same bookshelf. I got folders for individual papers and an office organizer for them to go in. I have a whiteboard on the wall and all of those markers and anything I don't want them to have easy access to I put in a kitchen cabinet that they can't reach (in theory).

 

It's hard because we have to clean up before every meal, but at the same time, it's kind of a blessing. When we had a schoolroom, it was always a mess because it was too easy to leave it out and come back later.

[charlotteb]

We do most of our school work in the kitchen. I have a large book shelf in there. Each child has a shelf for all their school books. I have my own shelf with teacher books. The bottom shelf has 2 large rubbermaid containers where I keep all of our supples (markers, manipulatives, flash cards, etc). I have a folgers coffee can that the kids decorated and we keep our pencils in there.

[Karenciavo]

Dining room furniture holds most of it, except books.

[Tammy]

Since I wasn't using it for anything else....

 

Tammy

[Nakia]

We have a cabinet in our kitchen/eat-in where we do our school work. We also have a desk apprentice that we LOVE!!!

[Rhonda in TX]

I haven't really figured out the extra school and art supplies. It's kind of a hodge podge right now and not very organized.

[swellmomma]

I use my kitchen table, In the kitchen space I have a large bookshelf for our books, a small bookshelf for their current workbooks etc each child has his/her own shelf on that one. A small wooden table as a science table. Then my 2 thrift store finds, first is an olde VCR storage cabinet with locking doors, in this I store our microscope, flashcards, dvd for school, cd's, our HWOT stuff, small manips etc. My second find I jsut added to the space last week, is a large dresser/armoire. In the top I store our buckets of crayons/markers/pencil crayons/pencils etc, on one shelf, the other shelf is my stuff, 3 hole punch, my pens, and even a pile of the stuff I want to start sewing(my sewing machine is stored on top of the unit) so I can pull it out and work on it while the kids do their work. In the bottom 3 drawers I store extra science stuff, the art supplies for artistic pursuits, the games I bought for school, extra paper and pretty much everything else that doesn't have a home. So I have pretty much turned my kitchen into a school room, but ultimately it is still where we eat all our meals as well.

 

Extra art supplies and what not are stored in teh basement. I have cabinets installed down there that I keep construction paper, paint, glue, plaster etc in. Recycled products and the large rols of paper are kept in boxes on other shelving down there until I can figure out a better way to store it.

[JFSinIL]

Bookshelves in the dining room. When all four where home, each kid had a shelf for their books and my teacher's guides as needed. There was another shelf jsut for encyclopedia/dictionary/thesaurus. Anther set of book shelves in the living room had all the extra history/lit/science books, and a shelf for library books. I'd pull what we needed each day and add it to a kid's shelf. Math manipulative s,etc lived on top of the bookcase.

 

Now I ahve only one at home, so she has one shelf.

[kat19]

My kids each have a Desk Apprentice that they store pens, pencils, ruler, paper and whatever else they need to put in there :001_smile: There is quite a bit of room for things in there.

We also have 2 small bookshelves for books and workbooks. On top of one of the bookshelves I have a little shelf thingy(don't know how to describe it) with little bins to put stuff in.

Our World Map is on the table with a clear tablecloth over it.

In our dining room we have a closet that I can store other items in, so that helps.

[brehon]

Drat! Guess I'm not a *real* homeschool mom. :D

 

Actually, I currently have most of the kids' books, supplies, etc scattered in two rooms - the den and on the bar of the butler's pantry. Needless to say it's not working all that well.

 

OTOH, dh is building a wall shelving unit I designed which will hold all the school books, supplies, library books (as we are constantly misplacing those things), in short, almost everything to do with our school.

 

I can't wait until it's finished.

[Alyce]

Each of my 2 children have a shelf to put their books and notebooks on. Then I have 2, 3 shelf tupperware box-like containers where I keep TM, and extra pens and pencils, reading books and curriculum we'll need later in the year. Oh we also have tupperware shoe boxes for each child where they keep the writing and drawing stuff and they fit on the book shelves. I started this system several years ago and it has really worked the best and is fairly cheap to put together, organized and asthetically pleasing since these things are kept in the living room.

[Laura K (NC)]

They work really well. We have a single desk in our living/dining room but the kids do most of their work on the couch or on the dining room table next to me. My oldest does some work in his room, but his crate can go with him. The crates can be put away if we have company. We have drawers in our kitchen with various pens, scissors, rulers, etc, and a drawer in our coffee table that holds the science supplies. I have a crate of my own that sits beside me in the dining room and holds all my teacher's manuals and answer keys. I also have a few stacks of books on the side tables, and so does my husband, who is pretty active in Boy Scouts and has his own projects going all the time. If I actually used our dining room table and needed to store our stuff more inconspicuously I'd get a hutch with doors that close for my husband's piles and mine.

[Melanie]

Our kitchen table is surrounded by six low bookshelves, and that's where we store all our school books and reference materials (regular old books are kept on tall shelves in the living room). The globe, anatomical models, shells, fossils, etc. are along the top of the shelves. We have a large cabinet where we keep all the rest of the "stuff" like paper, pencils, index cards, microscopes, and seldom used kitchen appliances. :tongue_smilie: We also have the computer desk in the kitchen. It's a little cramped, but it works.

[6packofun]

I found a great bookshelf that is divided into 6 "cube" sections and each of our 6 kids gets a shelf! It fits perfectly behind our couch. I put all of my stuff and reference stuff on another bookshelf. I use a clear dishpan and a few other storage tray type things on shelves, too, to keep supplies organized. There's not much more to it than that for us. We do school in the dining and living rooms, sometimes the older ones go to their bedrooms, so we're all over the place. I just call a school stuff round-up at the end of our school time to get it all put back.

 

I try. LOL It's nice to know that others also don't have much space. I've stopped looking at the pictures of large homes with dedicated school rooms. lol