Homeschool Room

[MomOfABunch]

Do you have a dedicated homeschool room? Care to share pics? We're moving in a couple months and may have space for one.

[TheAttachedMama]

I converted our dining room into a homeschool room several years ago.  It was the best decision I ever made.   We always eat at our kitchen table...so the dining room was only used occasionally.  It really was just a dumping ground for random stuff that people would bring in.   (A LOT of wasted space.)   So I converted the room into our dedicated homeschool room.   It is REALLY, REALLY small, but it works just fine.   I like it that it is on the main room of our house, so I can multitask in the kitchen when I need to.   It is also close to the family room where we do read alouds.  :) 

 

I have VERY old pictures on my blog.  I need to take some more now that my kids are older and doing "big kid" work.  :) 

[cintinative]

We have one. It's a repurposed bedroom on our 2nd story. We don't do school in it all day though. I find it helps to maintain interest and break monotony if we move around. So we start at the kitchen table, move to the family room for reading or SS Latin, go back to the kitchen for grammar and math, and then go upstairs for history, writing, and spelling.  The room is nice in that all my homeschool stuff is in there, and there are two desks and a very small (VERY small) IKEA table for us to work at together.  I think as they get older we will use it more, and it will be a good place for one of them to retreat to work on a project.  At present they are so young that we do a lot together. 

[Insertcreativenamehere]

I wish I did! I wouldn't expect that we would stay in there all day, but it would be nice for all of our supplies to have a home other than our kitchen table. :)

[quietchapel]

Yes . I have tried using the kitchen table, but it is always a disaster. I will try to post pics. It is not pretty, but I don't care! It helps us all so much. We don't have extra desks- just a church pew with tray tables. It's a huge room, so really only a corner is school space.

[Tawlas]

We always eat in our dining room and since we've lived here, the eating area in the kitchen has been our school area (opposite to a pp lol).

 

I have wooden shelving against one wall. The tallest is in the corner and it holds 6 small plastic drawers (which hold office supplies, CDs, papers and my Ker's sticker books), the kids' readers and their weekly binders, several plastic shoebox full of manipulatives (mostly for the toddler at this point), and two tubs with the next month's history and science activity supplies. On top is where I store the rotating office supply holder and pencil crayons (put on the table during school and removed to toddler-proof) as well as white board markers. The two lower shelves are only 3' high and I use the top to house my two vertical file holders for teacher's manuals and science spines in easy reach from where I sit at the table, a box of kleenex, the CD player and a globe. The lower shelves have bins for different subjects' read alouds and rotating toddler toys. There's an old formica table and chairs in the middle. The wall has a large calendar and a 3' x 4' white board. the household recycling bins are right there next to us too, so this is good for papers lol. Having the kitchen sink and fridge and freezer have been handy for science demos too :)

 

I do all my one-on-one work here and most of the group work, but the kids mostly do independent work at the dining table or living room coffee table. I like that we're removed from the major house activity (all the adults here work from home) but I can keep an eye on things to make sure they're actually getting things done and help with questions. We can take a break for a snack without having to clear things off the table and the littles can play in the living room without completely derailing the biggers. Works really well here!

 

As my kids get bigger I can see independent work moving to somewhere else, their rooms maybe, but at this stage, it works really well.

[MomOfABunch]

I converted our dining room into a homeschool room several years ago. It was the best decision I ever made. We always eat at our kitchen table...so the dining room was only used occasionally. It really was just a dumping ground for random stuff that people would bring in. (A LOT of wasted sp

ace.) So I converted the room into our dedicated homeschool room. It is REALLY, REALLY small, but it works just fine. I like it that it is on the main room of our house, so I can multitask in the kitchen when I need to. It is also close to the family room where we do read alouds. :)

 

I have VERY old pictures on my blog. I need to take some more now that my kids are older and doing "big kid" work. :)

Do you wish you could close the doors on your homeschool space when not in use? In our new house I could do a homeschool room in a 10x10 bedroom, a section of the basement, or put the 3 little boys in the small bedroom and use a larger bedroom. I'm trying to think it through.

[MomOfABunch]

We have one. It's a repurposed bedroom on our 2nd story. We don't do school in it all day though. I find it helps to maintain interest and break monotony if we move around. So we start at the kitchen table, move to the family room for reading or SS Latin, go back to the kitchen for grammar and math, and then go upstairs for history, writing, and spelling. The room is nice in that all my homeschool stuff is in there, and there are two desks and a very small (VERY small) IKEA table for us to work at together. I think as they get older we will use it more, and it will be a good place for one of them to retreat to work on a project. At present they are so young that we do a lot together.

I like this idea. Do you keep the materials for each subject in different places in the house?

[Ethel Mertz]

I made our dining room into our homeschool room. However, we still eat our meals in there. We use it for most of our subjects, except we read and do writing in the living room by the fireplace. I can't imagine not being on the main floor for homeschool. I deal with laundry and dishes in betwixt and between homeschool tasks.

 

We may move in the next year or so and we hope to have a dedicated room on the first floor that is not also the dining room (unless we have an eat-in kitchen).

[TheAttachedMama]

Do you wish you could close the doors on your homeschool space when not in use? In our new house I could do a homeschool room in a 10x10 bedroom, a section of the basement, or put the 3 little boys in the small bedroom and use a larger bedroom. I'm trying to think it through.

 

Yes and no.   LOL

Before our last baby was born, the answer was a firm NO.   I loved having the room open to our daily lives.  The fact that this room is open to our main living areas is what makes it so nice.   I can dictate spelling words while washing dishes or folding laundry.   I can start cooking lunch or a snack while I am going back and forth helping them with math.   We have access to the sink if we need it.   We are near the couch for read aloud time.  Our "home library" (aka some simple bookshelves) are near our classroom. Etc. etc.   It is so great having everything we use during the day time right where we are...BUT still having a separate area so I don't have to worry about clearing everything off every time we eat.  (And we are constantly eating!)

 

BUT, then things changed.  My sweet little baby turned 1.5.  There have been times when I need to keep him out of the school room.   For example, we use All About Spelling.  If the kids have their spelling boards out, I need to keep my toddler away from those tiny magnets!   When that is happening, I put up the baby gates.  That way everything is open.  But i don't have to worry about him eating their spelling homework.  ;)

 

I do try to make our homeschool room as friendly as possible to all of the kids though.   Anything that I don't want the baby to get into goes in an old hutch.  This WAS part of our old dining room suit.  It has now been confiscated to store school supplies.  (I am considering any vertical surface fair game for storing books!)   Next to our hutch are two smaller book shelves.  They are open, so I keep things for the 1 year old on these shelves.   They are his "special" toys that he is only allowed to play with when we do school.   I rotate things out to keep them all fresh and new feeling so he has something to stay busy with. 

 

Our homeschool dining room is about 10 x 10.   Is it small, yes.    So I try to be a minimalist when it comes to what I keep in our room.   I have a smallish table, a hutch, and two small bookshelves.  

[cintinative]

I like this idea. Do you keep the materials for each subject in different places in the house?

 

Yes, except for when company is coming and the piles on the kitchen table get moved upstairs.  =)  I really should put that stuff somewhere else but I'll just be honest and tell you our math books and grammar sit continuously on the kitchen table, and  when people come last minute they get moved to the top of my washer in my laundry room. =)

 

I do have a bookshelf in our family room that I use for things like our Bible, our read-alouds and library books, our science (which we do in the kitchen), latin, art and any other reference materials I need downstairs.

 

I keep my art supplies upstairs in the homeschool room for the most part and only get them out and bring them down on art days. 

 

ETA: I forgot to mention upstairs is where I keep all my history, science reference (not my curriculum),, spelling (including our large white board with AAS tiles), geography (globe, books, etc.), all my math manipulatives, writing curriculum, and my running binders of things we've done that year for portfolio reviews. Oh, and anything I bought ahead (like next year's math).

[MomOfABunch]

I converted our dining room into a homeschool room several years ago. It was the best decision I ever made. We always eat at our kitchen table...so the dining room was only used occasionally. It really was just a dumping ground for random stuff that people would bring in. (A LOT of wasted space.) So I converted the room into our dedicated homeschool room. It is REALLY, REALLY small, but it works just fine. I like it that it is on the main room of our house, so I can multitask in the kitchen when I need to. It is also close to the family room where we do read alouds. :)

 

I have VERY old pictures on my blog. I need to take some more now that my kids are older and doing "big kid" work. :)

I just looked at the pics on your blog! I love your homeschool room and playroom set up!! One question though: how do you keep the 1 year old from dumping everything on the low shelves? I have a 1 year old too and we are struggling with this so much. I love to have kid centers and things laid out for the PK/k kids but it doesn't work well with a roaming toddler!!

[MomOfABunch]

Yes and no. LOL

Before our last baby was born, the answer was a firm NO. I loved having the room open to our daily lives. The fact that this room is open to our main living areas is what makes it so nice. I can dictate spelling words while washing dishes or folding laundry. I can start cooking lunch or a snack while I am going back and forth helping them with math. We have access to the sink if we need it. We are near the couch for read aloud time. Our "home library" (aka some simple bookshelves) are near our classroom. Etc. etc. It is so great having everything we use during the day time right where we are...BUT still having a separate area so I don't have to worry about clearing everything off every time we eat. (And we are constantly eating!)

 

BUT, then things changed. My sweet little baby turned 1.5. There have been times when I need to keep him out of the school room. For example, we use All About Spelling. If the kids have their spelling boards out, I need to keep my toddler away from those tiny magnets! When that is happening, I put up the baby gates. That way everything is open. But i don't have to worry about him eating their spelling homework. ;)

 

I do try to make our homeschool room as friendly as possible to all of the kids though. Anything that I don't want the baby to get into goes in an old hutch. This WAS part of our old dining room suit. It has now been confiscated to store school supplies. (I am considering any vertical surface fair game for storing books!) Next to our hutch are two smaller book shelves. They are open, so I keep things for the 1 year old on these shelves. They are his "special" toys that he is only allowed to play with when we do school. I rotate things out to keep them all fresh and new feeling so he has something to stay busy with.

 

Our homeschool dining room is about 10 x 10. Is it small, yes. So I try to be a minimalist when it comes to what I keep in our room. I have a smallish table, a hutch, and two small bookshelves.

You already answered my question!

[hepatica]

Here's a picture of mine. The picture is taken from my desk, so you can't see that, and there is another child sized table that is only barely visible in the bottom left of the picture.

 

http://alt-school-life.com/2013/08/09/the-happiest-classroom/

[MomOfABunch]

Here's a picture of mine. The picture is taken from my desk, so you can't see that, and there is another child sized table that is only barely visible in the bottom left of the picture.

 

http://alt-school-life.com/2013/08/09/the-happiest-classroom/

I LOVE the giant map!

[hepatica]

I LOVE the giant map!

 

IKEA!  

 

I am fortunate to live pretty close to an IKEA store. The cubbies and bookcases and my desk are also from IKEA.

[Momto4inSoCal]

We have a dedicated homeschool room and I love it. It's a decent size, not to big but not too small. I have a tv on one wall and those ikea cubes with bins below it for my 3yo's toys. A small love seat couch facing that. I have two desk I bought at a school sale. I painted them blue and put floral contact paper on the tops so they don't look so drab, they are against the wall but facing the window so you can see what used to be our garden... I have and armoir with all of our books that I can lock my twins out off (not as much a problem now but was when they were 1 and 2) and a desk with the computer on it. In the middle of the room I have a desk that I can seat both of my girls at while I sit on the other side. It faces a white board. I have it set up like that so we sort of have stations. We can read together on the couch, do projects on the big desk together, they can have computer time or just seated at their desk. Our lime tree is right outside of the window and it gets visits from hummingbirds and bee's all day so its nice that they face that. Oh and I added one of those little ikea toddler tables this year for my twins. They sit and do "work" at that table. I might rearrange things once my twins get a little older. I like the idea of having math and nature stations for kinder. The room really can't fit anything else so I would have to rethink the whole set up which I hate to do since it works really well for us. 

 

[lots of little ducklings]

We have a small dedicated school room in our basement (which is roughly a 10x12 room, but about a third of it is really dedicated to coats/jackets/etc as it is adjacent to our garage).  The schooling section is divided off from the rest of the room by two low (counter-height) bookshelves.  The remaining three walls in the schooling section are lined with bookshelves, most of which reach to the ceiling.  Because my ds is highly distractible (mild sensory issues), I store everything (including tons of books) in canvas bins on the shelves or behind hanging pocket-charts.  The idea was to create a calming space that didn't compete with me for his attention.

 

On the floor I threw a soft white shag rug from Target (which is super-inviting, but a pain to vacuum so I sort of regret that purchase), and in the center of it all is a square white child's table with four child-sized chairs.  There is also a small window, which I'm grateful for… I really don't know if I could ever spend 3+ hours a day in a room with no window.

 

It is tiny and won't work forever, but with my kiddos still young it has been wonderful.  We use it for individual one-on-one work, plus a few group subjects like grammar, writing, and spelling.  The space is quieter than the main floor of our house, so that helps tremendously with focus and attentiveness. Content subjects like history and science are still done on the main floor, though; that way we can cuddle up on the couch or use the speaker for audio books or sit at the large dining room table for coloring.

 

Most of our school storage is in the schoolroom, but items used on the main floor (morning basket, read-alouds, morning notebooks, and such) are kept there instead for convenience-sake.  And while I have a small white board in the schoolroom, I also have a chalkboard-painted wall in the dining room that comes in handy for all sorts of tasks, including posting our current memory work so we can review it during meals.

 

ETA:  And our quality, read-aloud literature is stored pretty much anywhere we can find space.  Including the mantel over our fireplace, which I just had to convert to a bookshelf yesterday.  We won't even discuss the 1500+ books stored in the crawlspace.  Oy.  

 

 

[SevenDaisies]

We have two rooms in the basement. We started with one, but my oldest couldn't handle the distraction of the little ones, so we moved into two rooms. I love that we are in the basement, especially since my husband works from home in a finished MIL suite in the attic. We are in completely separate parts of the house. His work is in its place, and school is in its place. When we have company there is little evidence that we are all home 24/7.

[MomOfABunch]

We have two rooms in the basement. We started with one, but my oldest couldn't handle the distraction of the little ones, so we moved into two rooms. I love that we are in the basement, especially since my husband works from home in a finished MIL suite in the attic. We are in completely separate parts of the house. His work is in its place, and school is in its place. When we have company there is little evidence that we are all home 24/7.

That's an awesome setup!

[Runningmom80]

Yes and no.   LOL

Before our last baby was born, the answer was a firm NO.   I loved having the room open to our daily lives.  The fact that this room is open to our main living areas is what makes it so nice.   I can dictate spelling words while washing dishes or folding laundry.   I can start cooking lunch or a snack while I am going back and forth helping them with math.   We have access to the sink if we need it.   We are near the couch for read aloud time.  Our "home library" (aka some simple bookshelves) are near our classroom. Etc. etc.   It is so great having everything we use during the day time right where we are...BUT still having a separate area so I don't have to worry about clearing everything off every time we eat.  (And we are constantly eating!)

 

BUT, then things changed.  My sweet little baby turned 1.5.  There have been times when I need to keep him out of the school room.   For example, we use All About Spelling.  If the kids have their spelling boards out, I need to keep my toddler away from those tiny magnets!   When that is happening, I put up the baby gates.  That way everything is open.  But i don't have to worry about him eating their spelling homework.  ;)

 

I do try to make our homeschool room as friendly as possible to all of the kids though.   Anything that I don't want the baby to get into goes in an old hutch.  This WAS part of our old dining room suit.  It has now been confiscated to store school supplies.  (I am considering any vertical surface fair game for storing books!)   Next to our hutch are two smaller book shelves.  They are open, so I keep things for the 1 year old on these shelves.   They are his "special" toys that he is only allowed to play with when we do school.   I rotate things out to keep them all fresh and new feeling so he has something to stay busy with. 

 

Our homeschool dining room is about 10 x 10.   Is it small, yes.    So I try to be a minimalist when it comes to what I keep in our room.   I have a smallish table, a hutch, and two small bookshelves.  

 

I love your Montessori set up!  I'm bringing my Montessori kids home next year, I'm definitely book marking your blog!

 

[An Unexpected Party]

When we were looking for houses, we specifically required a dedicated homeschooling space. We ended up buying a house from a family that homeschooled four children. They converted two of the bedrooms on the first floor into one larger space when they added the second story to this house. So, it's a fairly good sized space. Long term it will work for us through high school and for me later if I decide to take on tutoring clients. There is room within for both people and all of our materials. We do most of our work in there for much of the day, most of the year. Due to it's orientation, however, it's the coldest room in the house. In the late fall I use a space heater. In the bitterly cold days where we are depending on a wood stove, we move a folding table into the living room and work in there. 

 

We almost always watch CNN Student News and do our read alouds in the living room on the couch. Kids are free to work wherever they will get work done/feel comfortable unless I'm working directly with them/we need the big white board. Then we sit at the big table in the hs room, or whichever room we are using due to temperature. 

 

Mistakes:  The awesome laminated folding table got left outside in the rain after a birthday party and the top bubbled up, making it impossible to use as a writing surface. The plastic banquet tables we're using now move easily when someone shifts, disturbing everyone.  I picked up a couple chairs from Ikea so we wouldn't have to keep stealing the kitchen chairs, but they didn't have the base I wanted in stock and I settled for a base on wheels that twirls. The wheels are eating the finish on my floors and I listen the the whacking of either side of the chair as the kids bang into the table do to the twirly nature of the chair all. day. long. 

 

What works:  We have a closet with doors (the room qualifies as a second master bedroom) that the previous owner lined with shelves. I can shut the door on various supplies that would seem cluttered otherwise. I also have some drawer units. While there are plenty of real shelves in the room, it is good to be able to close doors on things, too. I can't function in the cluttered room, and I don't think the kids do either, though maybe they are just taking their cues from me.   We have a metal wire from Ikea meant to hold photos strung across a wall where I can hang work to dry or to refer to. I also use command hooks on the ceiling to suspend projects or other work. Though the room is pretty big, there isn't much free space on the walls for reference space. The wire and the command hooks eliminate risk to the paint finish/need for push pin holes/use of tape on the space I do have.

[RocCityMom]

We have Jack-n-Jill bedrooms upstairs and converted one of them into a school room.  The room has built in shelves, cabinets, and drawers that we use for science materials, art supplies, math manipulatives (I am always stunned at how very many math things we have!), storing completed work, and displaying projects.  And I have a small shelving unit containing the daily books we use another wall.  We have a table with four chairs in the center of the room and an whiteboard/chalkboard easel.  The room also has a closet in which we keep board games and bins of recyclables and fabric that my kids are forever using for projects.  Other than that, we have a world map on the wall and a CD player on a shelf.  Nothing fancy.  

 

It's helpful that the room is connected to a full bathroom -- the sink comes in handy for art and science activities and projects, and the tub has been used countless times to test ships we've built in connection with history lessons.  We don't wind up doing all of our lessons up there -- we spend lots of time reading on the couch in the living room or family room. or reading while snacking in the kitchen. But it is awfully nice to have all of our homeschooling STUFF in one place out of the way. For our morning time, which we sometimes do downstairs, I just have a basket that sits on a shelf where all of the morning time materials go, so it's portable.     

[Southern Ivy]

We have two rooms in the basement. We started with one, but my oldest couldn't handle the distraction of the little ones, so we moved into two rooms. I love that we are in the basement, especially since my husband works from home in a finished MIL suite in the attic. We are in completely separate parts of the house. His work is in its place, and school is in its place. When we have company there is little evidence that we are all home 24/7.

I want this set up! 

Love that idea. 

My husband could work from home, but it's so distracting to him. If he had a MIL suite to retreat to, he would like it much better. 

[Angie in VA]

I want this to be my school room. 

 

I'd have to read it again, it lacks either a bathroom or heat, I believe, but it's just loverly.  :drool5: 

 

[school17777]

Yes. We originally used the study and that was nice because you could close the door and not have homeschooling stuff all over the house. Now, the study is used as a bedroom, so the living room has morphed into a playroom/home school room. Our diningroom has become a den for the kids.

 

I do like having a set place to be. Last year, we did school in the kitchen and it was a pain carrying out the books, etc. each day and returning them when we were done.

[Stellalarella]

I've done it with and without.  Mostly without.  Clearing the table many, many times a day; setting the living room up like a school and tearing it down every day.  And for six kids, that's a lot of stuff.  

 

In July we turned a bedroom into a school room.  The windows face the south and it is a pleasant room to BE IN.  

 

I was proud of how we managed when we did not have a school room and I thought we didn't really NEED one, but now that we have daily access to a dedicated school room, I am so thankful,

 

 

 

 

[HeWillSoar]

This is my first year homeschooling with two older kids but already, we've moved into our 3rd location.  The first room was too dark and cramped.  The breakfast table and kitchen area offered no storage, and again, the lighting wasn't great.  Now we are in the upstairs playroom, and even though it's not by the kitchen and sometimes I'm going up and down stairs (hey, it's good exercise), I like that it's large, full of natural light and it has several bookshelves.  I think this is where we may stay. 

 

So if I were looking for a homeschool space, I would go for the biggest space available with good lighting.  Proximity to the main areas of the house would be a bonus, but I think I'd put space and lighting above that.  Just my personal preferences.

[MomOfABunch]

The more I think about it the more I change my mind! I have to pick paint colors for the bedrooms this week :/

 

My options when we move are:

 

- 10x10 bedroom near the kitchen. It has a 1/2 closet.

- part of the basement

- a bigger bedroom, but I would have to move kids to the small 10x10 bedroom. But then the kids bedrooms would be on different floors

[HeWillSoar]

Well I think in that case, I would go for the kids being on the same floor above all else.  That's just me though.  When they were young, I wanted them on the same floor.  A master downstairs would have been a deal breaker.   Now that they are older, oh how I wish our master was downstairs.    I think with four kids homeschooling, I would go for space over natural light.  Of course, that's just my two cents.

[MomOfABunch]

It's a 2level house. There's 3 bedrooms (1 is master) up and 3 bedrooms down. The house is being restored after a fire last year. We were able to make a few changes, one was adding a large bedroom in the downstairs. Before, I had little kids up and big kids down. I hated it. This time I want all the kids (and their mess!) together even though the master bedroom is upstairs (with a crib for the baby). My husband claimed one upstairs bedroom for an office. I'm undecided about what to do with the other. There's a large storage closet in the downstairs which I'm going to put school stuff, art stuff and out of rotation toys. If we do work boxes, I could keep them in there too.

 

I'm thinking right now to set up a large table in the part of the downstairs we fondly call "the cave" because it's got no natural light on that side. On the bedroom side, there's lots of light. The entrance to the laundry room is also in the cave. During the renovation, we did add extra lighting, so hopefully it's brighter now. The only drawback is that I wouldn't be able to close a door on it. I guess I could add a curtain or room divider with a baby gate.

 

Thanks for helping me think this through!

[Gentlemommy]

We just bought this house a month ago. It is my dream home. I feel we have a perfect set up. I know I am blessed beyond measure. 💙

We have a finished basement. It has three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchenette, and living room.

One of the bedrooms (the biggest one) we leave as a proper guest room.

The middle sized bedroom is our homeschooling room. It has a small half circle desk (from ikea) where I can sit and help all three kids at the same time. It also has a small plastic folding table for crafts. Under that table I've put thick plastic mats to protect the carpet. The closet holds all of our supplies and crafts. There is a futon in there for reading on, or putting extra guests.

The smallest bedroom is our library. Wall to wall shelves. All of our homeschooling specific books live there.

In the living room area there are three bookshelves. Two hold books, classics, chapter books, picture books. The last one holds blocks of all types-lego (2 sizes), wooden, magnet, ect. There is a folding tunnel, a wooden slide, and blankets for fort building. This is where the kids who aren't doing school with mom play.

 

The basement has plenty of windows, and opens to the back yard. The kids are free to go outside if they want, up to the swing because I can see them from the school room (that gives them the front 1/2 acre to play on, if they go to much further I can't see them). There is a wooden play set, trampoline, and skateboard swing, lots of trees, mud, and a stream to play in.

 

Having a dedicated space for school has positively changed everything about homeschooling for me/us. It's so easy now to say "Ok guys, nine o'clock, head downstairs!" And everyone takes it seriously. We have space for children to play and not disrupt other kids doing school. And yet, we are all contained to the same area of the house, so I'm not wasting time looking for kids. Everything we need is down there. Soon we will install a fridge in the kitchenette and have some water/non-messy snacks. We have doors we can close on a mess or a project that isn't finished. The kids aren't confined inside if it's a nice day. They have lots of space outside, but I feel comfortable letting them go out on their own because I can see them from where I'm sitting. Everything has a place. And at the end of our school day, I can close the door to the basement and live in a normal, not cluttered home.

Truly, I love our set up.

[MrsMommy]

We have a school room, and I love it! This is what it looked like in August, at the beginning of the school year. In December, I did some rearranging...the picture isn't great, but it gives an idea of what it looks like now.

[MomOfABunch]

We just bought this house a month ago. It is my dream home. I feel we have a perfect set up. I know I am blessed beyond measure. 💙

We have a finished basement. It has three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchenette, and living room.

One of the bedrooms (the biggest one) we leave as a proper guest room.

The middle sized bedroom is our homeschooling room. It has a small half circle desk (from ikea) where I can sit and help all three kids at the same time. It also has a small plastic folding table for crafts. Under that table I've put thick plastic mats to protect the carpet. The closet holds all of our supplies and crafts. There is a futon in there for reading on, or putting extra guests.

The smallest bedroom is our library. Wall to wall shelves. All of our homeschooling specific books live there.

In the living room area there are three bookshelves. Two hold books, classics, chapter books, picture books. The last one holds blocks of all types-lego (2 sizes), wooden, magnet, ect. There is a folding tunnel, a wooden slide, and blankets for fort building. This is where the kids who aren't doing school with mom play.

 

The basement has plenty of windows, and opens to the back yard. The kids are free to go outside if they want, up to the swing because I can see them from the school room (that gives them the front 1/2 acre to play on, if they go to much further I can't see them). There is a wooden play set, trampoline, and skateboard swing, lots of trees, mud, and a stream to play in.

 

Having a dedicated space for school has positively changed everything about homeschooling for me/us. It's so easy now to say "Ok guys, nine o'clock, head downstairs!" And everyone takes it seriously. We have space for children to play and not disrupt other kids doing school. And yet, we are all contained to the same area of the house, so I'm not wasting time looking for kids. Everything we need is down there. Soon we will install a fridge in the kitchenette and have some water/non-messy snacks. We have doors we can close on a mess or a project that isn't finished. The kids aren't confined inside if it's a nice day. They have lots of space outside, but I feel comfortable letting them go out on their own because I can see them from where I'm sitting. Everything has a place. And at the end of our school day, I can close the door to the basement and live in a normal, not cluttered home.

Truly, I love our set up.

Somewhere down the road, I hope I can have as nice a setup! We're planning an addition in the not so near future. I want to do an over the garage master bed with office space. Then move all kids to the main floor. That will leave the entire downstairs 3 beds and a family room for homeschooling, hanging out and doing projects and things! But that fantasy is a ways away still.

[Love My Life x4]

I have lots of pics on my blog of our homeschool room :) 

 

Our School Room! #obSEUSSed

[HeWillSoar]

I have lots of pics on my blog of our homeschool room :)

 

Our School Room! #obSEUSSed

 

Great room!!!

[Love My Life x4]

Great room!!!

 

Thanks :)

[school17777]

I have lots of pics on my blog of our homeschool room :)

 

Our School Room! #obSEUSSed

 

 

I am gonna guess that you like Dr. Suess!  What a fun room!

[school17777]

I have lots of pics on my blog of our homeschool room :)

 

Our School Room! #obSEUSSed

 

 

I have a Rileigh too.  I like how you spelled her name.

[AppleGreen]

Yes, we have one. Yes, we love it. Our dining room had been our school room, and I am so glad we were able to do a little jiggling and a home project to free up the space for a dedicated room. When I see pictures (from many years ago, where did time go??) of our dining room in all its school glory, I shudder a bit...and I like school stuff! Our DR is the only place to eat, so it was a room trying to do too much.

 

We were able to take an old bedroom on the first floor with a large closet and use it as our dedicated space. It is located right next to the downstairs bath and has a door that closes the space off from the rest of the house, but is still in the hub. It would never work for us to all work in there simultaneously, so my kids don't have individual desk spaces or anything. We have a large chalkboard and wall mounted pull down maps, a medium sized table for working 1-1 or small group things, a smaller kid sized table, book shelves with our science and history books and space for each kid's school materials. It has a sort of funky layout and I am probably not utilizing the space to the fullest, but it gets great sun and is a good place to learn. 

 

I can see a future when the kids are bigger that that space may not be necessary, but for this season it has been a gift.

[Love My Life x4]

I am gonna guess that you like Dr. Suess!  What a fun room!

 

 

I have a Rileigh too.  I like how you spelled her name.

 

Thank you and yes we LOVE Dr. Seuss! :) A little old for my oldest... but I'm making it work for my 1st grader this year ;)  LOL!  We are going to change the theme before school starts next fall and I'm already a little sad ;) :(