Do you "decorate" your school room?

[jenniferp8]

First of all, do you have a separate school room? We don't. We have a great room with kitchen, dining room and living room all in one. This also means I have very little wall space. I'd like a place to hang maps, a timeline etc. the few areas I have have other decor I could take down but this is also the place any company we have would come. I don't mind that they would see school type decor but don't want it to look like a lot of visual clutter. I could move school to the downstairs family room where we have our library and a nice big empty wall but we just have a couch there and no room for a table and it just feels "less convenient". Ideas? Thoughts?

[Dmmetler]

I let DD10 do so every year. I think the plan for this coming year is chameleons.

[Junie]

Our "school room" is my bed.  It is not decorated.  ;)

[KrissiK]

Our school room is decorated with Latin declension and conjugation charts. All over. Although we do have a world map, too. Just for fun!

[Sahamamama]

First of all, do you have a separate school room?

 

Yes!  :001_wub: 

 

We don't. We have a great room with kitchen, dining room and living room all in one. This also means I have very little wall space. I'd like a place to hang maps, a timeline etc. the few areas I have have other decor I could take down but this is also the place any company we have would come. I don't mind that they would see school type decor but don't want it to look like a lot of visual clutter. I could move school to the downstairs family room where we have our library and a nice big empty wall but we just have a couch there and no room for a table and it just feels "less convenient". Ideas? Thoughts?

 

For me, personally, the basement would never work. Not enough natural light, I would just about die in winter (or any time), and it's a lovely, clean, and well-lit basement. But only one tiny window! However, if that was the only option, I'd find a way to make it work. I'd live under my Happy Light, I guess.

 

The question for you is not really about your space, but what feels right to you in using it. This is your house. How often do you have company, and how much would that company really care if you have a world map on your wall? Or a timeline?

 

Our school room is in what is supposed to be our living room. Yes, I took the best and biggest and most windowed room and made it our school room. When we moved here I said, "If I am going to do this for the next twelve years, then I am going to need this large and sunny room." People come in and see the maps, books, timeline -- it's a great conversation starter. ;) But we do have a family room on the same level, so it's not like we miss having a living room.

 

If the walls upstairs feel cluttered, will you and your family be able to enjoy the space as much during your downtime? Some people have a hard time relaxing with a lot of visual clutter.

 

Could you put the timeline on the wall downstairs and use it on History days? Same with the map?

 

Could you "do school" on two levels? Set up History & Geography downstairs -- use the bookshelves for the books, use the couch for the read alouds, use the walls for the maps & timelines. A little CD player for audiobooks? Maybe have a folding table or small TV trays for any written work? Or just finish up your reading, maps, and timeline downstairs, then come up to work at the tables you have?

 

Voila! You have completed History, Geography, and P.E. all at once -- Stair Climbing 101.

[ikslo]

We have a loft area we use for school, and it is plastered with DS's artwork.  If they were framed it would be like the Paris Salon.

[jenniferp8]

Sahamamama- some good thoughts. I hadn't really considered using both for separate things. Our basement is well lit and has large windows. It's only 3 feet below ground.

[Momto4inSoCal]

We have it decorated. I have a map of the US that will be replaced with a world map this summer (starting ancient history). I have two strings that I use paper clips to hang art stuff the kids have made and our white board. I put charts up that relate to what we are learning but I might drop that. I've found stuff on the wall just blends in for my kids and doesn't help them remember anything. We will also be putting up a board with memory work.

[Sneezyone]

Yes, and it's the first room on the left as you enter the front door. It doesn't bother me. It's got a bathroom right next door, is close to the kitchen, gets lots of light and keeps the school messes contained. We rarely enter through the front door anyway and guests know we homeschool. If I were really concerned, I guess I could put up a door or decorative screen of some kind. We also decorate with art and science projects, globes, books, etc. The room starts out nekkid in August and becomes gallery-esque by March. We like it.

[moonlight]

I have a separate school room. We have 3 different whiteboards up: one for AAS tiles, one with a whole bunch of magnetic poetry words that we use for poetry and building sentences and one with magneticmletters and numbers for my 3 year old that likes to have his own thing.

 

I also have US and world maps up.

 

We have a vinyl decal on a wall that is one of my favorite quotes related to kids.

 

And we also have a biggish size chalkboard up with our genius hour projects, important dates for the month and family activities. We have two smaller chalkboards. One of them has an inspirational poem on it and other one has some times tables facts that my DS is working on. 

 

Lastly, we have a couple pieces of art done by the kids on the walls. 

 

The room is pretty soothing and I've tried to minimize clutter. I also don't like the look of whiteboards so I've put them in an area that doesn't often get seen in the room.

 

Also, I've always wanted wall maps that were blinds. Does that make sense? I think it could look very nice in a school space/family space combo room.

[Sahamamama]

Sahamamama- some good thoughts. I hadn't really considered using both for separate things. Our basement is well lit and has large windows. It's only 3 feet below ground.

 

Yes, I was thinking about this, and it occurred to me that we do sort of homeschool all over the house. ;) I mean, all the stuff is in the school room (except past & future stuff, that's in storage in the basement), but that's just the Base Camp, KWIM?

 

We move around all day. If I am chopping vegetables in the kitchen, and I want to supervise a lesson and/or keep a poky student moving along/company, I tell this particular child to move to the dining room table (very informal dining room connected to the kitchen). That way, I can chop and say, "Focus, Grasshopper." :toetap05:

 

If they are doing something independent, sometimes they move to another room -- a bedroom, my bedroom, the dining room, even the back porch.

 

They practice their instruments either in the homeschool room or somewhere else, depending on the state of my central nervous system that day.

 

If we are doing any read alouds, we usually move to the family room and use the sofa and loveseat.

 

We listen to audiobooks in our bedrooms or in the basement playroom.

 

If we watch a video, that is either on the computer or in the family room.

 

If the girls exercise, that is in the basement playroom or on the back porch (jump rope) or outside. I am in the garage on the treadmill.

 

If we do some hands-on science, that is usually in the kitchen or on the back porch.

 

Art is anywhere I don't mind the mess, like at someone else's house.

 

We are all over the place, good grief! It's no wonder I am tired. :)

 

Your space can work for you, just mull over how to put every inch of it to work.

[eternallytired]

In our old house, I tried to make the basement into the schoolroom.  It was bright and open and well-lit...but it was too out-of-the-way, so while we went there for our brief formal time, most of our informal staring-at-maps and flopping-down-to-read happened up in the living room, so that's where I ended up hanging our maps and number line.  In our current house, we have only one level; I set aside the formal living/dining room as our school area, so that's where we have our number line, timeline, maps, and whiteboards.  Unfortunately, like someone above, my school room is the first thing you see when you enter our front door.  "Welcome to our house.  We're homeschoolers--can you tell?"  I do, however, like that we spend a lot of time just hanging out in that space, and I like that it consolidates our schooly stuff so our whole house isn't covered with Mom-made posters on whatever we're studying and other random gear, like the old place was.  (Then again, we still do family projects and science experiments in the kitchen...)

[pitterpatter]

Yes, with this kind of stuff. I find posters/bulletin board sets to support what we're studying that year.

 

This is our spare bedroom, which is primarily DD's play room. About a fourth of it and some closet space is dedicated to school. I hang the posters, etc. wherever there is wall space...around our real decorations.

 

 

 This guy came with pieces to decorate him each season. DD enjoyed that.

[My3girls]

The kitchen table and the couch is our school room so no we don't decorate.  I would love to get a couple of nice maps to frame so they can double for school and art.  I never seem to do it, though.  We have a loft area that I could use as a school room, and my dh would love it if I did.  It seems too far away from the rest of the house, and I get claustrophobic in there, though.  I think it's because I worked IT support from it for 7 years and was required to be in there from 9am to 6pm 5 days a week.  I avoid it like the plague, now.  lol

 

We're supposed to move next year sometime.  Maybe, I will have a school room in the new house.

[cintinative]

there is no room on my walls except for one map. The rest are covered with bookshelves.  LOL

[SparklyUnicorn]

Separate, sort of.  Decorate?  Eh..not really. 

 

How's that for an exciting answer?

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

there is no room on my walls except for one map. The rest are covered with bookshelves.  LOL

 

This exactly!  Bookshelves and a wall map.

[lots of little ducklings]

Our basement schoolroom  (with window, thankfully) is small and walled with bookshelves, so it's really just for quiet one-on-one work.  Everything else occurs in our small, open-flow dining/living/kitchen area.  

 

I've hung our memory work on one wall in the dining room, using tons of these cheap frames (the white ones, in various sizes).  The frames helped finish it off so that i don't feel too visually overloaded or like my main floor space screams "school!"  the moment I walk through the door.  It works for us.  

 

I may add a map the same way this year (framed); I'd love a timeline too, but haven't quite figured out how yet...

[Apple Bean Tripod School]

Our mudroom will be our semi-official homeschool space next year.  I scored one of those classroom spring roller wall maps with separate maps for the world and each of the continents.  The only place with walls strong enough to hang it was the mudroom (old house with crumbly plaster and lathe walls.  Yuck).  My daughter wanted school desks too, and I happened upon a couple at a yard sale.

 

But really, I made the mudroom into a classroom because otherwise the mudroom is the place where we just toss random junk we are too lazy to put away lol,  Two birds.

[ktgrok]

No separate school room. my oldest does most of his school in his room, and no, he doesn't want it decorated. I do have a framed world map that is very attractive on the wall in the living room. And a table with a globe on it, if that counts. Lots of bookcases. And then in the kicthen where the eat in table should be are two small desks for my 5 and 2 year old, facing a big floor to ceiling window. I decorate the window for them. Right now it still has a bunch of stuff on it for 4th of July. I use hot glue to put stuff up on the window (nothign else held) and it comes off easily with rubbing alcohol. I don't have room for posters or a bulliten board, so the window it is :)

[Chris in VA]

I did decorate a schoolroom (walk out basement) and made it really school-y. If I were to do it again, I'd be more natural and less classroom-y.

I even changed my thoughts on my preschool classroom at work--much less bright colors and primary plastic/screaming bulletin boards and more baskets, neutrals and natural materials. That's how I'd do it at home if I could go back. But we did like it at the time.

Here's an old blog post of the two ends of the room (pool table was in the middle). This was for fourth grade.

This was the second grade year, I think. We had more posters up.

 

[Momto4inSoCal]

I'm considering doing a wall like number 20 on this post http://www.buzzfeed.com/morganshanahan/27-clever-ideas-for-creating-the-perfect-homeschool-classroo#.mw2r6GzE8g. I love maps and my twins would love the chalkboard on the bottom.

[birchbark]

No separate room. We school in the dining and living room. Very little of what's in there looks academic (other than the bookshelves). I have a nice globe, cute alphabet cards by eeboo, an attractive wall calendar, and a felt moon phase banner. No room for maps or timelines. We use a book atlas when the globe is not enough.

 

Some ideas for visual aids: on the table under a clear plastic tablecloth, on presentation boards that you can fold up and put away, or in clear pockets in a binder. You also can get maps on a spring roller like a window shade. 

 

There was a recent thread on attractive wall maps.