No quiet space

[LHB2020]

Hi All! Hoping you veteran homeschoolers can help me come up with some creative solutions to the space problem. I have an open floor plan main floor and very small bedrooms with no room for desks. I set up desks for my big kids in the dining room with the hope that they would be able to work there but they havn't been able to get anything done that requires concentration because the little guys run around the main floor and distract them. Even when I manage to keep the little ones away the big ones complain that they can hear eachother humming or fidgeting and its distracting.

[PeachyDoodle]

My oldest has a desk but almost always works on her bed. Youngest works on the floor or the coffee table. We've never used desks much at all.

The olders may get more used to the noise after awhile. If not, noise cancelling headphones for Christmas!

Would it be possible to combine some bedrooms and make one bedroom into a study or playroom?

[prairiewindmomma]

This is a common problem with larger families.  It's very much a training and adjustment issue.  

How little are we talking about?  We trained our babies to play quietly at my feet.  Toddlers are more difficult, but we set up a variety of quiet activities for them to rotate through.  I tried to limit tv time to one dvd a day, and I used that to get my older kids through phonics and math.  

You might think of a developmentally appropriate block schedule, and just plan in running around time for them as well.  Any chance you can convert some garage space into an active play area for them or that you have a back yard? Or that you can double or quadruple up in bedrooms to free up space for a play area? 

[sweet2ndchance]

Most work is done on clipboards in our small open floor plan home. We have quite a collection of clipboards, short ones, long ones, small ones, big ones. I recommend at least a regular size one for each kid and one legal size one for bigger things. We use the legal size one for our dollar store dry erase pockets which are too big for regular clipboards but fit a legal size clipboard perfectly.

[alisoncooks]

My girls often work in their rooms, on the bed. They don't have desks. 

Also: noise-canceling headphones.  

[Coco_Clark]

Yes! Noise cancelling headphones!!!

Also, lap desks (or even just trays) for work on their bed.  Or loft beds so a workspace can fit under.

[Susan in TX]

I have ten children so we have always homeschooled with babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers in the mix. One of the first homeschool lessons my children had to learn was how to be disciplined in staying on task when there are distractions. It was a matter of me not allowing them to use the distractions as an excuse. I would tell them they need to block out the distraction/noise and concentrate on their work. Over time they did learn to do this.

I also worked on occupying the younger kids in such a way as to keep the noise level down. So I would not allow the little ones to run around. I would set them up with activities like playdoh or puzzles...something that would keep them in one place and relatively quiet.

Another thing I have done is have the older kids trade off watching/playing with the younger ones. So while one child is working on school the other is occupying the younger ones outside or in another part of the house. 

Susan in TX 

 

 

[Hunter]

I like folding chairs and small folding tables. If you place the table and chair near a bed or washing machine, that other surface can be used to place things that cannot fit on the small table.. 

[BakersDozen]

We use our garage as a school/work room or activity room - pretty much everything happens in there save for parking vehicles, lol! Our kids didn't even realize people put cars in garages for the longest time.

I try to schedule subjects my older kids need more quiet/concentration on for afternoon when younger ones are napping or having quiet time.

I don't expect the house to be quiet or my younger ones to sit still for long. It's not that it's a free-for-all madhouse but youngsters have energy and I never felt it fair for them to be expected to be quiet/still or stay in one place beyond a reasonable time. So our older ones learn to deal with some noise, again within reason (no yelling/screaming, running, etc.) and the younger ones have a routine that allows for louder play time and quieter activities.

Each child's bedroom has play space in it. If younger kids want to play that trumps older kids wanting to be in bedrooms doing schoolwork. At the same time I reserve the dining room area for school so younger ones are not setting up Legos or whatever in there. We make great use of loft beds so more floor space means more play space out of the main living areas where we do school.

I have two wardrobe-type pieces of furniture in my room which have pull-out desk tops. Older kids use my room when they need the most quiet/no interruption.

And last but by no means the most feasible thing we did was move out of a great-room home into a traditional home with lots of rooms that are usable without being "shared" space. Best decision we've ever made. We went from 1850 sqft. of loud/shared space to 1600sqft. of 100% usable/shareable/workable space.

[LHB2020]

wish I had a garage or space in the bedrooms for little ones to play.

 

For those of you whos kids work in bed - do you find it interferes with their sleep? 

[LHB2020]

9 hours ago, Patty Joanna said:

I'm talking young adults here, but they are finding it very depressing to be in the same space all the time.  And it is not as easy to focus on the work (the sleep seems to come pretty easily).  

 

Good point. They are trapped in the house as it is, limiting their space to just beds seems kind of unhealthy. The linen closet in our house is tiny, the front hall closet is under the steps so mishapend and tiny.  I'm going to see if they can concentrate with sound cancelling headphones and soft wordless music. Maybe foldable room partitions. I wish they had sound cancelling foldable room parititions.

[theelfqueen]

1 hour ago, WendyAndMilo said:

Are you able to have them share a room so that they sleep in one room and do school work in the other room?

I was going to suggest this option... could some shuffling of bedrooms open. A space - either a schoolroom/office or a playroom? 

[BakersDozen]

Quote

wish I had a garage or space in the bedrooms for little ones to play.

Are loft beds an option? Or letting kids use the master instead? I never could justify what is usually the largest room/closet in the house sitting empty all day or used by just 2 people when I had 5-7 kids in one bedroom, lol.

[LHB2020]

Loft beds are not an option due to the unfortunate placement of the radiator/closet/door. 

Would it be crazy to insulate a shed and run electric there? I'm in the northeast and it gets pretty cold in the winter and lately kind of hot in the summer as well. I wonder if we could get it temperature controlled enough to make it work.

[EmilyGF]

Ear protection, like construction workers wear, is what makes our home work for homeschooling. And personal space for the older kids. DD13 has a desk in the corner of the living room and and DS15 has a few feet on the breakfast bar. Both wear ear protection.

Actually, my personal reading comprehension and enjoyment went up when I started wearing ear protection. We also put ear protection on anyone who wakes up grumpy and it helps a lot.

When we've left ear protectors at the houses of other friends with large families by mistake, they've thanked us and not given them back. 😉

ETA: We left the ear protectors by mistake. The large families were not by mistake!

Edited August 25, 2020 by EmilyGF

[BlsdMama]

On 8/19/2020 at 4:00 PM, LHB2020 said:

Hi All! Hoping you veteran homeschoolers can help me come up with some creative solutions to the space problem. I have an open floor plan main floor and very small bedrooms with no room for desks. I set up desks for my big kids in the dining room with the hope that they would be able to work there but they havn't been able to get anything done that requires concentration because the little guys run around the main floor and distract them. Even when I manage to keep the little ones away the big ones complain that they can hear eachother humming or fidgeting and its distracting.

We've had separate school areas before and we've done schooling in main family spaces.  As much as I like the IDEA of a separate school area, it's not conducive to living life - laundry, cooking, paying bills, picking up, multi age groups.

We've found the olders can learn to be more noise tolerant and the littles MUST learn to be still for a time.  The olders need to learn to deal with a certain level of distraction like they will in school or life...  So I would not seek to make a very quiet atmosphere.  That said, the littles cannot hang from the light and jump around like monkeys all the time, albeit my youngest has not yet been convinced.

My older kids, if they need to watch something or focus on something will retire to a chair or their room for periods of time.  When I'm teaching (like table time) or group work, this is time the littles must find a quiet spot, watch Magic School Bus, play outside, listen to audiobooks, etc., but it is in turn, not for the morning, etc. It creates a decent, albeit imperfect, rhythm.

[EmilyGF]

6 hours ago, EmilyGF said:

Ear protection, like construction workers wear, is what makes our home work for homeschooling. And personal space for the older kids. DD13 has a desk in the corner of the living room and and DS15 has a few feet on the breakfast bar. Both wear ear protection.

Actually, my personal reading comprehension and enjoyment went up when I started wearing ear protection. We also put ear protection on anyone who wakes up grumpy and it helps a lot.

When we've left ear protectors at the houses of other friends with large families by mistake, they've thanked us and not given them back. 😉

ETA: We left the ear protectors by mistake. The large families were not by mistake!

By personal space, I don't mean their own rooms. I just mean a flat surface they can consistently use without a sibling trying to use it.

[73349]

On 8/23/2020 at 11:31 AM, LHB2020 said:

the front hall closet is under the steps so misshapen and tiny. 

If you take the door off and put in a camping lantern and cushions (maybe a crib mattress), could it be a reading nook?

[Sarah0000]

My three kids share one small room that's just for sleeping, reading, and dressing. We have four desks jammed into one small bedroom so they (kids+DH) each have a place to work. The kids have laptops they can easily move off their desks if they need table space, but usually they use the dining table for that.

When they need/want privacy for school they can take their stuff outside to our backyard table, "treehouse" (literally like a 3x3 platform), or swingset tower or use a lap desk in the master bedroom. We have the soft lap desks for cuddling in chairs or on the bed or the hard kind which can be set up pretty much anywhere.

[katilac]

On 8/19/2020 at 4:00 PM, LHB2020 said:

Hi All! Hoping you veteran homeschoolers can help me come up with some creative solutions to the space problem. I have an open floor plan main floor and very small bedrooms with no room for desks. I set up desks for my big kids in the dining room with the hope that they would be able to work there but they havn't been able to get anything done that requires concentration because the little guys run around the main floor and distract them. Even when I manage to keep the little ones away the big ones complain that they can hear each other humming or fidgeting and its distracting.

Bolding by me: take them to public school and let them hear how 'quiet' it is, lol. They do have to learn to put up with a certain amount of ambient noise (although humming, dear lord no, no one should hum or whistle unless they are alone in the room). But some fidgeting, yes, that's normal. Some talking is normal. 

The little ones? It kind of depends. If they're playing in the next room over in the open floor plan, and using their inside voices, then it's on the big kids to deal with it. Use headphones, go outside, go to your room. If they're literally racing around the room (which is so tempting with an open floor plan, because you usually wind up with a circular 'race track' lol), or yelling, then that's a bit much. 

What are the ages involved? 

On 8/24/2020 at 9:22 PM, LHB2020 said:

Would it be crazy to insulate a shed and run electric there? I'm in the northeast and it gets pretty cold in the winter and lately kind of hot in the summer as well. I wonder if we could get it temperature controlled enough to make it work.

Not crazy at all. My dh built himself a little office in the backyard when he had the job that was 100% working from home, because he was very much the personality that had to 'go to work.' Before that job, he had only experienced commuting to an office, so it was weird for him. There was a desk and computer in the house, and no littles to distract him, but he needed that partition. He eventually relaxed to the point of frequently working inside for the first hour or two (sometimes even in his jammies!), but overall he needed that separate space. And it was nice to have the extra physical space to store all the things that come with working from home. 

If it's in the budget, I 100% say to go for it! Wendy has a point about focusing on it and not letting it drag on, but really it shouldn't take very long. My dh built his entire office on his own, from laying the foundation to shingling the roof, and it took him six to weight weeks of evenings and weekends. He had help to run the electricity, because electricity, but that part was quick. You should be able to do the insulation part in a day. Running the electricity, you will probably have to dig a line for wires, and again that's about day (separate from actually running it). A day if you need to pour a concrete slab (most durable but also hardest to remove if you don't want the shed there forever). Those are probably the most time-consuming aspects, so really not a lengthy project. Of course, you also need time to plan all the things and buy all the things.  

My dh has a window unit that he runs on a timer - it gets crazy hot here, so he can't just turn it off when he's not there. There are also portable AC units but they tend to be bigger. 

Have the older kids who will benefit from this do the preliminary research, and of course as much of the work as they can. 

[katilac]

On 8/25/2020 at 8:59 AM, BlsdMama said:

As much as I like the IDEA of a separate school area, it's not conducive to living life - laundry, cooking, paying bills, picking up, multi age groups.
 

I agree that it's very hard, ime, for the teaching parent to be in a separate school area all of the time. But this would be just for the big kids, who can go to the backyard schoolroom on their own to work or study. 

[LHB2020]

On 9/6/2020 at 12:26 PM, katilac said:

Bolding by me: take them to public school and let them hear how 'quiet' it is, lol. They do have to learn to put up with a certain amount of ambient noise (although humming, dear lord no, no one should hum or whistle unless they are alone in the room). But some fidgeting, yes, that's normal. Some talking is normal. 

The little ones? It kind of depends. If they're playing in the next room over in the open floor plan, and using their inside voices, then it's on the big kids to deal with it. Use headphones, go outside, go to your room. If they're literally racing around the room (which is so tempting with an open floor plan, because you usually wind up with a circular 'race track' lol), or yelling, then that's a bit much. 

What are the ages involved? 

 

Literally racing around the bottom floor (which is, indeed, like a circular racetrack); ages 2,4 and 6 disturbing 8 and 10 who are trying to work.

After researching local options it doesn't look like it's in the budget this year 😞

 

[katilac]

23 hours ago, LHB2020 said:

 

Literally racing around the bottom floor (which is, indeed, like a circular racetrack); ages 2,4 and 6 disturbing 8 and 10 who are trying to work.

After researching local options it doesn't look like it's in the budget this year 😞

 

Maybe next year! It really is nice having the separate space. We've all used dh's office at various times for one thing or another. 

Will the 8 & 10 work if left alone? Maybe you can make a deal with them: if you take the littles outside for an hour, they agree to concentrate and work during that time. It could be 30 minutes two times a day or whatever works. 

My kids used to skate and scooter around our racetrack, lol, but it was just the two of them so nobody else to disturb. 

[ktgrok]

On 8/24/2020 at 1:32 AM, BakersDozen said:

Are loft beds an option? Or letting kids use the master instead? I never could justify what is usually the largest room/closet in the house sitting empty all day or used by just 2 people when I had 5-7 kids in one bedroom, lol.

 I wish my husband would understand that! Although now that he's working from home he needs a desk and quiet area even more than the kids, and if I moved him and I to a smaller bedroom we couldn't fit the desk in. Sigh. Otherwise, I'd love to turn that master into a kid room!

 

[ktgrok]

When my younger two  - ages 3 and 6 - start getting wild when the older one is trying to concentrate I tell them to stop. They can find something quiet to do, or go in a bedroom and shut the door. That kind of yelling and crazy is too distracting for anyone. Even the 3 yr old is pretty good about it if reminded. 

[Garga]

Someone up thread mentioned turning closets into private areas.  I did that for my boys.  Here are some pictures of the two closets.  We created a desk that could fold into the wall for a work area. @LHB2020

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by Garga

[happypamama]

My older kids prefer to work in their rooms as well. There is only so much quiet that is developmentally appropriate for littles, and my last two toddlers have been especially big movers. We do have a schoolroom, central to our main living space so that I can easily do laundry and meal prep while supervising, but while we do aim for reasonably quiet in there (like, no wild running or yelling during school hours, headphones required for computer work, etc.), my littles do play in there, and so if the older ones prefer more quiet (also, 15yo has the dog, and dog plus toddler gets a little crazy), they're welcome to work in their rooms where they can also spread out. Every child has different needs and temperaments. 

 

My older kids do have desks in their rooms, but if those wouldn't fit at all, maybe some sort of fold down desk like Garga shared, or maybe a lap desk or a folding dinner table tray or two. There's a real life homeschool space group on FB with a lot of great ideas.