I often hear people comment that they couldn't homeschool because they don't have the space.
Very few homeschoolers have the homeschool space of their dreams.
You know the Ikea or Pottery Barn rooms you see.
Source~ Pottery Barn
Too often homeschool families are juggling space for just all the kids.
In our situation, we do have a separate room to homeschool. We don't always use it to do our lessons, but it helps us keep the homeschool mess to one room. At least that was the goal when we switched our formal living room into our school room. We were lucky to have a room that we didn't really use. We had a formal living room that was used as a play room/sewing room when the kids were little. When we started homeschooling, it only made sense to change it over.
So we painted the room a shade of blue (the kids choice), added a table for their desk, some shelves, and a desk for their computer. My hubby made built-in book shelves to frame our bay window.
I LOVE the books shelves.
So does the cat as you can see.
The only problem is that we tend to fill them up and the the books pile up on the floor. If you homeschool, I'm sure you understand about books. I honestly believe that they multiply at night when we are not looking!
The only draw back about having a separate room is it sometimes becomes the catch all room.
Oh no, company is coming...quick through everything into the school room!
Once that happens our little friend chaos is waiting right around the corner.
Scary isn't it?!?
We suddenly can not find books, pens, paper, etc. I can't tell you how many times we have wasted 10 minutes looking for a book. Heck, who am I kidding, we have wasted 60 minutes looking for a book only to give up on that lesson for the day because the book can not be found.
It's like trying to find the lost shoe when you are late for a doctor's appointment.
So what do you do when the school room is a disaster?
You head to the kitchen table, dining room table, or get comfy on the couch.
Flexibility is the key to success when homeschooling!
If you enjoyed this post stop by and check out these other ladies who are blogging about Real Life homeschooling.
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Discover real life in other homeschools with the Schoolhouse Review Crew bloggers!
Join the blog hop to read more!
Till next time,
~Monique
We had a school room at our last house (where we had a finished basement.) At this house in TX (with no basement) and as the kids have grown, they use their bedrooms as their private school rooms. They started out at a nook area in the upstairs game room/living room, and then slowly drifted to their bedrooms. That's another example of how homeschoolers are continually morphing into the needs of the kids.
ReplyDeleteI like your school room and the space! Love the space! And blue happens to be my favorite color ;)
The kids really wanted to paint it a bright turquoise color, but since the doors are so open I thought it would clash with the rest of the house. It would be nice if they could work in their rooms, but the kid's rooms are really small in this house. We have more living space than bedroom space here.
DeleteLove it. Awesome post.
ReplyDeleteI'm swooning over your schoolroom...I love ours too...when it's neat! But right now it looks like yours! You're so down to earth! Sharing the "reality" of the messy HS life---good for you!
If I was home I'd snap a pic of our room and how it looks right now!, but I'm at the lib. I escaped after the dentist to come here and grab a few minutes of quiet, thinking I'd write a daybook to get my thoughts organized, but I'm really just enjoying friends' posts.
Have a blessed evening and thanks for sharing!
Sometimes it's nice to just sit and relax. The schoolroom is such a mess right now. We are working on purging stuff we don't need and doing on spring cleaning for each room. We started working on the school room this week, so hopefully it will be clean by Monday.
DeleteWe used to have a schoolroom, but it was never all that awesome. LOL It was nice to have all the books and the computer and a table to work at in one place though. That room had to become a bedroom many years ago, and school has taken place at the dining room table or just wherever since then, and it works for us. I could always use more bookshelves though... (said every homeschooler ever....)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. I think every homeschooler could use more books shelves. After my hubby did the book shelves around the window, I really thought about asking him to do the opposite wall. Of course that would have made the room a little too crowded, but the books would have been off the floor...at least for a little while.
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