Our School Room

After 18 years of homeschooling….finally, we have a school room! We recently went through a bit of a home renovation. My hubby put laminate wood floors in most of the house, and we re-arranged our room set up. What was the formal dining room became the formal living room, and what was the formal living room became our school room. Our china hutch and large table, which were rarely used, were moved into our kitchen’s dining area, and the small table we had there was moved into our school room. Our school room is  really a multi-purpose room: We use it during our school time, of course, but I also use it as my office, as well as a library and a game room.

Our schoolroom is at the front of the house, away from the usual action. It is quiet there and far away from the kid’s bedrooms, which makes it a perfect retreat for me in the evenings or early in the morning.

The best thing about it is being able to have (most) everything in one place, and being able to have a place for school work besides the dining room table. I love being able to fix lunch while leaving our work in progress out in the schoolroom, instead of having to clear away the work in progress.

As you can see, it doesn’t LOOK much like a schoolroom. To me, the most important word in the word “homeschool” is home, so I wanted our schoolroom to look like home. I always wanted it to be full of light and life, including plants and animals. We definitely have the plants, but I’m not so sure about adding any animals yet. We already have three dogs and a cat (they live outside), and each of the boys has their own fish tank in their rooms. I might eventually try adding a Beta fish. I’d really love to have a guinea pig again, or a bird, but considering the allergies and asthma that plagues us, I don’t think it would be a good idea. But come spring, we’ll probably have some type of caterpillars or maybe an ant farm.  I also want to try my hand at a terrarium.

The only wall that looks like a “schoolroom”, I suppose, is hidden from view unless you walk into the room and turn around. On this wall, I have our “I-Can” chart, some reminders from our Bible curriculum for the year, a pledge to the Christian flag/pledge to the Bible chart, and Rod and Staff’s blossom charts. Our calendar is behind a cabinete door, and our other drill materials are either in a binder or in flash-card form (kept in a wooden box on the shelf.)

What Do We Keep in Our Schoolroom?

Art Supplies: We don’t have room to keep all our art supplies in our schoolroom– we still have to keep most of them in our utility room. We do keep the most-used, least-messy goodies hidden away in a couple of the cabinets: Paper, colored pens, colored pencils, glue and glue sticks, staplers, etc, so that the boys can make their own “books”, notebook pages, timeline cards, and so on.

School Work: We keep the seatwork we use daily in a small wire cart that has three drawers—one for each for the boys, and one for me. I have their next work, their completed work, and timeline figures filed in the box above.  I keep the less-often used forms and extra math drills in a red  hanging file holder. All the books we are reading for school are kept on the bookshelves, along with books that I want to encourage the boys to read, or the books I want to read aloud to them.

Books: Dictionaries and other reference materials, readers, books for this school year

My Stuff: Computer, Bible study materials, journals, paperwork, stationary, my reading.

Miscellaneous: Musical instruments (some of them), learning games, reference materials for my writing, white boards, clip boards, a globe, my computer, and so on.

Remember, a schoolroom is NOT a necessity; it really is a luxury. We’ve homeschooled many years without one, so don’t feel as if you have to have one in order to homeschool successfully. Even now, we use the whole house to homeschool…we still use the living room for reading aloud and the family room for night-time reading; we use the kitchen for messy projects (art, science, whatever), and the boys often take their clipboards  into their rooms to work in private. The most important thing is finding a space and making it work for you. A “school room” doesn’t have to look like a schoolroom unless you want it to.

You might also like: The Key Word in “Homepreschool” is “Home”  and “Home Sweet Homepreschool”

© 2012 Susan Lemons all rights reserved.  Copyrighted materials may not be re-distributed or re-posted without express permission from the author.

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