Our Homeschool Room This Year
I have to preface this post with a disclaimer: there’s nothing fancy or Pinterest-y about our homeschool room. So, I’m not presenting it as, “See how cute our homeschool room is? Aren’t we awesome?” Because there’s nothing really awesome about it. 🙂 And this room is really hard to photograph nicely because there’s not much natural light in the basement.
But, despite the lack of cuteness or awesomeness, it is functional, and it’s one of my favorite places to be. I’m very thankful to have a space in our finished basement to corral all of the school paraphernalia. Once upon a time we had a school room down here (you can see it here). And then we found that we always congregated at the kitchen table, so then we moved our main school stuff upstairs (you can see that post here).
But I got so tired of having all the school clutter in our very small kitchen/dining area. So last year I moved it all back downstairs. Although this time I changed things up a bit, using a different area of the room than we had previously used. And it has worked out so well for us!
We use this area for our Morning Time and read aloud time (the things we all do together), and then the “big girls” go upstairs to work on their studies where it’s quieter. The younger three stay down here in the basement with me so we can work together on the rest of their subjects.
I never intended to have a whole wall full of skip counting posters, but my 10-year-old asked me to put them there to help her memorize them. And it seems to have worked for her! (We didn’t include the 5’s or 10’s because everyone easily memorized those already.)
We’re still using the daily calendar that I made three years ago. My kids enjoy putting up the new calendar pieces each month. Of course I don’t formally go over the calendar with the older ones, but the middle two children refer to it often on their own.
My husband found this tall, narrow shelf at a flea market. I stole it from him asked him if I could use it in the school room (he bought it for his home office, originally). 🙂 It fits perfectly in this little corner. The top three shelves belong to my three younger children. This is where they keep all their school books. (The older girls use their school bags to carry their books wherever they feel like studying.)
The bottom shelves hold puzzles and a basket of wooden pattern blocks.
All of the light wood bookshelves are new to our school room this year. They were in my dad’s library, and after he passed away earlier this year, Mom asked me if I would like to have them (she knows we always need bookshelves!). I often think of Dad when I see them.
On the other side of the room, we have these two bookshelves that hold our Tapestry of Grace books for the current unit, the Morning Time basket, a nature study shelf, and some supplies for my youngest’s Montessori trays.
My mom gave me this little bookshelf years ago, and it’s perfect for the school room. It does need to be painted someday. It sits in front of our All About Reading board.
These galvanized buckets from Walmart just hold random things. Currently, it’s marbles, big plastic buttons, and extra glue sticks. 🙂
And lastly, next to our main school area, we created this nature table area that has quickly become a favorite space for my youngest two. I’ll share more about this space in another post.
So that’s pretty much it for our school room tour. Coming soon: our 2016-2017 curriculum choices!
Do you have a dedicated schoolroom, or do you use the whole house?
Related Links:
- Organizing School Books in Bags
- Organizing School Supplies
- Our Daily Calendar
- Why Morning Time is Worth Planning Into Your Day
- Tapestry of Grace Review
- All About Reading Review
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I LOVE you space! What a fun, functional and inspiring place to learn together.
Thank you, Jill! 🙂
Love your room! Lots of passion and intention here. I miss those days of creating the perfect learning space for my little ones. You should share on Fresh Market Friday Link-up…it’s all about sharing what we are most intentional and passionate about, and this is perfect!
Thank you, Crystal! I know, my kids are getting older, and I’m already realizing I won’t get to do this forever! I’ll miss these days too. 🙂 Thanks so much for the invitation to the link-up!
I love your school room! The fact that it isn’t straight out of “Pottery Barn” or Pinterest-Perfect makes me love it even more; I think, “Oh, I might actually be able to make something similar!” instead of, “I’ll never have the time or resources to create that.” Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Julie! That’s so encouraging to me! 🙂
I think there is plenty to be excited about in this spacious homeschooling area dedicated just toward learning. Forget the Pinterest, I know all of us real homeschooling mothers are drooling at this lovely area! Thank you for sharing with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays at Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth! 🙂
That’s so sweet of you, JES! Thank you! ♥
I am so inspired by your organization. Your suggestions and tips on organizing your space for homeschooling would help so many of my readers. I hope you will considering joining us weekly on the Literacy Musing Mondays linkup. Thanks. Here is this week’s link.
http://maryanderingcreatively.com/loving-family-friendly-posts/
We go live with a new linkup every Sunday a 6 p.m.
Thank you, Mary! I’m always hesitant to share at LMM unless it’s something “literary.” 🙂 I had no idea this post would fit!
Can I come be your student?? This is awesome ♥ What a blessing to be able to offer such a great environment for learning– I’m loving that nature desk the best!
LOL! Aww, that’s sweet of you, Heather! Thanks! ♥
Happy to “meet” you! My daughter home schools our granddaughters now so I will pass on some of your great ideas!
Nice to meet you, Elizabeth! I’m so glad you stopped by today!
This room is seriously amazing! WOW. I have an 8 month old I plan to homeschool and wow this is making me excited for those days to come, baha!
Well, thank you, Stefanie! 🙂
I love the mix of tables/shelves in your homeschool space. I don’t know that we’ll ever have a completely dedicated space, but then again I don’t know what our future holds and the nuts & bolts of How we’ll actually homeschool. Right now, I use whatever opportunities come up, wherever we are! 🙂
Thank you, Kendall! 🙂
Your nature table is lovely, Joy! And of course I had a look at all your homeschooling books to see if there are any I would like to order! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you, Gwen! Like a true homeschool mom, always interested in the books! I do the same thing, always looking for more recommendations! 🙂
Sorry for “days” … only summer !
Franca 🙂
I knew what you meant! Thank you, friend! 🙂
Wonderful ! A world that makes everyone want to learn , I think .
Have a nice summer days !
Franca
Thank you, Franca! I hope you are having a nice summer also! 🙂
Looks great! I’m working on my space in the dining room this week!
Thank you, Kristina!