One of the first questions people ask themselves once the idea of homeschooling pops into their mind is “do I need a homeschool room?” The short answer is no you don’t, but we like to expand on things around here. You can do a Pinterest search of homeschool rooms and you will find so beautiful and awe inspiring rooms. Honestly a little jealous over here!
There is Just No Room!
This is my problem. I wish I could have a dedicated homeschool room but our house is too small. We are already squished as it is. If we freed up one of our bedrooms we would have four kids in one room with barely enough room to turn around! It is just not going to happen.
There is no reason you need to go upgrade your house to something bigger and better just for the sake of making homeschooling a little easier. It’s not going to be worth it I promise. There are lots of ways around this obstacle, you just need to utilise the space that you do have.
Organisation System for Homeschool
A well organised homeschool system is going to save you from a lot of headaches over the school year. When books, pens, erasers (oh my gosh this one drives me insane) go missing it ups the stress levels and sends you on a one way track to crazy town. I speak from experience here.
I want to share with you some of the ways that I organise my homeschool resources/books/junk etc where I don’t have a homeschool room.
- Organisation Trolley
I use this trolley to hold all our pencil cases, scrap paper, and some art supplies that are used on a regular basis like coloured pencils and markers. It also holds our morning basket. Next year I am going to get the kids to put their drink bottles on it too because I am sick of everyone getting up to get a drink every 2 minutes! And then having to spend forever looking for their bottle because heaven forbid they use a glass.
One of the things I really like about having a trolley like this is that it can be easily rolled away after school is done for the day. I have a rule that they can’t use the things on the trolley outside of school time because they lose them or don’t put them away. They have other supplies for regular use. This way I know that every morning everything will be there and ready to go. There won’t be anymore frantic searching for erasers or pencils resulting in having to use a snapped of pencil they found under the couch that is barely big enough to hold!
- Labeled Bins
We used to use a shelf for organising everyones books but that was just too messy. Instead I moved towards a bin system. I really like the ones you can purchase from IKEA in the kids sections from the Trofast range.
Ilabel a bin for each child to keep their language arts work, and math work individually. I then have bins for work we do together such as history and science. There are a few more boxes that contain busy boxes for my younger children to bring out while I am teaching the older kids.
If I could do it again however I would much rather go for these ones. They are much more compact and cheaper. I also like that they are on wheels so I could easily move them to another room if I wanted my house to look more like a house than a school when when had company. It’s the small things in life right? I would then use the Trofast system simply for toy organisation instead.
- Desks
This is for some reason a bit of a sore point for some homeschoolers. I don’t really know why but it is what it is. Desks seem like the perfect idea to me. At the moment I am in the process of purchasing some for my two oldest children. The reason I want desks for my children is so that they can complete work in their room when needed. The older they become the more independent they become. Sometimes they find it much easier to concentrate in their rooms without the littles being disruptive with their block smashing and such. I find that they produce a higher quality of work when they are able to work alone without distraction. So although we don’t have a homeschool room I do try to provide them a study space in their room.
Another reason I am all for desks is because even though we do the bulk of our work at the dining table, when they are little the table is just not the right height for them. Can you imagine trying to learn to write when the table is at the height of your chin?! I find that by having a table at the correct height makes a big difference.
We started off with a little side table from IKEA which worked well but they were unfortunately destroyed in the middle of a tantrum….such is life. I now want something a little more sturdy and more fitting to the purpose.
This is the one I have my eye on. I really like the features it has, such as the drawers, organising slots and mini cork board for pinning notes etc.
- Book Shelf
You don’t need anything too fancy here. Just something that fits your decor. For the coming school year I plan on having one of these shelves. I like it because the kids can easily see the covers of the books. It makes the books more appealing and children more eager to read. There is no way all our books will fit on the shelf so I will rotate throughout the year with season books, or books that fit with topics we are studying. This is where library books will go so they don’t get mixed up and lost with our other books. I owe so much money to the library that I really need a new system here. Wish me luck with this!
I like that this one is made entirely of wood. I know you can buy cheaper ones that are partly fabric but I just don’t think they will have the longevity that wood does. Wood is also a lot more customisable, it will be easy to paint or stain to match the room.
Our other main book shelf holds all the reference books we have. Such as our children’s atlas, old curriculum we aren’t currently using (which will sit there for another 5 years before I decide to sell it haha), poetry books for poetry teatime and other books of that nature.
Make Use of the Space You Do Have
I use my garage for a lot of storage. There is definitely no room for a car in there much to my husbands annoyance. Put up some storage shelves to hold resources you aren’t currently using. This can be text books or curriculum for grades you aren’t currently teaching or math manipulative that won’t be be needed until later in the year. I also keep 90% of my children’s toys in the garage. I like to keep their rooms with a minimalist feel so that it easier for them to concentrate when they have to work and it is easier for them to keep clean. They simply go to the garage to collect what they want to play with, take it to their room, then pack it away in the box and return it when they are done. It just makes life simpler for everyone. It is a lot less overwhelming as well. The same goes for our living room too.
Everything Has a Place
When you are working with a small space it can get messy fast! Add having the kids home 24/7 and you will no doubt understand how important it is to make sure everything has a spot. Homeschooling brings with it a copious amount of paper, craft projects and so much cereal on the ground! Like where does this cereal appear from! It’s like I am constantly crushing some kind of breakfast under my feet.
When there is a place for everything clean up is much quicker and efficient and the house stays a little tidier a little longer.
Homeschool Doesn’t Have to Look Like School
Just because you have decided to homeschool that doesn’t mean that your home now has to look like a school. There is definitely a mindset that in order to give a child a solid education at home it needs to look like a school room. This could not be further from the truth. The benefit of homeschooling is freedom. You can school how, where and when you like. The kitchen table is the perfect place to gather everyone around for group lessons. The littles can join at the table with their play doh and crayons too.
There is also no reason that reading can’t be done curled up on the couch or next to mom in bed as she deals with morning sickness. These are all things that we have done and they are okay. Not having a school room is not the end of the world. Yes it would be nice but it does not even come close to being a necessity to homeschooling.
