Abandoning The "Schoolroom"
Sunday, August 12, 2012 at 11:00AM 
We visited a home a couple of weeks ago that had the MOST WONDERFUL schoolroom ever.
This family had taken their garage and turned it into a beautiful area for school. The floors were tiled, and she had tables specially made that were high (her children are teenagers). There was storage everywhere, with large windows overlooking their wooded yard.
I had schoolroom envy.
How I would LOVE to finish my basement and create a space dedicated for school. There are, however, more pressing financial needs and I am thankful for the spaces we DO have in our home.
The past couple of years I have shown you our area upstairs (the "bonus" room) that is a dedicated area for all things learning. It's a perfect space, except for a couple things:
- My husband sometimes works from home, and the computer he uses is in that room. It is a quiet area of the house. We've tried moving my husband's work space, but this is really the most remote place in our house.
- The space upstairs is removed from the laundry room and the kitchen - two places where I spend a lot of time. I was always going up and down the stairs, and leaving children (who didn't always stick to their schoolwork!) alone.
The room has a large closet, which is exclusively homeschool storage.
We still use this room for school occasionally, but mostly it is a computer, family, and reading room. It has an entertainment cetner, extra shelving, and artwork by my children. Last spring I added more shelving for the ever growing collection of books. The room is cozy, but removed from the day-to-day activities in the rest of the house.
This is where we have "school" this year:
It seems we have migrated to the kitchen table!
This actually works very well for us. Last spring I showed you this part of our home. I added 2 Expedit shelves from IKEA to our family room, where we store the current binders and books needed for most subjects. All of our pencils, markers, rulers, etc... that we use for school go on a Lazy Susan in the middle of the table. There is also a comfy window seat with pillows where the kids can birdwatch and read.
There is also a small piano studio off of the family room where the kids practice their music and we have one large bookcase. This is also where I work part time giving piano lessons.
Best part of this arrangement: the laundry room is about 10 steps away and the kitchen is right there, too.
We are blessed to also have a formal dining room (remember when I gave you a peek in our home?), so if the table is ever messy at the end of the day (although we do clear it off most every afternoon) we can eat in the dining room.
So, while I still have a technical "schoolroom", it is abandoned most days as we live life in and outside of our home.
Where do you "DO SCHOOL"?
Visit other bloggers that are sharing their schoolrooms this week!
Reader Comments (21)
Mary, I just finished commenting on another blog about her school room and I will say the same. Ok, so not the same. The great thing about homeschooling is we can do it anywhere and almost anywhere works. If you have a room that can be set aside, it works. If you have to use several rooms, it works. If you have to do it outside, it works! Yeah! We bought our current house in March and the biggest reason for buying this one was the fact the family room, could be used for a school room. I call it a school room because this is where the supplies are and the desks are. But, with the Charlotte Mason approach, there are subjects taken to different rooms. That's cool! I think the way you have it set up is perfect for your family.
We use our kitchen table as our primary school space too :-) Mostly it's because, when we bought our house, we only had two kids, and now we have four, so the extra bedroom I was going to use as a schoolroom really needs to be a bedroom!
Hey, you do with what you have and what works best for your family! When my daughter was just starting school at home (age 4) she had a desk upstairs in the "playroom". It worked for us. As she grew and she needed more workspace, we converted the study to our school room. Now that I have 2 schooling at home, we primarily use the kitchen, living room, dining room, and even sometimes our bedrooms :) That's the beauty of homeschooling!
You have a great set-up! We do just about the same. We have a room where I house all of our "stuff", but the room isn't big enough for all of us to fit. With the older kids I always do our lessons at the kitchen table. With the younger kids we are on the couch, the family room floor, and sometimes at the table if we are doing a craft. I keep thinking my oldest is going to want to go off to his room to get some work done, but so far he hasn't wanted too. As much as his younger sibs sometimes annoy him, I think he feels lonely in his room! For now I'll take it :) My husband always says in our "dream house" we would have a large space just dedicated to school, but I like being able to be in the kitchen and the laundry room as well as with the kids. Maybe if I had an Alice and didn't have to worry about feeding people and doing laundry it would be different!
I love your organization and set up. What a cozy bench! I think the kitchen table is the best place to spread out! Our kitchen table is where we do most of our multiple ages learning.
I love how learning takes place all over the house and beyond.
Blessings, Dawn
We use our kitchen table as well! I love the idea of the mason jars on the lazy susan. We used a pampered chef turnabout, it's made to hold kitchen utensils, but works well for pens, pencils, markers, etc.!
You have made an excellent point--we have to be close to the kitchen and laundry when we "school", don't we?
Nice, Mary! I love the Lazy Susan. Our "formal dining room" is our school room. We removed the chandelier, and replaced it with a ceiling fan. It's right off the kitchen and (unfortunately) not far from the laundry room. I intensely dislike laundry, but for some reason I find myself processing it every day. Boo.
Have a great school year!
You make me feel better about not having a designated space.
Ha ha! Love it!
I often wish I had the COURAGE to abandon the school room idea... but my brain craves the "we're in the space... this is what we do here" connection!
I guess ya could say that I have freewheelin' homeschooler envy! ;-)
I didn't even post on this link up because we 'school' all over the place! We do have a Homeschool room because this house had a den and a living room. But we NEVER use it. Keilee's laptop is in there and she uses that but otherwise we do school on the kitchen table, on the couch, outside and wherever she happens to 'plop'. That is what I love about homeschooling! I love all the pictures of your homeschool and organization. :)
woot! I'm pro-migration !!
I love how you shared your thought process! We are blessed that our extra room is just off the dining room, so it's right in the hub of the house ~ yet, most of our learning happens in the living room on the couches!
It looks like a lovely way to blend life and learning! I definitely agree that being close to other daily tasks like laundry and meal preparation make life easier. Though maybe if I had to go up and down stairs between schoolwork and laundry loads I could skip my morning walks and have a doughnut for breakfast instead.
We homeschool in much the same way...everythings stored (mostly) in one place, but we scatter all over the house to do the actual work (in the case of the 4 year old, bouncing or rolling on a large ball a lot of the time!).
one room just can't contain learning when learning happens all the time.
I love what Phyllis said!!
We learn everywhere, all day long:)
Neat to see your photos! Like you, we use our kitchen table quite a bit.
Popped over from Sunrise Learning Lab to see your Week 2 - School Room Tour post that you linked up with the iHomeschool Network’s Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop.
Have a wonderful homeschool year!
http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/2012/08/blog-hop-week-2-our-school-room.html
Your space looks nice & functional. We will be moving later this year and will have a smaller space, most likely. We will have a space similar to yours at that point. Have a wonderful year together!
I love all your storage ideas. We have places all over our apt for school and crsft things, My son changes where he does his actual work all the time. Sometimes its on the couch, other times its sprawled on his bed or floor. A few times it was even outside. As long as hes getting it done, its no problem for me. I wish he would do it closer to laundry, it would be great time to fold clothes or pop a load in real quick.