152

7

Brenda

posted 16 Nov. 2009, 10:15 am

Hello, My name is Brenda and I have homeschooled for over 17 years so far. I have had a "school room" a couple times in all those years but we just never used them. It is great to have a library room for all your books and supplies :) My children always just drifted to where I was. If I was in the kitchen cooking they were at the table. If I was in my room they would be on the bed. On the puter? they are in the living room :) The older ones usually sit in their rooms and do their work. Congratulations on home educating your DC. I promise that you will never , ever regret it. I have so many precious memories with all my older ones and still making them with the younger ones. My children are aged 29 down to 12.

This is my 3rd year homeschooling. I have a 3rd grader and a 2-year-old. You've asked a lot of questions. I'll touch on those that mattered to me.

Our "classroom" used to be our den/office. Now it serves as both which is sometimes a problem as I like to work on the computer while my son completes assigments. He is easily distracted by what I'm doing.

I used a desk at first, but have found a round table suits us best. We can both sit and work together and I can also pull up a high chair for my youngest to color, etc. Also, the larger table allows him to spread out his book and notebook. The school desk forced him to keep his notebook/workbook on top of the text book.

We do sit on the floor sometimes. More space would certainly be nice. It'd be great to have a couple of big bean bags for silent reading time, but space doesn't allow it for us.

I love the natural light that comes in our large window. It does however distract my son who likes to daydream as he looks out. I have to close the blinds.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the fact that our "classroom" is part of the house. It allows me to make lunch while he is working, switch laundry or keep an eye on the 2-year-old as he plays in the other room. I can't imagine having our classroom separate.

We need LOTS of book space, file space, countertop space and bulletin board space. We created a few bulletin boards for tracking reading, etc. so I don't put holes in the walls.

One other thing...I painted our classroom this past summer b/c I read that a good classroom color is green. The article claime it to be calming and aid in focus. I find that to be true. I chose a very light shade of green that is almost "nursery" colored yet not quite.

706

36

Cheryl

posted 23 Nov. 2009, 8:21 pm

With the ages of your kids, I'd go for the round table. I have a desk for our 1st grader but she does work at the round table more. Our preschooler and I sit at the table too and our 18month old likes to sit and scribble with us. We have it in the corner of the livingroom.

We tried just using the dining room table but it was too stressful for me to always keep clean before and after each meal. We have bookshelves all over but I do have one main shelf near the table that I keep our current books that we are using there.

Good luck! We are planning our dream house and have thought about it, too

13

14

Robin

posted 29 Nov. 2009, 10:13 am

When our children were young I started out at the table for written work and snuggling on the couch for reading and other work. As they grew older their needs changed as did mine. One thing I found that I needed was a schoolroom that I could walk away from, I could close the door and not look at the "mess" that the kids had going on. During the summer and breaks during the year it was nice to have a place where projects and so forth could be left out to be worked on without being in the way.

We bought a new house when the older kids were around middle school aged. We set aside a room in the house that had been a workshop for the previous owner. It is large enough that we put in lots of shelves for the book, and a large desk for me as well as an eight foot table. (We homeschool 5) My husband built a shelf above the table that became a place for computer monitors. The kids work on the table, have a keyboard and mouse, as well as a place to store their own books. At my desk I keep the books that I use for teaching as well as record books. This gives me a place to sit and grade papers and so on. I also place the youngest students on each end of my desk so that I am able to give them immediate assistance as needed. I also have a huge marker board on one wall that gives the opportunity to do some lecture style teaching on occasion as the high school students need to become familiar with that style of teaching. At the same time my students have the opportunity to move around the house and work where they are most comfortable. My oldest son loves to go to the living room and sit at the game table and do his work by himself.

We also babysit 3 little girls, two of who are preschool aged, we have a child-sized table at which they sit and do "school work". It is right near my desk. They work on puzzles, coloring, writing letters, and other "school" related projects while I teach.

At the end of the day though, everyone knows that school work belongs in the school room so that the rest of our life is not overtaken by school. We have a lot of company and I do not like clutter. The biggest thing I have discovered is that no 2 school years looks the same. Each year both I and my students have different needs and we make adjustments to accommodate that. I suggest that whatever you set up you keep flexible so that changes can be made as you need them. God Bless.

11

14

Tricia

posted 3 Dec. 2009, 12:25 pm

Hi. I homeschool my 2 girls, ages 5 and 3. We are blessed to have a schoolroom (as part of our house) which I love! We don't use it everyday, but on many. We use it mainly to store all our school materials (lots of shelves), to do our messy crafts (long table or floor for that, depending on the craft), have music (door closed), and use our white board (adjustable height tripod for growing kids). It's nice having it as part of our home so I can run upstairs when I need to while the girls are busy on their activities. We don't really do a lot of sitting during our school time yet, but if we do, they usually come up to the dining room table. For us, just the separate space is nice because we do a lot of hands-on activities. And it's got a tile floor - very easily washable, which I have found to be invaluable!

Have fun!

Hi, this is my 5th year homeschooling. I have a 10 year old girl and an 8 year old boy. We have a fourth bedroom that we converted into a school room. Each of my kids have their own desk, facing away from each other so they don't get the giggles. :-) I have a large desk situated on the wall between the two of them with a rolling chair so that I can spin around to help either of them when needed. We have a large walk in closet that we use for all of our craft supplies. I love that because I can close the door and not see it, but it's just steps away when I do. This year, my kids have defeniately gravatated away from their desks and do work on the couch, table, etc. But it's really nice when it is noisy downstairs there is a quiet retreat they can go and finish their school work. Even though we don't use it as much as an actual study room, it is invaluable to have a designated space for all our school stuff. LOTS AND LOTS of bookshelves are really helpful. My personal favorites are the ones that have doors on the bottoms and open shelves on the tops. Sometimes things can look cluttered even when put away nicely and being able to put small stacking items behind closed doors makes me happy! :-)

If I had the luxury of building a school room from scratch, I would defeniatly make sure there is plenty of large windows. If you notice it being a distraction you can always close blinds or curtains (as one of the wise mom said before me), but being trapped in a dreary school room day after day can really affect moods all the way around. Room for seperate desks as well as a large round table would be ideal. It would cover all contingencies for how your children work.

One more thing, leave open floor space! I know that my kids love to do busy activities such as puzzles, blocks, dioramas, etc. and having a nice space with a comfy throw rug to crash on is the best!

Have fun planning!

Check out Charolette Mason International for info about homeschooling, its a great education philosophy that fits homeschooling perfectly!! My hubby and I both graduated from homeschools. Neither one of us ever had school rooms, although they're fun. We did school on the couch, living room floor, kitchen table. I did a lot of mine in the barn since I grew up on a ranch. Also a lot got done on the road traveling to civil war battle fields. One of the coolest things about homeschooling is that its relaxed and yet you get a better education than strict, disciplined 8am-3pm public schools. I loved the fact that by the time I got to highschool I worked outside of the home full time and did my school in a grand total of 4 hours a day. I had a great education and it was VERY relaxed and layed back. We're going to homeschool our children. Also you need to check out Homeschool Legal Defense.