Planning your homeschooling room

Homeschooling this year?  New to this all?  Or just looking to revamp,  re-organise and improve on what you have?  Not everyone has a room dedicated to homeschooling so never fear if you don't.  When you are planning your room or working space, you need to take a few things into consideration to make homeschooling that little bit easier and hopefully a little more organised.  These are a few things that I need in my homeschooling room which are different to my list of homeschooling things that I cannot live without.  But I need both:)

1.  A desk or a shared space like a dining room table. And this space needs to have space.  4 children bickering about whose book is in the way, or whose page is overlapping another one's page will drive you batty. I have a big table when we do group work but also have two other desks when they invade each other's space.  Maybe your children are more gracious but mine aren't.

2.  Good lighting
We have a lot of natural light from our windows but we also have lots of rain during winter and the further away you move from the window the darker it gets.  Make sure that all areas have good lighting.  Avoid the light bulbs that emit a yellow light and try and get the white light bulbs instead.

3.  Consider your social life and the visitors to your home.
My husband runs a business from home and our homeschooling room is right at the entrance of the house - AND we don't have a door to close.  I make sure that at all times the room is presentable and if I know we are about to launch into a particularly messy adventure, I take them to the back of the house to the kitchen and dining room area.  (there my secret is out) I am sensitive to the activities in our home as well as our social life.  Where you decide to homeschool, needs to take this into consideration, otherwise you will constantly be berating you children for leaving a mess and constantly be apologising to everyone who comes for a visit.

4.  Place for books - lots of them
Boxes, shelves or crates, be prepared for books.  I never have enough space - we are always inheriting books or buying them second hand.  Curriculum books arrive and we can't even find space for storing them. I once built a bookshelf just from planks and bricks that had been covered with wrapping paper.  It doesn't have to cost you a lot.

5.  Variety - this is great for maintaining interest. Whether you use different rooms to do this or whether you create different spaces within one room - make sure that there are a variety of potential work spaces.   We love excursions and are constantly out and about but there is always work to be done at home.  And to ensure that you maintain interest and variety, think about where else you can work.  We use the kitchen for all science experiments as well as our back yard, reading in our beds, Bible in the lounge, read alouds on the couch or outside on a blanket if it's warm, art on the plastic table on our patio, Mandarin at the computer etc. Don't be bound into thinking that everything has to be done at the dining room table or in the homeschooling room.

 6.  Age plays a very important role in how you set up a learning space.
My youngest is 4 going on 14.  Though she is so little she is always wanting to get involved. At times she is allowed to work at the same table as the boys but then she draws on their pages, breaks their things or starts to sing at the top of her voice. Because of this I have created a play area to one side and also she has her own special desk for "little girls".  I don't isolate her but try to prevent distractions and interference.

7.  Distractions
Some distractions can be a learning experience but you definitely want to be in a space where there is not a constant external demand for attention by the activities surrounding your children.  We used to have our work desk right next to the window but we are situated next to the main road. So you can only imagine  the thrill of every ambulance, car chase or anyone raising their voice as they walk past.  Now we have moved the desk further back into the room and use that space for the play area instead.

8. Hooks, nails, walls, white boards 
Think of creative ways to put their work on display. We rent so this is fairly challenging but we have found ways, like sticking art on windows, using our fridge, hanging art from a string with pegs. They love having their work on display.

9.  If you are thinking of painting - yes bright colours are pretty but they can also be very disturbing too.  Go for calming colours if you are going to paint.

10.  A big couch - for read alouds and literature studies
We don't have one in our homeschooling room - as there is too little space but we just migrate to the lounge and while I read, they build with Lego.

11. We also needed computer space.  We have one old desktop (did I say old - VERY old) and two laptops.  Though the laptops are mobile, we end up with cords everywhere and children trip over them consistently, no matter how many times you tell them to watch where they are walking.  If you plan on using computers, don't wait until they rip out the chord and you hear your computer crashing to the floor.  Cords are meant to be tripped over, especially by children and then we can't blame them, if we leave them lying around.

12. Printer - this is a serious must.  We didn't always have one but I don't actually know how you can homeschool without. With so many great curriculum online like CurrClick - where you pay, download and print and Homeschool Freebies - it really is a an asset. Our printer does do colour prints but we run out of colour all the time and so now we just stick to black and white and add colour ourselves - not as exciting but a whole lot cheaper!

14.You can decorate the walls with all sorts of educational posters but my opinion is don't waste your money.  I bought posters and initially there was an interest but eventually no one even saw them anymore.  What I would recommend are some good maps.  Laminate them so that you can write on them with dry markers when you are doing a specific study (something I have still not gotten round too).  But maps are great.  As for the rest, rather put the children's work up.  They will love it and will also love showing everyone that walks through the door, their latest efforts.

15.  Start collecting goodies for your art box.  I used to think art was really expensive but if you start a collection before you know it you will have loads of materials to work with - wool, recycled items, glue, paper, magazines etc.

16.  Stationary - variety is the key. Don't spend a lot of money on expensive items unless your child is older or very responsible. I have bought some lovely colour tipped pens only to find my 8 year old colouring in so hard that he destroyed half of them in a day.  Test them with a few items first. If they are diligent and careful - go ahead but rather get a few cheap items from the dollar store to start and go from there.

Enjoy the adventure of creating your learning space.  It's not just for your children but for you too, so give it some thought.  There are lots of ways to do this in a very affordable way and I will chat about that tomorrow.  

For those of you who have homeschooled for some time, have I left something off the list of things that you feel should be included?  Why not leave a comment?

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