# Where do you homeschool?



## Loriann1971

Do you have a dedicated space set aside as a classroom or do you do the majority of your class time in a room with a dual function, such as the kitchen or dining room? 

I am trying to decide how I want to set things up at our house and I would love to hear how other people have arranged their school spaces.

We have a four bedroom house and I have the boys sharing a room, so that we can have a dedicated playroom. I want to keep it more of a playroom because that gives me a place to send my 3 and 4 year old when I need to work one on one with my 7 year old. 

I am thinking of making it a little more like a preschool room. We already turned the closet into a "reqading room" and have a chalk board hung up. I have ABC, color and shape charts hanging on the walls.

The main part of our house is one giant room that includes the kitchen, dining room, breakfast nook and living room. It is airy and open, but the design makes it hard to seperate the kids. The breakfast nook has my desk and computer and a table that doesn't have to be cleared in order for the family to sit down to dinner, so that will probably be the main school area. I just have to decide how much classroom stuff I want to have invading what is the main area of our house.


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## TenBusyBees

Dining room is our school room. Cabinets along one wall for our books, games, supplies, etc. Opposite wall is the older children's desks and computers. Another wall has our chalk board and bulletin boards. 

My oldest two, 14 and 12, are the ones who do their core work on the computer with headphones. The 8yo and 5yo do their lessons with me at the table. However, our twins, age 3, are also at the table either coloring, doing playdough, geoboards, lacing boards, pattern blocks, or a craft project while the middles are doing their lessons. I have found there is much less havoc and chaos if I keep them close rather than off playing without any supervision.


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## Loriann1971

I understand keeping them close. LOL


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## BusyBees2

We use the dining room which is open to the kitchen and living room. Our hutch is my 'school central' with books, papers, binders, etc. I also have a book shelf.

Sometimes my kids (10, 7) will take their work to the living room or their bedrooms, but generally they work better under supervision. I can send the 4yo away if need be, but she's often working at the table with them in some capacity.


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## mekasmom

When my children were young, we had a school room. It was a good place for art projects, books, computers, games, and other storage. I just preferred keeping everything in one place where the mess wouldn't show all over the house. We painted murals on the walls, set up 4 computers, had several book cases, had a math wall with place number charts, had a wall space for a periodic chart and other science things, had a place for timelines, etc. It was just easier that way. And if we were doing a big map or an art project we could just leave it out on the table in there without having to move it all over to eat at the family table.
I had no qualms about letting the kids take their work to other rooms, and just provided clip boards for that purpose. But I did try to keep the "mess" in the school room. One room covered with glitter and paint was enough to try to keep clean.


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## Sonshine

We use to have a room set up but things sort of spilled over into the dining room over time.


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## vicki in NW OH

Our HS was very informal, by the woodstove in the winter, on the porch swing or picnic table when it was warmer. Had a big armoire bookcase full of books and supplies, though.


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## jamala

We started out with a "school room" upstairs in our bonus room but that room also has the pool table, air hockey table and ping pong. It is a big room but I was having to turn the air/heat on in that room everyday for school. I decided to just move school to the kitchen table where I have to heat/cool anyway to save on the power bill. Now that my older 2 are in high school one goes into his dads office to do independent work and computer work. My DD has claimed the dining room and I work with the first grader at the kitchen table. I did buy a pretty shelf with baskets to store all the school stuff in for the dining room.


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## kinderfeld

We use the kitchen table for paperwork. Reading time is on the couch or outside under the trees. If the weather permits it, we go outside and have explore and learn time. It's my favorite way for the kids to learn. My kids are 2 and 5 years old. Hands on learning is encouraged.


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## chickenista

Here in the computer room.
My computer desk is extra long and DS can roll a chair up to the end of the table. If we are doing something on my screen he can scoot closer and look to.
He has a computer with desk as well and he does some of his stuff over there.

We also use the front porch or the car during rides or wherever we happen to be...


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## jamala

Just got back from my favorite classroom. The garden and orchard. My 6 year old can name every tree and vine by the leaf. Tonight he helped me picked red and blue grapes, 4 buckets of pink eye peas and a 5 gal. bucket of tomatos. Then he picked and ate blueberries and blackberries while I gathered other veggies. While in the garden he practiced counting, measuring skills, following directions and life skills. Tomorrow while helping me can the produce he will practice more math and measurment skills.


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## halfpint

When the children were younger, we had a 'school room', but as they got older we drifted to other areas of the house depending upon what we are doing. Kitchen table is normal for math, living room or back porch for reading, etc.... They each have a cabinet that they keep their books & equipment (pencils, pens, protractors, compass, rulers, calculator) so that it is not sitting out all the time.
Dawn


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## mommathea

We have a home office that we run our business out of. The 'work office' is in the back of the room. And in the front half is the 'school room' 
The room also has a closet where I keep all of the reading books, encyclopedias ect...
we do our group stuff in the office, but even though they all have their own desks, then end up scattered through out the house during individual work times. 

I am a everything has a place and a place for everything kind of gall, so I have to have a designated school space. It drove me insane in our old house to have school stuff in the dining room.


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## DYngbld

When I work nights they school in the basement.

Really what ever works for your situation, that is one of the great joys of homeschooling. Our older two kids are on auto pilot most of the time and do school were they want, as long as the school work and chores get done we don't really care. The younger two need a tick more supervision, and school some place quiet, like the basement, while I sleep, or at the kitchen table (or front porch, or back deck) when I am on days.


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## Laura Zone 5

The year we started, I had a 7th, 6th, 4th grader.

We went to the kitchen table. The first couple of years it was very much 'school at home'.
The year my kids were 9th, 8th, 6th......we relaxed. We just sprawled out all over the house.

The biggest adjustment was to do school work in 'noise'.
At school, it was always quite when they were in their classrooms. 
My line of thinking was "it's a noisy world, learn to think through the noise".
So I didn't make things "artificially" quite.

It worked for us!


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## Ohio dreamer

No set space in our house. Kids to written work at the dinning room table, we read sitting on the couch, experiments are done in the kitchen, etc. With the exception of a white board in the dinning room, nothing "looks like" school in our house. We DO have more bookshelves then the average American house hold, but as an ex-librarian people expect that from me.


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## Loriann1971

We also have bookshelves everywhere.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE

we homeschool in the dining room with the homeschool cabinet behind the kids chairs. We do head out side for some stuff and the kids tend to have the run of the house. for this year we are moving more toward unschooling with the caveat that wii and tv will be relegated to weekends only, so then i assume we will be all over the house.


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## KentuckyDreamer

I "tried" to have a formal area, but education took on a life of its own. At any given time there are things in every room, even the bathroom. I have no idea what will peak his interest until he has thrown himself into something...and they are generaly major projects. 

My thought is for the first several years of elementary education he will simply devour life, then we can focus on the "facts" later. Example, he built a dog house using his hand tools. When we sit down and "do" measurements, he will already know first hand the inches, feet, etc. He is also measuring and recording his tallest corn stalk each morning.

We also have a issue with interest. He can decide at 9:00 pm he MUST learn multiplication and he is off on a major journey.


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## BlueberryChick

I've homeschooled for 15 years, in four different houses. In the first, we did school in the den. The house had a separate living room, so the den could be mainly for school.

The second house was really small, so school was at the table which was part of a combination dining/family room/kitchen. We kept books and other supplies on a shelf nearby.

In the third house, I had a room over the detached garage that was totally dedicated to school. It was a great space and it was nice to have school separate from the rest of the house. However, it was also cut off from the house so we had to go back to the house any time we needed a bathroom break, little ones needed a nap, etc.

Where we are now, we started in a corner of the family room. Now that the upstairs is finished, the schoolroom shares space with my sewing room. It gets crowded when my sewing business is busy, but it allows me to work while the children are doing schoolwork.

Best of luck in figuring out what works for you!


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## KyMama

This past year I tried to let my 14 yr old decide and he wanted to do work in his room, in the basement. We then spent a lot of time arguing because he wasn't doing his work without supervision. This year I think we will be back at the dining room table. When we moved his bedroom to the basement I got my office back upstairs and I've thought about using it, but I haven't decided yet. My youngest will start school this year so I need to think of the noise level from a 5 yr old too. I don't think they will be able to work next to each other without talking and playing. So most likely the 14 yr old at the table and the 5 yr old in the living room at his folding table. But y'all know how it is, it changes everyday depending on everyone's mood.


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## scwit

I know this is an old thread but really enjoyed reading about other's school rooms. We basically turned what was our living room into the dining/school room. We moved the living room to the dining room area. We had owned a huge pedestal table that took up way too much room for our little house. We managed to sell that about a year ago- so we have changed up how we're organized several times since then. But is so much better to have the floor space. I have an antique buffet-that holds quite a bit of kitchen/cooking items/linens(which I am about to empty and store elsewhere-linens), we have alot of items under -in plastic storage containers. (Things like craft items) books and items we use a lot of are on top of the buffet. We also have an area to plug in electronics, kindles, laptops, etc...The computer desk and a nice size bookcase are also right at our fingertips. My favorite piece is a convertible table that is hinged in the middle, so it can be opened up for extra work space. The kids sit on over stuffed ottomans and the woodstove is right there too - so we are cozy!


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## gibbsgirl

We've schooled for years in many different houses. It's been different in different places for setup.

Currently, schoolwork gets done anywhere chosen from day to day.

But....school things have places they belong. Each kid has a box in the basement for things they've finished and keep. Storage shelves in the basement house things not being used this year.

Our library of books in use is in bookshelves in an upstairs closet and hall shelves downstairs. Those are general family library books.

Assigned materials and supplies live in a closet in the back den. They come out in the morning and get put back as they're finished.

Backpacks that hold co-op stuff are kept in the office in between coop days.

Staying in one place to do work day after day is taxing to us. But, having school things out everywhere when not in use us also taxing.

I think everyone has to do what works for them depending on the number and ages of kids, and depending on the house. And, you gotta give yourself permission to change it up when something is off. For us, sometimes we keep our setup for years and sometimes it's been changed multiple times in one year.


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