My New Homeschool Space
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I love seeing other homeschool moms and bloggers work areas. Everyone approaches the question of where to do school and work differently based on their family dynamics and home layout. Every family has to create their own homeschool space.
Moving to a new home a few months ago meant that I needed to identify and create work and school areas again. Seeing how other real moms organized their spaces helped me, so I thought I would share my work and homeschool rooms too.
My New Homeschool and Blogging Spaces
Homeschool
Our main school room is our dining room. We have an eat in kitchen, so we only need to use a traditional dining room when we have guests. We rarely do school when we are hosting family and friends, so there isn’t much overlap between using the table for school work and using it for eating.
The large dining room table gives us plenty of room to spread out and work on projects together. I also hung a fairly big magnetic whiteboard in the dining room. Yes, I felt a little silly hanging this in my ‘formal’ dining room, but really, anyone coming over for dinner knows that we homeschool. They don’t care that our All About Spelling letters are on display.
I primarily teach at this table, but sometimes my kids do their independent work outside on the patio, on the living room couch, or in their bedrooms. They just come find me if they need help.
When we bought this home, I originally thought we would do schoolwork at the kitchen table, but the dining room has worked out perfectly because:
- We don’t need to clear away school work at meal times
- It is further from my husband’s home office (so quieter for him!)
- It is right across from my office, so I can supervise while getting my own work done
Blogging
One of the things I love about this house is that it has two office spaces. My husband is home right now and he needs a quiet space to work. Quiet can be hard to come by when kids are home all day! I wanted somewhere to keep all of our homeschool supplies and to work on my blog. Two offices are perfect for our family right now.
My office is where I organize all of our homeschool books, curriculums, and supplies. It also gives me an organized space to maintain my blogging work.
The bookshelf holds books for my kids to read as well as educational resources. The top shelf contains curriculums that we are not currently using. The next shelf is chapter books that either have been assigned or will be assigned. The third shelf is mostly picture books that have sentimental value. We donated a bunch of books before we moved, so our book collection shrank quite a bit. The next shelf is where I keep educational picture books, organized by genre, that might relate to lessons. The bottom shelf is pretty much a random assortment of books that don’t fit in anywhere else.
I bought a shorter bookshelf at a local thrift store when we got to North Carolina. This is where I keep curriculum that we are currently using, a boredom busting basket, and a few educational supplies for my kids to enjoy.
Above it is a cork board for my kids to pin their artwork. This lets me enjoy their creativity without having to tape it directly to the walls. This paint peels off with any little bit of tape, so I’m trying to prevent that as much as possible.
One thing that is important to me, is that my kids feel comfortable joining me in my office. The rocking chair gives them a place to sit while they read a good book or chat with me while I’m working. We didn’t bring much furniture from Washington to North Carolina, but I couldn’t give up the rocking chair where I spent so many late nights rocking my babies to sleep.
On the other side of the room I have my desk. The drawers, cork board, and additional nearby shelving help keep me organized. I’m the sort of person that needs to write things down and that always equals tons of pieces of paper. This lets me keep them all straight.
The closet is a work in progress, but it contains all of our craft supplies, additional educational materials, record keeping, office supplies, and board games. I’m currently in the process of grouping things in bins and baskets. It isn’t perfect yet, but I can generally find what I need pretty easily.
Where do you do most of your work?
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