For the past few years we had a room dedicated to homeschool. The room was the living room of a small garage apartment attached to our home in Virginia. It was a blessing to have, especially as we began our homeschooling journey.
When my girls started kindergarten I purchased cute little desks for them and they loved it!
But towards the end of last year, going into the garage for homeschool felt much like walking into a dungeon. It was very unmotivated. I also knew that we were moving and didn’t know what kind of space we would have for homeschool in our next house. I went on the assumption that we wouldn’t have a room dedicated to homeschool again, and started making the move to doing the bulk of our school at the dining room table.
I loved it!
I loved having the dining room table as our central school location. School is such a part of our lives, it just felt more “right” not to separate it, but to make it a part of our home.
We do have an open area in the front of our new house, by the dining room. I think the owners used it as a formal living room. I am using that area plus the dining room as our homeschool room space. It is bright and it is a central location to make homeschool a priority in our lives.
My girls did miss their little desks when we were doing school solely at the dining room table, so they are happy to have those back.
The living room is not pictured, but we do many of our read-alouds and history lessons there, sitting on the couch. I also utilize bed time for read-alouds.
Most of our current curriculum is stored in these shelves I purchased at Target. I put together a really nice calendar board this year, but I’m going to be replacing it with a map. I have a hard time fitting in calendar time and I’m choosing to just let it go rather than stressing about it. I’ll keep the big calendar up, though.
I have two dry-erase boards/easels that I use a ton. I use one for writing down notes as I’m teaching language and history lessons or to demonstrate handwriting. The other is used with our All About Spelling lessons. These are invaluable to our homeschool! My girls actually got the easel as a birthday present when they turned three. At this point I think I’ve used it more than they have. I do let my two-year old scribble on the back (it’s a chalkboard) and on the dry erase part when we’re not using it to keep her occupied.
And this is what our dining room table looks like at the end of the school day before we’ve cleared it off for dinner. Just keeping it real for you!
Do you have a dedicated space for homeschool?
Show it off and join in the School Room Week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop hosted by iHomeschool Network.
susan says
we don’t homeschool, but i love the idea of your space being integrated into the home instead of the “dungeon in the garage.” it looks like you are going to have a great school year.
Robin E. says
Just popping by from the NOT Back to School Blog Hop.
“Keeping it real”? Your table looks neat and orderly compared to mine after a day of school! It’s amazing how you can start with a clean and empty table and end up with a curriculum tornado in just a few short hours ;D. Thanks for sharing.
Kristina says
Calendar time isn’t something we really do… but I am liking your big pocket chart calendar. Right now I am just writing the date on our white board, but having the month/ day visual would probably be a big help for my son to grasps “time” concepts!
Sam @ Sam's Noggin says
We tried school in our dining room, but it wasn’t big enough for all of our six kids and our homeschool stuff! Your space is lovely!
http://samsnoggin.com/2012/08/the-schoolroom.html
Brandy says
What a great space! We just moved, but in our last house we had a very large finished basement schoolroom/playroom combo and like you it became a chore to go down there. In our new home, even though our new schoolroom is smaller, we are all much happier being in the hub of the home. And I had a fabulous calendar board last year (similar to yours) with awesome calendar notebooks that I have decided to drop as well. We just couldn’t squeeze in one more thing and that was what had to go. I enjoyed seeing your space. Thank you for sharing!
cam says
That’s what our table looks like at the end of each day, also. 🙂
We have the same M&D easel/whiteboard/chalkboard, and I love seeing all the stray marks all over the wood…because ours looks exactly like that. It makes me feel better seeing that it’s apparently the norm. 😉
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