Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.
As I have mentioned, we found ourselves homeschooling unexpectedly this year. There was not much time to prepare. My initial preparation was entirely consumed in deciding upon curriculum. Preparing our space came later.
In creating a homeschool space, I was not interested in creating a school room at home. Part of the reason we are homeschooling is that my kids needed a break from school. We wanted them to go back to the basics of loving learning and set aside some negative classroom experiences. So quite a bit of our homeschooling takes place while snuggling on couches and recliners. But at times, students need a work surface. Also, we found ourselves with a lot more books, folders and notebooks to store as well as trays of hands-on activities for our Kindergartener.
Our breakfast nook has long served as a craft and homework space. We have an entire pantry devoted to craft supplies. It was not difficult to make this space into a homeschool room. Happily, friends of ours (also homeschoolers) were having a yard sale. When they mentioned they would be selling storage units, I rushed to see what they had. I purchased three Ikea Trofast units, which included both the multilevel unit and the single vertical unit. The multilevel units, I put in our front hall closet and in Anne's room. Placing the unit in Anne's room freed up a small shelf that I put in our homeschool area along side the vertical unit. The finished project looked like this.
As I have mentioned, we found ourselves homeschooling unexpectedly this year. There was not much time to prepare. My initial preparation was entirely consumed in deciding upon curriculum. Preparing our space came later.
In creating a homeschool space, I was not interested in creating a school room at home. Part of the reason we are homeschooling is that my kids needed a break from school. We wanted them to go back to the basics of loving learning and set aside some negative classroom experiences. So quite a bit of our homeschooling takes place while snuggling on couches and recliners. But at times, students need a work surface. Also, we found ourselves with a lot more books, folders and notebooks to store as well as trays of hands-on activities for our Kindergartener.
Our breakfast nook has long served as a craft and homework space. We have an entire pantry devoted to craft supplies. It was not difficult to make this space into a homeschool room. Happily, friends of ours (also homeschoolers) were having a yard sale. When they mentioned they would be selling storage units, I rushed to see what they had. I purchased three Ikea Trofast units, which included both the multilevel unit and the single vertical unit. The multilevel units, I put in our front hall closet and in Anne's room. Placing the unit in Anne's room freed up a small shelf that I put in our homeschool area along side the vertical unit. The finished project looked like this.
As you can see from the picture, Anne is perfectly happy to sit at the table to work with her Legos. However, I noticed she did not enjoy doing school work at the table. At times, we would work in her bedroom at a small child's table because she was more comfortable sitting in a child-size chair, but I needed an option for her on our main floor. I searched Craigslist and found a perfect desk for her that we placed in a corner of our dining room. Several of our "old-fashioned" toys (such as a pedal fire engine and our doll house) are housed in our dining room, so the desk fits in perfectly with the aesthetic. The desk we found used can be purchased at Amazon here. Anne loves the chalkboard top on the desk.
I wanted to provide Anne with as many math and language manipulatives as possible, but I needed a way to keep them organized and put away when we aren't using them. We are lucky to have some built in storage units in our family room in which we keep games and puzzles. I cleaned these out and freed up two shelves. I carefully selected items for the two top shelves in the unit below that Anne is allowed to pull out during school time. She needs educational activities to work on when I am working with Meg and Clare and this gives her the freedom to choose what interests her.
A few activities that I planned to use during my one-on-one time with Anne, I placed in the bottom of our china cabinet in the dining room so they would be near her desk. I have placed these and other activities on trays that I purchased at Lakeshore Learning many years ago similar to those found here.
I am sure we will make many changes to this set up in the months ahead, but this is working for us quite well right now.
RSS Feed
