Homeschooler Mom

I’m so blessed to have an area in my house that we can use for our “school room” (not pictured here). Up until now we’ve used it as a “family room”, but that’s in name only. It’s actually been used mostly as a place for me to keep all of my pre-schoolers’ toys that I don’t want cluttering up the main part of the house. The kids occasionally play down there, but mostly they stay upstairs with me.

Well, this year we’re officially making it the school room. Admittedly I was a bit unsure of what to do to create my homeschool room so I checked around to see what other homeschooler moms were doing for their rooms. This is what I found and how I’m incorporating it into our school room:

SHELVING

Shelving is a great way to stay organized.

My husband installed a built in shelving unit late last year, so it’s perfect to keep school stuff up and out of my littlest ones’ reach…now if I can just get my 4 year old to stop climbing chairs to get to her school stuff.

Having a separate shelf for each child, for various subjects (one for art materials, one for science stuff, and one for reading material) and for MY stuff (teachers materials) should make finding and putting things away a breeze for all of us.

READING AREA

Having a place to read to the kids or for them to read by themselves is needed. Whether it’s in the same room or not, it’s a good idea to have a “zone” for that task. Thankfully we already have a couch down there perfect for snuggling up to a good book.

Good lighting is also very important. This is something I need to improve upon in our room. Right now we just have one table lamp. While I don’t believe we’ll put in a ceiling fixture, we can certainly have more table/floor lamps strategically placed throughout the room, being careful to hide electrical cords. (I have to still keep this room toddler proof…my 12 month old is pretty mobile these days.)

WORK STATION: TABLE/DESK AND CHAIR

Having a place for the kids to sit and write/draw unimpeded is very important. We have a small table with two small chairs right now, but I think I need something more in case they both want to work at the same time. The table is great for them to play together on, but not so great for them to work on separate projects at the same time.

We have a student chair in storage I will pull out. It’s a bit cumbersome, but serves an important purpose.

MEDIA STATION

Having an area to play music and/or instructional material is beneficial, though not necessary. We already have a TV with VCR/DVD/CD player down there. There’s no antenna reception for the TV down there, so the TV-viewing is limited to what we have in our video library, which is fine with me.

COMPUTER CENTER

There are many great educational resources (CD-ROMs) available for all ages. Up until now I haven’t allowed my children on the computer, but I can see incorporating this into their lives could be beneficial. I think I’m going to hold off on that (unless someone can give me some GOOD reasons why I shouldn’t).

Otherwise I have a laptop which I use on a regular basis, and that goes wherever I go (wireless internet access is a beautiful thing). Also, I have an office separate from this room where my printer is housed along with all my files and office supplies…it’s easy enough to get to when I need it, but out of the way enough to not to disturb our schooling activities.

WALLS

The walls are a great place for housing all sorts of valuable resources. Things such as:

• a Calendar and Schedule
• a Clock for keeping and teaching time
• a Map for teaching geography
• Posters, charts, signs & pictures to promote whatever you want (ie. Alphabet, Numbers, Bible Verses, Character Traits, Colors, Shapes, etc.)
• a White Board or Chalk Board to write assignments or teach lessons on.
• a Bulletin Board
• Artwork

Having a place to hang a calendar is great for both the teacher and the student. My daughter is learning the days of the week and we’ve used the Kitchen calendar in the past for a sticker showcase for both my preschoolers potty-training successes. We like calendars.

I have both a White Board and a Bulletin Board that I still have to mount on the wall. And we have peel and stick alphabet decals that I’ll put up. This reminds me, there are so many removable wall appliques/decals available today to help promote various themes. Whether you’re teaching about dinosaurs, outer space, animals/wildlife, plants/flowers, or colors/shapes, you can find this easy-to-apply and remove wall art to complement your lessons.

CONCLUSION

While there may be more great ideas out there, this is what I’ve come up with for creating a schoolroom in our home. If you have any more suggestions on how I can get things set up based on your experience, please feel free to share them with me. I’m just getting started and I can use all the help I can get. Thanks.

I’ll post pictures when we get the room up and ready…hopefully before school starts! For more great pictures of the Homeschool Blogger’s room pictured above, visit Less of Me, More of Him.

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