Home is where you start from: Our Learning Areas

Monday, September 27, 2010

Our Learning Areas

We don't have a dedicated homeschool room at our house. Our learning takes place in various locations- so mostly I am good with this. Some days, I do think it would be nice to have a room to display things in and then be able to close the door on all the mess...

Our house has a front living room and also a family room. Sky suggested I turn the front room into a homeschool room. I declined, after living in a very small house with a small living area (singular) I couldn't give up the luxury of not one living room- but two! Also, I thought it would be strange to have a school room as the first thing you see when you walk in...

I have a great big closet that I store my homeschool junk-habit (um, educational supplies) our learning area is comprised of this closet, the bookcase and our craft table pictured above.

This is my Ikea bookshelf. I love, love, love this bookcase. I would have several more, except that Sky does not think books are a major decor item.

I beg to differ...

On this bookshelf I have 2 different Sonlight Cores, and the top shelf holds magazine boxes for each student- these contain workbooks we use everyday- such as our Math. Next to each box is a 3-ring binder for each child, this holds their week's work plus work completed for the month.

Most of our daily work happens around the big dining room table. Our main living areas are all open to each other, so we have room to move around and to get the books we need.

This is my chalkboard of ultimate power- (from another post) it's a small wall between our dining room and family room. Sky painted it with chalkboard paint. I use it mostly for scheduling purposes, but I also sometimes use it for lessons.

Our school-life is part of our every day family life, it's just how we live, so I am very comfortable with it spreading itself out into our house.

I do admit though, some days, I think it would be really nice to have everything in a room that I could shut the door on!

Thank you for visiting our learning area,
tell me about your school spots...!

Labels: homeschool

posted at 5:52 PM
15 comments

15 Comments:

At 6:33 PM, Rachel @ Finding Joy said...: Love this.

Our lives are structured the same. Where we live, we learn. There is a chalkboard in our dining room, several inspiration quotes, and books in our living room. On our door to the garage there are art projects attached with magnets.

This is life for now. Someday my home will be quiet -- so for now I embrace the beauty of a learning life.

I loved your post.
At 6:40 PM, Anonymous said...: I see several similarities in our homeschools. We do not have a specific schoolroom either. We use our dining room mostly for instruction. Any educational DVDs we play in the living/family room. I also have an IKEA shelf with 12 12x12 boxes.....I just LOVE Ikea shelves.....would love to have 2 more smaller ones like the one you have pictured here. Love finding other homeschool blogs.....tfs!
At 7:13 PM, Amy said...: I think you have wonderful learning space. If I were to homeschool, I would love creating a beautiful learning space.
At 2:26 AM, Anonymous said...: Your space looks so beautifully decorated! We do have a designated school room. My daughter has ADHD and it helps her stay more focused if she is in a smaller setting. I will have to check out that chalkboard paint. I've heard great things about it, and it looks wonderful.
At 3:10 AM, Melissa N. said...: Jenny, that space looks great! We are the same way over here....our playroom (which would be a LR for others) and our dining room is all our homeschool area. It just spills over to each other. I love your chalkboard! I am now a follower and saw your blog at the Hip Homeschool Hop today!

Melis
http://just-starting-out.blogspot.com/
At 3:55 AM, Lizzie said...: I agrees, books are absolutely decor. :)
Until this year we didn't really have anyplace either, mostly the kitchen table and the big comfy couch. Now that my sister moved out though, I not only have a new library but our oldest now works at a vintage desk in it.
Sorry I haven't played on the lens challenge, I always seem to be a week behind thematically. Happy Hip Homeschool Hop, nice to see you today.
At 6:12 AM, Theresa said...: I agree, books make great decor! I love walls of floor to ceiling book shelves!

We just started hsing and are using a room in our finished basement...I thought I had posted pics, but it doesn't seem like I have! I must get on that!
At 8:00 AM, Aimee said...: We have a room that is the "school room". Its really just an extra bedroom. I like using bedrooms though because they have big closets for all that curriculum storage!

And I think books make great decor!
At 8:31 AM, Jen said...: We school at the table. I would love to have a school room someday.

I'm going to look into making a chalkboard on a small wall in our home. I LOVE that idea! Thanks for the hint.

I'm here from Hip Homeschool blog hop.
At 10:37 AM, Jenn said...: Stopping by from Hip Homeschool Hop...Have a great day!! http://extrememakeover-homeschooledition.blogspot.com/
At 5:35 AM, Luke Holzmann said...: I remember spending a lot of time reading on the couch and the floor [smile].

~Luke
At 12:29 PM, Unknown said...: I love this post! Our family gets school done in much of the same ways! We generally use the dining room table. I don't have a designated room either. It's the kitchen/dining area. We live in a modest home, so I make do with the space we have. Some days are good, and others will drive me crazy! LOL Love all the pics!
At 12:30 PM, Unknown said...: Oops, I forgot to mention that I stopped by from the Homeschool Hop, and I'm a new follower. :)
At 5:59 PM, Jennifer Lavender said...: Right now our school is just everything thrown in whatever nook it happens to fit in at the moment. Some day we'll manage to get it a bit more organized than that.
At 10:17 PM, Grandmabeckyl.blogspot said...: Love your bookshelf, too. I used to homeschool our two children. Our main room was dining room and books were in family room which is right next to it. Living room couch was where we did reading. PE outdoors! Loved the homeschool years so am loving reading how others are doing it now. Good for you! Take care!

This Page

15 Comments: