How much space do I need for "my stuff" for homeschool?

[mjlamarche]

We are designing our big open basement room for homeschooling planning desks for all and lots of storage for them, but I don't know MY needs for storage, teacher books, computer, etc....what would you all say about storage needed for MOM? A computer? White board? And is a globe really necessary? I feel like Google Earth will work.

Also, are there "school supply" lists of items we need to have for each child's guide?

thanks!

[Nealewill]

For me, I have my own computer. And I don't know what age your kids are if they need a computer but having a couple of computers for them eventually would be nice. I personally do use a large white board but use the small little hand held ones. I would have a couple of large book shelves. In addition, I would have a desk for each child if you can or a couple of tables. Currently, I have 2 dining room tables in my living room to help with school stuff. I keep all of the books that my kids table that they are reading. My oldest has a propped up filing thing for papers, maps, student notebooking pages and the likes. She has a binder that she keeps at her desk for filing everything once it is finished. She has a bin that she keeps composition notebooks in. And she a small cubby container with pencils, highlighters, scissors, glue sticks and anything else she might need for supplies. My younger two kids have to share a table. But I would absolutely love get another table set up so my kids could each have their own. Also - because of lack of space, we have a several laptops in our house. Currently, the rules are that you can't any your laptop in your room. So if there is anything my kids do on the computer, they do it at the dining room table, their table or the playroom (all of these places are on the main floor). Also - we have a couple of large chairs in our living room and those are great for reading. But my kids like to go throughout the whole house or even outside to do their reading. For me - probably my favorite thing about our space is just the desks. I hated having to always clean off the dining room table so that my kids could do school. Now it is all self contained in one place and helps with not having to run around prepping a space for copywork and any writing assignments.

[Nealewill]

One other thing I just thought of - we have two very large wall maps in our hallway going upstairs. One is of the world and one is of the US. This was very helpful in finding things easily when we were looking them up in Beyond through CTC. I don't know that I will need them nearly as much with RtR and up but I anticipate my kids will probably go find stuff on it occasionally even if I am not the one directing them to do it.

[my3sons]

Great ideas already! We used a pampered chef tool turnaround turnstile for all of the markers, crayons, pencils, glue sticks, rulers, etc. Each of our dc has his own turnstile. They are easy to move from place to place and go back in the cupboard when done. I would have cupboard doors to cover up shelving housing school things if possible. It just looks neater and more appealing to me then following down books or cubes! Adequate lighting is really important, as is a large enough surface for spreading out work (especially for middle school and high school students). A CD player, earbuds, computer, etc. are nice as well. I'd also sneak in a Keurig coffeemaker for me! I like my armoire with doors for my stuff, and I have a grading scale, timers, white dry erase boards (4 handheld ones), dry erase markers and erasers, and a charger for my phone (so I can snap pics as we go for the HOD weekly check-in). I'd get a globe. You use it every year, usually for history and geography and science. It just gives a better visual of the earth (how it rotates, revolves, its curved surface, topographical features are upraised/indented, etc.). Have fun setting up your space! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[mjlamarche]

thanks for the ideas, gals!
My kids will be in Preparing (age 9, fourth grader), Beyond (age 7, 2nd grader), and two littles doing Little Hands (ages 5 and 3) with the 5 yr old using Reading, Writing, and Math for Kindergarten.