Do I need a schoolroom with HOD?

[amysue277]

Hi,
I'm just wondering how many of you have or wish to have an official "schoolroom". I've seen all of the beautiful rooms on various blogs, and wonder if my kids are missing out because we don't have one. If finances allow, we may be adding a sunroom on to our house, and if we do, I may have to decide soon how I want to utilize the room.

Currently, we just use the couch and good old kitchen table, and I am fine with that, but mymkids are young. I do have an office off the kitchen which I will eventually use for storage. Right now it functions as my 1 year olds sleeping quarters. I guess realistically with 2 toddlers and a newborn, I won't really be able to have anything in reach of them for a few years anyway.

Since I may be getting an extra room, I wonder if I should transform it into a schoolroom, or if it would be better used as living space. I tried using a spare bedroom in the basement as my schoolroom last year, and that plan fell apart when my then baby became a toddler. I'm sure you all know what I mean. So after a lot of time and money, we nixed that plan and I felt terrible about my DH's work going to waste. Sigh. Must I have one to homeschool with HOD? Mostly, I'm just curious if you all hang things on walls, etc. and WHERE your kids do their work.

[krazzymommy]

We do not have a schoolroom. I used to! But, I was so frustrated having a separate space! When my son was in K & 1st - he hated doing his handwriting or math worksheet in a separate room, if I had to make lunch or be with his sister, or leave the room for anything. I hated that we were confined in that room until we were completely done. We switched to the family room/kitchen setup and it is such a better way for our family to intertwine school and our life. Also, now that my son is getting older, he is finding that he prefers to take his independent work to his room as my daughter and I are "too loud" when we do school and he's trying to work. So, having a schoolroom that we were all supposed to be working in would be pointless. The one thing I do miss is having a closet, which I had in my other house/schoolroom. We just have an Ikea Expedit unit behind our couch that houses all our current, daily stuff in it. We use a small whiteboard, but when I want to, I do use my kitchen/family windows; they make a great whiteboard! I do have a small library room, where all our books are that we don't use everyday. A sunroom sounds fun - I would probably put a couch in it and books and use it as a reading room. You can't have enough of those.

[creativemommy]

We school in our living room, dining room and kitchen. Our books/school supplies are housed in ikea cabinets and shelves along a wall in our living room and a wall in our dining room. Reading is usually done on the couch while math, writing, etc is done at the dining room table. We have a bar in our kitchen to accommodate lunch if we are still working on projects through the afternoon. We use calendars in a three-prong folder (blank months that my kids fill in each month) so we don't need one on the wall. This works well for us and because our home is small, it still looks like a home organized for learning rather than an actual school.

[twoxcell]

We use the dining room and living room.

[Molly]

We use the dining room, living room, my bedroom and occasionally the outdoor table. We have bookshelves in the dining room and a cupboard that house our books and supplies.

[countrymom]

We have a "main area" where we store all of our books and supplies and it is kind of like a headquarters. It happens to be our bedroom because it is huge and has a huge window facing south, so very sunny and pleasant. When I have both boys going at once one is in the hallway at a desk just outside the room. Sometimes my older is in the kitchen doing independent work. Our timeline is in our laundry room and our world map is in our "headquarters." I think it is important to have all of your stuff in one area, but other than that, whatever works.

[MomtoJGJE]

we have a room we call the schoolroom. It's our breakfast nook It doesn't have a table. The kids do their work with lap tables, on the floor, or at the table in the dining room if it's something with glue or paint. I will send them to different areas of the house to read or study Bible stuff if anyone else will be reading aloud. Oh, and we do storytime for two of them while they are in bed (questions next day). So I guess we have a school house

I have some yarn stretched down the hall from the front door to the breakfast nook. It has clothes pins on it and that's where we display things. Occasionally we'll hang up other things on the back of the cabinets from the kitchen.

Timeline in Preparing we have in a ziplock baggie right now we are going to put them in order and do the accordion style fold sometime next week. I thought that would be an easy way to review the history she learned this past year.

[annaz]

We have a living room and a family room and I took the family room and its our schoolroom. It's nice to have everything in one place so you're not hunting from closet to closet and schlepping from room to room.

[Mombeck]

You absolutely do not need a school room. We had made a beautiful classroom in our finished basement but I have health issues that made it impossible for me to run up and down stairs all day. Our school takes place at our kitchen island in the morning as I read aloud, at the dining room for written work, and on either our living room or family room couches for more reading together as the day goes on. When we do our watercolor painting, we take over the kitchen table. I still feel bad about the practically new desks sitting empty downstairs and I'm trying to rethink how to use that space.

For now, it is just so much easier for me to be able to do everything on one floor. Cook while listening to my 8 year old read aloud. Throw in laundry in between helping children. It makes my life so much simpler! I have 10 drawer carts for my children in the dining room that they can fit most of their materials into, sorted by subjects.

Long story, short, I have a wonderful classroom that sits empty. Lesson learned!

[Kims]

And my high schoolers would rather school in their own rooms.

[TrueGRIT]

We do have an official schoolroom - my husband added it when he built our house. It is mainly used for storing our school things, hanging maps, HUGE chalkboard etc.
However, we do most of our school on the table in the main room of our basement. If I need to use the chalkboard or have one-on-one time with a child then we move to the schoolroom. I also use my desk in there quite frequently. We tend to stay downstairs more, away from the main part of the house, so there are less distractions.
Reading is usually always done upstairs right before or after lunch.
HOD works well with whatever space you have. ( I only have a schoolroom because my husband is a GC and built our house to accomodate our needs for now.)

[amysconfections]

We started out doing school in our kitchen. I stored all their books in a plastic basket in my kitchen cabinets. Eventually we worked up needing more space for our stuff. We then turned our unused dining room into our school room. We do use it but I have a somewhat open house plan with my kitchen, living and dining room. So, we use the living room for reading, dining room for a place to do their table work and store things. Kitchen counter is for when I am making lunch and calling out dictation to a child or someone is in trouble. Our patio is sometimes our lunch room!

You mostly just need a place to store your books and supplies. For some this is in a cabinet in their kitchen, bookcase in a dining room or living room. The good thing about not having a closed off school room is that you live in your whole house. No confining while the rest of the house sits empty. Just figure out what works for your family right now. You can even use a closet for storage if needed.

[amysue277]

Oh, this is so encouraging! I love the idea of curling up on the couch for reading, and letting the kids eventually choose where they'd like to do their work. Here's the funny part- when I taught public school I brought in a couch, plants, rugs etc to make it seem more like home, and now that I'm homeschooling, I'm trying to make it more like school! LOL!

I think I will keep on using the whole house to do school-lesson learned

[twolittlebears]

We have a rental house and are blessed with space for a schoolroom, in our finished out attic. Granted, most adults bonk their head up there, but it's perfect for my boys. We have circle time: Bible verses, song time, puppet time and calendar on the rug on the floor. (my boys love this, so we do it) We have a pet hamster up there too. We have a small ikea kid's table for crafts and each boy has a little desk they do seat work at. But honestly, we read all our books cuddled on the couch in the living room, and lately we only go upstairs for circle time and we sit on the front porch for our seat work! If we weren't blessed with extra attic space, then we would do seat work at the dining table and probably have our chalkboard and calendar in the hallway or hanging in their room and do all that in there. I think the beauty of homeschooling is that you are at home and you use the rooms the Lord has given you, however you see fit! We hang a long ribbon on the wall and use clothes pins to hang up their work and switch it out. It's really a fun, cute way to display their work. Also we frame their special work and hang it in hallways. We see our whole home as our school, and it really reflects that. There's books all over the place, even as decorations! Bless you in your decisions.

[MelInKansas]

I think if I had a "school room" then all of the school books would get left out all the time. School stuff is stored in our bedroom (and sometimes there are piles that form, and it does get messy, which can be frustrating). We do school in the dining room and living room. I too love sitting on the couch with my kids and reading with them. Really the only downside to this is my 1YO son who is tired of the living room and the toys there. I need to keep switching out toys for him to be entertained. When we do things in the dining room he can be eating in his high chair or playing with magnets on the refrigerator, both of which he loves to do.