Like many homeschooling families that transition from regular public school, we went through a phrase of trying “school at home”. I saw pictures online of beautiful “homeschool school-rooms”, with the children sat at desks or tables, the black boards, bookcases, the educational posters and nature art and thought that was what we needed and I wanted.
When we moved into our current home a few months into our homeschooling journey, I enthusiastically set up a “school room” with a table for working at, bookcases, etc. When that room became a spare room, I made a “schoolroom area” in an open plan space downstairs.
And then – gradually – realised we rarely used it.
Although some homeschooling families do do a kind of school-at-home – and of course during the height of the pandemic, many kids were literally doing school from home – homeschooling does not need to look like school.
You don’t need to restrict yourself to one space. You certainly don’t need to have specific spaces for specific activities or subjects, the way you might in high school. And actually, it’s not practical for us.
Learning happens as a part of life in homeschooling. Even if you are using set curriculums and a lot of book working, you can take it outside on sunny days, or the kids can be doing an activity and asking you questions whilst you cook the dinner. Having separate spaces that “should” be used for learning activities generates stress and takes away some of the joy of homeschooling or home educating.
So what has worked for us?
A multi-purpose space with multi-purpose furniture. We found that having a space specifically for “homeschool” meant that, even if took our “homeschool” other places, we didn’t use that space for other things. Having a “school” table was un-inviting for the rest of life learning. Especially with it set in a separate room away from the heart of our home. Having a multipurpose space is key for us and the furniture needs to reflect that. We started out with a little kids table and mini chairs, very much like in a kindergarten/reception class. Not only did my eldest rapidly start to grow out of that, but it wasn’t somewhere I would ever choose to sit. So out went the “school” table and in came the full-size art/Lego/craft projects/breakfast-in-a-sunny-spot round table. And one I got online secondhand for $20, cleaned up and mended the wobbly leg too. Baring chopping it to bits, I don’t care what they do to that table. Pens, paint, glue, it’s all fair game and I don’t have to stress that my dining table is getting wrecked or that the projects on the go mean we have no where to eat dinner. If you have the space for a projects table, I definitely recommend this one.
A more private desk for older kids. Both of our kids have done some classes online. We have found that, for our eldest, who does their classes pretty independently and wants time with their cohort away from boring ol’ mom, a desk in their room has been brilliant. It also works well for when they are doing some project that they don’t want their younger sibling getting involved in. The rest of the time, we do joint or bigger projects downstairs on the art/projects table.
Bookshelves, somewhere. I’m sure there probably are homeschooling families that get by without many books or board games. We are not one of them! But as learning happens all over our house and garden, the book shelves don’t have to all be near the table. Having storage for art supplies near the art/projects table definitely helps, but if you can’t make this work, see below for what else we use for art supplies. Having specific places for specific kinds of books is becoming more of a thing for us. A shelf or basket specifically for library books is helping me, as is having a specific space for poetry books, science books, board games, etc. I ended up getting some classroom style book boxes from Target for our non-fiction books, and labelling them with topics using blackboard labels. It has made it so much easier for us all to access the topics we’re looking up.
Specific art supplies storage. If you can, having storage for art supplies near the art/projects table definitely helps, but if you can’t make this work, movable carts are wonderful for many art supplies. Movable carts or easy-to-carry crates could well be stored in a cupboard or elsewhere in the house and taken to the table when needed. We actually now have an art cart, some crates for building resources (aka recycling) AND art supplies on and in one of the ubiquitous Ikea Kallax units. Having so many supplies right there definitely means they are used more and provide more inspiration (if you want more personal inspiration around having art supplies out and ready, The Brave Learner book is a wonderful read).
A nature & projects display table. If you look for homeschooling inspiration on Instagram or Pinterest, you will see a lot of these. I have found that having a space to display seasonal or topical items generates interest. Books get looked at that wouldn’t have been, objects get studied and used. And having a space for nature finds and projects to be displayed means that they continue to give joy, rather than just getting in the way and messing up your house. It doesn’t have to be a separate table, the top of a low bookcase or storage unit works well, as would a shelf or two. I actually just got a larger storage unit partly so that I would have more space for projects to be displayed, because I was fed up of tripping over completed Tinker crate projects that had been put on the floor because the art/projects table was needed for something else! A cookbook holder or tablet stand work well to display specific books, or if you want to display more, a picture shelf is perfect for this.
Wall boards. These are also such a thing on those inspirational IG accounts, but they really work well. In the past, we have vaguely followed the Exploring Nature With Children curriculum for nature study prompts, which provides suggestions of seasonal topics and related art each week. Having different pictures and diagrams to display each week was far too much for me, but I used to do a monthly and seasonal display and plan to get back to doing it. Just like with the nature table, displaying art and other resources on the wall generates interest, sometimes just a cursory look, but sometimes the kids get interested and want to learn further. You can make or freely source many yourself, but there are some wonderful resource providers online now, many on Etsy, and they have far more artistic talent than me! Using wall resources is one of the many ways I use the practice of “strewing” in our unschooling life.
