Our Homeschool Room

For homeschoolers everywhere this is not-back-to-school season and this week lots of us are linking up at iHomeschool Network to share where we “do school”. 

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We live in a split-foyer home and our lower lever has a big family room with a fireplace along with the room used as my husband’s office (and my craft room). The family room was only ever used as a playroom until we made the decision to bring the children home for school. We decided to convert the playroom into a place that could house all of our school tools. We painted the room a nice sunny yellow and melon and added a blackboard wall (which is used mostly for fun by the kids, I don’t typically teach at it). Honestly, we don’t always work at these tables (8-foot adjustable height tables purchased from Ollie’s). Sometimes we move up to the dining room table, or our oldest will work in dad’s office or his room. For us, since we were blessed with the space, it was important to have a place that everything could be put away and that when we needed a break from “school” we really could escape from it for a little while.

I have to admit that as I child I loved playing “school”, so putting together our homeschool room was like toy shopping for me.

We picked up three 3-shelf book cases when they were on clearance at Target to hold many of our books, puzzles and preschooler toys. They fit perfectly under our windows on the far side of our room. We also have a sofa and television there which pull duty during school time.

For most of our other furniture we shopped IKEA. We like going on Wednesdays, when the as-is section is 50% off! One of our as-is finds was the (discontinued) LACK bookcase. We use it as a bit of a room divider as well as for book and bin storage. The bins hold art supplies, craft supplies, math manipulatives and flash cards, and audio books.

My desk is also from IKEA. I have the EXPEDIT Workstation. The only thing it leaves me wanting is more vertical storage (but I’m pretty sure no matter what I find, I’ll always outgrow it quickly). The cubbies on the side work well for us. The top four are mine. I keep all of my teacher guides, extra file folders, and our Homeschool Planner  in my cubbies as well as one cubbie with a drawer insert for my pens and incidentals.

The bottom four cubbies hold the bins for each of the school-aged children. They each pull their bins out and carry them to wherever we’re working that day. At the end of the day their supplies are returned to their bin and the bins go back to the cubbies.

We also have a computer desk for the children. We aren’t doing much computer-based schoolwork in this season, but it is nice to have a dedicated workstation for them. This desk is another older one from IKEA. I really like the magnetic white board that is on it. I also really appreciate the top shelf because I can keep things like our microscope up there out of the reach of little preschooler fingers.

We’re always looking for ways to optimize the room and storage. As the children move up in grades we acquire many more books, so we are constantly looking for ways to keep them at bay and not crowding us out of our home.

So there you have it, our little school room. But, in the interest of full disclosure, our school room does not always look like this. These pictures were taken immediately after a clean-up session.

If we spend a few days out of the school room, it almost instantaneously reverts back to a play room and looks more like this:

Be sure to go check out the link up at iHomeschool Network to see how others set up their learning spaces and storage solutions. Next week we’ll be sharing student pictures. Even if you homeschool it’s fun to capture an annual portrait to document how the children are growing and changing.

Do you have a space in your home for learning and creating? What’s your dream schoolroom/playroom design?