Creating a Functional Homeschool Space

One thing about homeschooling, is you need a good organizational system. You need a place for the kids to keep their books and papers, so they can access them everyday – without help from you. You need to be able to store crayons, pencils, markers, kid scissors – so that they can be easily accessed and put away.

You know, I have always strived to keep the “parents” out of it. The one great thing about homeschooling is that the kids learn to be independent, learn independently, and pursue knowledge in areas of interest. It’s important that they learn how to be organized, keep up with their things, and be responsible. Honestly, I don’t have time to go about finding things, and getting things, while I am lesson planning, checking work, etc.

I’m only one person.

With four kids, it would be impossible.

So we put a system in place that works.

Here are some of the elements that we integrated into our homeschool that were invaluable.

Cubbies

Each of my children had their own cubbies, which we used to place their daily use books and papers. They were responsible for putting their books away at the end of the day so that they wouldn’t get lost.

Storage space for supplies

The kids were always asking, “where are the pencils?” and, “where are the rulers?”

Totally annoying.

We purchased a toy storage with easy adjustable bins that could be used for school supplies. Each bin has a tag telling them what it holds. Colored pencils and markers go in a certain bin, pencils and erasers go in another, and so on. We also purchased an electric pencil sharpener, and placed it in an area, so they could sharpen their own pencils.

The bin names are as follows…

Crayons

Markers/colored pencils

Paint, brushes, drawing pencils

Pencils/erasers

rulers/compass/protractors

Math manipulatives – Teddy bear counters/linking cubes

Glue and glue sticks

Construction paper/painting paper/drawing paper

Calculators

Random art supplies (glitter, pom-poms, glue gun, etc.)

This way, when they are cleaning at the end of the day, they know exactly where the supplies go. And it’s easy access. If they want to do an art project over the weekend, all of the materials are ready and available.

It wasn’t a difficult addition, and it didn’t take a long time to make it functional.

Dedicated Bookcase

One thing that we noticed, we collected a lot of books over the years. One dedicated bookcase would be enough. We use ours for our Suzuki books, our notebooking notebooks, books that we have read, and school books that we have completed (before we store them).

Student Desks

I find desks to be a lot more functional than sitting around a table. I have done both. Sitting around the table fosters conversation. I’m not saying that conversation is bad, but when you are doing math, and everyone needs to concentrate…conversation definitely has it’s place.

I have found that everyone is happier when they have a dedicated place to sit. Plus, having a bunch of kids and books on the kitchen table doesn’t foster a healthy eating atmosphere.

We have done short tables which can easily sit two, but I have one per kid. This way, they can spread out, and the are small enough so I can fit 4 desks in our homeschool room.

homeschool-set-up