I don't have much space to set up our school space, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips? I have plenty of wall space and a corner of a room and thats about all.... I thought a whiteboard and a small table that we have for "formal" classes, and we have an outside garden as well...
Any tips?
Thanks
I took a corner of the kids playroom and put a small table there. I have charts up on the wall and a place to display artwork and workbook pages. We only do about 10-15 minutes a day actually sitting at the table so I think that's all we need right now.
We have a small space in our kitchen that used to be a dining room that we turned into a preschool area. I was given a small table and 2 chairs, a children's book case, dry erase board, cork board, and we bought a little area rug and bean bag chair to complete the space. It is small, but all we really need right now. My oldest does her coloring, crafts, and any work sheets at her desk. We display pics, accomplishments, and work on the cork board. I use the dry erase board to show her how to draw/write things, and to write our scripture verses on. We have a story time that we all sit on the bean bag chair by the book case for. I have plenty of books, coloring books, and educational toys on the shelves for them to play with and look at when we aren't doing something structured. We only do curriculum from 45 mins to an hour Mon - Fri, and my oldest has a pen pal her age homeschooling in Delaware that we write to and send mail to on Fridays. (I have 2 girls 3yrs old and 19 months.) The oldest is doing the curriculum, but I include the baby in just about everything too. They both love school time! I think having a small space to work and play in helps make this time special and keeps us focused on what we are doing. It is a lot of fun, and doesn't have to be extravagant or cost a lot of money!
That sounds great. I just have a little table, a "Sit 'n Gym" ball-type chair, a keyboard (for kinderbach.com), a chalkboard, and her workboxs (for the Workbox System) set up in her area. We have a very small house, so it is just part of the living room. She is only just four, so in a year or two she may need a real desk, but hopefully won't need much else for a while.
Leah
Our homeschool blog: http://shipsarebuiltfor.blogspot.com/
"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for." - William Shed
You mentioned a garden, and that sounds wonderful! As much of your school day as possible, you could do outside. Children get vitamin D from the sun, and in our culture today, actually, 40 percent of our children are vitamin D deficient! Besides, expanding outdoors may help make your small house seem bigger.
I was fortunate that we often lived in bigger houses when I homeschooled, but for six weeks we lived in a motel room, and for six months we lived in a tiny two-bedroom house with four children! So I know a bit about small spaces.
When we lived in the motel- it was a suite with a bedroom, and living area where the couch folded out into a bed, and had a tiny kitchenette. THe motel, luckily, had a swimming pool.
My kids ranged in age from 2 to 10 at the time. I'd pack their backpacks with assignments for the day, and we'd take the backpacks out. Usually to the swimming pool area. The motel was mostly empty during the week anyway. The kids could finish one subject, then go for a swim, finish another subject, go swimming, etc.
Sometimes we took our backpacks to a park, and packed a picnic.
When we lived in the small house, there was actually a third bedroom, but it was very small and downstairs. I put all four kids into the larger, master bedroom, my DH and I had the smaller upstairs bedroom, and I put school stuff in the tiny downstairs bedroom. I didn't want to put my 9 yr old boy downstairs alone... and he didn't seem to mind sharing space with his sisters. They all thought it was kind of fun, for a while. We were very glad when we were able to move into a four-bedroom home six months later <G>.
Some schools have even expanded outdoors, tearing up acres of worthless grass and landscaping classroom areas. I think it's great!
Good luck!
Lorelei
I don't know what kind of financial situation you are in but my mother in law purchased out outbuilding and used it as her " School " room. BUT she also had 5 kids to homeschool at one time. So it was a more of School at Home situation. And a plus is it's a good investment because when the kids are grown you have more storage space ! During the pretty months I use our garage as a craft area and the garage door is great to hanging pictures and stuff with Magnets :o)
I'm have the same problem! My husband told me just to do school at the kitchen table. That would probably work, but I'd like to have room to have things to hellp them learn. And also display their work they have done. Plus I'm afraid out in the open area they will get distracted by other things. Only thing I can think of to do is move my boys into the same room. We've talked about them sharing a room before, and my youngest son's room would give us more than enough room. Hope your able to figure something out
We never use our dining room, just eat in the kitchen, so I use the dining room for our school. We actuall work on the big dining room table. I covered it with a plastic, flannel backed cloth, and it's big enough for us to spread out and still sit together. I took pictures off the wall, and we have a magnetic calendar and chore chart on one wall, and a corkboard on another.I keep supplies like crayons, paints and brushes, scissors and hole punchers, etc, stored in ziplock bags in the bottom of the china cabinet. We also have a craft area set up in the kitchen. There is a built in desk there, and she has her click start computer by leap frog there. Coloring books, arts and crafts supplies are in those drawers, and she can work while I cook.
When I lived in my 3 bedroom apartment the whole house was pretty much school. She had a desk in her bedroom (she's 7) but my 3 yr old and 2 yr old shared a room. There room was a combo of bed and a round table to do coloring and cutting. We put projects up on the walls in their rooms the hallway and my eat I. Kitchen area. We did school everywhere lol. But I also didn't have any pictures up on the walls at all.
Check out these Tasty Treats from The Stir's partners:
How long is your preschool day?
- LyssieBugsMum
on Sep. 10, 2009 at 9:25 PM