Homeschool Room

 

What's that on your fingers? Yes, it's that time of year again when our little ones (and us) wear dried glue on our hands with smidgen of marker, pencil smudges and paint residue! And how exciting! It's time for school. It is my intent for this post to give you a glimpse of some trendy, inexpensive and practical ways to create a homeschool room or space in your home sweet home. Kristi, our homeschool author, and myself are teaming up on this one to show you two different types of spaces to meet the different needs of different age children and utilizing different resources available to our different families. Maybe you can find some ideas to spruce up your space. So let's take a gander together.

1. Homeschool rooms and spaces should change as your kids change and grow. Just like a classroom,

they need to accommodate what you need to make learning fun and "switch" on those little brains to school mode. My girls are small- 3 and 1, so right now, what we really need is hardly anything! Your space also need to accommodate whatever else is going to take place in the room. Our homeschool room is a home office space as well right now. (We are still under construction so not everything is shown here, just the school space in the room.) These are pics of Kristi's homeschool room (a separate room from the rest of the house).  Her children are in the primary grades right now. They have a lot of freedom in how creative they can been with paint and soft spaces to read. Where you put your homeschool room is so important!

 

I personally love the inventive framed chalkboard farmhouse window look with the shudders around it. So cute! Also, look at the way a room's shape and structure (ie. the triangle leading up to the raised ceiling). Kristi used the the shape to hang work in a triangular format. She truly is the most creative person I know! :)

2. A space can motivate! We know learning at home is not always the most exciting place to be, but why can't your space be? Know what your kids need. Do they need bright colors or calm? What are they motivated by? What can motivate you as well? I really love the bright colored balls hanging from their ceiling for decoration!  We both are using small bin shelves the kids can reach. Bins are so versatile and can be mixed, matched and redecorate a room by choosing a different color.  Hanging children's work (not everything, but their most memorable pieces) can be a great way to motivate them and help them work hard to achieve a certain level of accomplishment. Yarn, ribbon, or string with some dollar clothes pins is an easy way to accomplish this.

  

You have to be there and just like a classroom at a school, a teacher would have little meaningful things to help motivate him/her as well. I have printed signs on the wall to help me stay focused on what my goals are as a homeschool mom. I gathered these into a zipfile for you. They are our second FEEBIE, Homeschool Signs are available through the hyperlink! Just click the link then click on the ellipses at the top right corner of the dropbox; then click on download as zip file. 

3. Be thoughtful when creating this space and considerate as to where the space is located. It is part of your home and you do have to see it daily, so make it aesthetically pleasing to you as well.  When we created our homeschool room, I originally thought it would be similar to a classroom in some respects- having just come from six years of teaching. However, because our room is locate off the kitchen and family room area, all who enter our humble abode can see this room! I wanted it to coordinate somewhat with the rest of the house. 

If our room moves to a bedroom down the hallway later, we'll have more freedom to make it a little more like a classroom.

 We used these labels to add some environmental print to our homeschool space. They are strategically colored to go with other areas in our home too. The neutral color bins wouldn't have been my first choice for a school type space, but again, it is soft to the eye and keeps in conjunction with the nearby kitchen.  These labels are available for FREE from Tools for School Teacher Resources and were featured inside a previous post, The Most Important List for a Homeschool Mom.

4. Be creative! We used these spice racks from IKEA a friend got for us for our room as bookshelves. I like this idea- which I found on pinterest of course- because it allows the books to stand up and the kiddies can look through them easily. It's like their on display! (Which makes books look extra amazing and naturally draws young eyes and little fingers. At our house, we think books are pretty special!)

 We also used these hook racks from a salvage store and these glass jars from the clearance at a local craft shop. They are great for hanging all the little school supplies we'll use.

 Kristi used a traditional bookshelf, painted white for their homeschool room. I really love white. It makes something special- like books- pop! She also placed a train table area for their youngest little guy to be creatively entertained during school time for the older ones. It can be really easy and obvious to provide ways to keep the little ones busy during school- just provide for them what they like! Kristi also uses a "busy box" which I've implemented as well. Inside are constructive independent activties and toys for our little ones.

We loved creating this space and our girls are really enjoying the new room as well. Sending creative sparkly dust thoughts your way! Have fun with your homeschool room too!