our homeschool room

I totally believe that when you are homeschooling, you are really schooling all the time. Not only in a certain room or certain place or with a certain curriculum.

But. I am nonetheless really excited about getting our "homeschool room" all set up!!! I have been picturing for years what might work for us. I have known that we probably would be in some new place by the time we started any official home education program, so I couldn't really plan out quite what the space would look like. I had certain things in mind, though, which I think are going to work out quite well in our new place.

I am so thankful for the layout of our new home. The main floor is just the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and what was probably once a formal dining room. I think the former dining room is going to work very well as a homeschool room for us. It's connected to the living room but has a bit of a separation and so it just works really well. It's removed enough to give it a bit of a separate, specialized feel while still being a part of the main living space. The couch and kids' bookcase is nearby for us all to cuddle together and read lots of wonderful books, and the toy area is nearby too and in sight, so the boys can keep playing nearby when I am spending more time teaching Rilla at the homeschool table.

So here it is! Our homeschool room.

I spent a good bit of time this spring scouring Craigslist for old school desks, but in the end I decided to buy a big oak table to bring with us from Washington. I wanted something that would work for us all to gather around but wouldn't have to be cleared off during mealtimes. That also means our small dining table in the kitchen can be reserved for meals only, which I am finding very useful so far! Having the kitchen table clear of art projects is really great because it gives me enough counter space for whatever I'm working on in the kitchen. I also knew we would need a bigger table somewhere besides the kitchen so we'd have room to have families to dinner. This homeschool table is working great for all those purposes. It's also a great place to fold laundry... that door in the above picture leads to our big bathroom, which is where the washer and dryer are, so I can fold laundry while the kids are drawing or whatever.

Here's one corner of the room. See the maps? I love maps! My first college roommate and I had so many maps up in our dorm room that people asked us if we were geography majors (something that wasn't a thing at Whitworth... is it a thing anywhere?). We are a family that is passionate about missions and what God is doing around the world... and my degree is in Intercultural Studies, after all... so having maps in a prime place is a key component.

Okay, so yeah, it's just a couple of maps on the wall. But a fulfillment of a dream nonetheless! We find it so helpful to be able to reference countries and states so easily. I really think it makes a huge difference in being able to teach historical, geographical, and political concepts in a clear and consistent way!

The old washstand there, which was Rilla's changing table when she was a baby, is now our arts and crafts station. Paper, crayons, scissors, etc, all those kinds of things can be found here. My homeschool reference books and some of the kids' activity books are on top.

Here is another corner. Learning puzzles and magnetic dress-up games are in the little corner stand, and it's just a nice visual. Plus I love that sign... it's a good focal point for me. Ha ha, I just realized that this photo gives away how late it was one night when I finished getting the homeschool room set up and took these photos.

And here's our desk and home office in the other corner. We finally have a desk area big enough for all of our filing and printer and papers and such. So nice! I don't know why we've always tried to cram our stuff in smaller desks before. Anyway, it works well in this corner. I haven't found a little chair for it yet; for now I just borrow one from the table.

So there it is! Our homeschool room. It probably seems quite simple but I am very pleased with it! We officially began our homeschool year yesterday... more to come on that soon!

Audience participation time... what kinds of things do you like to be sure to have in your homeschool classroom? Any tips or suggestions for us as we begin this journey?