Where Do You Home School?

I hope you are enjoying this week of my “Home Schooling Series.”  If you happened to miss the first two posts on this subject, here are the links to those articles:

Do You Know a Homeschooling Family?

Homeschooling…First Things First

With the growing trend of homeschooling and since I homeschooled both of my kiddos and now I get the joy of watching my daughter homeschool my grandchildren, it is always on my mind.  As I’ve said before, I was very hungry to learn and be encouraged as I went through the season of homeschooling, so, I’m always hoping to inspire that mom out there who might be in the same shoes that I was in.  Today, there is so much available as far as blogs and websites that have a ton of information for the homeschooling family.  I didn’t have that when my children were young.  I gleaned from mentors, books and conferences/workshops when possible.

Today I wanted to talk briefly about where you actually do your homeschooling?

I know many who homeschool at the kitchen table each day and it works perfectly fine for them.  Some may have a corner in a room with a desk or a computer center.  When my kiddos were young, we tried several different locations; kitchen, bedrooms even on the screened in back patio.  My very favorite was the several years that we had an actual school room.  This was a room that was once a dining area and my husband built a wall to divide the dining room and living room.  It had a pocket door that I could close when school was finished for the day.  I loved that room!  It had a nice window and we wallpapered the room with the cutest green check and the border had books on it.  I decorated country style back then so it blended perfectly with the rest of the house.  We had a bulletin board that I loved decorating and a marker board.  Along with the bookcase the kids had a desk and a long table for projects.

This school room was where the kids did their school work and we were able to leave everything out and not have to pack it all up at the end of the day.  I could just close the door if it was too messy with projects.  It was important to me that my home didn’t look like a large school room.  I wanted it confined to one area.  I was determined that life wasn’t always school for us. Learning takes place 24/7, but the actual school time was different than family time.  I wanted a designated time for schooling.  Yes, there were many times the kids would take their work or projects to another part of the house to work on, but we always knew the school room was where everything was located.

Everyone has their own style of schooling and it’s always fun to hear what everyone else does.  For me, I’m a huge encourager of a designated schoolroom or space…a place that you know is the spot that you “do school.”  As a teacher you need to keep up with your records, lesson plans and teacher manuals.  It’s always nice to know that you can always find everything in one place and not scattered throughout the house.  When your children have projects, they love to see them displayed.  Your schoolroom/space is the perfect place to display their creations.  When you have guests they can always tour your room and see some of the awesome things your children are working on.  Be proud of their hard work and display it when you can.

I would love to hear where you do your schooling and what it looks like.  Share a picture if you can. It’s always fun to see what everyone is doing with their space.

Don’t forget about the fabulous giveaway of the Prayer Journal and a year subscription to Family Magazine.  Trust me, you will love this giveaway.   I will draw one name for the journal and another name for the magazine subscription.  If you don’t homeschool but know someone who does, it will make a great gift to that homeschool mom that you are supporting and praying for.  I would even say that if you don’t homeschool, these two resources would still be great for you and your family.

 

I love your comments and your emails.  I’m always excited when I see your name pop up.