The homeschool school room

So many people struggle with where to do school in their house.  Those with small houses particularly struggle because they don't have a room that they can convert whereas those with large homes take great joy in converting a spare room in to a school room.

Does this really even matter?  Well, that's hard to say.  The main thing to remember is that it is not as important where you homeschool as it is how  you homeschool.  If you obsess over the fact that your school room is the dining room table and can't get past that, then chances are you are not focusing on what you are teaching.  As parents, our children take their queue's from us.  If you are dissatisfied with where you are doing the majority of your school work, then they probably will be too.  But anyplace that you do school work can be fun! 

Get creative!  You can buy giant wall maps that can be laminated or just covered with a large clear plastic tablecloth and used to cover the entire dining room table and voila!  Geography close at hand!  For younger kids, kitchen magnets can come in the form of the alphabet letters and now you have extra space for them to practice their sounds and spelling!  You can simply designate a cabinet or a closet to housing your school materials and put them away at the end of the day or purchase an inexpensive bookcase from Wal-mart to house all of your books. 

Not every school room needs a chalk board or white board to help present the lessons.  Paper still works fine.  Posters are cute and fun and appealing, but not necessary to getting a child to learn what a noun is.  We talked in an earlier article on school in the car.  Well, you certainly don't have a formal sitting area while driving, right?  As your kids get older, they tend to want to do their school work in their rooms on their own and so a school room at that age would go unused.

If you have the space for an actual school room, great.  Utilize it to the fullest!  But if you have a small home with no extra space, that does not mean that you are providing any less of an education to your children.  Keep your focus on where it should be - your curriculum.  Once you are comfortable and confident with that, it will not matter where you are doing the teaching.