September is the kick off for our first year of homeschooling and I wanted a dedicated space that was a reflection of us and our learning style: Eclectic, flexible, geeky and fun! Welcome to this tour of our homeschool room! Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
The way we homeschool means that we will not always be in the homeschool room, we will go where ever works for us each day, but I like the idea of having one space where everything is kept organized and ready for learning.
Our home has a sitting room that I have always referred to as “the Christmas room.” When we bought the house, with only one small baby, I thought this would be our formal room. A space that we would keep clean and tidy so we always had a place ready for guests. It was also the perfect room with it’s big windows for our Christmas tree.
That baby grew up and multiplied giving us two bouncing boys who promptly turned our clean Christmas room into a parkour course. And those visitors? Welcome to our mess!
When I was considering our year and how I wanted to organize things, this room seemed like the perfect space to re-purpose. It is open to the rest of the house, has lots of great light and gives us just enough space to keep the chaos of our homeschooling relatively contained.
To keep things flexible I bought two folding work tables. They are a nice size for accommodating all our workbooks, computers, crafts, experiments, etc. without feeling crowded. Plus, they are super easy to clean and they fold up so we can put them away if we need more space, like at Christmas for the tree! They even have a handle to make them easy to carry when folded.
My boys are wiggly when they are learning! I noticed this last year, they like to stand and move about when they are filling their brains, so we went with some simple stools that will allow them to wriggle as much as they want.
Books, books and more books!
Books are the core power of our learning! We have books everywhere. Those crates on top of the shelf, full of books! The office behind me in this picture, more books! We have books everywhere! I haven’t set up our final system yet, but my plans are to have certain cubbies in the black shelving unit dedicated to a specific subject. Right now I have ALL the curriculum in there that I shared in my 2015/2016 Homeschool Curriculum post, but I will only be keeping the workbooks and texts that we are currently using on the shelf. Then I will add reading materials and items that compliment current unit studies.
Tinker Space for Hands On Exploration
Our tinker space! I love this space and have so many ideas for it. Already it has been a music space (piano, recorders, guitar, etc.), a construction zone, a gamer space, and science exploration space. I’ve discovered that if I have things laid out on this table they will come and create, build, explore. But if the activity is on a shelf they never pull it out on their own. Throughout our school year I will be changing out the items in our tinker space based on unit studies, passion pursuits and more. It’s a place where imagination is ignited!
Tinker space ideas!
Art in our homeschool
Art is something very important in our homeschool. This corner will be used for art but also vertical surface practice to help build appropriate muscles and develop fine motor skills. I love using an easel because I can adjust it as needed plus move it around easily, including painting outside days!
Geekiness and personality
Glorious geekiness! I had to embrace and celebrate our passions in our place of learning, simply because it makes the whole room fun and gives it personality. So we have Pirate Pete (yes, he is 5 feet tall), a sorting hat, funkos, and my personal little treasure: The Tenth Doctor. I got him as a surprise in last months Nerd Block! Of all the super cool things we have received in our Nerd Blocks, that one is my favourite. In fact, a lot of our decorations and even some of our homeschool projects come from our Nerd Block.
The room isn’t completely finished. We have a chair big enough for two to cuddle up and read together that will be added so we have a comfy reading corner. The chair will be ready for reading when we start up in September. I can’t wait!
So that is our homeschool space! Oh and the parkour course? It’s been made bigger and better and relocated to the basement. I hope you enjoyed this little tour.
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Sharla says
I love the tinker space idea! It’s so true that they will explore if it is available to them and where they can see it but not when it’s put away in a box or hidden in a cupboard.
It looks like a lot of fun learning will be happening in that room. Now the most important question… where did you get the giant Pirate Pete?
Shelley says
Long story, but he is a previously owned purchase that was originally brought over from Germany. He is pretty special 🙂 One of those impulse buys that you just can’t say no to!
Jamie says
Pirate Pete is fantastic! I adore your tinker area, too!
Shelley says
Thanks so much for stopping by! Yes, we are pretty smitten with Pirate Pete. 🙂
Chris Tilley says
Pirate Pete is great and I know a pair of teenage girls that would go to great lengths to acquire a Tenth Doctor like that. The Nerd Box is tempting but I am trying to minimize my house and that would just add too much stuff. I just made them and myself Origami Tardises.
http://www.talesofahousehusband.com/2015/06/06/origami-tardis/
I like the idea of leaving something out to tinker with. We do a fun/tinker day on fridays. I go and buy a random piece of electronics from a thrift store and hand them screwdrivers. It is always interesting to see what they discover.
Shelley says
Yeah! Fellow Whovians! I pinned your TARDIS orgami and I you NEED to check back later this week. I have a Whovian treat I am sharing that your teenagers will love! 🙂
Chris Tilley says
There actually not my teenagers. They are the daughters of friends of ours.
Rebekah says
This is the first truly authentic space I’ve come across in all my searches for ideas. Seems everyone is either “playing school”, or competing with Martha Stewart.
Your ideas inspire–without smothering boys with too much emotionality, or girls with too much politically correct expectations.
Thanks for having the guts to be yourself and make it about your kids, instead of the Internet Jones’.