Mothering Forum banner

Separate room/area for HS'ing?

840 views 23 replies 18 participants last post by  Plummeting 
#1 ·
I'm wondering if any of you have a separate room or area that you use for HS'ing -- why or why not? Pros and cons?
 
#2 ·
We tried, but it never worked out that way.
It seems so....stifling. Science was best done in the kitchen or outside, we found. The Kid loves to write while sitting in a tree. Reading time is curled up on the couch and math is anywhere, along with history/geography.

Trying to keep us in one room was next to impossible. Our philosophy is world-education, not schoolroom-education. Anytime I needed a reference it felt like we were leaving the room again.

I do keep all of our supplies organized in a central location, though. We have a bookcase and tall cupboard in the dining room, plus a bin in the living room for library books. We can grab what we need, fill up the backpacks, and head out.
 
#3 ·
We have one side of the playroom designated for the school area. I have his 'desk', easel and then our work box system over to one side, and my large shelf with all of my supplies. The rest of the room has shelves, etc with his toys and things. We don't have the space at the moment to have a separate school room, but if we did, I would probably have one, just so it can be separated and spread out more.
I would still have all of his 'activities' in reach in the playroom though, including the learning ones. The school room would be specifically for 'desk work'. Right now we are learning through play, so it just makes sense that his playroom IS his school room
 
#4 ·
In my dream world I have a school room where all our supplies are. It is warm and sunny with a large conference table, floor to cieling bookcases, and comfy couches In reality-the majority of the school supplies are on a book case in the kitchen. Art supplies are in the playroom. We do the majority of our lessons in the dining room because that table has the most room to spread out. Read aloud is done in the living room. Science in the kitchen or outside. I don't think there is a room we don't use as a school room.
 
#6 ·
we do have a homeschool room. it's very simple, but i love it! we do things outside of the room of course, but i love having all of our things in a central location. also, if we're in the middle of a project - it can stay on the table. we just shut the door. when i started homeschooling, we did not have everything in a central place. it was difficult and i felt unorganized having everything in separate areas. our homeschool room is next to the family room. it has a lot of sunlight and leads to the side porch. i'm very happy with our room. no regrets at all. i have pix at my blog under photos. hth!
 
#7 ·
I will be keeping this in mind for next year. We're about to move a few things around, and I was trying to decide. I think I want a place for him to sit, but also space for us to sprawl out on the floor. we have lap tops, so thankfully I don't have to worry about computer placement.
 
#8 ·
We use our "formal" dining room/living room as our hs room/playroom. We are not formal dining people anyway and we have an eat-in kitchen. Our hs room is just off the kitchen so getting snacks and doing messy experiments or art projects is easy. We have a large futon which is our preferred reading spot. We love our arrangement!
 
#9 ·
We've dedicated a kitchen in the basement for the messy stuff, a relaxing loft for reading, and the sunny kitchen table for drawing/not-so-messy stuff. All HS supplies are in the basement kitchen, books in the loft, so everything has been staying nicely put.

Can't wait for the weather to get a bit warmer so we can do more outside.

http://satorismiles.com/our-home-school/
 
#10 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by dotnetdiva View Post
We've dedicated a kitchen in the basement for the messy stuff, a relaxing loft for reading, and the sunny kitchen table for drawing/not-so-messy stuff. All HS supplies are in the basement kitchen, books in the loft, so everything has been staying nicely put.

Can't wait for the weather to get a bit warmer so we can do more outside.

http://satorismiles.com/our-home-school/
your basement rocks!
 
#11 ·
We used my office and guest room for a homeschooling "room". We don't stay in here though for some reason we end up out in the kitchen. I do have a large kitchen and very large table and it workds well. I can get a lot done now that she is older still cook, clean, laundry and things that need to be done. Recently we took everything off the vanilla colored walls (we had tree posters and such) and added two black bookcases and a nice big granite topped black double cabinet between them they flank a window so they look kind of like "built ins". It looks so much "cleaner" or something I can't explain it. We like it better. Of course we do spend a lot of time in here anyway, I work in here, we have two birds in here, the hermit crabs..guinea pig.....and art supplies but everything is organized now and easy to find...now we need to keep it that way.....
 
#12 ·
We rearranged our home to use the largest room for homeschooling, and we love it. We have a large desk/computer, 2 tall bookcases which hold all of our books and craft supplies ( hidden in a cabinet or basket), and a loveseat with a cozy lamp and book baskets. We have an Ikea table and chairs for work/projects and Ikea storage cabinets for building toys, etc. Although we may read anywhere, or work in the kitchen or dining room table, this works best for us because I know where everything is! We call it the family room, because we spend a lot of time in here playing and being together too. Having building toys/puzzles/games nearby also helps when we need a quick break or materials to extend what we are doing. We can leave whatever- wherever, not needing to clean up the table for dinner, for example, and we can just shut the door
 
#13 ·
We learn all over, depending on what it is we're doing. Up until recently, we only had a small apartment- 2 bedrooms, and a living room/kitchen combo (fairly large, but an open floorplan. This is in the upstairs of my parents' home- they have the main level. This past spring, they finished off the basement- half is my Dad's office, half is a "playroom." so now we have another room, but it's down 2 flights of stair from the rest of our living space. It's not particluarly convenient to get to.

In the interest of organizing the living room, we moved the textbooks to the basement room, so we use that room for formal bookwork (which we do about once a week- some weeks more, some weeks we skip, but it averages out to one day a week.) We also use that room for the messier art projects. Upstairs is where we still do needlework projects, internet research, reading, etc.
 
#14 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by elizawill View Post
we do have a homeschool room. it's very simple, but i love it! we do things outside of the room of course, but i love having all of our things in a central location. also, if we're in the middle of a project - it can stay on the table. we just shut the door. when i started homeschooling, we did not have everything in a central place. it was difficult and i felt unorganized having everything in separate areas. our homeschool room is next to the family room. it has a lot of sunlight and leads to the side porch. i'm very happy with our room. no regrets at all. i have pix at my blog under photos. hth!

I just wish ours had more natural sunlight. The only exterior wall is on the NW side of the house. When DS moved out I planned on moving the office/homeschool room into his old room, but now he is back with no plans of leaving soon LOL. that room is larger, has a much larger closet and has better exposure to sunlight.
 
#15 ·
We live in a 2 bedroom apartment as a family of 5 and soon to be 7. Needless to say there is just not much room. We learn at the kitchen table a lot of the time but I like to transform it into our learning area when the time comes to kind of get the kids in the mindset. So I bring out the dry erase board (we draw on it together and then house it in their room where they can see it at all times) bring out our box of school supplies I keep in my closet and have a nice colorful tablecloth that is easily wiped down after school. At least this is the ideal when I don't feel full of baby and like crap.


I just love sitting at the table with all of them so I don't know if it will ever really change.
 
#16 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by dotnetdiva View Post
We've dedicated a kitchen in the basement for the messy stuff, a relaxing loft for reading, and the sunny kitchen table for drawing/not-so-messy stuff. All HS supplies are in the basement kitchen, books in the loft, so everything has been staying nicely put.

Can't wait for the weather to get a bit warmer so we can do more outside.

http://satorismiles.com/our-home-school/
That desk in your loft area is amazing!
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by sha_lyn View Post

I just wish ours had more natural sunlight. The only exterior wall is on the NW side of the house. When DS moved out I planned on moving the office/homeschool room into his old room, but now he is back with no plans of leaving soon LOL. that room is larger, has a much larger closet and has better exposure to sunlight.
This is my exact dilemma! We have two rooms to choose from. One is a big extra bedroom currently set up as an office, which never gets used at all (we always use the laptop). The other is a small room off our laundry room that I guess was meant to actually be an office. I love the idea of using that room because it's on the SE side of the house and gets tons of natural light. It's also tiled, which is nice for messes. However, it's small (just over 6 x 9.5) and in the spring I use it for starting seeds on the metal shelving unit. It's only in the spring, but you know that's 2 whole months when we wouldn't be able to use the shelves. If it weren't for that, the small size would be no problem. Another problem is that all that light makes it pretty warm in there from late spring to early fall. The other room is on the NW side of the house in a hallway, so it gets very little natural light. It is bigger, but it's carpeted, which is no good for projects.

I've decided I'll probably have to go with the extra bedroom, because it seems like the only good reason to use the other room is the natural light, but it isn't like I'm going to expect her to work in the room all the time anyway, so it probably doesn't matter. I'm just really organized and can't stand the idea of stuff being spread out all over the place. I want books, supplies, maps, etc. all in the same room, not necessarily where DD works. I don't care where she works. lol
 
#18 ·
We have a playroom that doubles as the "classroom". All of my stuff is in that closet. The room DOES have a table and chairs for drawing, etc. at the table; but really a lot of our learning is play-based so it just made sense. Plus, it kept all the stuff together. When I have a minute or 5 to do something, I can't go hunting for the stuff I want/need.

Of course, I have a 5yo and a 5mo and we do a lot of "together" stuff while the baby is napping. I have no flaming clue how things will work when this is not the situation anymore.
 
#19 ·
We're lucky enough to have a dedicated "school" room/craft room with lots of cabinets and counter space. We store most school supplies, craft supplies, games, science stuff, and various books in there. Not a lot of school work gets done in there though. The kids tend to work where ever the mood hits them-at the kitchen island, sun room floor, couch, etc. They rather be near me to ask questions and since I'm usually in the kitchen or main part of the house, that's fine with me.
I do have them put their books/supplies back in their desk space at the end of each day so at least they can find it the next day.

We do experiments or art work in the art room though since it's easier to clean the vinyl floor!

I like having the dedicated space but it sure is easy to fill it up with stuff that doesn't seem to get used a lot
I wonder if I'd be more frugal with "stuff" if I didn't have the space to fill.
 
#20 ·
We don't have a separate room/area, because we don't have the space... That being said, my dd is extremely independant with her 'sitting-down' work, and wants to be in the center of life. I don't think a separate room would work for her - she could, after all, do her work in her own room, but she chooses not to.
The living-room table works well for us.
 
#21 ·
Thanks for all the input.

I think we are going to need to arrange for a separate room. DS is a sprawler when he works and he likes to leave projects our for several days - even beyond when he's done working on them. He likes to re-visit, and I get that. But his work can easily take over our other living space - ok once in awhile, but not necessarily for days on end. I like the idea that he can go into the room when he wants to study independently without interference from dd, and that all the materials would be in a central location. Of course we can always decide to work in a different location as the mood suits us, but I think a "home base" is necessary.
 
#22 ·
Your son sounds like my daughter. When she makes something, she wants to keep it within her sight for days and days and days. It can become a real problem sometimes. For instance, lately she's really been into drawing her own animals, trees, lakes, people....anything. Then she cuts them out and uses them to set up scenes on the coffee table, floor and everywhere else. She plays with them a LOT. But then when she's done she doesn't want to put any of it away because she says she made a picture (on the table, floor, whatever) and if she puts it away it'll be messed up.
 
#23 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Plummeting View Post
Your son sounds like my daughter. When she makes something, she wants to keep it within her sight for days and days and days. It can become a real problem sometimes. For instance, lately she's really been into drawing her own animals, trees, lakes, people....anything. Then she cuts them out and uses them to set up scenes on the coffee table, floor and everywhere else. She plays with them a LOT. But then when she's done she doesn't want to put any of it away because she says she made a picture (on the table, floor, whatever) and if she puts it away it'll be messed up.
Yup. I totally get this. I think a separate room is our only option. LOL! I just don't know if it will contain the sprawl -- maybe ony slow it down a bit. I think I might have to cork board the entire room so he has PLENTY of hanging space. I'm tired of peeling scotch tape off the walls.
 
#24 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by LauraLoo View Post
Yup. I totally get this. I think a separate room is our only option. LOL! I just don't know if it will contain the sprawl -- maybe ony slow it down a bit. I think I might have to cork board the entire room so he has PLENTY of hanging space. I'm tired of peeling scotch tape off the walls.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one out there! Currently, DD has one drawing taped on the back door, one on the elliptical and one on a wall in the kitchen. She says they're her signs to tell people stuff. They've been there for weeks and she is adamant that they can't come down yet. Of course, the refrigerator is already covered with art, too.

I think when I said I am a very organized person, I was really remembering that I used to be a very organized person. lol Before DD was born, everything was immaculate and everything was in its place. Now...well....not so much. It's clean, but that's as much as can be said for my house. Organized it is not.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top