School room...

[momtomany]

Hi!  My name is Michelle and I am a homeschooling Mama.  We have 9 children ranging in age from 3months to 20 y/o.  We are homeschooling 5 this year ~ 1 PreK, 2 K, 1 7th, and 1 9th :)  We are considering turning our basement family room into a "school room". 

Do any of you have school rooms in your home?  If so, do you use it, or does it become a dumping room for "stuff"?  Do you find that your children scatter themselves to other rooms?  What have you found most helpful in your school room?  Is it set up like a classroom or a more "comfy" area?

I appreciate any ideas, or answers you have to offer.  They will help us with our decision!!

[moominmamma]

We don't have a school room. My kids want to be and learn near where other people are actively engaged in what they're doing. Since I spend much of my time in the kitchen, living room or on the computer, they cluster around those areas. If they want more peace and quiet, they'll retreat to their bedrooms where they have private nooks. We have an unfinished basement that we briefly considered putting a family room into but the advice we heard (which is in keeping with my experience as a child) is that basement family rooms don't get used much, because kids want to be in the flow of family life. For a couple of years we had a "school area" on one side of the common room, but the kids just spread out.

Miranda

[zebra15]

I don't have a school room.  What i need is just more room over all. LOL.  I have one child and he is a combo of unschool and online classes.  A school room isn't going to allow him the space to do science experiments(he needs the kitchen for that).  He needs his computer for math classes, the library or the NookColor for books to read. And a clear space for legos and art projects and puzzles.  

Right now we have just under 900 sq ft of apt living 2bed/1bath and the dining room is my 'office'.

What would be great is an extra room for an actual office and a room for crafts but thats never going to happen.

My son never went to X spot to do his school work.

[mntnmom]

We don't have a "school room", but we have had basement playrooms in other houses. We're about to convert our storage into a play room here too, because we need more space for the kids. We'll probably keep their school stuff there, but I expect a lot of their work and reading will be done on the upstairs couch anyway! If you do set up a space, I would recommend going more comfy, than schooly. But we're kind of unschoolish anyway.

[Aeress]

We have a school room, which used to be our playroom but I found that having too many imaginative play toys cluttered the learning space. We blend Montessori with Unschooling, so having a place where the stuff is, has helped the kids know what is available and how to access the things they need. I used to have everything spread throughout the house, and it sure made things harder on me, though it didn't seem to bother the kids.

Our school room has science area, reading, art, music, geography/social, and workbox place. I also have a desk for me, and two small desks for when they want to work by themselves.

This set up has worked the best (so far), we plan to add a computer area this year as well.

[etsdtm99]

we kind of have 2 school rooms but we just set them up and haven't even officially started doing school yet..  (my DD is starting K this year)  we do have a preschool co-op in the 'school room' with 5-8 kids ages 3-5 so we've used the room for that and that keeps it from getting cluttered and becoming a dumping ground..   our rooms consist of what use to just be a playroom and now has bookshelves (kids books), a table and chairs a couch, a small chalk board, a play table and a play house .. the other room was a bedroom and is now set up with a small dining room table and chairs and a bookshelf (workbooks, supplies) and an art/project display area ..  we set up a baby gate to keep the baby & 3 yr old out of their while DD works on 'big kid projects' i don't think using that much space for 'school' is necessary but we had teh space and weren't using it for anything else

[MommyKelly]

We have a schoolroom, but it is connected to the family room. It is suppose to be a den I guess, but is great for a schoolroom since one entire wall is cabinets and shelves. We put a dining room table with a leaf that folds out for bigger projects. and added a curtain we can pull closed if company comes over and their is stuff everywhere lol.  We have found that mostly the younger kids use this room, and the older kids will do schoolwork at the dining room table. They are welcome to "do school" where they are comfortable, but it is nice to have one room designated for all the 'school stuff".

[sarahtar]

We do have a schoolroom. It's a sunroom that adjoins the kitchen and the dining room. So far (my son is entering 2nd grade), that is nearly exclusively where we do any formal school work. It's also where we do art and craft activities, where a lot of reading takes place, etc.

It's got one wall of shelves for books, projects, supplies, etc., and the other three walls are windows. The middle is a giant table I bought when our local Borders closed, and we've also got a Papasan chair for reading and a small preschool size table for littles doing messy art projects. (if my 2 YO wants to paint while the 7 YO does school, I'd rather not have her water cup on the same table with whatever he's working on, just in case it gets knocked over.)

It's possible that in the future, when he's doing more and more independent work, that he'll choose to work somewhere else, though in our house, to be honest, I'm not sure where that would be. Even if that is the case, though, the school room where be where everything "lives" and so where everything gets put back when we're done with it. I don't really see our schoolroom ever devolving to just a dumping ground.

[briansmama]

We don't have a "school room" but we did choose our home because it came with a large bonus room that is perfect for our homeschooling/daily life needs. There are built-in bookshelves, a sink and counter for project clean-ups, a deck, a computer/office/library niche, and a section for the TV and dvd player and loveseat for rainy days and a science/nature video.

Before we even moved in I picked up a wood craft table from IKEA to use in this room. So, it's where we do all of our art projects, painting, circle, storytelling, and journals and main lesson books (we've been using a waldorf curriculum and are using Enki this year so I'm currently getting everything ready for Fall).

We also use the space on the weekends for family games, and when the boys have their friends over. It came with a mini fridge too which we really haven't used much. But I think I'll stock it full of snacks for Fall so we don't have to journey back downstairs for snack time mid morning.

[inky leeuhhh]

i love all the ideas here! we are currently kind of using the dining area of our little apt as a "school area", although we end up doing most of her work on dds bed before bedtime. hehe. we are hopefully going to be moving late this fall, and then i'm hoping to find another little area of the house to at least put a little table or desk in. dd should be old enough by then to do at least some independent work. yay!