A School Room Built for Learning

We are a homeschooling family and recently a fellow blogger, Rachelle at Tinkerlab, asked me to give a glimpse into what homeschooling looks like for our family, some days. This is our school room.

Every school room needs a couple of things:

A place for mixed ages to be productive.

We have a collection of magnets that our three year old can play with on the wall while the kids work.  Magnetics  (affiliate) are a great open ended toy that kids LOVE.  In addition to them, we have an activity book with other ideas to keep him engaged and not distracting his older siblings as they are learning (but still nearby – boy can he get into a ton when we aren’t watching!).

A place for mental breaks and reward time.

It’s kinda funny.  The photos are reality, but only partially.  Often the kids  will move their work to the floor and fill the table with their current lego project.  I love that the kids are able to decompress between topics we are reviewing.  If they get all their work done early, they can go play while I am finishing up a section with their sibling.

A place to get comfy with a book.

We have the best beanbag chair.  It is humongous and can fit three kids on it at a time, even three kids and a momma.  It is the perfect place to cuddle up together and read.  We have the siblings read to each other.  The new readers read to the child older than them.  It is a great way to reinforce learning as the older child gets to “teach” for a little bit.   The bean bag chair is the perfect place!

A place for mom to oversee.

When the day is going well and everyone is getting their work done, homeschooling is a mostly independent process – even for my younger children.  The kids work on their curriculum and bring it to me when they have questions.  I can join them, but I can also sit back and give them the freedom to work independently.  

Storage.  Lots of storage.

Also not pictured are our bookshelves.  They are massive, cluttered and chaotic… but the kids all know where their work is and they are able to go and grab and find their “spot” to get back to work. . Do you homeschool? Here is another Kids Activities Blogger’s Homeschool Closet.  She uses her whole room for her school and the closet as the “station” that everything is based out of.  Brilliant. If you homeschool, we would love to see what your classroom looks like.  Send us a photo on our facebook page.