Our Simple and Cozy Homeschool Classroom
We’ve lived in 5 states in the past 12 years. As renters, we’ve moved around a lot, often because the rent went up or the landlord decided to sell the house we were living in. The largest house we ever lived in was 1600 square feet, with the smallest being about 900. That doesn’t leave much room for a family of 5 to have a dedicated homeschool classroom. It has always been a priority for us to set up a special place in the house as our learning space, even if we couldn’t have a whole room set aside.
My idea of a great homeschool space includes: a cozy chair for reading, a desk for the computer, a table for writing and art projects, and lots of bookshelves. LOTS of bookshelves. Anything else would be icing on the cake. If it could be in a serene setting with a view of the ocean or mountains . . . well, I can dream, right?
Our Simple and Cozy Homeschool Classroom
For the first time in years, we have a room in our (rental) house that we consider the homeschool classroom. It’s a sunroom with lots of windows looking out at our wooded yard. We can watch raccoons, wild turkeys, and birds come and go while we do our school work. Our furniture is nothing fancy — a big desk that we got for $28 in 2001 because it was the floor model and part of it was broken; a chair inherited from my grandparents; a little bookcase for $15 from Walmart; and 2 student desks we got for free from a neighbor last year. We keep a folding table in the corner and a chalkboard/whiteboard combination easel. No frills, but it’s all we need and it’s a very nice space to spend time learning and playing together.
We have our learning posters on the walls, along with pretty motivational quotes and Bible verses. It’s a quiet space to settle down with our morning basket and begin our days.
We do have another small bookcase, a full size bookcase, and several built-in bookshelves in the living room because it won’t all fit in this room. I am in serious need of more space for books!
One of the free student desks. I added a little padding to the wooden seat just to make it more comfortable. The girls really love to use these desks. Our neighbor got them for free from a school that was remodeling and passed them on to us.
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| Little Raccoon, our school “mascot” who likes to wander around our yard. |
Here’s a view to our backyard from the school room windows:
It’s so nice to have a cheerful and cozy spot to learn and play together! Although we “do school” all over the house and on field trips and well, everywhere, it’s nice to have a orderly space to return to for quiet time and read-alouds.
If you don’t have a dedicated homeschool space, don’t let it bother you. Learning really can happen anywhere, whether you have the latest IKEA furniture or not.
Do you have a homeschool classroom in your house?
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It sounds perfect….
I can’t wait to have space dedicated to school. Mostly for organizing the “stuff.”
Your learning space actually sounds very nice and light! I think a school room via sun room would be wonderful. 🙂
Sounds lovely!! I would love a view like that 🙂
You put my thoughts into words, exactly! We’re a family of five in a “cozy” space as well 😉 We pulled our 7th grader out of public school and this will be our first year homeschooling. We set aside a very small room for schooling so that it could feel a little like what she’s used to. Lack of big, bright windows is my biggest pet peeve about it, so I love hearing about your awesome-sounding view!