Featured Image courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens ( www.bhg.com)
In all our 12 years of homeschool, we’ve done our classes in a spacious but quite dark basement, in a 6 sq meter hallway along the railing of stairs in a rented townhouse, in a 3×4 meter ground floor room with lots of windows and now in a 3×3 meter bedroom subbing as a homeschool room as the kids have opted to share rooms to sleep and play. I’ve always dreamed of having a gazebo with floor to ceiling windows in a huge garden as our homeschool room . I always imagined that the children still “dressed up” for school and walked to their “school”. But, we don’t have a huge garden, and even if we did, I don’t think we could afford to create a separate homeschool room with my “dream” specifications.
Oh to be able to homeschool in such an environment with lots of space, greenery and yes, cool climate! I am so glad that studies show that the success of education still lies in in the quality of one on one engagement of the student and the teacher. They have shown that the strong bond of student and teacher and the dynamic learning that takes place in lively discussions outweigh the other factors of the learning environment: facilities, materials, technology, etc.
There is however nothing wrong to dream and maybe even work towards creating an organized and positive space that is conducive for learning as your homeschool area or room. Now, who wouldn’t want to work, even overtime on these areas I have chosen as I searched online for my best homeschool rooms ever:
Though I am swooning and drooling as I view all of these, I have resigned to the fact that I will just have to keep our area organized and more clutter free. We have graduated 2 older students who are now in high schools in regular schools and there are no more preschoolers who benefit from lots of space, educational toys and hands on activities. So our homeschool room now is more practical. It also becomes a work area for the older kids after school when they need a bigger area to work on.
I still have to find our older photos but this is what I gathered from the past years. More or less, this is what our homeschool room looked look from 2007 – 2011
As I looked for ideas, this article was very helpful in summarizing what makes a cool homeschool room . Though we may be limited by space and our budget, there are many DIY and inexpensive ways for sprucing up your homeschool area/ room.
However, as mentioned, there is nothing wrong with dreaming right? Stay tuned for part 2 of this Homeschool Room Dreaming series as I share with you a newly opened store with lots of amazing homeschool and home office furniture and accessories in our next post! Happy Homeschooling!
Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.