Pining for more books and bookshelves is something that most all homeschoolers agree that we can never get enough of.
Collecting materials, books, supplies and every possible learning tool that we can imagine is a never tiring hobby pursuit too.
However, when it comes to either having a dedicated homeschool room or dining room homeschooler that is where the similarities end.
Homeschooling not only for 15+ years but also in helping new homeschoolers and yes I even made house visits to set up a few homeschool rooms, I want you to know there are so many things that weigh in on the decision to either have a dedicated homeschool room or be a dining room homeschooler. It is not as easy as it seems.
As I school longer, I have come to value the fact that we have very little control over most of the factors.
This point has become more sharply focused for me now and I appreciate it way more than I did 5 or 10 years into my homeschooling.
For example, we may just not have the space for a dedicated room and become dining room homeschoolers not by choice.
This was the way I started off with Mr. Senior 2013. A 800 square foot cabin for 5 people just did not allow room for a dedicated learning area.
Too, I have heard many positive and negative points made for doing school at the dining room table or setting up a homeschool room.
I have even heard that learning can’t be contained in any one room no more than living can be. That learning in a dedicated homeschool room separates living from learning. You can disagree with me right away on this too, but that simply is not true.
Let me expand on that thought too and here is my stipulation, which is if you only school in that area for your whole journey from preschool to high school, it could seem more public school-ish than homeschool.
On the other hand, I have never meant a homeschooler who spent their entire journey, preschool to high school in one room, including my family. Have you?
So this is not another blog post about whether you should or shouldn’t have a homeschool room, but it is about sharing how when you and your children’s needs change, so should your area.
Whether you are a dining room homeschooler by choice or not, or you have a dedicated homeschool room, the points today will help you to decide if you need or just want a dedicated homeschool room.
Too, I will share some tips about how to maximize the room in your house if you are a dining room homeschooler.
You Can’t Afford to Ignore This
Looking back on my journey if you were to ask me when my sons were 5 years of age and 2 years of age and a newborn, I would say that a homeschool room was an absolute must.
Fast forward to high school years where my sons spent more of their day away from me and in their room, I would say it’s not a necessity. Again, your current needs should be considered.
Look at my list of things you really can’t ignore when deciding how to set up a school room or if you should make a switch.
- Space. There is no getting around it. If you don’t have the room, you just don’t have the room. There is not really a choice of where you homeschool.
I have schooled about half of my journey around the dining room by choice and some years when we lived in the cabin not by choice.
- Ages. Ages of your children really matter and affects your view at the time.
This is where, if you do have a choice, that it makes a difference having a space when training very young children to a routine.
When Mr. Senior 2013 was 3 years old and I was teaching him handwriting, he would just set at the bar because we did not have a dedicated room.
Right away I could see that it was hard for me to tell him to have good posture for an emerging writer if his feet couldn’t touch the floor.
At this age though too, his attention span was real short and he would be out of the chair as we danced our way through the ABCs each day.
The rest of the day would be spent cuddled up on the couch with a warm blanket as I read aloud to him, my middle son and my newborn. The need for a dedicated area was not really a need during those years.
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After we built a new house and had a dedicated school room, Mr. Senior 2013 was now 5 years old and having a place for him to write that was ergonomically correct was absolute key to his beautiful penmanship later.
Along that time, came Mr. Awesome right behind him and at 3 years old, having a dedicated school area was a sanity saving tip for me as I corralled the mounting educational clutter.
When teaching study habits and especially for wiggly boys, they knew I expected different behavior in that dedicated room. It was not the time to get down on the floor and wrestle.
Though I did tend to run my day more public school-ish because I was still learning back then, the dedicated area helped me to train my sons for good future study habits.
Back then, looking at the dynamics of a family, which had kids of different ages than mine was an eye opener for me.
Helping moms who started their homeschool journey when their children were middle or high school, the dining room table was a welcome sight and a relaxed way to foster family togetherness as they gathered around the family table.
It was a relief from the rigid schedule of public school confined to one room.
- Listen to your inner teacher/mom needs. I don’t mind you knowing it and that is part of my personality is that I simply can’t overlook clutter and start off my school day by stepping over it.
Some days I wish I were different. As hard I try through the years to be more easy going about it, the truth of it is that I am so utterly distracted by the sight of clutter, it’s crippling.
I envy the moms who can look past the clutter to start school because I could probably learn something from them.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a joke when I was pregnant with my number three son because it didn’t matter if we had clutter, I couldn’t really do anything about it.
When I got to the point in my journey when I could do things the way I wanted to, I embraced that part of my personality because I could come to my children “whole” for the day.
An organized school room was a breath of fresh air every morning for me.
A dedicated homeschool room, when they kids were very little, was more than a relief, it was an unexpected blessing.
As moms sometimes we are so busy filling the needs of our children, we don’t stop to think what do we need to keep homeschooling each day too.
What rocks our homeschool world as we start the day? For me, I could not push down my need to have things organized and not have clutter strewn all over the house. I simply would not be a good teacher to my kids.
As the boys grew and hit middle school and high school years, I had help around the house now. We moved away from a dedicated homeschool room to the dining room table. Coming to the table with my morning cup of coffee to meet them after they gather their school books for the morning is sheer delight.
I realized too that I didn’t have to give up my need for organization either.
By using furniture we had in our dining room for school books and supplies, it still gave my sons a place to put away their books for the days.
Fast forward this many years and I have changed some too because I don’t mind science and history projects around the house because it is evidence that we live and learn in the same places.
Repurpose and Reuse
Look at this list of ways I organized our school things when either by choice or not by choice, we learned at the dining room table.
- small pretty and clean trash cans turn to map fold up storage
- plant pots turn to teacher utensil holder and writing utensils holder
- wooden or plastic crates turn to stacked and inexpensive bookshelves
- empty gallon paint cans can be painted pretty turquoise and orange (couldn’t resist you know I love that color) and hung on the wall for shelves
- cedar trunks in the boys bedroom become a place to hold our tons of books
- empty picture frames hung on the wall in the guest bathroom became a place where I hung and switched out weekly
- metal baking sheets in the kitchen become a place for magnet play during the day and used for baking at night
- the small space between the refrigerator and the wall become a place to put away and store my diy trifold cardboard word “wall “ when teaching them to read for the day
- china cabinet turned book and craft supply storage
- the standard for buying sofas in my house changed to something that was high enough off the floor so that I could store rolling storage with school supplies in it
- scaling back my love for shoes, I used my over the door shoe hanging bag for school games and manipulatives
- my newborn’s armoire got a shoe bag added to the side of it so it would be height appropriate for my then 3 and 5 years old boys to reach to grab books to “read”
{one area in my dining room}
Embracing both you and your children’s needs at the time is the deciding factor for how each learning area worked for us.
If you are mom with a young household, I encourage you to spend part of your day in a room that engenders routine.
As we schooled longer, we did end up doing science and history in the living room.
Embracing both routine and relaxation in our day was key to keeping balanced. My boys looked forward to entering our lively learning room in the morning each day and did so without me prompting them each day.
Homeschooling well trained middle school and high school students is a time I savor too.
{I didn’t give up my need for organization when we moved from a dedicated homeschool room to the dining room. I used part furniture intended for dining room use like the hutch and then part storage containers like shorter bookshelves and drawers so my sons could put away their supplies each day.}
Our day starts off with us together at the dining room table now and the rest of it is spent by the boys being in their room or in another part of the house on computers.
Now, I couldn’t imagine all of us entering a homeschool room each day. In the past, I couldn’t imagine not having a dedicated homeschool room when I needed it too.
Has your journey changed through the years too? If you are a dining room homeschooler, do you have any great tips to share for clever storage?
Hugs and love ya,
Check out these other posts.
How to Turn a House Into a Homeschool Space Part 1
How to Turn a House Into a Homeschool Space Part 2
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