Are you wondering how to
As many of you know, we live in a townhouse. While I love all 1000 square feet of our home, it is quite cozy and space is limited.
Last year, I homeschooled my oldest daughter in our basement. It’s a multi-purpose space and serves as a playroom, office, and
It worked for a few months but then my youngest daughter started to get into trouble whenever I was downstairs. Going into this new school year, I knew I would have to make some dramatic changes to our
Today I would like to share with you how I have set up our house for homeschooling. These are my
Clean and organize
First, I went through all of our
Make learning stations out of end tables
We have several small end tables in our livingroom. Different activities will be rotated onto these tables. The table may be set up with a provocation to spark an interest (i.e. a display of rocks with some books if we’re launching into a unit on rocks). Another table may be set up with a learning experience like a scale with weights.
Invest in multi-purpose storage solutions
We purchased two sitting benches for our kitchen and I filled the baskets below the benches with
Consider educational decor
I framed and hung a map in our kitchen and it has sparked a lot of great conversations with my children. I also frame and hang reproductions of famous pieces of art and utilize them as discussion points.
Transform forgotten corners/spaces
I have a long narrow window in the corner of the livingroom. The girls absolutely adore looking out this window. I sewed a cushion, added some small pictures and books to make a cozy reading area. During our homeschooling year, I will be regularly rotating the books in this space and keeping a theme based upon the project we are studying at the time.
Use technology
Whenever possible, we opt for digital books as opposed to paper books. The space saved by not buying every book is unbeatable!
Borrow
Alternatively, we borrow books and learning materials from other homeschooling families or from our community library.
Utilize Walls
I have a small bit of wall between the front entrance and the kitchen. I added a magnetic white board here. This will serve as a space to do magnetic activities or tasks that I’ve assigned for the day.
Don’t forget outside
Our backyard is a wonderful space for learning and activities! I provide magnifying glasses, books, and assorted materials to promote investigation. A vegetable and container garden also makes for a great learning environment.
Do you have a small home? What are your
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Once again some awesome tips. We have a little bit more space but I can surely implement some of what you’ve shared. I am thinking of homeschooling my youngest when the time comes for her to start school so I’m taking in all your tips one by one. You did a great job with the space you have. Kudos to you!
Thanks Amanda! We have a small space and I like the challenge of organizing and making it meet all our needs and purposes!
What a bunch of wonderful ideas! I especially love using artwork and walls to their fullest extent. We began homeschooling in a 900-square-foot house and one good thing about it is you HAVE to stay organized!
Thank you Traci! Yes, having a small home does challenge you to stay organized. I’m delighted you enjoyed these ideas!
Love your ideas! I especially like the wall art suggestions and the reading area with the cushion!
Thanks so much Ana Lynn! I love our little reading nook too. It’s so cozy.
I love the wicker baskets under the benches in the kitchen. We use milk crates, that slide under tables and chairs, to hold our daily homeschool supplies. The baskets are so much prettier. :-)
You’ve put the limited space to good use! Thanks for sharing. :-)
I think the benches were one of the best storage solutions. We actually already had the baskets for assorted items in our closets. I did some purging and was delighted that I had enough to use for our homeschool supplies. They do look pretty… I love them.
I love to see how people utilize small spaces. It looks like you’ve got a great plan going!
Hi Marie! Thanks, I’m quite happy with what I’ve accomplished with the space.
Great ideas! I wish we had a room dedicated just for homeschool, but we make do with our kitchen/dining area. I like your idea of using educational decor. I have educational posters and such on our walls, but it looks very classroom-y. I’m gonna try to frame some of them up to make it look more like home decor.
I found having a room to be very restrictive.
There’s lots of ways to make teaching tools look pretty. Reproductions of artwork are fabulous teaching tools. For example, “Landscape With Butterflies” by Salvador Dali could be used to discuss the parts of a butterfly. We don’t have to necessarily use “school-room” products to teach our children. The choices and selection are unlimited!
Also, I didn’t mention this in the post but I even framed our map so that we could write on it with whiteboard markers.
Thanks so much for visiting Ai. I’m glad you enjoyed this.
Now if only you could come to my place and carve out a work station for me in my very limited space! I love all of these ideas, especially the map!
I love your book nook and how cute your school room is. I don’t home school, but you suggest some great ideas for organizing all of the learning enrichment activities we do at home. It seems like it’s all cluttered and jumbled together and needs some TLC and organizing!
You make me want to home school….stop! Seriously though, the storage bench is a great idea!
Thanks Kristen! I’ve been enjoying this process of getting ready for the year. These have been fun projects that I was so excited to share with everyone. The benches make me so happy!
Yes! Don’t forget outside!! Love to take schoolwork outside. Reading especially :)
Outside can be one of THE best learning environments. We love to read outside too!
Loved this, Jennifer! Thank you for sharing these photos along with your ideas. I have a smallish home and definitely small bedrooms so I loved this post. I actually saw it on Pinterest this morning and pinned it already to my homeschool board! You are such an awesome mom, I just kept thinking while I was reading this how blessed and loved your two little girls are!
I’m delighted you enjoyed this Jessica. I love planning and organizing – creative spaces inspire me. Thank you for the compliment – it’s my desire to bless and love them greatly!
Your post came at the perfect time! I will be homeschooling my preschooler this year and I wondered about doing it in our basement but hate the fact that their is very little natural light down there. Your ideas will come in handy!!
I’m thrilled that this posting came at a good time for you. I hope that you can implement some things that you and your child will enjoy.
Your space looks so bright and clean. :)
Thanks Bethany! I’m quite happy with how everything turned out.
I love the idea of those benches that have baskets underneath. We live in a small home, too, and I always just stash stuff for art projects and educational stuff in corner of closets and then forget where I put them and then buy more. I really need to do some organizing like this. Great tips and great idea. Good luck this year! How old is your younger daughter? What kinds of things does she do when your older daughter is working?
The benches are my pride and joy! I just love them!
Last year was challenging as my youngest was two.
This year she will be partaking in some of our activities… like listening to the Story of the World CD, watching Bill Nye videos, etc. The learning “stations” that I’ve set up should also keep her busy. I plan on rotating activities on the end tables and on the magnetic board for her. Plus she loves to colour… so as long as I give her paper and markers, she’ll be busy for a while.
Brilliant once again! Love the learning stations out of end tables! So smart!
I 100% believe in storage as well. I just need to shove things away sometimes. Those benches are perfect! Our nanny takes A to the library at least once a week. We have saved so much money not having to buy books, and she loves going to check them out herself and say hi to the librarians.
Great post as usual Jennifer!
xoxo
I’m so glad you enjoyed this Tiffany! I had such fun setting up and transforming our spaces!
Isn’t the library the best?! Between the books, movies, music, video games, and their programs, we rarely splurge on entertainment!
Hey! I found you through the linkup at Living Well Spending Less…. love this post and your site! My oldest is almost 4 and we are going to homeschool, but I haven’t really wrapped my head around the idea yet. :) We live in a TINY apartment, so it’s good to know that homeschooling can be done well without loads of extra square feet. Thanks!
Great ideas. We lived (and homeschooled) in less than 1,000 sq. ft with four kids (now five) until this year. It’s tight but it can be done!
I’m glad you enjoyed this Karen! Yes, it is possible to live and homeschool in small spaces… it just requires some ingenuity and organization.
Those are such great ideas, Jennifer. I know many moms who have little space to work with- shared!
I LOVE your library cards! So cheeky. Also, our homes are nearly the same size. Ours in 1020 sq ft and I’ve been so frustrated trying to find space for homeschooling supplies. Condensing my supplies is a good idea since my pantry is already full of stuff! I also love your reading nook.
I love our library cards too! They have such character!
I’m delighted you enjoyed all these space-saving ideas Amanda. It’s a constant work in progress but it’s coming along!