Creating a space to home school is not always the easiest task to accomplish. A lot depends on the home you live in and whether or not it has sufficient space to use in the first place. Then there's the budget to factor in, the time it takes to organise stuff, and it can sometimes become quite overwhelming.
We've not long moved into our first ever own home, and so the excitement of 'fluffing our nest' was still fresh. However, the room we chose initially for our home school room, was a long and narrow rectangle. By the time we had enough table/desk space down each side, there was the itty bittiest little walk way that we squeezed ourselves down to move from one end of the room to the other. Needless to say, with five people in that room daily, it soon drove me nuts!
After much discussion (and a hint of persuasion) with our eldest son, we settled on swapping bedrooms around; with him having the narrow room (which works brilliantly for one person!) and the school room being his old, slightly larger square shaped room. A whole day later, three or four large garbage bags full, and unwanted items bagged for Vinnies, our son had his new pad, and we all had our new school room ...
I think what I love the most is that we have space now to keep 'like things' together. Books are all in the bookshelves, chairs are all at their proper desks, stationary is all together for easy access, and the children each have their own pigeon holes to keep their own work together and in one place (for the most part!)
That desk in the middle of the room, I have since commandeered for my own desk to use for my bullet journaling, sketching, school planning and anything else I need it to be for! It sure beats sprawling everything out all over the lounge room floor in everyones way!
What I also love, is that we've been able to make this space so personal to our families likes. We've got maps on the walls, projects that the kids have completed, information posters, and my most favourite ... our artworks that we've all created!
Let me assure you though, that it's not always this clean!
We don't just stick to this room for our studies though, sometimes we use the lounge room, the small kitchen table or the dining table, sometimes even outside. But now there's no more squeezing ourselves between tables and chairs, and there's plenty of room for everyone to be comfortable!
The key to making your space work, however big or small, is to be content. Nothing has to be fancy or expensive. I didn't spend a cent on this room, I just used what we already had, made do and made it fun and personal!
And we all love it!
