Like many of you, I’ve been consumed with Back to School for the past month or so including getting our homeschool learning room ready. For about two weeks at the end of August all I did in my spare time (and late into the night) was planning and organizing for the school year.
We started school last Tuesday and made it through the first week. In my interactions with other moms of first graders I was reminded that the transition to first grade can be really challenging for some little ones. I heard a couple of stories of unhappy campers who did not want to go back to school after the first day. Homework meltdowns the first week. All that kind of stuff.
It took a few days for Caroline to really grasp that summer vacation is OVER and you HAVE to do school EVERY DAY. I think it makes it harder when you are home all the time because the switch from total freedom in the summer to actually being accountable that real learning is taking place is not so evident when nothing around the child has changed!
But we’re settled in and I’m cautiously optimistic that we are over the worst of the back to school blues.
I’ve got oodles of stuff to share about all the great things I found while planning, but those will have to come in future posts. Today I’m just going to share what our learning room looks like as promised in the post where I discussed repurposing our living room during our first year of homeschooling. (You can click on the photos to make them a little bigger.) I did some changing of things for the fall and I’m really happy with the results. It is simple and cozy. We have lots of natural light and sunny yellow walls. It is a cheerful room and that makes us all happy.
I also wanted to share because our room is an example that you can have a simple room and still have what I think is a pleasant learning environment. You don’t have to spend a lot of money.
I was reading through Confessions of a Homeschooler’s post on her learning room recently and had mixed feelings. It is a spectacular room. I don’t mean to take anything away from her room. It is gorgeous and she’s done so many neat things with it. But so many homeschoolers don’t have the room or the money to have a room like that. One woman left such a comment and I responded to her because I didn’t want her to feel like she couldn’t be a good homeschool mom if she couldn’t trick out a room in the way COAH did. Many homeschoolers don’t even have the luxury of having a separate room. I’ve sacrificed my living room to do this and it is a trade off I’m more than willing to make. Each family has to make the best of what they have!
Our room only has a small fraction of our books and other materials. The rest of it is in the basement. I actually had another large bookcase in the room and took it out so I could keep the pocket chart holder up in the room all the time. I also purposefully kept it simple so it would not be over-stimulating. The last thing Caroline and I need is a room packed to overflowing with books and educational materials. Some people might like their room to be really full, but I find it overwhelming and distracting. So our room is purposefully not overly full. I could have easily filled a room twice this size, but am glad that we are limited by what we can put in here.
I’ve purchased almost nothing for this room. The table and chairs were in the kitchen of our previous house. The light green rocker was in Caroline’s nursery. There is a dark green rocker not in the picture that we’ve had for years. The bookcases have been here and there throughout the house over the years. The arts and crafts supply cabinet was in the kitchen in the previous house. I’ll share in another post the things I have bought (such as the plastic containers in the photo that I use to organize each day’s work). I’ll also share about our calendar time and some of the other routines we have as well as the items on the walls. 🙂
Now I’m off to figure out Fancy Nancy birthday party invitations for my soon-to-be six year old! 🙂
I like your rooms! 🙂
We’ve never had a room, and we probably never will. We don’t have the space for a separate area. But what we do works–Circle Time at the dining table, 10yo works independently at his desk in his room, and I use the living room while I rotate through 2nd grade, kindergarten, and preschool–with 10yo floating in and out. It works fine. I think having a room is probably fabulous but it is sad to think that someone thought they needed a room to homeschool. I’m glad you corrected that misconception!
Really inviting and I’m a tad bit jealous. Our 2 homes w/ the kids have not afforded us a dedicated room. We just tend to sprawl out around everywhere. Right now the bookcase with materials is in my room. Workboxes in the living room. Miscellany in the kitchen. Sigh. I really *am* organized. It just doesn’t look like it at the moment. But we school year round and we make it happen when it needs to happen 🙂
Happy back to school!
Sallie! It’s a lovely learning room (and I love that you call it a learning room rather than a school room). What an inviting, sunny space; I can tell you’ve worked very hard on it. Very nicely done! Here’s wishing you and Caroline the best this school year, especially as you navigate the transitions of the first few weeks.
Fancy Nancy… I can’t wait! It won’t belong before she shows up at our house.
Thanks for the nice comments!
Having a room works well for me because I like everything in its place. It would be far more stressful for me to have school stuff throughout the house instead of giving up my living room. It also works well because we only have one child. If we had more than that, the living room might seem a bit crowded.
We also do a lot of learning throughout the house. The computers are in the office so Caroline spends time there. And the TV is in the family room so we use that room too for learning. We read books on the couch in the family room. Messy crafts are either in the basement or dining room. So we are all over the house with learning.
I thought about putting a computer desk in the learning room so I could put my laptop in there for learning time. We decided we didn’t want it in there. The computer can be such a distraction and I didn’t think it would help. Now when we’re in the learning room we are focused on what I have planned. 😀