Welcome Home, Part 3: The Homeschool Room

This is the room we’ve all been waiting for. Well I have, at least. For years. One of my many favorite things about our house in Florida is that we have a completely dedicated homeschool room. That of course doesn’t mean that nothing happens in the room outside of our couple of formal homeschool hours each day (after all, homeschool=life, right?). But it does mean that I don’t have to go running around the house looking for supplies and books before we start, or have to contend with dozens of distracting toys sitting right next to us as we try to concentrate.

Behold, our homeschool room!

That is our snuggly book-reading couch. Tony has never really liked my chic living room couches, so he got to pick this one. It’s pretty comfortable (and available to sleep on if you’d like to visit). To the right of the couch is our newest bookshelf, with a cute little cadenza underneath for games, art/craft supplies, and other miscellaneous items I don’t want scattered all over the floor.

Across from the couch is Axa’s desk, which came with the bookshelf/cadenza as a set off of craigslist. I love the faux-leather writing top. She’s decorated it herself with a little collection of treasures.

Here’s a more encompassing view of that side of the room.

My desk (the roll-top in the middle) also serves as Tony’s desk when he’s working from home, which he usually does for a few hours in the afternoon. He also uses it when he’s doing his part of homeschooling with Axa (and sometimes Raj), which includes poetry, geography, phonics, and read-alouds for science, math, art, Italian, etc.

To the right of the roll-top is my elegant re-purposed produce crate, now serving as a repository for library books (the children have crates in their rooms for their library books too. It really helps with keeping the library books from getting mixed in with all the other books). Here’s a closer look 🙂

What I really want to put here is a low bookshelf, since I have a hard time restraining myself from used book sales (5 books for $1 at our new library!), and the new bookshelf is already full and overflowing.

Fully on the other side of the room from Axa’s is Raj’s desk. This is not because they don’t like each other. On the contrary, they like each other so much that neither can focus very well unless they have their own space. Also, whatever the other person is doing is always more interesting. A lot of homeschoolers have told me that their children all work at one big table. I don’t know how they do it. Either my children have vastly different personalities, or I just have novice-level classroom management skills.

So Raj’s desk is right underneath our kitchen bar counter, and I was utterly delighted with my cleverness in putting it there. Now we don’t need to get bar stools, and we have some great usable space, just Raj’s height.

You’ll notice that his chair doesn’t match the desk. Axa’s doesn’t either, if you look closely. They are both wonderful Stokke chairs, which we have had since Raj was a toddler. In a world of expensive and unnecessary children’s paraphernalia, Stokke chairs are unusual for their brilliant design and real practicality. Everything on them (seat depth/height and footrest) is adjustable. So not only do they put children at a comfortable height, they also help them have good posture and give them a “floor” to put their feet on, so their legs don’t just dangle off the chair. They are wonderful at a dining table, but even more essential when sitting at a desk and writing. Pricey, but awesome.

So that’s our homeschool room. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. Where do you do your homeschooling?

9 thoughts on “Welcome Home, Part 3: The Homeschool Room

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  • February 29, 2012 at 7:08 am
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    Karen – Mine are only seven and four, so they don’t do a lot of independent work. I’m pretty sure that in the future my daughter will do a lot of her work elsewhere. She can focus for hours when she’s alone, but sometimes not even five minutes when there’s someone else in the room. I think a good balance might be doing independent work in separate rooms and staying together in the same room for things done as a family (for us that’s art and composer study, devotional, science, and Italian).

    Sasha – My husband does always seem to end up working from home. We’ve done a few businesses together, and he has done some freelance work. Right now he manages the Orlando branch of a pest control company. So he doesn’t leave until ten in the morning. He does his part of school with the children before he leaves. He comes home in the afternoon to do paperwork, partly because we have faster internet and a better working environment here. Then he’s out with his team in the evening. He didn’t really ask his boss if he could work from home. It’s just a very flexible job, and most of it doesn’t happen in the office anyway. Oh, and his supervisor is his brother, who lives with us 🙂

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  • February 29, 2012 at 6:07 am
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    It’s SO nice that your husband can work from home! (It seems like he is working from home every time!) It’s wonderful to have both parents involved in homeschooling – something we need to work on. Can you give me a tip? Does he just simply ask his boss to work from home, or does he look for certain jobs that he can work from home? I want to encourage my husband to do that…

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  • February 29, 2012 at 2:12 am
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    Love your school room! Nice desks areas. We turned my garage into a schoolroom. I love it, and I use it more often with my 4th grader, but my 10th grader prefers her bedroom, except for Algebra when we need the dry erase board. We are another family that would have trouble all doing school at the same table. I find there is a lot more verbal interaction with younger children and this can disturb older students trying to be independent. Anyone else encounter this and have ideas to stay in the same room but keep everyone happy?

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  • February 28, 2012 at 11:53 pm
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    Ah, book crates. Such happy memories…..

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  • February 28, 2012 at 3:32 pm
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    The room looks great…very comfortable. I love Raj’s desk location. What a brilliant use of space, plus facing the wall helps keep distractions at bay.

    I sure like you library’s used book prices–5 for a $1.00 is super. We can’t buy enough books around here, and I don’t have room for anymore book cases either. Guess it’s time to go thru them once again and donate.

    Best wishes on a successful rest of the year.

    Joyfully,
    Jackie–A
    Homeschooling
    Mom who enjoys
    blogging and living on a farm.

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  • February 28, 2012 at 9:21 am
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    On the stairs (they slide up and down them while take turns reading) and in a tent when the weather is just right. It will be another month at least before it becomes Qatari unbearable. It’s been a dreamy winter. I know that it puts them in a strange category for ideal learning environments, but you have to cash in on all of the treats of casa-schooling and being able to hold the crescent moon yoga posture while doing geography is one of ’em.

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  • February 27, 2012 at 10:12 pm
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    It seems that right now most of the homeschooling happens in the boys’ bedroom. None of us (except my husband) like to sit at a desk, so they just find whatever comfortable spot they like. Even if we ever had a homeschooling room, I don’t think a desk would get used much.

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