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Hallie
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Hello!
My husband and I have pretty much decided that homeschooling is right for our family and now we are trying to slowly work out the logistics. I have seen many wonderful pictures posted on the Internet of home-school-rooms. Wonderfully big rooms with huge tables and endless bookshelves filled with wonderful supplies. Unfortunately, our house is a bit small. It fits us well right now but I am worried about homeschooling in it. We don't have a room that can be used for school. Our "office" is currently located inside our walk-in closet, in fact! LOL! Can homeschooling be done with limited square footage? If so, what does that look like? Thanks you so much everyone!
Hallie
DH-Dan
DS-Daniel (3)
DS-Jack (2)
DD-Sophia (5 months)
Fruit
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alicegunther
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Hallie wrote:
| Can homeschooling be done with limited square footage? If so, what does that look like? Thanks you so much everyone! |
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Absolutely, although it is a challenge! Our last house was quite small, and we had five children (and one more on the way) by the time we moved, but it worked for homeschooling. There are a couple of things I did throughout the years:
1. At one point, I gave up my master bedroom. It was the largest of our three bedrooms, but dh and I slept in one of the smaller rooms with the baby. The three girls shared the smallest room. It was a bit cramped, but well worth it for our large "storytime room," with couch, table and bookshelves.
2. When our family got larger still, we took over the bedroom again, and I purchased a large armoire for the dining room. All our materials went out of sight in the armoire, and we had lessons at the dining room table.
3. A friend of mine lived for a long time in a very small cottage with five children. She managed to make that cottage lovely by discarding every single thing not absolutely necessary and not being afraid to have schooly things in the main room of her house. She had lovely posters and school projects all tastefully arranged in her cozy living room. It did not look junky at all, and I actually thought it made her living room more interesting.
4. Wall to wall shelves everywhere are a good idea in a small home--if you can line the hallway with shelves, do it!
5. Basements are good for storage if you have one. Keep everything downstairs and out of sight, even if you do work upstairs.
6. Try to give away about half of what you own, save all paperwork and projects in photos or scans on the computer, limit children's clothing and toys. Sometimes a small space it good because it forces you not to amass too much unnecessary stuff.
7. We recently finished a garage as an art studio--often you can find space if you really need it.
8. Get outside! Do as much schoolwork as possible in the back yard when the weather is cooperative. When we lived in that small house, I kept materials in a backpack and took the kids outside for school almost every day (honestly, even on somewhat cold days). We would get up, jump into the car, and head to our nearby nature center, having tea and muffins on the picnic tables and then beginning our lessons under a great dome of blue sky. The little ones frolicked, and we were always very happy. I would come home to the smell of something good in the crockpot, and it was always a joy. Now that we live in a larger home (and have even more children), I rarely do this, but it is one of the things I miss most!
Small homes are beautiful! My children laugh because anytime I stop to compliment a house while we are driving, it is always some cute little cozy cottage--never the larger homes. Smaller homes are so wonderful, especially in an age of families spread all over not really spending time together. We just read The Long Winter, and the Ingalls family lived in (pretty much) one room, managing to cook, play, and learn all together without a bit of trouble. I honestly believe this is because they lived in a time before clutter. It really inspired me and made me realize that we do not need all that space, even with a large family.
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
      
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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lapazfarm
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We live in what I consider a decent sized house, but what others may consider smallish. (we recently moved from 1200 to 1500 square feet). The schooling areas are all over the house, tucked in here and there, including dining area, living room, and a tiny room off the kitchen that was meant to be a mudroom.
De-cluttering, lining the hallway with bookshelves, and accepting school-related thing in every living space are the keys!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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momwise
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Alice's (and Theresa's; we were posting at the same time  ) suggestions are fabulous! I would also add perhaps getting yourself some portable files with handles that will lay flat (you can store them under your bed in the evening) for your planning materials, items needing to be graded, articles you want to read later, etc.
Also, nothing makes a small house smaller like a large tv. Put it in the farthest corner of the house you can.
We've moved to a larger house also but I still use these strategies since we have no basement and therefore no storage areas other than the closets.
We have never done seatwork anywhere but the dining room table. We read on the couch or bed. Most days, I stand at the kitchen counter next to the table and spread my stuff out there. And I love ALice's idea about going outside everyday!
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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Tami
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Like Gwen said, Alice and Theresa's ideas, and Gwen's (!) are great!
You needn't have a separate area to school in. That's a luxury, I believe, for many families - not the norm.
Since it appears your children are young, you could look at the toys that you give them from an educational perspective, and make them do double duty.
For basic storage, I would look at Dawn's post on using totebags for her sons' books
http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2007/01 /lesson_and_week.html#trackback
Sorry, but I don't know how to post a link...
But just look at her totebags!! She has a wonderful room with lots of storage, tables, etc., but that's not where you are right now.
And Jennifer on this forum schools from her sailboat. I'm sure she will have a ton of ideas for you.
I have other things to share/suggest, but need to go right now. I'll post back as I get time.
You'll find a way, Hallie, for sure!
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God bless,
Tami
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become. (Nouwen)
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Jenny
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I have tried a "schoolroom" and it did not work well for us because we "do school" everywhere. When I am in the kitchen, the children are at the bar or the dinning room table. When I fold laundry in the laundry room, I have someone come read to me. We sit on the couch, the porch swing...
Or dining room has maps hanging on the walls and our built in hutch/china cabinet holds our school supplies.
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Jenny
Chris' wife and momma of 7. My blog: The Littlest Way--Bible Journaling, Inspiring Bible Quotes, Daily Affirmations, Prayer Journaling & photography
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Maryan
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Hallie -
We live in a two bedroom Cape Cod. (I love it!) - so modest in size, but we do have a good sized YELLOW kitchen and we do most of our homeschooling there -- the rest is on the couch or outside. So I have all the following in my kitchen...
I second the bookshelves that Alice suggested. Pretty BASKETS to hide craft supplies on the shelves, so they are practical and decorative. I also saved up for two splurges: a tall wooden FILE CABINET (Staples $100 - best price I've seen for a wooden file cabinet and they delivered it for free) that matches the wood in my kitchen to store all our bills and homeschool paper stuff) and then my big splurge was a flat screen monitor this summer to clear up some more space on our kitchen "desk" area. A laptop would work even better - but not in my budget .
I had a wooden table in the kitchen, but switched to a LAMINATE TOP kitchen table so we can finger paint and do whatever. Then when my neighbors come over -- I just through a tablecloth on top to hide the cheap laminate!
And as everyone said, decluttering is huge!
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
A Lee in the Woudes
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Christine
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We are a family of 8, living in an 1800 square foot home. We used to have our learning room in the downstairs bedroom, but that is no longer possible. I am actually preferring learning in various areas of our home. Religion, reading, read-alouds, etc. take place in our living room or in my bedroom. Latin, sign language, piano, and computer related learning are studied in a fair size room downstairs (in most homes it would probably be considered a rec room). Math and other subjects that require writing take place in our dining room. I prefer our learning to be spread throughout the house because it allows me to keep a closer eye on the little ones (when we were in our learning room, my third child was always leaving the room and getting into mischief).
Everything in our house was built on the small side, including the hallways. Thus, bookcases do not fit in our hallways. Instead, bookcases can be found in every room of our house. Barring a miracle, this will be our home for years to come. I try to keep my house free of clutter (it currently needs a major overhaul). Each child has a tub for learning related materials that they keep in their room. Half of our garage is used for storage. We have shelves lining the garage and laundry room which help tremendously.
Alice's idea of an armoire for storing learning materials is great (unfortunately, we do not have the space to do this)!
Learning in a small home is definitely manageable.
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Christine
Mommy to 4 girls, 5 boys, & 2 in God's care
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mellyrose
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We don't have a room devoted to homeschooling. Most of it takes place on my bed, our couch, our kitchen table, the living room and outdoors.
Some days we will head over to the library and do seatwork at one of the tables there.
I have 2 upper wooden cabinets hanging in our hallway that I store most of our homeschooling supplies in. I also have a largish 3 drawer plastic cabinet in a corner of the kitchen stuffed with art supplies. There are bookcases in every room of the house (including the bathroom! we have a row of gutter shelves in there behind the toilet)
In the hallway cabinets, I have 2 baskets with basic supplies for each boy -- small chalkboard, word journal, sketchpad, pencils, crayons, markers, ruler. We pull these out when needed. I have another basket with our nature journals, colored pencils, binoculars and field guides for nature study days. The rest of the cabinets are full of manipulatives, paper, workbooks, extra basic supplies, etc.
I have been thinking more and more about the tote bag idea and think we'll implement it here. Usually I just throw what's necessary into backpacks, but "school" totes could stay packed with "school" things.
While I think it could be nice to have a devoted room -- I think we would still likely be all over the place!
Melanie
Mom to Colin (6), Nate (4) and one on the way!
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Hallie
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Thank you all! This advice was very helpful. I'm going to print this out and put it in my brand new homeschooling notebook! It's not too obviously that I am excited about this, is it? ;)
Hallie
DH-Dan
DS-Daniel (3)
DS-Jack (2)
DD-Sophia (5 months)
Fruit
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alicegunther
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momwise wrote:
Also, nothing makes a small house smaller like a large tv. Put it in the farthest corner of the house you can.
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Gwen, how funny! When we lived in our first house, I had the smallest tv imaginable. Honestly, one day I came home with this tiny tv and asked dh to put the normal sized one in the garage! Fortunately, he is not a big tv watcher, and he always called the little one "The Barbie TV." We also kept it out of the way, and it never took over our space or our lives.
I'd forgotten about it until reading your suggestion, but you are so very right!
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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Lisbet
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Hallie, There are 10 of us in 1500 square feet right now. It's really funny, but everyone that visits always says just how spacious our house looks. Alice's adivise about discarding everything that is not necessary is key. Simplify to the max, you'll have much more space and much less stuff to take care of.
We do not have a school room either. We have a circular kitchen/diningroom/livingroom layout, and in our tiny 10x12 diningroom we have a very large diningroom table, 3 bookcases and our computer desk, and we fit just fine. Bookcases and pretty baskets are the way to go when you have little space.
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
Josephine born 6.11.12
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Servant2theKing
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Small homes are cozy and warm, perfect for real learning in the home! Creative use of space can help make your living and learning spaces serve many purposes. We find storage nooks wherever we can; slide dishpans of picturebooks under beds or couches, line closet walls with bookshelves, place furniture perpendicular to walls in rooms with less available wall space, and utilize empty vertical space whenever possible.
Most of our rooms are dual purpose. We have antique school desks lined up along the dead space beside our basement stair rail in the livingroom, with baskets of books under the seats...there's a pretty quilt hanging over the railing, which makes the space cozy, while also protecting the wood from dings and scratches...this is where most formal study takes place. Our master bedroom has a couch, loveseat, extra book cases, and our only TV (probably as small as Alice's), so it also serves as a familyroom, where many read alouds take place, and where libary materials are stored and enjoyed (our dressers are inside our closets, which frees up floor space in all our bedrooms). We've even used the extra counter space in our master bath, which has an empty nook underneath it, as a desk, using a high stool, for a child who needs a quiet space, away from busy household traffic. Since we store our main homeschooling books in baskets learning can take place anywhere, even in the bathroom, or the car or our old camper when the spirit moves us! We now have a "Spare Oom" which is devoted to studying, crafts, ironing, bedroom for occasional guests and library...the extra deep closet is lined with bookshelves! Our dining area also doubles as a study space and large project room! If you think of your home as the ideal environment for learning, rather than a showplace from a decorating magazine, you'll be more inclined to enjoy fashioning your own unique homeschooling haven!
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All for Christ, our Saviour and King, servant
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marihalojen
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Hello Hallie!
Last year I posted a picture of Our School Room on the boat. Even though that was posted nearly a year ago, we still school in the cockpit quite frequently. The preferred table this year is actually a table, (not the floorboards to her beloved little boat), attached properly to the helm. I really believe that the best schooling happens outside and with your oldest being 3, I'd devote a shelf to books for him, a bag to hold a blanket, art supplies, a magnifying glass and snacks and go outside!
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~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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Cay Gibson
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Our dear friend Alice has lost her school room for a spell.  (I guess since she made it public it's okay to announce here .) Perhaps we'll get to "see" some "real life" flexibility through this catastrophe. I know if anyone can spur us to a more positive and do-able attitude, it's Alice.
What a timely article thought. Do you mind if I take a rather long trip down memory lane. I hope not.
Years ago we lived in a 1400 sq. foot house. And too much clutter. We added a huge living area in the back and upped it to 1800 sq. foot. We filled up that room quickly and three years ago (almost four) we moved into my in-laws house which, since enclosing the carport, comes to 3000 sq. foot.
Annie's godfather bought our old house three years ago. We were able to visit whenever we wanted. Looks like he might be moving to Calfornia. He's selling our old house and already has a buyer under contract and another buyer waiting in the wings should it not go through. He had us over last night for a last barbecue and family gathering.
After church, upon inviting us over, Chelsea scolded him: "Why didn't you sell it back to us?" He just laughed at her.
On getting out of the car, my oldest dd commented on how small the front yard looked from what she remembered. "You're getting older," I told her.
My dh looked around the house and observed, "There's no way we could move back into this house with all our stuff."
"It'd be a good purging," I observed. What hit me the hardest was the memories that flooded me.
One last time to reflect on my little patio.
One last time to walk my old backyard.
One last time to stand looking into our little patch of woods. (couldn't walk in it because all the rain has left it swamp-like)
One last time to gaze down my old hallway and remember bean-tosses, ball throwing, mysterious Easter bunny footprints leading out of bedrooms and jelly bean trails, pacing the hallway with a colicy baby, and children getting sick in the middle of the night.
One last time to look at my mini-secret garden and remember all the dreams I had for it: the seven-sisters rose bush, the weeping willow tree grown massive now, the birdhouse sitting lonely and chipped in the corner, beautiful hibiscus plants to go with the name of our street, the cemented cobbled walks handstakingly made by my dh, and lollipop gardens on Easter morning.
One last time to revisit 13 yrs. of memories.
Garrett pointed out and laughed about the hallway light still harboring the empty space where a bouncy ball thrown between him and Kayleigh had broken the panel which has never been replaced.
Kayleigh looked into my fenced-in secret garden, remembering past swimming birthday parties with friends and observed, "Gosh, I remember our pool being huge. How big was it? This place seems so small now."
"You're getting older," I told her.
Corey went around the kitchen opening up cabinets and saying: "This was where we kept the plates. This was where we kept the poptarts and breakfast cereal. This is where Mom kept all the baby stuff." (Gosh, he even remembered that!!!)
Chelsea was only 5 at the time we moved but she dissolved into a puddle of tears with a wail of: "I want to move back here!". "I'm glad you have such good memories of this place. That's a good thing." I comforted her. But she was too torn up to hear me.She went from my arms to Oma's arms to her nanny's lap to her parian's lap to her daddy's lap. Only daddy could make her laugh.
Annie (who was between 15 months and 2 yr during the transition phase) was oblivious to the nostalgia of the moment. She had a ball playing with her parian's cats. She wants to go back today. Chelsea doesn't want to go back. The memories are just too painful.
My children might never be drawn to great things in life. I think they'll always be drawn to smallish homes though.
In keeping with this thread though the question is would I go back? Yes, I would go back to 13 glorious years of memories. Beautiful memories. Memories I would so embrace more today then I did back then. I was so focused on the clutter and lack of space I couldn't see over the top. But to my children the house and yard were HUGE. The piles of clutter were mountains to scale and be explored. And the memories are larger than life.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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Bridget
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Cay Gibson wrote:
Do you mind if I take a rather long trip down memory lane. I hope not.
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Aw, Cay, even I remember that little house with affection. Isn't that where you had the sand and water table on the patio for the little girls while you worked with older kids? I loved that image.
Now I'll have to go read about Alice's latest. Poor thing.
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God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
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lapazfarm
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Cay, that is so beautiful!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Philothea
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We have not actively begun homeschooling (in fact are still in the decisionmaking phase), but we do live in a townhouse and the way we maximize our space is through storage-containing furniture. Our kitchen table is a large counter-height farmhouse table with two large storage drawers. I use the space for cooking supplies, but if we decide to homeschool it could be reappropriated later. We're also building in a window seat with storage in the bay window that could be used later for HS, as well.
We are redoing the family room and I will be both lining the wall with inexpensive IKEA bookshelves (adding some glass doors here and there for looks and dust control) and making sure our coffee table, end table, etc. have storage inside. A large wood trunk used as a coffee table can hold a lot of supplies for whatever. MANY discounters now sell ottomans with interior storage. I have seen them at IKEA, Bed Bath Beyond, JC Penney, Walmart and others.
In the bedrooms, we only use nightstands that contain ample book and paper storage. Additionally, wall shelves can hold books up and out of the way.
If you have the resources, built-in cabinets and shelves not only look wonderful and help with organization, but they add $$$ value to a home for future resale and make rooms look bigger than they really are. They're a wonderful investment. We have not done this due to finances, but if you can swing it, it's a nice solution.
You might try reading some books by Sarah Susanka to get you started. She wrote "The Not So Big House" and there is now a whole series of books by her talking about how to live comfortably in smaller homes.
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aussieannie
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Our house is not large either - we school from our dining table that we like to pull into the lounge area - we have bookcases (including our specific homeschooling one plus one for all our children's books) all around the lounge and one in the dining room - so it is cosy but it works ok.
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Under Her Starry Mantle
Spiritual Motherhood for Priests
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MaryMary
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Cay Gibson wrote:
One last time to gaze down my old hallway and remember bean-tosses, ball throwing, mysterious Easter bunny footprints leading out of bedrooms and jelly bean trails, pacing the hallway with a colicy baby, and children getting sick in the middle of the night.
One last time to look at my mini-secret garden and remember all the dreams I had for it: the seven-sisters rose bush, the weeping willow tree grown massive now, the birdhouse sitting lonely and chipped in the corner, beautiful hibiscus plants to go with the name of our street, the cemented cobbled walks handstakingly made by my dh, and lollipop gardens on Easter morning.
One last time to revisit 13 yrs. of memories.
My children might never be drawn to great things in life. I think they'll always be drawn to smallish homes though.
In keeping with this thread though the question is would I go back? Yes, I would go back to 13 glorious years of memories. Beautiful memories. Memories I would so embrace more today then I did back then. I was so focused on the clutter and lack of space I couldn't see over the top. But to my children the house and yard were HUGE. The piles of clutter were mountains to scale and be explored. And the memories are larger than life.
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SHEESH! And to think I came to this thread (from the "Welcome" thread in 'Hidden Treasure')for a little levity. Now I'm crying all over the keyboard again!
Cay, that was utterly, utterly beautiful! A post I will not soon forget!
__________________
Mary
Wife 2 1
Mum 2 four blessings on earth and two in heaven!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Smallish home
