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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 9:03am | IP Logged
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I find myself captivated by these very lovely and serene "homeschool spaces" that so frequently come about with the advent of Pinterest.
I'm not knocking them. The creators are gifted and the spaces are inspirational.
BUT...
For instance, look at this most recent one I've seen from Playful Learning.
Do you notice anything missing from this "One Room Schoolhouse" which was supposedly inspired by old one room schoolrooms?
Where are the books???????????
I mean, I understand that people can keep their books in spaces that aren't where they are working. I do. But I wouldn't if I had a WHOLE ROOM just for school, yk?
And, while I also understand that most people only have 2-3 children and many of these moms are "new" to homeschooling, most of these spaces are limited to preschool type activities. My oldest is only in third grade, and I already feel like I've outgrown so many of these ideas, not to mention that an authentic one room school house educated a very wide range of ages.
Truly, I'm not trying to pick. I guess I was just so excited to see the post come up, I ooed and ahhed appropriately over the photos, imagining briefly how to incorporate any of it into my own home.
And then I went, "huh." I think that space doesn't hold half of what I would need to educate my crew all together.
There are many ideas in the space that could be utilized, but so many of these types of spaces I see are serene because they are simple, and it just struck me to realize that, "of course you can create a simple space if you aren't trying to fit 100s of books inside!" or even more than 2-3 children 
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Aagot
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 9:15am | IP Logged
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Agreed!
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 10:26am | IP Logged
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Umm another thing I notice is how WHITE the room is.. I mean.. I'd have to keep the kids locked out or there'd be dirty feet on everything.. all those pretty displays would be dumped out, all those lovely art supplies that are at the kids (including toddler) level would be used on the walls and that wagon display would be being pulled around the room with at least one or two passengers.. and that's if I just stepped out for a minute. 
I guess I just don't have and never will have a room just for school. I'm just happy to have a space to store the books. And I don't need a one room school house room. My kids can cuddle up on their beds or on the couch in the living room to read books that may never be displayed flat on a wall. They're pulled out of bookcases. We have a kitchen/dining room table to work at. Sure we have to clean up to use it for meals but an occasional "picnic" allows for things to be left out at times. And art supplies will get put out of reach of the toddlers and sidewalk chalk will go in an old plastic ice cream bucket that can be carried outside.. to the sidewalk.
These spaces are fun to look at. And certainly pretty. But I guess what I dislike most is the idea that you need a separate space to school your children.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 10:37am | IP Logged
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That IS a very pretty and serene looking space, and I'm always grateful when others share their spaces and ideas! I can find many things there that I really like. I do note the lack of books though. And as you mentioned, Lindsay, the space, while serene looking, seems as if it would only "fit" a smaller family with preschoolers. And, it's possible that this is all the creator of this space needed to create for - in which case, it is lovely and functional for her. Though...still missing books! Where are the books? Maybe they're in another room...but why? 
I prefer practical AND pretty. LIVING!
There will be some uniqueness in each of our spaces, as you point out, Lindsay - and it really all goes back to that idea of "seasons".
What season of home education are you in?
Do you have only 2 children who are pretty self-sufficient?
Do you have only preschoolers?
Only high schoolers?
A full complement of ages and grades you're working with?
A room/space that can be dedicated entirely to home education?
Are you in the basement?
Do you have windows?
Is your space/room visible to ANYONE who walks in the front door?
Does your learning space extend throughout the home, but organization and storage of books/tools is confined to a small shelf off the kitchen?
I think simple, orderly, and efficient ARE possible in a learning space with multiple ages - at least that's what I aim for. And serene (calm, peaceful, tranquil) is enjoyable, but I wouldn't characterize it as the over-arching goal or atmosphere of our home education. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with the physical space (environment) - it has to do with children and ATMOSPHERE! Our space is more LIVING. It bends, breathes, and is malleable. It is open and inviting; is usually full (of books, of activity, the hum of business) and expansive. Our space invites exploration, seeking to know. And while *I* find that delightful, expressive, and LIVING...I'm not sure I'd always describe it as "serene".
There ARE things about - books, tools, chemicals, beakers, art supplies, binoculars, dead bugs - *things*. And while our home atmosphere does encourage and even require orderliness as part of being good stewards of those *things* - the idea of simplicity does not extend to a sparseness that is sometimes extolled as a virtue or a necessary goal in home education...when it is really just - sparseness. Be frugal - yes. A simple and orderly space is inviting, visually pleasing, and easier to maintain - yes. But, don't go to the other extreme and rid your home education collection of those things which are truly useful and practical - even if they aren't necessarily photogenic and pastel in shade. And as you rightly observe, Lindsay, the more children in one's home education space, the older they get, one can expect to legitimately need and use more material books and *things* in the pursuit of a living education.
I would concur with your observations, Lindsay, and I really DO enjoy seeing these lovely spaces, and I enjoy taking some neat ideas from the sharing. I also think the children and I find more delight in fostering and enjoying a space that is LIVING! And living takes into account the different types of fullness within individual seasons of home education and invites an atmosphere of delight.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 10:43am | IP Logged
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I wouldn't MIND having a separate space to school my children. I doubt we'd stay there, but it would be nice to have a space like Jen's to organize materials in a central location.
Of course, I DREAM of a real pantry, too. I've wanted a "perfect pantry" like Laura Ingalls since I was a girl But I can and likely will live without one of those, too.
Actually, a "butler's schoolroom" off of the living spaces sounds just about perfect to me
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 10:50am | IP Logged
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Cross-posting, Jen.
Yes! I just don't see how a place could foster a "living, breathing" education without books around. My kids enjoy being creative and all that, and they've enjoyed my recent revamping to make those material more accessible.
BUT
If all we had were books, we'd be okay. They would be the most foundational aspect of an educational atmosphere, in my opinion.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 3:19pm | IP Logged
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Things I do like:
*Those face-out racks for (presumably) either books you're especially using at the moment (like a Morning Basket on the wall!), or books you want your kids to gravitate towards
*The little buckets for colored pencils, sorted by color. I had such a "duh" moment last weekend when I was leading a morning retreat for my First Communion class, and using my friend's kindergarten atrium room. She had all her colored pencils sorted by color, and maybe this is a Montessori thing, but I was like, "Whoa! That's the coolest thing I've ever seen." I guess I don't get out much. But this will be happening in my FHC classroom soon, if not at home.
*The wire bins and the glass canisters, which look just like my big kitchen flour canister. Cool storage ideas, and so much hung on the wall, which would really help my space. We too don't really have a designated schoolroom where all school takes place, but our back den/study is where all our school stuff lives, and I'm constantly working on having more things visible and at my fingertips, but in an organized way.
*Cool terrarium. I want one.
Things I like less about that space:
*The little cubbies holding one thing of glitter each. That just looks posed, not practical. I can't see myself enforcing the putting away of things so that they still look that sculptural . . .
*The whiteness. It just looks kind of clinical to me (though I have ivory rooms in my house, and no real objection to white), and also like smudges and handprints and dinginess waiting to happen. I'm also one of the people who don't buy the claim that white couch slipcovers are practical "because you can thrown them in the wash." Like there isn't other wash in line first? Just how long would my couch have to wait to get its slipcover back, and just how ugly is it going to look while it's waiting? So, not a fan of the non-color scheme, though I see how, as it's all staged for the photo shoot, it does look "serene." Like snow that no one has walked on yet.
*The absence of child art or anything child-made. What's on the walls is beautiful, including the chalk map on the blackboard, but it's all very *adult," and *adult-made." It seems to me that a designated space for learning is a designated space for *children.*
I am trying to rethink my FHC classroom, actually, more than my home learning spaces, though that's always a work in progress. For FHC I have this gigantic room that several groups use throughout the week, and it's a *horrible* space for second-graders for several reasons, especially if what you want to do with them is more CM-style and relational, rather than strictly schooly. I hate that room more and more with each passing day. More cool storage might help us, for a start . . .
That's really an aside, but it's the reason why I'm finding these learning-space discussions so interesting. The more I apply what I learn from homeschooling to my little ones in the parish, the better things go . . .
Sally
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Claire F
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 4:42pm | IP Logged
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What always gets me when I look at posts like that one is how much money I'd have to invest to get all my storage to be so match-y and coordinted. I have a mish-mash of storage items, shelving, furniture, baskets, bins, etc. and it definitely does not look magazine worthy, even when things are picked up nicely. But I didn't go out and buy a whole set of things to fill a room or a space; they are things I've collected over time, and used and reused. I feel like I'd have to start over and get all new things, in lovely coordinated colors and textures, to achieve the same type of look. It is pretty, but not happening around here!
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Claire
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 5:50pm | IP Logged
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Real collections are more interesting anyway!
Sally
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 6:27pm | IP Logged
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SallyT wrote:
| I'm also one of the people who don't buy the claim that white couch slipcovers are practical "because you can thrown them in the wash." Like there isn't other wash in line first? Just how long would my couch have to wait to get its slipcover back, and just how ugly is it going to look while it's waiting? |
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I can tell you from experience, your instinct is right on.
We bought a second hand Ikea sofa from SIL that had the white slipcover, and we lived with it for over a year before we finally invested in the dark khaki to match the chaise we already owned. Granted, the white from Ikea is $50 versus $150ish for the colored options, so you could own extra white pieces to switch out so you never had to go laundry free. Still, those suckers are NOT easy to take off and put on. My boys are strong and used to hard work, and they can't put the covers back on the cushions without a good bit of help.
AND
I picked up a pink (yes, pink) cover on deep, deep clearance (thinking I might use it for a pattern to make my own slipcover...maybe someday) that I now keep underneath the khaki so that I have a cover on the couch while I'm washing the cover. It isn't just aesthetics; the kids will NOT stay away from it for the time it takes to wash two loads of slipcover, and the part that can't be washed inevitably gets dirt, and I even have one cushion that is losing stuffing from their coverless antics.
I really think the "just bleach it" line comes mostly from SAHMs with 2-3 children who are mostly in school all day. Not only do they have less laundry overall, they simply have those few hours together to let it wash while being productive elsewhere without having their kids all over the bare couch. I mean, if there is a mom of 4 dirty, homeschooled boys who can make it happen, I think you're awesome. But it DOES take extra work. I would have had to wash my couch weekly to keep it looking good 
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 6:28pm | IP Logged
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SallyT wrote:
Real collections are more interesting anyway!
Sally |
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Oh absolutely! I love glass canisters and containers for collections in the home education spaces...like rock collections, bark collections, nuts, seeds, butterfly specimens, art supplies! And we use simple, inexpensive (found at the thrift store) glasses and Mason Jars for containing color pencils, markers, brushes, and other art supplies.
This is one area I think the blog post is on the right track, although I question the usefulness of some of the objects contained (I'd never use my glass canisters to contain clothespin collections or multi-hued collections of duct tape. Who wants to gaze at a group of clothespins?). But again, if the creator of the space has only small children and limited needs, then the clothespins may fit her needs very well...but I'd still rather look at a collection of rocks! And it's something I think you're discovering, Sally. A lovely presentation of an object or a tool IS inviting and pleasing. It DOES have to be practical - in other words, it should contain something useful or needed - but the attractive presentation DOES make a difference.
And I certainly agree things don't need to be matchy-matchy when organizing spaces. But, I have found that common threads that run through the organization tools we have DO unify them and it is somehow very attractive. So...maybe not all matching pieces, but a lot of clear glass from the thrift store, different baskets in like colors (which may be useful in shape but ugly in color - simple, cheap solution is spray paint), covering marred or unattractive surfaces in cheery oilcloth, using spray adhesive to cover mismatched magazine file holders in pretty fabrics.
A quick word about organizing color pencils by color -- you're right, it is a Montessori idea, and it's meant for a large classroom of students, so the idea works well in an Atrium space, and could really work in your FHC classroom. But, I've found it doesn't translate well in a home education space; it's superfluous. We do have several sets of color pencils, for use in various applications, and for various ages. It's much more useful for us to group a set of color pencils by brand (like keeping all our Derwents together, and all the Prang together, etc.) so that they can be picked up and transported to a work area according to their purpose and the need. However, several years ago, I started displaying our different collections of color pencils by standing them upright in a glass container (wide mouthed glass or Mason jar) so that they could be seen easily, and I do find that this method REALLY does invite use (more use than the pencils were seeing before), and is very attractive!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 8:04pm | IP Logged
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I like a lot of what she has, but if I had a very small space like that, bookshelves would have to occupy most of it. Practicality has to come first. White also would be out for the same reason.
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Krista
Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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CSBasile
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 9:12pm | IP Logged
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I agree that it is a beautiful space, but not so practical (as others have mentioned). The white walls wouldn't stay white long with all those craft supplies (like the glitter), and I'm not sure I'd use glass jars to display items if the room is being used by littles. When they are a bit older, perhaps. I thought it was a bit too white and sterile looking, but I prefer colorful environments for children -- they don't really just color in one color, do they? No, they use a rainbow of colors! Some of the ideas are similar to things we do in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium -- all the colored pencils arranged together by color, etc. There is a mix of good ideas.
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 16 2013 at 9:50pm | IP Logged
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Jen, I absolutely agree about beautiful presentation. I spend a lot of time shuffling things around in the house -- not just learning things, but everything -- to foreground items I want us to notice and make useful things available in a way that pleases my eye: the composition of my most-used kitchen tools in a bright red metal pail on the dark green counter makes me really happy, for example. And this is something lacking in our study, because it's a small room with, currently, some superfluous furniture that isn't useful to us, and not a lot of organization, beyond the organization of the bookshelves. One of my plans is to ditch some of it this summer and do yet another overhaul, with the goal of having many things we own become more visible and useful to us. I could see our several pairs of field glasses in a wire bin on the wall, for instance, and our microscope in another. As it is we hardly ever get the latter out because it's in a box on top of a cabinet whose function is to hold a lot of clutter which could be sorted out into useful things in wire bins on the wall, and the rest thrown away. So I do think that attractive, *visible* presentation serves function.
And a propos of nothing related to learning, one of my current favorite things in my house is a rusty hurricane-lantern sconce that I found in my mother's garden shed and hung in my dining room. I loved lighting that candle for our Holy Thursday Seder dinner. It made the room feel magical.
On the other hand, I've found it really hard to manage art supplies . . . at all, much less in a pretty way. And on yet another hand, if I had those nifty little cubby/pigeonhole things, which my first instinct is to love, and I used them to arrange glitter glue and jars of glitter and things, then it would *bother* me to have my careful composition upset, which would . . . kind of defeat the whole learning purpose. "Oh. These aren't our art supplies. This is more of Mom's attempt to turn everything into art. Never mind . . . "
And I LOVE Mason jars. One of the best things about our house was that it came with a garage attic space full of boxes of empty Mason jars. We keep everything, but everything in Mason jars, and drink out of them, too. I have my colored pencils for my FHC kids in jars in my classroom -- and I really am going to sort them by color, because I think that would be useful to those children. I can see how one wouldn't need to do that at home. Here they mostly wind up in my youngest daughter's pencil case, because she is the artiste. The boys are not fighting her for the art supplies.
We made tangram puzzles today, and I thought when I saw that glass canister display in that learning room that it would be fun to keep tangram pieces and other math manipulatives (like wine corks -- somehow we have a lot of those and use them for math) in not-overlarge canisters, so that we could see them easily.
Lindsay, I am so glad I'm not alone re the slipcover thing. The main piece of furniture (besides bookshelves) in our study is a futon which the dog sleeps on, so I do have to wash whatever covers it more often than I might otherwise. I so dread wrestling with the futon cover that I actually haven't put the real one back on in a while, but used a fitted jersey sheet instead. Currently the futon is wearing an old flannel duvet cover for a cover (still had to wrestle with it, but it's a lot looser), with a sheet over that for an added layer of dog-hair protection. Beauty is totally not happening in this room, I'm afraid, though it is a comfortable room where the children like to be.
I know that at our current stage, with nobody younger than 9 in the house (unless you count the dog, and he's 7), the thing I try to create above all is an abundance of places to read, indoors and out. Increasingly what we do for school is read, and increasingly people read on their own, and I want to make places that invite them to do that. There's the futon in the study (and the cushy rug on the study floor); there's the squashy, comfortable loveseat in this little nook at the end of the hall between the kitchen and study doors, where I'm sitting right now. We just inherited a relatively comfortable wicker sofa for the front porch from my mother: one more stretch-out-and-read place, in addition to the Adirondack chairs (plastic ones from Lowe's, but ergonomic and very comfortable). In the back yard I have a couple of groupings of chairs, and that's a nice place to gravitate to with a book on a pretty day. Any of these places are good places to read aloud. We have lap desks, so a person could take his/her writing to a comfortable place, too.
So if I were going to articulate a guiding principle for organizing learning space, I'd say that that would be to have a center or starting place, where everything is kept and where people gather with the eventual intent of moving out, with materials in hand, from that space to read and write in peace. That's a "nothing-but-big-kids" vision, which is where we are.
Sally
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Kathryn
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| Posted: April 17 2013 at 10:47pm | IP Logged
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That would last looking that pretty and white and organized for about 2.4 milli-seconds with my youngest two.  But oh how I do wish for some more serene spaces around here. I've just not figured that out b/c with my wide ages we are allll.over the house and out back and out front and in the car etc. etc.
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Maryan
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| Posted: April 18 2013 at 7:31am | IP Logged
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I have to admit that I love it. I think I love this room more. This is what I would like our basement to look like. I almost had "my version" of the basement done when morning sickness hit again two years ago, when I discovered I was pregnant with my youngest... morning sickness stopped the organization... and I have yet to return!
I can't have all books etc. out. I do think that I need to rotate books/toys/manipulatives etc. So it's possible to feel peaceful. Babies dump bookshelves when moms are doing math with second graders. And meanwhile the toddlers dump the playmobil.
So I would like to rotate toys, manipulatives and books... from a closet, I think.
Have I been able to accomplish this? No. But it's a goal.
And yes, we study all over the house, but it's still nice to have one place to find it all?
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Maryan
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 18 2013 at 8:04am | IP Logged
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Maryan wrote:
So I would like to rotate toys, manipulatives and books... from a closet, I think.
Have I been able to accomplish this? No. But it's a goal.
And yes, we study all over the house, but it's still nice to have one place to find it all? |
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Yes! Which is why I'm deciding (since having come up with the concept in my post above two days ago) that my Butler's Schoolroom is the current dream 
I do agree that Ann Voskamp's version is much more in keeping with the idea of the multi-age, one-room schoolroom.
I think, too, that I like the idea of a wall of bookshelves, either like Jen's where the lack of lower shelves makes for usable desk/table space or the lower shelves are reserved for cubbies and storage of the things rotated outward and then having a lot of open space around for the "calm" factor on the other walls. I don't like the idea of keeping my books in a closet (though a small library that allows for a nook wouldn't be so bad), but I do like the idea of keeping many of the books above the reach of toddlers in these years with littles!
And, I must admit that I really could turn our family room into a school room leaving my small dining room free for storing my kitchen items, but I know ME, and I know that the kids would get away with dumping and messing a lot more if these items were "away," even though it is only a few stairs down! I can't seem to ever not be shocked by the disaster that room becomes so rapidly without my knowledge!
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Maryan
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| Posted: April 18 2013 at 9:58am | IP Logged
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| Yes! Which is why I'm deciding (since having come up with the concept in my post above two days ago) that my Butler's Schoolroom is the current dream |
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Ahhh... I get it! I *started* putting the rotating supplies in a spare bedroom in our basement (for the boys to sleep in someday when they are older) and locked the door. Those books & supplies have not been dumped.
I still have walls of bookshelves... and it's very dark. That's why I started to put books in baskets on the shelves in my spare room closet. So all the American Revolution books in one basket. All the botany books, etc. So they are easy to grab and (in theory) rotate. But I still have the big shelves.
My goal is to have art or bulletin boards of my kids art, and a fraction of the books/manipulatives out.
But I never finished, so I never really reaped the benefits of almost being organized.  I suppose almost being organized is better than utterly disorganized though? And three of my art posters got destroyed by a todder before I got to hang them. 
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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
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Erin
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Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
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| Posted: April 18 2013 at 4:38pm | IP Logged
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I've been saving pics and ideas for a learning centre and library for a while now. One thought I keep coming back to though is, as a visual person for me to be serene I suspect I need alot of the clutter hidden behind doors. So while I love the cube boxes look, would it be kept as need as the pics or would I be driven mad?
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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Maryan
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| Posted: April 18 2013 at 7:43pm | IP Logged
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Oooo I love all your ideas too Erin!
Erin wrote:
| One thought I keep coming back to though is, as a visual person for me to be serene I suspect I need alot of the clutter hidden behind doors. So while I love the cube boxes look, would it be kept as need as the pics or would I be driven mad? |
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You know it's funny, I'm a visual person, but not a neat freak. But the more I'm home all the time and not out and about (where I'd rather be), the more the clutter bothers me and I really would like it to be under control. Sort of an impossible task with young children!
Anyway... I have two 30" wide by 36" high bookshelves filled with workbaskets and/or baskets of books in my dining room. Even though I had cream colored baskets with everything neatly labelled, the shelves were slowly driving me nuts.
At Christmas, the clutter got too much for me, so to help calm me, I strategically hung a tablecloth over the shelves (to make it drape like it was a covered table). I have yet to take it off because it keeps me calmer (and hides a lot of stuff from the toddler!) My goal this summer is to sew it with velcro openings at the front. (we'll see if it happens)....
Anyway, it's my long story way of saying those cubed cubbies might bother you?
Interestingly enough, I have shelves in my kitchen filled with baskets as well. Although, unlike my dining room baskets, you can't see the contents, just my labels. The kitchen baskets don't bother me.
So maybe it depends on how you organize it too?
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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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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: Serene Homeschool Spaces
