Dedicated space or just all over the place?
One of the things I get asked is "do you have a dedicated room? where do you do all your work?" Well, we've done both actually. A dedicated space doesn't have to be a room and it isn't exactly needed. When we started the younger kids we had a dedicated "school room" and we found the more it looked like a school room the less we ended up using it. We ended up all over the house. Reading together on the couch, arts and crafts at the kitchen table, science experiments outside on the road (we live on a dead end so not much traffic and since we were letting off geysers and rockets we wanted a place that was flat and fairly bomb proof so to say. So for the next few years the dedicated school room ended back up as a storage room.
As the kids have gotten older they have wanted to have a space to call theirs besides their bedroom. We have spent some time getting the room emptied again and ready for them. It is a dedicated room again, but instead of doing it up as a school room, we made it into a comfortable space. a mixture of a hang out room, a meeting area for a couple of the clubs we host and a space to get stuff done. We've painted it, made a DIY science lab table/crafting table/map work table and a tall school desk if needed. It's able to be torn down in a matter of a few seconds and moved so we will have a large empty room with our hammock chairs to sit and discuss things as we do so much as a group discussion and don't always need a place to just do work.
This is also tied into the way we school. We don't do a classical homeschool setting, we don't focus just on curriculum although the kids have it available to them. The next question I always get is how do you structure your stuff if you aren't doing the traditional type schooling. Here's what we do (and it may or may not work for your family, if your a new homeschooler it may take a while to find what does work for your family): each year I ask the kids for a list of stuff they are wanting to learn about or accomplish over the next year. When they were younger the list was much broader and less defined it might be "what animals will we find in the forest here? What types of flowers are there?" and then I would discuss their ideas and get a better idea of exactly what they are wanting to learn about. Now that they are a bit older (going into 4th and 3rd grade this fall plus a lively 3 yo who is wanting to learn as well) their list looks like "chemical reactions, how to make silly putty, grow crystals, blow things up, etc" and "learn about India, Japan, Cambodia, history of England" etc. and I take their lists, help the kids define it better and then we discuss how they are going to accomplish their goals for the year. It can include curriculum, reading books, online websites, outside classes, local resources that can help us, places that we can go for fieldtrips, it might include clubs and clinics as well. Then we sit down and draw out what a week would look like with everything that is non flexibly (everything that has a specific date/time/place to meet up and is decided by someone elses schedule like, weekly music lessons, club meet ups, etc) we always leave Friday as an open day for fieldtrips, Dr. appointments, errands, or just a day off to relax. so everything has to fall on the other days. Most of the clubs and activities fall Monday-Thursday anyway so that usually works out well. After we have those marked on the weekly schedule the kids can look and see what they have for their other interests and free time. It is a bit more of an involved process than just ordering curriculum for the kids and saying here do this, but it has several nice things as bonus benefits. The kids learn to make their own goals, schedule their time, are invested in their education, and are more motivated to actually do stuff since it's things they naturally find interesting anyway.
Next post: Fun with light boxes!
As the kids have gotten older they have wanted to have a space to call theirs besides their bedroom. We have spent some time getting the room emptied again and ready for them. It is a dedicated room again, but instead of doing it up as a school room, we made it into a comfortable space. a mixture of a hang out room, a meeting area for a couple of the clubs we host and a space to get stuff done. We've painted it, made a DIY science lab table/crafting table/map work table and a tall school desk if needed. It's able to be torn down in a matter of a few seconds and moved so we will have a large empty room with our hammock chairs to sit and discuss things as we do so much as a group discussion and don't always need a place to just do work.
This is also tied into the way we school. We don't do a classical homeschool setting, we don't focus just on curriculum although the kids have it available to them. The next question I always get is how do you structure your stuff if you aren't doing the traditional type schooling. Here's what we do (and it may or may not work for your family, if your a new homeschooler it may take a while to find what does work for your family): each year I ask the kids for a list of stuff they are wanting to learn about or accomplish over the next year. When they were younger the list was much broader and less defined it might be "what animals will we find in the forest here? What types of flowers are there?" and then I would discuss their ideas and get a better idea of exactly what they are wanting to learn about. Now that they are a bit older (going into 4th and 3rd grade this fall plus a lively 3 yo who is wanting to learn as well) their list looks like "chemical reactions, how to make silly putty, grow crystals, blow things up, etc" and "learn about India, Japan, Cambodia, history of England" etc. and I take their lists, help the kids define it better and then we discuss how they are going to accomplish their goals for the year. It can include curriculum, reading books, online websites, outside classes, local resources that can help us, places that we can go for fieldtrips, it might include clubs and clinics as well. Then we sit down and draw out what a week would look like with everything that is non flexibly (everything that has a specific date/time/place to meet up and is decided by someone elses schedule like, weekly music lessons, club meet ups, etc) we always leave Friday as an open day for fieldtrips, Dr. appointments, errands, or just a day off to relax. so everything has to fall on the other days. Most of the clubs and activities fall Monday-Thursday anyway so that usually works out well. After we have those marked on the weekly schedule the kids can look and see what they have for their other interests and free time. It is a bit more of an involved process than just ordering curriculum for the kids and saying here do this, but it has several nice things as bonus benefits. The kids learn to make their own goals, schedule their time, are invested in their education, and are more motivated to actually do stuff since it's things they naturally find interesting anyway.
Next post: Fun with light boxes!
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