Homeschool spaces: Arranging your home and your life - Melinda Harrington

Homeschool spaces: Arranging your home and your life

- Melinda Harrington

(There's a video made by Marnie about this topic down below after you've read this post, or you could just skip to it straight away!)

 When I began the homeschool journey I had no idea how important finding a “place to do our homeschool” would
be.  

I remember the first year or so was fun – I was loosely following Waldorf ideas so we had a nature table and started each day with a 'morning circle' made up of just the two of us – my seven year old daughter and I.

But by the third year my book shelf was starting to explode, and piles of papers, books and resources were appearing all over the place – under a dining chair, on the edge of the kitchen bench and even behind the laundry door. I recall one day I held a book in my hand and for the life of me I could not find a place or space to put it – so cluttered was our house. 

I had slowly worked on renovating the old garage out in the backyard into our very own schoolroom. Finally, three years after we had begun home schooling, a friend laid down the floor in our schoolroom and we were ready to pile everything in.

I can't emphasise how much our lives were improved. We had a place for all our home educating 'stuff' and a space for messy, rowdy and creative fun.

We still work at the dining room table, and have a few piles of books in there. But the schoolroom has created so many opportunities for us – we have written, directed and performed a puppet show, filmed a short movie, had craft days with friends, run group programmes with other homeschoolers. And what I love the absolute most is that at the end of a particularly wild, rowdy and messy day in the schoolroom, I just pull down the roller-door and leave the cleaning up for another day.

Before the schoolroom, I was avoiding anything that involved mess like painting or craft – because I loathed the prospect of trying to eat our meals with splotches of wet paint on the table, or passing the salt around a drying work of art that was still propped their. Trying to merge family life with schooling life can be hard! The struggle over space – particularly the dining room or kitchen table can be a real source of ongoing tension.

The family home is an interesting and vibrant place if you are home educating your children. The different ways that families home educate evolve over time as your children grow and the family grows in number. Spaces within the home are used differently over time according to the changing needs of your family. While some families are comfortable with the clutter and chaos, other families keep their spaces and places of learning neat and ordered.

My advice to new home educators is to seriously consider how you will use your place to home school. I struggled with the lack of space in my small home, but eventually found the solution that was perfect for us.

How do you manage the need for homeschool space and the need for family life at your place?

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