The driving motivation for me to write this blog is the hope I can be helpful to a family who's taken up the mantle of educating their own children. Making that decision was VERY HARD for me. Then figuring out HOW to do it was dang near tortuous, and that doesn't even include the actual educating of the children! Thank God I found the Robinson Curriculum.
I'm writing today to spare you some decision fatigue if your brain is a little fried from the home school start process. If you have a living room or dining room that doesn't get used a lot you may want to consider converting it to a schoolroom. I wrote about my choice to do this here. Let's tour my schoolroom and I'll point out what I use frequently.
Today I'm going to share my favorite home schoolroom purchases. These are all items I bought with my own money and it was well spent, in my opinion. I'll link to as much as I can (in pink), or something similar. Amazon links may be affiliate links that I will earn a small commission on if you make a purchase through them, at no cost to you. As is my motto, SHOP YOUR HOUSE FIRST. Let's take a look at the schoolroom.
I'll go by area to keep it organized. An area that gets used a lot is the chalkboard area. I converted a cabinet that had (still does actually) a tv in it into my board space by slipping a chalkboard in front of the tv. Then I applied some chalkboard paper to the inside of one of the doors, hung a calendar and a phonics chart and stored books and supplies on the shelves. I love that when I want to "quiet" the space I can just shut these doors.
chalkboard *We use this so much more than I thought we would!
Moving on to our school table. I found mine on Facebook Marketplace, with chairs, for $50! Steal! This was simply the least expensive and most space savvy way for me to seat everyone. I have three kiddos but with this extending table I could theoretically seat 6 people. I keep out our everyday utensils and book stands. The rest of their weekly materials are stored in baskets that we keep in a cabinet or against the wall, tucked behind a chair. We have baskets hiding everywhere!
Another space we are in often is the couch area. That's where we all meet for morning readings and breakfast snacks. We also do our weekly history lesson on the couch usually, so I keep a world and U.S. map out all the time. They are also laminated so it protects my blanket trunk's top. I love these maps. I've pointed out locations on them more times than I can count, and the colors are soft and pretty. My oldest loves to curl up on the couch for his independent reading hour. Make sure you have blankets.
Another Facebook Marketplace find I use daily is a free china cabinet we picked up. I use it to store more supplies, curriculum we're not using yet, games, manipulatives and the like. Storage units can be crazy expensive for how cheaply made they are. Try to be creative.
Toy Storage was something that I had to address as I have had a toddler to entertain and supervise as well. I solved this by relocating a trunk from another room into the schoolroom and filling it with some books and toys that are easy to clean up. I like to be able to start the older boys on something and just open up the toy chest to keep my youngest occupied for a spell.
Toy Trunk Storage
All homeschoolers will relate to the book storage issue. We love books! They are our weakness. We love curriculum and readers and reference books and living books and vintage books and spiritual books and illustrated books and on and on it goes. Am I right or am I right? Where to keep them? A bookcase is ideal. If you don't have one try Facebook Marketplace.
I am quite repelled by clutter though so I do have to be a little strict about all the trash books out there not coming in my house. We purged a ton of books when I woke up to the lack of values and poor writing of many of my children's books. We accumulated a lot of hand me down books and now I am much more aware and on top of what is going into their hearts and heads via literature.
I also am able to store my printer in this bookcase. I do A LOT of printing.
Another thought I have is about your floor. We have pets and three rowdy boys, a husband who doesn't take his shoes off in the house, and a wife who's back DOES NOT love scrubbing rugs. Do you see where I'm going with this? If you are in the market for a new rug for your schoolroom I suggest you consider a washable or easily cleanable option. The schoolroom floor works hard around our house.
Easily Wiped Clean Rug *I have this one under our dining table. It feels kind of like walking on a giant computer mouse pad.
So now you have a list of WAY too much stuff to buy at once. If you are trying to set up a schoolroom go slow.
Here is my advice:
1. Make a list of what you think you'll need this week only.
2. Shop your house for those items.
3. If you don't have something on your list is there something you do have that will do the job or at least do the job well enough until you can get the desired item?
4. Take it easy and don't "decorate" your schoolroom until you've figured out how each space within your room needs to be organized and function.
5. Keep everything as simple as you can manage. Especially in the beginning. As you become more comfortable with homeschooling you can bring in more stuff but too much too soon may be overwhelming.
Love your life or make it lovely. Value progress, yours and your student's. That's all folks!
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