The School Room
I hear many moms new to home schooling ask where is the best spot to "do school" in the house and how to stock, decorate and furnish the "school" area. I tried using a spare bedroom when I just had 3 kids, and only one old enough to homeschool. But it was upstairs and away from the kitchen and laundry and I felt out of touch with the rest of my house and my duties. Later, when I had more children and no bedrooms to spare, I designated the dining room as the school room. I hung maps and a white board and time lines and we didn't even call it a dining room. But I just couldn't relax over dinner with all that stuff hanging around.
I needed to decide where we would do school, but nothing seemed to suit me. And then I realized why. I had rejected the traditional model of education, but here I was trying to fit that model into my home. No wonder I couldn't relax! The school room is not a natural nor relaxing place to learn, and so my attempts seemed forced and unnatural.
The solution? No designated learning area. No desks, no maps on the walls, no white board in my dining room. No school room. Just a home.
A home dedicated to learning. A kitchen where the measuring utensils and mixing bowls are within easy reach. A dining room stocked with educational place mats for anyone's viewing pleasure. A kitchen table or dining room table available for math and spelling but also desks in the older kids' rooms when they need to concentrate. A book case or two in most every room, filled with books. A white board in the kitchen that is used for a grocery list, a to-do list, math problems, and notes to each other. A cabinet stocked with paper and pencils and all manner of drawing materials. A bookcase for the school books to be stored at the end of the day or at mealtimes. The fridge and the inside of my kitchen cabinets covered in art work. Comfortable places to sit and read or talk. A cupboard full of games and puzzles.
Just a home. Nothing big or grand. Space is tight with lots of kids but not lots of bedrooms. Just a home.
I didn't put up pictures of shoes being tied or kids going on the potty or riding their bikes when I was teaching those things. I didn't decorate with letters and numbers and colors and shapes when I taught those things either. Nor did I change my decor when I taught them to speak or sing or write. Why start all that when school officially starts? Why not make learning organic? Why not have a beautiful and restful and uncluttered home?
And I noticed after I broke free, there was a lot more reading and game-playing and talking and music and learning going on.
Anyone who walks into my home for the first time remarks on the number of books we have. Anything the kids want to look up, they can. All kinds of fiction for all kinds of ages and interests; it's all there. Maps of places near and far, and places you never heard of; they are in books. Biographies? Historical Fiction? We have plenty. Or is science (or math, even!) your thing? Got a lot of that, too. My kids have played with and held books as soon as their little baby hands could manage, because that's what they saw the rest of us doing.
Life is learning. Learning is life. Neither can be or should be restrained within one room or to a desk. It's a life-long journey that knows no age or time or place. It only knows a willingness and a love and a passion. Walk away from the desk, leave the school room behind, and watch the unleashing of unrestrained learning.
A cursory look around my house will show that it's comfy and warm, with little clutter, but lots of space for learning and playing.
I needed to decide where we would do school, but nothing seemed to suit me. And then I realized why. I had rejected the traditional model of education, but here I was trying to fit that model into my home. No wonder I couldn't relax! The school room is not a natural nor relaxing place to learn, and so my attempts seemed forced and unnatural.
The solution? No designated learning area. No desks, no maps on the walls, no white board in my dining room. No school room. Just a home.
A home dedicated to learning. A kitchen where the measuring utensils and mixing bowls are within easy reach. A dining room stocked with educational place mats for anyone's viewing pleasure. A kitchen table or dining room table available for math and spelling but also desks in the older kids' rooms when they need to concentrate. A book case or two in most every room, filled with books. A white board in the kitchen that is used for a grocery list, a to-do list, math problems, and notes to each other. A cabinet stocked with paper and pencils and all manner of drawing materials. A bookcase for the school books to be stored at the end of the day or at mealtimes. The fridge and the inside of my kitchen cabinets covered in art work. Comfortable places to sit and read or talk. A cupboard full of games and puzzles.
Just a home. Nothing big or grand. Space is tight with lots of kids but not lots of bedrooms. Just a home.
I didn't put up pictures of shoes being tied or kids going on the potty or riding their bikes when I was teaching those things. I didn't decorate with letters and numbers and colors and shapes when I taught those things either. Nor did I change my decor when I taught them to speak or sing or write. Why start all that when school officially starts? Why not make learning organic? Why not have a beautiful and restful and uncluttered home?
And I noticed after I broke free, there was a lot more reading and game-playing and talking and music and learning going on.
Anyone who walks into my home for the first time remarks on the number of books we have. Anything the kids want to look up, they can. All kinds of fiction for all kinds of ages and interests; it's all there. Maps of places near and far, and places you never heard of; they are in books. Biographies? Historical Fiction? We have plenty. Or is science (or math, even!) your thing? Got a lot of that, too. My kids have played with and held books as soon as their little baby hands could manage, because that's what they saw the rest of us doing.
Life is learning. Learning is life. Neither can be or should be restrained within one room or to a desk. It's a life-long journey that knows no age or time or place. It only knows a willingness and a love and a passion. Walk away from the desk, leave the school room behind, and watch the unleashing of unrestrained learning.
A cursory look around my house will show that it's comfy and warm, with little clutter, but lots of space for learning and playing.
In my 17th year of homeschooling, I am finding that this is my natural way. Long gone are the days of us sitting, cutting, writing, reading and looking like a little school. Now we combine life and learning and it just works.
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