Five tips for setting up your homeschool space

Before you start setting up your homeschool space, erase the idea of creating a classroom at home. Trying to recreate a classroom in your lounge or spare room is more than likely going to result in stress and not create the environment you want – well that’s how it ended up for us anyway.

Get creative with the space you have at home, involve the children, and set up a space that encourages learning, inspires, and makes you and your children excited to discover new things. Here are a few tips on how you can create a homeschool space that everyone will love.

Less is more

The biggest challenge, when setting up a homeschool space is space. Very few people have a dedicated room they can use so often dining rooms, lounges, and home offices are creatively turned into homeschool rooms and spaces.

The idea below is so great because it uses very little space, so if you have to use your lounge or part of your dining room, then this is perfect. It also keeps clutter off the actual desk which can be very distracting.

Make it fun

Involve your child in the set up. Let the space you are creating represent them and who they are and if that means lots of fun rainbows then do that. It will make them want to be in the space.

I love the storage on wheels here because homeschooling, for us anyway, seldom happens in one place all the time. This allows you to move supplies around easily. This set up also uses the wall space well and takes up very little space so could be done in a bedroom or part of a home office.

Set up a command centre

You need a headquarters. Similar to the teacher’s desk but a lot more fun! This helps with structure because it can be where you:

• keep your schedule,
• showcase the themes for the month, and
• set out the work that needs to be done for the upcoming week.

You can set this up in any communal area – I have mine near my desk so I can keep track of what is happening all the time.

Organise the stationery

You might be surprised to find that you don’t need as much stationery as you did when your child was at school. It also lasts a lot longer – if you keep it organised. Investing in a stationery cart is a creative way to keep your stationery together and it is ideal if you have a small space because you can wheel it out of the way once you are done with learning for the day.

Shelves are your friend

Shelves are great, especially when space is limited because you can start from low down and move all the way up the wall, allowing you to add a lot of school supplies and books. It works well when you have little kids, as you can put their puzzles, toys, etc. on the lower shelves so they can reach easily.

Organising your homeschool space can be so much fun because you can create whatever type of space you want. Our space has evolved and changed so much over the years. We started out at one big communal table in our lounge but as the kids have gotten older and are able to do more independent work, they have moved to their own desks.

The most important thing to remember is to make the space a place your child wants to be. There really are no rules, you can add as much or as little as you want. That is the joy of homeschooling – having the freedom to create an environment that works for your children.

Laura is a wife, business owner, and homeschooling mom to four children. Her oldest, Cameron, is 18, about to finish school, Kiara is 16, Jack is 9 and Emma is 6. Laura runs her business from home while also homeschooling the three younger children. It is a crazy, chaotic mess, but there is organisation and order in the chaos. When she is not teaching kids about tree frogs and long division, she is writing for her blog, HarassedMom.