When we first began homeschooling, when our oldest children were truly kindergarten age- although I’d been doing “school” with them for a while, we lived in a big house. We had a huge front room that had once been a formal living and dining room that we used as a schoolroom.

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Personal Work Spaces in the Bedrooms
Over the years we’ve tried to make it possible for the kids to have schoolwork spaces in their bedrooms. This means that when they do independent work, they aren’t stuck finding room to work. Ideally I want the kids to work at desks. I do have one who particularly likes to set his computer and work up on his bed. But I try to encourage working at desks.
This year when we did some rearranging, we were able to find loft beds with desks for our younger girls. We were scouring used furniture sites, and these came up! They were perfect because they allow each girl to have a desk without taking up lots of space.

Shelves. Lots of Shelves
If I had to describe my home decor style, I’d have one word. Bookshelves. I’m serious friend. This small house contains no fewer than ten bookshelves. We don’t just use them for books, although I do have quite a few of those.
We use our shelves to organize games, to store schoolbooks and personal reading books, and to store craft and school supplies. One of my favorite free finds is a huge three section bookshelf that was just being discarded by a business that was no longer using it. We claimed it, and I put it in my foyer. We can’t use our front door well, but we sure do have more book storage!

Bins. Lots of Bins
I should buy stock in plastic bins. I’m not sure how I could homeschool without a variety of plastic and fabric bins. You can see on our shelf above how I use them to help organize supplies, but use them for a variety of other things.
Bins are awesome for storing the kids books because then they can carry them around the house to work as needed. I also use a large plastic bin to keep and organize the current books we’re using in the subjects that we do together.

Organization
I’ve learned that one of the biggest keys to making homeschooling work in a small, small space is to keep things organized as much as possible. I keep our school books in a plastic bin- as I mentioned above. I keep the books organized by author last name and by subject on our bookshelves. I’m constantly trying to keep things in order. Some kind of order.
This past summer when we did our great clean out, we set up a large bookshelf to use to organize our school and craft supplies. I used all kinds of plastic and fabric bins to organize supplies to be stored on the shelf. (It may seem like a mess, but I promise there’s a method to the madness.)

Sharing Space
One of the most important keys to making homeschooling in a small space work is sharing space. All of the rooms in our house are multi-purpose. At any moment we might need to commandeer space in the living room to act out something from a school lesson. In the afternoon, you’ll find kids sprawled in various places throughout the house doing independent schoolwork.
We don’t have a dining room. Instead we have a room that serves as a dining room, schoolroom, pantry, and school and craft supply room. It works. We may have to wait on kids to clean their school books off the table when we get ready to head to supper, but it works. Part of making homeschooling work in small spaces is simply adapting.


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