School in the garage
Homeschoooling last year was tough. This house is awesome, and we love it, but it doesn't really have a great space to do school in, while Mason plays. Our dining room is really small, and the other rooms are just average size. We made it work, but it was challenging.
Long story short, I decided to make our garage our school room. The garage is affectionately known as the "youth room". We have a Foosball table, 2 gaming systems, more crafts and beads than we'll ever be able to use in our lifetimes, and a music corner. It was pretty organized already, but there was a bunch of clutter that had accumulated that needed to be cleaned out. I also had the daunting task of cleaning out the huge ikea shelf and switching the school closet with the huge game shelf. I wish I had taken "before" pictures... TaDa! Here's after
Foosball table is on the left, chest freezer on the right You can see the Game Cube cabinet, the Wii cabinet is out of the picture in the back left corner.
My gf gave me these 2 carpets for free! They will be a perfect place for Mason to play, paint, do playdoh, etc... while the big kids work. He's also really good about staying in the front yard, so I'll probably open the garage door a lot so he can play outside during schooltime. I'd like to get a few beanbags so we have some cozy spaces to read. Now that my computer is back up and working, I'm going to print out a timeline to put on the garage door.
With only 2 kids at home to school this year, the craft area doubles perfectly as a school space. I took the garage school idea from my friends Laura and Holly. They have individual Ikea tables in their garages for the kids to work at. If I didn't already have this counter top, I would have done the same thing. I sewed the curtains on the sides and top from a full size sheet that I bought for 3.99 at Walmart. Behind the curtain (and in the cabinet) on the right is all of my mother-in-law's beads. The middle is full of my sewing things, and some art supplies. The right is full of office supplies. Everything is super organized now, but I felt overwhelmed by stuff when I looked at it, so I decided to cover it.
Everything pretty much looks like this... under the curtains. It took me a while to get it all this organized. But I'm tired of "I can't find a marker" "I need the stapler" etc... So it's all neatly put away and labeled, no more excuses!
My beloved Ikea shelf. This is a workhorse of a shelf. We used it for school in our old house, and when we moved, we put it in the garage for games. Now that we are doing school in the garage, the shelf is back to school duty, while the closet in the house is now on game duty. I'm trying to use every little space I can, to my advantage. So you see the wall on the left? I used push pins to hang up my Classical Conversations cards.
All of Mason's games, puzzles, etc... fit in here too. I scoured garage sales and used curriculum sales all summer long, trying to find new stuff to occupy him with. These toys are only for school time. I usually make up a schedule of sorts, of things that I set up for him to play with. I"m not inflexible on the schedule. I just get frazzled when he's whining and I need him busy. At that very moment I can't often think of what to set out for him, so a schedule helps me stay on track.
Long story short, I decided to make our garage our school room. The garage is affectionately known as the "youth room". We have a Foosball table, 2 gaming systems, more crafts and beads than we'll ever be able to use in our lifetimes, and a music corner. It was pretty organized already, but there was a bunch of clutter that had accumulated that needed to be cleaned out. I also had the daunting task of cleaning out the huge ikea shelf and switching the school closet with the huge game shelf. I wish I had taken "before" pictures... TaDa! Here's after
Foosball table is on the left, chest freezer on the right You can see the Game Cube cabinet, the Wii cabinet is out of the picture in the back left corner.
My gf gave me these 2 carpets for free! They will be a perfect place for Mason to play, paint, do playdoh, etc... while the big kids work. He's also really good about staying in the front yard, so I'll probably open the garage door a lot so he can play outside during schooltime. I'd like to get a few beanbags so we have some cozy spaces to read. Now that my computer is back up and working, I'm going to print out a timeline to put on the garage door.
With only 2 kids at home to school this year, the craft area doubles perfectly as a school space. I took the garage school idea from my friends Laura and Holly. They have individual Ikea tables in their garages for the kids to work at. If I didn't already have this counter top, I would have done the same thing. I sewed the curtains on the sides and top from a full size sheet that I bought for 3.99 at Walmart. Behind the curtain (and in the cabinet) on the right is all of my mother-in-law's beads. The middle is full of my sewing things, and some art supplies. The right is full of office supplies. Everything is super organized now, but I felt overwhelmed by stuff when I looked at it, so I decided to cover it.
Everything pretty much looks like this... under the curtains. It took me a while to get it all this organized. But I'm tired of "I can't find a marker" "I need the stapler" etc... So it's all neatly put away and labeled, no more excuses!
My beloved Ikea shelf. This is a workhorse of a shelf. We used it for school in our old house, and when we moved, we put it in the garage for games. Now that we are doing school in the garage, the shelf is back to school duty, while the closet in the house is now on game duty. I'm trying to use every little space I can, to my advantage. So you see the wall on the left? I used push pins to hang up my Classical Conversations cards.
All of Mason's games, puzzles, etc... fit in here too. I scoured garage sales and used curriculum sales all summer long, trying to find new stuff to occupy him with. These toys are only for school time. I usually make up a schedule of sorts, of things that I set up for him to play with. I"m not inflexible on the schedule. I just get frazzled when he's whining and I need him busy. At that very moment I can't often think of what to set out for him, so a schedule helps me stay on track.
Along with cubbies for each school age child, and cubbies for Mason's toys I have cubbies for me. I keep all my teachers manuals, resource books, and such all together. It makes everything much easier when I can just grab what book I need and go.
So there is is! My new school space, I"m super excited, it's going to work great for us.
So there is is! My new school space, I"m super excited, it's going to work great for us.
Comments
I will glean much from these, so keep them coming :)
I am still frazzled with school starting next week, and I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm trying to give myself plenty of grace this first year, and not be overwhelmed if I can help it.
Keep up the great work! :)
Cory