Small Space Homeschooling

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Calendar Area
This is where our day starts and where things relating to current lessons are posted. 
  • Pocket chart calendar
  • Maps
  • Posters from current studies
  • Memory verses
  • Reward sticker charts
  • Dry erase magnetic board
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Kitchen Table
We replaced our fancy dining room set with a fairly worn and very cheap kitchen table and chairs. We knew it would be our kids’ main school and art area, so we didn’t want to worry about damaging it! Much of our school day happens here. 

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Kitchen Bar
We have an kitchen island, so we took the stools away from the dining side and put in some areas for learning, play, and storage. 
  • Kids’ boxes: drawers for their special toys and found treasures
  • Art area drawers: flannel pieces, smocks, etc.
  • Toy table: We rotate creative toys for this space, like trains, blocks, dollhouses, etc.
  • Baby toys like the cube shown
  • Character charts from Doorposts
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Homeschool Bookshelf
This fantastic Ikea entertainment center is our homeschool bookshelf. The bigger center area is perfect for displays and, like every other homeschool mom, I love the cubbies. 🙂 

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Bottom Row: Cloth bins with the kids’ socks, baby clothes, and seasonal wear.

Second Row: Puzzles and games (behind that chair), baskets to organize our work each day as well as a basket for coloring books and one for drawing supplies, and a cubby with my planning materials.

Middle Two Rows and Display:
1)A basket with crayons and pens separated in pencil pouches for each kid. Below that are our personal Bibles.

2) The display has our globe, a basket with stickers, cards and miscellaneous supplies, our devotionals, our job jar and prayer sticks, and various posters.

3) One cubby has reward items, calendar items, and manipulatives we’re currently using. Below that are the kids’ individual magazine files for storing saved work. That work will later be stored elsewhere or put into a notebook.

Top Row: My journals, planning materials and personal reading books are in the first cubby. The next two are for curriculum and books we’re using. The wicker basket holds random things like glue, scissors, pens, and other things we use often. The last cubby is a long bread box that holds cups of crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc. I also store paper cutters and hole punchers there.

Top of Bookshelf: The bins on the top are art supplies and busy bags. The flannelgraph is on the far right.

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That is a lot of learning with small space homeschooling! It has changed over time but works pretty well for us. When the kids need to get away from the business, they can retreat to their rooms where music or learning CDs play, or sit in their “peace chair” and read a book. 

Small Space Homeschooling was featured as a Top 100 Homeschooling Post!

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This Post Has 15 Comments

  1. Rebecca

    Instead of ‘you had me at hello’ – you had me at BASKETS! I love (slightly ocd maybe) baskets. My daughter and I were chatting and she said, Mommy, what if we bought a basket store for Christmas and gave it to you!? we just giggled. You have some great ideas and gave me a new one for our play/music room. so happy I stopped by!

    1. Tauna M

      Ha! Yes, baskets are a homeschoolers best friend. Along with bookshelves. 🙂 Glad you found a good idea!

  2. Julie

    You’ve done a great job creating the learning atmosphere in your home. I really like the clipboards for displaying art. Hope you have a great new school year.

    1. Tauna M

      Thank you! Yes the clipboards look nice and make swapping out displays so easy!

  3. Oh, I LOVE the art clipboards too. What a neat idea! And I’m envious of your entertainment center. It looks amazing, Tauna!

    1. Tauna M

      Thanks Keri! Truth be told it doesn’t always look so neat. But I guess anyone would have suspected that. 🙂 I’m constantly tweaking placement of things so that it’s easy to keep maintained but let’s face it – that’s not easy!

  4. Linda

    Some of our happiest homeschooling memories have been made in small spaces. You’ve done a terrific job utilitzing the space you have. EVerything is neat and orderly, easily accessible and easy to put away.
    There will be alot of learning going on – enjoy our new school year!

  5. Leah Mastilock

    I have a tiny house and it’s nice to know I’m not the only one! Thank you for this post! I pinned it

  6. DoRight

    So thankful to finally find someone that makes me feel a little more “normal”. We have a very small house and I’m homeschooling 3 boys (ages 6,10,12). When I first started out, I thought I HAD to have this perfectly set apart space just for school work, but we have melted into using our whole house. I love what you’ve done for organization and appreciate the bit of affirmation I received from your blog! Blessings!!

  7. Misty

    What great spaces for learning Tauna! I love how organized you have everything, and the clipboards for art display are a great idea! The bookshelves are fantastic, I envy them 🙂

  8. Alley

    I may steal the entertainment center idea. We are moving into a much smaller space and the kids will no longer have a whole front area of the house for homeschooling, I will need to rethink everything.

    1. Tauna

      It’s really worked out well for us! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.

  9. Homeschool Literature

    I love how you optimize the small space you have for homeschooling! I grew up in a house without a dedicated school room also, so our homeschooling was evident all over the kitchen, dining, and living room! In fact, the “wallpaper” in the dining room was world/state maps, history timelines, penmanship charts, bookcases, and a whiteboard! I look back on it and laugh, but it was normal to us, and it just worked!

    1. Tauna

      that’s the best kind of wallpaper! 😀

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