Homeschooling in Small Spaces

Several years ago, shortly before we finally made the decision to homeschool (and where I was somewhere in between “I will never homeschool!” and “Well, maybe we’re crazy enough to try this”), I had a dream.

In this dream, we were (very randomly) shopping for a new house and I specifically recall checking out a room in this house and declaring that it could be our classroom.


I laughed about it the next morning because, well, I am not that crazy…


Fast forward a few months and here I was, searching for a place to store the giant box of books that was somewhere in Kentucky in the care of the United Parcel Service. Destination: my house, Ontario, Canada.


A place to actually do the work would’ve been a bonus.


Slight problem.


Real estate in our city is ridiculously expensive and we do not live in a large house.


While I really do love the idea of an (Instagram ready) school room and while I know families who love theirs, we’re stuck with the kitchen table.


Even so, I really do believe that a small(er) home is not at all a barrier to homeschooling. Here are a few reasons why:


  1. My kids don’t want to work all that much anyway. Seriously. Some mornings, they create a to do list filled with games and crafts and imaginative fun and school doesn’t even make the bottom of it. I doubt a dedicated room that I created (to my specifications) would move math on to the list.


  1. We don’t even use the kitchen table all that much. While the kitchen table has become our designated homeschool space, my kids would rather be sprawled across the couch for read alouds, in the backyard for science and lying on the floor with their math manipulatives.


  1. I have one less room to clean. Enough said.


  1. I probably spend less money on things I don’t need. Our school stuff is mostly stored in a few bins in the basement and in one section of the amazing pantry wall in our kitchen (see photo above), largely because there aren’t all that many other options. (Thank you, IKEA!) I really like being able to close the pantry door and not have to stare at the books all the time. If overfill it, I won’t be able to close it. No thanks.


  1. I really don’t mind the extra organizing. As an INFJ, I come by this fairly honestly. If there is a way to organize things more efficiently, count me in. I’m fairly certain my husband’s highlight of this pandemic has been fewer trips to IKEA. But new school books mean we’re probably due for one soon. Who wants to tell him?

Comments

Post a Comment