For almost 3 years I have dreamed about having a school room for my kids. When I first started homeschooling George at 3 years old I used a corner of my basement as school room. It was very difficult to get his focus and attention there since we had the TV and the toys in the basement as well. Being a toddler and having everything exposed right in front of him I knew it wasn't even practical to expect him to focus and pay attention to me. And yet he did the best he could as a toddler.
I remember reading through blogs and looking at pictures of the school rooms of other homeschooling moms and praying to Jesus for giving me a room specifically for school. I am a person who believe that if I am homeschooling my children I need to give them the best that I can rather than just doing an okay job. I also think have a school room of their own teach them a certain level of discipline. At the same time I don't want to create something which we don't have or cannot afford and making our children feel like they receive anything they ask for.
Once my parents moved out of our house I had the opportunity to convert one of the rooms into a school room. It took at least few months for me to make this school room look the way it looks now. Almost everything in the school room are either used stuff friends gave us or things we picked up when people threw it out in our neighborhood or from a garage sale. We really have not spend money on getting anything.
As you can see we have two tables, one which is a study table and the other one is an art table. I have two small shelves where I keep the curriculum's I use, craft stuff, coloring books, crayons, glue, etc. I also have a book basket where I keep books that are currently being used during our story time.
I do have bunch of toys that the kids get to play after they are done with school or while George is being taught Anna plays with it. I keep switching the toys around so that they don't get tired of it.
I also have a closet in the room were I keep all their board games, puzzles etc which we use during school time.
I have displayed some rules on the wall for them to practice everyday. Each time they do it they get a star and once they fill up the star for the whole row they get a price. This has helped especially George to work on certain good habits which he really struggles with. The one that you see up on this picture is the second set of rules I am displaying. Before this I had another one and they had already mastered them and got the price for it. You can find the older one in the previous pictures of our school room. Sometimes we moms have to keep up with it more than the kids because they forget but we have to remember the times they tried to follow the rules and give them the sticker. One of the hardest thing for George was cleaning up after he plays with toys. It was so hard for him that everyday this was one thing that made us argue and fight the most. But once I made this rule chart he really got motivated and now after practicing this for more than 3-4 months he can clean up on his own without me having to beg him to do it.
Having a school room has helped me tremendously in bringing order to our home school and children really appreciate having this study area. It also gives a certain level of respect to school time and they know the rules they have to follow while they =are in school. They also know where each item belongs so after they finish using each item, I don't have to keep telling them to put things back. They have to clean up each item after they finish and after setting these rules for almost 6 months they are doing things on their own. Discipline and order are two important aspects of homeschooling. If we as parents don't have that order in home and discipline to keep things organized our children will never learn it.
I was never the best person to keep things in order at home but homeschooling has really helped me in shaping myself to a more orderly person. I am so glad God opened up the door to our family to home educate our children because it has not only helped the kids but more than that I feel me as a mother has grown in prayer and holiness.
Now not having a school room should not stop us from home schooling. Because not all of us have the space or room to make a school room. But if you have a desire bring it up to the Lord and he will provide it at the right time. Until then we do our best with what is being given to us.
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