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Developing a Home Classroom

Homeschooling is, no doubt, a somewhat serious task for you; after all, it is very important as to how your children will grow and become capable adults. This requires a certain amount of discipline on your part; the place where you homeschool will have an impact on the effectiveness of your efforts. If your homeschool area is too casual, it will be harder for your children to take the effort as seriously as they should.

No matter how much space you can devote to homeschooling, try to make that area as dedicated to your school as you can. Make it a real schoolroom because it will help your kids understand that you are providing them with a real education and aren't just messing around.

There are several steps you should consider when establishing and equipping your schoolroom:

• Choose a location

• Create a layout

• Create workstations

• Build a homeschool library

• Add a computer and the Internet

• Add audiovisual equipment

• Create storage and archival areas

Choosing a Location
The location of your schoolroom is important because its location has an impact on how effective you can be there. As you consider where to conduct school, ponder the following suggestions.

If you can, dedicate a room in your home to your homeschool. Almost any room will do; ideal candidates are a moderately sized bedroom, a den, a basement, or other place that is separate from the home's main living areas. There several reasons why this is the ideal situation. First, homeschooling takes a lot of room. You will have lots of materials to deal with, such as books, papers, projects, and so on. You will spend less time moving your materials around if you have enough room to store them properly; this leaves more time and energy for teaching and learning. Second, you won't have to set up and tear down at the start and end of each school day. This will also help you have more time for school itself. Third, having an area that is distinct from the living areas in your home will help your children take it more seriously and understand that when they are in the school room, it is time to work on school. Fourth, being able to isolate the schoolroom from the other living spaces in your home will make it easier to prevent distractions.

Unless you have a large home with areas you don't currently use, you likely won't have much of a choice about where to locate your homeschool; you will use a room that isn't being used for some other purpose that you can't live without. However, if you have some options regarding location, consider the following factors:

• More space is better. You really can't have too large an area for your school.

• Distractions are distracting. Homeschool kids are still kids and if your homeschool is subject to lots of outside distractions, you might have to deal with distracted students.

• Light is important. A room that is well lighted is obviously important; if it has lots of natural light, that can be even better (unless that light comes through lots of windows with interesting things to look at outside!).

• Storage is king. You will have a lot of materials to store. A room with a closet, bookshelves, or other storage areas will make it convenient to keep your homeschool materials accessible and organized.

• Holes are inevitable. As you homeschool, you will invariably need to post things on the walls, such as maps, posters, and so on. This will inevitably lead to some minor damage to the walls, which, fortunately, is easily repaired when your school days are done.

• Doors are good. If your schoolroom has doors that you can use to shut it off from the outside world, it will help your students stay focused.

Although being able to have a room dedicated to your homeschool is ideal, it isn't a requirement. You can use any area in your home for homeschool that has enough room in which you and your students can work. Some people use their dining room or other place that has at least a table at which you can work. If this is your situation, be aware that you will still need storage areas and unless you are extremely dedicated about getting everything out at the start of each day and putting it all back again at the end of the day, it will be impossible to eliminate the signs of a homeschool in that room. (For example, if you have and use a formal dining room, that isn't a good option for a homeschool.)

If you can't dedicate a room in your home to school, you will need to dedicate some area in your home for storing the books, papers, projects, and other fallout from running a homeschool.

Creating a Layout
After you have selected a location for your homeschool, create a plan for the space. You will need to account for the following features:

• Workstations. You will need places for your students to work and for you to teach.

• Homeschool library. Books? You'll have them! Your homeschool should have plenty of places to store the books you will use during a school year. Plus, you will need to accommodate reference books and other resources that you use throughout your homeschool's existence.

• Computer area. I strongly urge you to include a computer in your homeschool. You will need an area in which to locate it and its peripheral devices, such as a printer.

• Audio-visual equipment. There are many resources available on cassette, videotape, and other means. It can be helpful to have equipment to present these materials in your schoolroom.

• Storage. Your going to need storage – as much of it as you can carve out for your school. In addition to storing the materials you are actively using, you will need someplace to store files or materials you have already used for documentation purposes.

• Project table. Projects are likely to be an important part of your homeschool. If you can put a large work surface like a table in your schoolroom, you will have an easier time working on projects.

• Couch or other comfortable sitting area. Reading to your students and having them read to you is an important part of their education. An area where you can sit close to one another while reading makes it easier for everyone to hear, and it is just plain nice to be able to be close to your kids while you read.

Although not required, it can be helpful if you actually draw up a plan for your schoolroom so you know where everything should go as you prepare the room. This plan can be quite simple. Just identify the location of all the major features. If you make the room to scale, you can save yourself some work moving furniture around (it is a lot easier to move a paper desk than it is a real one!).

Creating Workstations
A workstation is just an overly complex term for a desk or other area where someone can work, hopefully comfortably, and with good access to the resources they need. You will need two kinds of workstations in your schoolroom: one for the teacher and one for each of the students who will be in school at the same time.

Creating Learning Stations
For any parent, one of the most common pieces of advice to help their children be serious about school work is to have a place dedicated to that work. Homeschool is no different. You should have a desk for each student in your classroom. A desk can be as simple as a small table or as elaborate as a desk/hutch combination with shelves, built-in lighting, and other niceties. Check out the usual sources for this kind of furniture, such as furniture stores, office supply stores, and school equipment suppliers. For example, you can easily find companies on the Web that sell "real" school desks for a modest price.

So you'll need to provide each child with his or her workstation that includes a writing surface, comfortable chair, good lighting, and hopefully, some storage for books and other materials – a desk with an overhead hutch is ideal for this.

Creating a Teaching Station
You will also need a place to work while grading tests, planning for school, and so on. Ideally, you will include a workstation for yourself along with one for each student. If possible, use a desk with a storage hutch or other storage area so you can keep your teaching materials separate from student materials.

In addition to a desk, you also will need to provide the space and equipment to instruct your students. There are lots of things you can use, such as a whiteboard, blackboard, easel and paper, overhead projector, and so on. You need to be able to present information to your kids, and these are ideal tools to do so.

If possible, mount a corkboard or other surface on a wall to which you can attach maps, timelines, and other things to which you will refer. (Of course, if you don't mind a few holes in the wall, you can tack stuff directly to it.)

Building a Homeschool Library
No matter how much you take advantage of experiences, the Internet, and other nontraditional teaching tools, your homeschool will involve books, and a lot of them. You are going to need shelves to hold both the books that your students are working with during the year along with reference books you might want to keep in the school room at all times. You can't have too much room for your homeschool library and you are bound to fill up your bookshelves sooner than later! The more bookshelves you have in your schoolroom, the more convenient accessing the materials you need will be. At the least, you should provide a place for the books your students will be using in the current week or month. Ideally, you will be able to keep all the books you will need for a year in your schoolroom with current materials.

In addition to the specific materials you will use as part of each subject's criteria, consider adding the following books to your homeschool library:

• Dictionary

• Thesaurus

• World atlas or map

• U.S. atlas or map (or other country if you live in a different one)

• Encyclopedia