Last updated on August 17th, 2019 at 03:40 am
(Links in this post are affiliate links. I will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking those links. See my disclosure page for more information)
Once upon a time I dreamed of having a homeschooling room, and then we moved and I had one. It was beautiful with huge cabinets to store books and a long table that could fit all two of my students, plus plenty of room for a desk for my third student. There was a place for a small couch to cozy up with books and great sunshine pouring in the windows all day long.
We used that ideal homeschooling room for about two months. Actually, to be completely honest I think it was really about two weeks.
You see, my oldest child just didn’t do well having 2 siblings in the same room as him. He got too distracted and got very little done each day. Another child ended up memorizing both his siblings’ memory work, but never did seem to get much else done.
Eventually I ended up letting my oldest do his school work in his room and I let the other two move to the bigger and more comfy couch in the family room.
And so the homeschooling room sat empty except for a cupboard full of books. Eventually even those were removed when we converted it to a 4th bedroom so that our boys no longer had to share a room.
Welcome to Our Not So Pinterest Worthy Homeschooling Room
My children are teenagers and don’t often allow me to post photos of them on the blog anymore. They did, however, approve of this photo exposing their blanketed legs for your viewing. (eh, whatever this is truly what homeschooling looks like most days)
And this is what homeschooling now looks like.
That is me working on the apple laptop and those are two kids wrapped up under blankets. All of us use handy fold away tables for desks. My oldest son is in college now so it is just the three of us.
In this photo my two children are working on their Time4Learning subjects. Currently they are doing both English and History through Time4Learning. I love how I can set up a daily timeline for them to follow with just a few clicks inside the parent section of the website. I also love that most of their school work is marked for me. I just have to grade the writing assignments.
At the end of the year record keeping is a breeze. I simply print out the report that shares with me their grades on all their tests and quizzes and then I perform a simple math equation to create a course grade average and BAM! I have a final grade for their transcripts.
With both children now in high school this is what really sold me on using Time4Learning–record keeping is so simple.
High school level courses at Time4learning are currently $30 a month for up to four subjects. Elementary level courses are $15 a month for up to four courses.
We could use Time4learning for math and science and not pay a dime more, but the children really enjoy Apologia science and Teaching Textbook math–plus this means they are not on the computer all day.
Which brings me to the second part of my homeschooling room tour
This is the laundry basket that holds the books needed for Apologia science and Teaching Textbook math.
I had grand plans of getting these at least onto a bookshelf, but halfway through our first year without a homeschooling room to store our books they were still on the floor and at that point I decided that they were really handy right here so why change things.
Not Pictured
But wait–there is more. We use one desk drawer to hold all the disks needed for science and math.
I am horrible at pronouncing scientific words so I decided a long time ago to get my children the books on MP3 CDs so they could listen along as they read and learn how to properly pronounce their science terms as a result.
I have the children store the disks in the desk drawer so they don’t get crushed by the weight of the school books.
Yes, our homeschooling room isn’t very Pinterest worthy. I don’t think you could really even call it a homeschooling room. It is really our family room with homeschooling books in it.
But it works for us and that is what matters most.
Homeschooling mama, create a homeschooling room that works for you and your family. And if you create the one of your dreams and it doesn’t work–well, go with the one that does and convert that room space into something more usable.
Our family has used Time4Learning for several years now and we are very happy with it.
Get snail-e-mail in your inbox each week!
A weekly email with the feel of snail mail. A peek into my week, a few deals so good I just have to share, and links to all of Snail Pace Transformations latest posts!
Leave a Reply