Can I ask a Qs about where you educate?

[Thediaryofanobody]

DH and I are seriously considering HE our DC we are planning on moving this year so considering the size and function of future home has thrown up some Qs.

Do you have an education space and where?

We are looking at homes with at least 2 reception rooms and large kitchen, one of the reception rooms would be a playroom. Is it a bad idea to make half the playroom into education space, I'm a bit worried about them feeling like they don't have any place of there own to switch off from work and just play.

We are considering going down a semi Montessori route and understand that in that type of environment different activity areas are usually zoned. Does anyone use this approach at home and how does it work for you?

Just wondering what everyone else does and how well it works for you.

[ommmward]

We don't have any ringfenced spaces, mental or physical, for education.

It happens all the time, in whatever spaces we happen to be in.

We are "unschoolers".

If I was having a more structured approach, I think I probably would have particular spaces in the home where particular activities would happen.

One fairly structured approach family I know have a combined schoolroom/playroom, with one half of it with school-y type desks, even, and then a big comfy sofa with its back to the desks, as a sort of barrier between school and play. That can work

[Thediaryofanobody]

Ommmward the idea of a physical barrier is a good idea hadn't though of that, maybe something like a long short bookcase.

[ommmward]

exactly :-)

[SDeuchars]

We are also unschoolers. We moved to this house when the DC were 5 and 7 and had the back of it rebuilt. When I designed it, I had EHE in mind and zoned areas on a functional basis.

The kitchen is 5.8m.sq. so it houses (alongside the normal kitchen stuff), a full size dining table, an air hockey table, a large cupboard (2xIKEA wardrobes) and a 5'x8' robotics table. A worktop sticks out into the room to allow 4-5 people to work around it.

The utility room was designed to be large enough to be designated as the craft area - so things could be left to dry.

The computer room is shared (I work from home so it is also my office) - there are two office-type desks in it with back to back computers.

musical instruments share space with the TV, but they tend to be practised in the morning and TV tends to be watched (when it is) in the evening.

I deliberately didn't want there to be a distinction between 'work' and 'play'. Is cooking work? Is writing a story work? IMHO, often it depends on whether we choose to do something or whether we feel we have to do it.

[LauraIngallsWilder]

Hi diary - we are about to move (rented house) and this was my main consideration too.
I deregged my two in september so have had a while to get used to our new way of life.

In our new house we will have a kitchen diner, a lounge and then off the lounge another area (sliding doors separating the two)
Our plan is to have a table, chairs, bookcases and cupboards full of educational stuff and art etc stuff in that area. We will also have posters (maps etc) and a magnetic white board on the wall (variety of purposes for that, not all school-like!)

Then once they have gone to bed I can if I so wish pull the doors too and sit in the lounge and 'forget' the day!!!

We arent unschoolers but we arent mega mega structured either - ie I get them spending about 3 hours a day doing 'stuff' that does look school-like then the rest of the day is essentially free - walks, playing, sports clubs, art/craft activities etc

We also spend alot of time reading all sorts of books so it wiil be handy to have the 'room' next to the lounge with the sofa!
They learn at all times of the day all over the house and outside (garden, town etc) but I found that if I didnt get them doing some sort of structured activities most days chaos ruled! (ie Ds who is a very strong personality thought he ruled the roost!)

I hope that helps!

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

We are unschoolers too, but we are just about to have an extension built, the front half of which will be 'resources storage'!

Education itself, though, takes place on the living room floor, at the kitchen table, in the garden, out the front, in the car...you name it!

[MathsMadMummy]

I don't know how we'll manage, our (rented) house is tiny!

[loumum3]

"stuffed onto shelves" sounds like my house !

[ommmward]

don't worry. mathsmadmummy, our rented flat is pretty tiny too. But we don't really home educate much, we zoo educate...

[Marjoriew]

I have a housing association house - tiny kitchen but a huge sitting room.
I've been He'ing grandson since he was about 5- he is nearly 11 now.
I have 2 cupboards in my hall which I use to keep resources, lapbooking, printer paper, paints and brushes, clay, etc.etc.
Sitting room, big sofa hopefully coming this week to replace 2 armchairs, large floor cushion. Ikea bookcases with box files, books, table with 2 drawers - one for my stuff and one for grandson. We do structured so like everything to hand. Also handy for the other grandchildren when they come to do do homework.
Sitting room door opens out onto garden where grandson has his bird table and grow box for his veg.
We love it!

[MathsMadMummy]

lol @ zoo educate.
we will probably stream-running-alongside-footpath-to-the-park educate.

[SDeuchars]

Sounds like a good idea but why restrict yourself? We anywhere-our-lives-took-us educated.

[MathsMadMummy]

lol obviously

but DH and I have a particular rose tinted image of taking a walk along the stream, seeing what birds/fish we can see... ahhhhh

[Thediaryofanobody]

SDeuchars our house set up is quite like yours, we have a home office for DH but can also be computer room too at a later date. Good idea about the utility room but will certainly want one in new house, if only to dry art projects store delicate stuff or dirt.

LauraIngalsWilder Your structure sounds quite like I hope ours to be a couple of hours structured then the rest of the day for art, nature study, sports and other such things that DH and I feel are just as important as Maths and Reading.

I do agree with the idea that children (adults too!) are constantly learning and that there whole home/surrounding should be included in the idea of home education but I still feel that there should still be some space for sitting down and doing some more formal learning.

The idea about having space away from 'home school' comes from the fact my DH works from home and he sometimes finds it hard to switch off from business mode since he is always at the office.

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

Nobody - I think that what you're saying makes a lot of sense when you are thinking under the influence of your schooled mind. I don't think that a separate space is helpful for the same reason you think it is helpful! I don't want my children to separate learning from life, I don't want them to feel a need to 'switch off' from learning. I want them to ask to do workbooks (for example) and for me not to say 'oh, let's leave that for school time, it's the weekend now - time for 'fun'!'. I want workbooks, if they are enjoyed by the children, to be done wherever they fancy - in bed, on the sofa, at the dining room table, in the garden, in the den we've just made... I don't want them ever to leave the 'learning area' with a sigh of relief that now it is time for 'fun'.

[MathsMadMummy]

good post MrsW, you have a wonderful knack for reminding me why I want to HE

[ButterPie]

Our DDs are only 3yo and 4mo, but we do have a library room (it is a kind of porch, previously used for pram storage) where she has an easel with chalks that she draws on several times a day, a chunky microscope thingy, the "doodle drawers" (ie a selection of bits for crafts), a little table and chair, a box of workbooks and of course loads of books and some comfy cushions and a bean bag! We chose it as there is brilliant natural light and patio doors opening to the patio on one side and the front drive on the other.
DD1 does tend to bring things in to the house if she wants to, but I like that we have an area where we can just start doing something, without clearing dinner plates etc out of the way.

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

Ah, now that's different to a 'school area', Butterpie - and, TBH, I am very [evny] - it sounds lovely!

[ButterPie]

lol, i love our house, it is rented though, and the owners decorated it, so we can't really take any credit

[CoupleofKooks]

we dont have an area, education happens everywhere we are
you can't stop it!
IME it's a good idea to have lots and lots of space to store crap ongoing projects, though
but they shouldn't be feeling a need to switch off from education - education is fab and not something to be avoided

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

And I can spell envy, really!

CoupleofKooks - yes, it's storage space you need, really, not 'school space'. I couldn't agree more

[becaroo]

My ds1 is 6 and we do abut 1.5 hours of "structured" work per day i.e. litercay, numeracy, phonics, spellings etc which he does at the kitchen table - I have a large kitchen diner - He has drawers and an area on the kitchen dresser for his workbooks, craft stuff and reference books. any artwork is put in the utility room to dry. The rest of the day is ours to spend as we like...going to the park, the farm, meeting friends, shopping, seeing grandparents, whatever....

My dc also have a playroom/TV room and we also ahve loads of stuff in there like the scince experiments he got for xmas that he still hasnt done yet!!!

BTW, does anyone know what you do if your child is not going to be taking a place he/she has been offered at a junior school? Who do I have to tell???

[SDeuchars]

Write to the school admissions people (wherever you sent the application form) and tell them that you no longer reuire the place. You do not have to say why.

[Marjoriew]

I've just had one for grandson's secondary school - in fact, they've been very persistent.
The latest one came a couple of days ago.
So, Sheena, do I not have to put the reason why.
I thought if I put down 'home educated'it might bring me under their radar again, and I don't want that.