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I think one of the things I’ve had to really fight with in terms of home education is making sure our home is set up for it. Go into most home education homes and they’re often very different from none home education homes. I’m 7.5 years into parenting and almost through our third official year of home education and I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learnt along the way about how to arrange your home to suit home education.
Our home often feels like there is ‘stuff’ everywhere. Toys for the toddler, books and projects and everyday life things. It feels messy at times but I think you really just need to embrace the chaos! The children are often very creative and having space to create helps them develop. However, there are some things you can do to help maintain a little bit of order.
Easy Access to Materials
Create easy access to resources for children, this is, hands down, the best thing we did. We bought the Ikea trofast drawers and we have in there craft materials, games, Duplo and card and paper. It enables the children to access these things as and when they want and they know where it all is. Also having the drawers makes it easy for them to tidy things away too. I tend to have a sort out of these every six weeks or so, removing anything that’s no longer useful or just generally having a tidy and re-order to see if anything needs restocking, such as paper etc.
We have boxes for colouring pens as well as a caddy that sits on the table with pencils, pens, felt pens and colouring pencils. Glue and scissors are also stored within easy reach as are other crafty items.
Create individual workboxes
As the children have got older and they’re working on different things at different times. having their own box to store their workbooks and the such has really helped us to keep order. We have books for maths and English, as well as their project books for speaking and listening group. They each had a large box and lever arch folder where they store things and they know to tidy their work away into these. You can keep anything related to their education in these boxes. For example, if they need glasses to see better during computer time – but are fine the rest of the time – then you can keep a pair in their workbox. Equally, you can store away preferred writing implements, separate from other pens and pencils you have in the house, so that kids always have their favourites when it comes to school time.
Keep on top of sweeping and hoovering
When we first bought our home, it was carpeted throughout but we decided to remove the carpets in favour of laminate or solid wood flooring. We have French doors in our dining room which open into the garden so had we had carpets they’d constantly be filthy with the children coming in and out. Each morning after breakfast I sweep up and we have a small hoover that the children use. At bedtime, we usually have a quick hoover up and then one night we do a really thorough clean.
Having this little routine helps the house stay clean and gives us the opportunity to tidy around any bits that need to go back to their home.
Zone Books
Finally, rotating books and zoning them really helps us to find them. Often I plan out small projects for the children, but then they take me by surprise and decide to study another thing independently. Having our non-fiction books grouped had been really helpful for us in terms of locating books as we need them. There’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to explain something or show the children something and spending time locating the book. We have grouped our books into Science, History, Geography, Space etc and the order has really streamlined our home education.
Don’t Forget the Atmosphere
Imagine going into an office that felt like a prison cell. That’s how kids feel when they study at home and the environment isn’t up to standard. Once their motivation is gone, their productivity levels will fall off a cliff, which is why it’s essential to ensure the room or area where they learn is bright and full of natural light. Sunny Sweet Days has more advice if you don’t know where to start. Ensuring there is sunlight and the room is airy and breezy, the kids will be in a better mood to learn, and their concentration levels should be high.
