I always thought we had plenty of room to homeschool. And then I looked at Pinterest one day and discovered that people dedicate entire rooms to homeschooling and in comparison I was homeschooling in small spaces!
When we first began homeschooling, I set up space in half of our small bedroom (the Hub was less than pleased, but we both wanted to homeschool, so he adapted).
As my kids grew and our collection of art supplies, and science kits, and paper, and curricula exploded I faced the challenge that many of us face – where do I keep all that stuff?
I knew one homeschooling mom who stuffed everything into a couple of closets with shelves in them. She would just stuff everything in at the end of the day and shut the closet door and voila – a normal-looking house!
Our trouble is we live in a house that is a bit over a hundred years old and frankly back then I think they didn’t have much stuff ’cause we only have a couple of closets – for the whole house!.
Then I discovered the joy of hidden spaces. And now I have pretty much filled the entire house up!
Let me share some secret spaces I discovered with you in my small house:
- science supplies in the drawers in the dining room
- science and engineering kits in the kids’ toy boxes set up as window benches in the dining room
- art supplies and craft kits on top of the built-in in the kitchen nook (it is just fine unless you look up!)
- paper for art and writing stored in the kitchen nook benches (the seats lift up)
- boxed and completed school work, by year, stacked to the ceiling in the hallway on top of the bookshelves (just fine unless we should get a serious quake)
- school books we don’t often use in shelves that I set up behind the couch (now our guinea pig and her cage are set up on top so she can join our group studies every afternoon and purr whenever the dog barks at the mailman)
- puzzles and games in boxes slid under the couch and easy chairs in the living room
- musical instruments stored under the piano (where else would I put them?)
- everything from the kids’ younger days boxed and hidden under everyone’s beds
