We also use our dining room table for most of our seatwork, and the children have bins for their individual work – sturdy plastic, from walmart, a wee bit bigger than dishpans – that slide onto a shelf in the pantry. I have a wooden bookshelf in the diningroom that holds TGs and flashcards, along with poetry books and some manipulatives, and we have a large map on the wall along with a small chalkboard. Our history and read-aloud books are kept on shelves in the living room, and youngest has his own basket of history, Bible and read-alouds that we keep next to the couch. The Bibles are in a rectangular basket in the dining room, and can be pulled out at Bible time and whenever else we need them. Extra, not-in-use books are stored in under-bed storage boxes or on shelves in the basement.
We’ll be doing a bit of remodeling in the kitchen and I’m trying to plan in school storage as well – rather than a bar-type seating area behind the sink, bookshelves (if you have one in your apartment, perhaps bookshelves could slide under?); a framed world wall map so that it looks a bit less tacked up, and a really large chalkboard. Husband feels a whiteboard would work better (probably true) but I love the look of wood-framed chalkboards and since this is our living space too, I’ve gotten the “whatever you like dear,” go ahead. Smile.
Other ideas: art supplies can be stored in pretty baskets or jars on a shelf so that you won’t mind looking at them. The same shelves can hold baskets with manipulatives, books, guides, etc. While it might be nice to have a separate schoolroom, this does work well for us, and it honestly keeps me from buying too many things I don’t think we’ll use – I’d have to find someplace to put it!
A friend reminded me of something really important the other day: this time is short and it won’t be like this forever, and we really use our space. She doesn’t homeschool and has mostly older kids and a neater house, so it felt very freeing for some reason to be reminded of this.
