Five years ago, when we sold our first home and started looking for a new one, one of the home features on our wish list was a bonus space of some sort that we could use for a school room. Even though our son was a baby, we knew we would homeschool and thought having a separate room for school was a necessity.
We ended up compromising on several items on our wish list in favor of a home that was smaller than the first home we owned but below our housing budget. For us, giving up extra square footage was well worth it since we have a very affordable mortgage.
We’ve lived in this home for 4.5 years and have attempted to sell but have realized that choosing to live small allows our family more financial freedom. And, a few months ago we set a goal to pay off our mortgage by May 2020 so we’re planning on staying here until the mortgage is gone!
Last month, our oldest started Kindergarten and we began our journey of homeschooling without a dedicated school room.
Homeschooling in a small space has proven quite simple for our family.
Our learning area is our dining room. Our table is the most used piece of furniture in our home. It’s where we eat 3 meals a day, do school, create and write (I’m currently sitting at our table writing this!)
As soon as breakfast is over each morning, we clear the table, wipe it down if necessary, then pull out our learning materials for the day and jump right into learning.
We have a cabinet in our dining room that holds all of our school supplies and books as well as our art supplies, coloring books, library books, learning games and there’s even a shelf with toys for our toddler.
While our dining room may have a bit of a classroom feel, I think it’s quite charming. I love having a map on the wall, our children’s art work displayed and books in our dining room.
Instead of viewing our limited space as a challenge, I’m embracing the simplicity of making our small space work.
The cabinet is our learning material storage space which makes me think carefully before making purchases and I ruthlessly declutter items that are no longer useful for our children.
I’m also thankful for our library, we check out our limit of books almost every week so our children are exposed to a variety of stories and information but we don’t have to deal with the clutter! Having a dedicated shelf for our library resources keeps them from getting lost and gives them a place to belong while they’re in our home.
After just one month of homeschooling, we’re loving the lifestyle of teaching and learning with our children. We also know that being content in our small home and homeschooling in a small space has given us more freedom.
. We’ve been reading this book over the past few weeks and the boys really are enjoying it – especially Paxton. They’ve been pretending they’re Royal and Almanzo the past few days – it’s adorable. Once we finish up this chapter, I head to the kitchen to start heating up lunch and then pop outside to move laundry from the washer to the dryer. We sit down and eat our lunch – leftovers beans and cornbread – Paxton eats 3 servings of beans and was so excited we had beans for lunch!
for his first Christmas and they’re still being played with almost 3 years later. We added to that original set when our younger son was given a set of 
last Christmas.
and Building Blocks (like 
or 
) that we have.
, 
and a pirate outfit. They really enjoy pulling out the dress up bin and engaging in pretend play. One of the favorites is the 
, it’s a high quality dress up set that has been played with countless times over the past year and will used for many years to come.
which included 2 trains and a caboose, he received a track 
and 3 
as gifts last Christmas from grandparents and another 
for his birthday. Over a year has passed since the initial train set purchase and both boys are still playing with the track and engines and that’s what he wants again this Christmas.
, 
, 
, paint and 
goes a long way in helping kids embrace their inner artist. Both of our boys love doing ‘art stuff’. And, art supplies are a consumable gift!
for little brother last Christmas. Other favorites include the child size 
and our 
.
are wonderful. The large pieces are easy for little hands to maneuver plus they make fun toys too. We also like 
and have a few 
. The wooden puzzles hold up much better than cardboard puzzles – especially if a younger sibling decides to chew on them!
