7 Tips for a Tolerable Schoolroom

Last updated on: September 7, 2016 at 7:34 am by Anne Kennedy

7 Tips for a Tolerable Schoolroom 2016-09-07T07:34:42-04:00 Anne Kennedy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Don’t let the map on the wall fool you. This room is Not Done. But I did affix the glorious, tattery because I’ve hung it up so many times, map of the whole wide world up so that it would feel like maybe I am getting somewhere.

I feel that I must justify, probably only to myself, why a homeschooler could have a school room, and then what goes in to the making of a good one. If you “school” at “home”–which two words often feel like they are in contradistinction to one other–shouldn’t your school life be so integrated into your home life that you have no need of such a room? Isn’t that why a person schools her children at home? Life and work integrated seamlessly? In such a case all scholastic pursuits should be indulged around the kitchen table, and all books read aloud in the comfort of the living room, children splayed out in every direction. And honestly, the people I admire the most in the world all school this way. There is a beautiful, centered fluidity between meals, playing, and study.

But we aren’t all the same, which is another reason so many people decide to instruct, or badger their children into learning, at home. I am of the rigid variety–stressed by clutter, my four Myers Briggs letters (can’t remember what they are, don’t have any idea what they mean) are the worst personality combination available. When I have all my precious offspring gathered around me working sums, while I try to chop onions or put in a load of laundry, I absolutely lose my mind. No, I need a dedicated space so that I can do certain kinds of work in certain environments, and other kinds of work in other environments. And at the end of the day, the door can be shut on all the paper and blocks and I can go to bed without having to look at or die tripping over it.

God has been very gracious in providing me with such a space. In the last house the school room was visible to anybody who happened to walk by, or into, the house. There was no way to avoid seeing the inevitable clutter produced by children actually doing what you want them to do. (A clean school room is essentially a room in which the children aren’t doing anything. Maybe they are watching tv. That would make me a bad mother.) In this house the great blessing has been a room in the attic, with a door that can be closed, and it’s very hard to get up there, and so no one needs to know what kind of successful school day we’ve had.

But what goes in to the making of a good school room, or space? I do have some opinions on this matter, and some experience, having made every mistake I think it’s possible to make.

First, you need to be able to reach the stuff. Both you and the children. If you arrange for yourself to sit in one place, but all the books you need are across the room, you might be tempted not to bother to use them. You might just sit in a chair and make stuff up out of your head. No, books need to be within arm’s reach.

Second, that includes your map. Do you have a big beautiful map? Don’t hang it across the room from yourself so that you have to stand up, dragging your nursing infant along with you. And don’t hang it so high that you have to stand up to point to Azerbaijan. Have it at seated height, so that you can point to places comfortably from your chair. It’s the children who get up to come look.

Third, make sure your own chair is suited to your own height and that when you have to sit next to, or lean in, to work with a small child, you aren’t breaking your back. If you are so hunched, or the child is so out of reach, that you have to make a groaning decision every time the child cries out “Mommy”, you might begin to find after a while that you don’t have the time or inclination to help. Therefore, take a moment to adjust your chair, or splurge on a new one, that accommodates the size of your own body. Your back, and your children when they can finally read, will thank you.

Fourth, do the hard work to satisfy your aesthetic sensibilities within the confines of practicality. I always go for aesthetics over function, which means sometimes I have sinfully neglected important subjects (see discussion of map above). On the other hand, beauty is important for the child, and for you. So it’s ok to struggle between function and beauty, and sometimes land on the side of beauty, if you aren’t being neglectful. Beautiful things to look at, something lovely to listen to. These are other reasons a person might chose to homeschool in the first place–to mediate against the bustling of children from one dismal learning location to another. (Shouldn’t there be a law that places where children learn should have to have windows?)

Fifth, make the children clean the room. Do the similarly hard work of not having anything in the room that doesn’t have a proper place. If everything has a place to live, it can be put there, both by the toddling destrocto-baby and the sullen teenager. Either one can pick up the blocks and throw away all the bits of cut paper.

Sixth, it’s ok to get rid of bad books. For real, life is too short to keep moving piles of books around that you don’t really love and neither do the children. If you’re not careful, you could be swallowed up, could meet your demise in an avalanche of children’s books and interesting but not exactly right curriculum that you feel like you should use because FRUGALITY but if you were really honest with yourself, you would admit that you’re never going to use it and that moving the pile around the perimeter of your room is never going to change your mind.

And Seventh (because six feels somehow unholy, but don’t worry, this isn’t Friday, you haven’t mistaken the day) a good school room is comfortable enough that you can let go and let the children work and play. If your room is so uncomfortable to you that you are always trying to clean it, or are set on edge when the merest pencil is out on the desk, you might need to rearrange the furniture, or paint again, or in some other way make it so you can be in the space without having your blood pressure always floating around in the higher echelons of the atmosphere. If you arrange the room, and two weeks in discover that it’s just so wrong, it’s ok to take a half day and redo it. You’ll make more progress if you can face going in there at all.

In all these–the delicate see-sawing balance between aesthetics and function, the thought for the limitations of your body and the child’s, the permission to get rid of stuff you don’t need or won’t use–the principle is to account for Frailty. We like to think that we’ll go from strength to strength in everything, but especially in the business of helping children grow up. When really, we are creatures of dust. We fall and we fail. Each victory is usually met with some small tragic unhappiness. You can’t usually have one without the other. And so it’s ok to make accommodations for yourself to carry the burden along.

And that is my advice about how to have a good homeschool space. Maybe today I’ll take some of my own advice as I finish up my room. Pip pip.

Life Going On

Work and the Christian

Binghamton

clutter

homeschooling

Previous Post

September 6, 2016

Definitions: I Can Totally Multitask

Next Post

September 8, 2016 The Female Body: Rachel Held Evans and Lena Dunham

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Children in Conversation culture watch Daily Devotions Demotivations with Anne faith alone for the grandparents GAFCON In conversation with children In the News Kitchen Notes Lambeth Learning Notes Life Going On Men are Human Notes from Home Pictures Reading the Bible Saturday Links Sermons Signs of the Apocalypse The Bad Word Association The Prayer of Jonah Travel Notes Uncategorized Witless Wednesdays Work and the Christian

Select a Month June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who visited Job and tried to explain his suffering?

Select your answer to see how you score.

His sons Three friends His brothers His servants

Books by This Author Books by Anne Kennedy

See All Titles »