homeschool room tour

Simple Ideas for Organizing Your Homeschool Space

Something I appreciate about the online homeschooling community is being able to take a peek at how others set up their homeschooling space. Sometimes, they have a separate room dedicated just to that purpose, even if it’s a small space, and sometimes they have to commandeer another room in their home, like a dining room or living room, for their homeschool classroom. Sometimes they have a dedicated space with desks for older kids and bookshelves and cabinets specifically for their lessons, and sometimes a dining room table and a rolling cart that can be put away are the tools of the trade.

Either way, from these little glimpses, I’ve found some of my favorite homeschool room ideas with some of the best ways for not only how to organize and decorate our space but also things to include in our lesson time that I may not have otherwise considered. For that reason, this week, I thought I might offer a tour of our homeschool area, which also happens to be our family room.

Homeschool Room Ideas

Before we began homeschooling, I had visions of a learning space in our home dedicated to just that purpose. I had, of course, seen creative ideas posted on Pinterest and elsewhere with cubby shelves and Cavallini posters that I wanted to duplicate.

So when we moved into our current home about six months before beginning my son’s kindergarten year , I determined that a corner of our basement would be used only for school work. Ikea supplied the cubby shelves, and I got enormous wall maps from Costco and a few Smokey Bear posters from the National Forest Service free from a local NFS office.

It worked well that first year as I also had a shelf full of toys in that space, so my younger daughter was occupied (mostly) while my son and I did his lessons.

The following year, however, due to a few different things, I chose to start the school year in the family room. The basement was a bit cramped with a guest bed, my husband’s home office space, a small craft area for me, and a school/play area competing for room in a 500-square-foot space. I was tired of trying to keep it all clean and organized with at least a little less chaos during our lesson time, so on a whim one afternoon, I decided to drag our school table, books, and rolling cart up to the family room to see how I liked it.

My intention for the basement school space was to eventually get a small heater (it gets icy down there in the winter) and a TV for our school time. But even though the move upstairs was only supposed to be temporary until I made the basement space better, the family room ended up being such a good idea that I decided to keep it as our dedicated homeschool room. It’s full of a lot more natural light, and I also ended up getting the things I wanted in our homeschool area at no extra cost as our family room is warmer (and equipped with a gas fireplace) and already has a TV.

We rarely use this room for anything aside from school though we do sometimes watch movies together as a family and occasionally have company, so I wanted this to be a comfortable space as well. Also, we do HOMEschool, which means I didn’t want to recreate a public school classroom in my house. I wanted an area where we could learn together and have a successful school year, but that was also cozy and, well, homey. 🙂

So this is where we spend our school time. Parts of it are a little rough around the edges. The carpet and wall color are not my first choice (leftovers from the previous owners), and eventually, I’d like to get a new light fixture. Really, all of our house is an ever-evolving, constantly-changing work in progress as I often move things around on walls or shelves to see what I like (probably much to the annoyance of my husband and children). But this is what it looks like right now, and it works well for us.

I keep a letter board on the wall where you first enter our school space which I change out often with birthday or holiday greetings or announcing the new school year. When we were still using Laying Down the Rails , I’d pick out a quote about our current habit to display on the board, and I think I’ll keep doing this even though I don’t currently have plans to go through the book.

To the left are our school table , chairs , and carts for each of the kids. This table has been one of the very best purchases I have made for our homeschool. Ironically, I was just going to try to save money and make do with a few chairs or sit on the floor when we started my son’s kindergarten year in 2016, but my husband came up with the great idea of getting a table, so we did just that the day before starting our lessons and I’m so glad we did.

It’s very versatile as the sides can drop down, allowing it to take up very little space. I have it set with only one of the leaves out so we can fold it down whenever we need extra room, or for each of the kids to have their own space, and the chairs can go on either side of it so we have additional seating in our family room. Each kid also gets their own set of drawers for pencils, etc., on either side of the table.

On top of the table, I have a tabletop easel with our drawing book (bookmarked where each child left off last) and my daughter’s personal timeline sheets (as well as a manuscript letters sheet I made for her that she uses for reference when she’s writing). We also have a glass dome full of feathers we’ve collected over the years, another smaller glass dome of miscellaneous nature study treasures (a dead wasp, a grasshopper wing, a snakeskin, a moth carapace, etc.).

There is also have a rock my son found years ago that he thought looked like a giant sunflower seed and a pencil sharpener (my son prefers mechanical pencils, but my daughter prefers Ticonderogas because we have to complicate things). Also, a lamp and a succulent (because I like a little nature on the table).

On either side of the table, I have a cart for both kids with all of the books for their current school year and term, as well as copywork sheets in folders on the top shelf. On the second shelf, I have the books for both of their math programs ( RightStart Level E for my son and Level B for my daughter) and containers for any math manipulatives we’re currently using. On the bottom shelf, I have a bin for handicrafts and then extra space for their nature notebooks and flower presses.

To the left of the table is an extra chair with a basket of books related to whatever we’re currently learning about beneath it and this serves as a little reading nook. Beside that is a small bookshelf built into the mantle (formerly a TV cavity). In the shelf, to the left, are random books not necessarily related to school but still suitable for reference, and on the right is our collection of games.

Above that on the mantle is the TV, which we use for watching performances of the music of whatever composer we’re studying and playing our folksongs, hymns, and Spanish songs. We also use it to watch videos related to our other subjects like nature study, science, and geography.

To the right of that, I keep a little bit more of the “home” part of homeschool with a collage of family photos on the wall. Below that is an internet radio which is so old that it really only works as a speaker right now (I have it hooked up to an old iPhone). I use it to play our favorite Pandora stations (including one for our current composer) when we do not have lesson time.

I could also use the TV for this, but I prefer not to have the screen on if I can help it. A few other personal items are displayed there, including a rock my son found last year during our geology study that he identified as quartz.

To the left of the TV are some other decorative items and random books not necessarily related to our current school year (but I thought they were pretty), a prayer plant that has taken over the corner, and our globe.

To the left of the mantle is a cabinet that offers extra storage space for all of our homeschool materials. On top of it is our encyclopedia set (which I got at a library book sale for a great price), the Handbook of Nature Study , a lamp, and a mug warmer because my tea always gets cold during our lesson time.

On the top shelf and drawer inside the cabinet are miscellaneous items related to school (e.g., notepads, extra whiteboard markers, clips for our wall grid, old maps for specific subjects, etc.). On the shelves below are movies (on DVD AND video cassette because we are children of the 80s), puzzles, and other random things the kids have stuffed in there. On the wall above the cabinet is another Cavallini poster that I got when we were learning about geology last year.

To the left of the shelf are our couch and coffee table. I sit in the corner closest to the black cabinet, and this is where I stay most of the morning. During math, I wheel each kid’s cart over to the side of the table, and they sit on the floor or on a stool while we go through the lesson together.

When I read, and they narrate, they sit on the couch as well. When they have things like copywork or drawing that they do while I’m reading to or working with the other kid, they’ll sit at the school table to do that, or, if they need a quieter space with fewer distractions, they move to the kitchen table.

In the coffee table, I have storage bins for my planner and school year binder (currently containing our umbrella school papers, Charlotte Mason printables , each of their poetry readings for the term, and the notes and text for our current Plutarch life) and other books that I use for reference when teaching one or both of them.

I also keep a jar of bookmarks , our timer , and a crate full of random homeschool supplies I need like whiteboard markers and eraser, calculator, hand lotion, kitchen sink, etc. There is also a basket of RightStart geometric shapes and other math manipulatives like rulers, a goniometer, triangles, an abacus, etc.

Under the coffee table, I store a parts organizer for most of our RightStart manipulatives . I pull them out as needed keeping the ones we’re currently using in the containers in their carts.

On the wall above the couch hang our picture study prints (I switch them out as we study new pieces), a map , a wall grid that we use like a bulletin board with different ephemera as well as pictures of our current artist and composer, and a shelf with a clock and Edith Holden’s Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady open to whatever month it happens to be.

On the coffee table are a few larger picture books as well as a tabletop easel with a calendar, whiteboards, and maps. The surface of the coffee table offers a lot of room that we can use for puzzles and games (and snacks during movies and football!).

I store all of the school books we’re not using on a cubby shelf in the basement with a cubby assigned to each year. I saw the suggestion several years ago of keeping the AmblesideOnline master booklist on my phone and it was a great idea. As I find books at library book sales and other places, I can get them at cheaper prices and store them on the appropriate shelf for that school year.

So this is our space for now. The cats join us often during our school time, sometimes laying on the table ( always during math time ), sometimes cuddling with us on the couch . In colder weather, we turn on the gas fireplace for a very warm and cozy atmosphere, and in warmer weather, we can open the window and sliding door wide to let in fresh breezes and the sound of birds. I think it’s a pretty perfect place for our to learn and grow together. 🙂

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Rebecca graduated summa cum laude and first in her class with a bachelor's degree in art history from the University of Colorado. She has been homeschooling her two children using Charlotte Mason's methods since 2016. She enjoys the freedom found in a Charlotte Mason education and the fact that it not only nourishes the minds, hearts, and souls of her children, but hers as well.

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18 comments.

Beautiful and cozy! Love it, especially your area for picture study. ?

That’s one of my favorite places in the house. 🙂

Such a calm and cozy place – love it!

It’s not always calm, but I always hope for that. ?

Your space looks a lot like mine! We have found ways to keep the things we use daily easily accessible. I us a lot of baskets and bins to organize as well! We have a school room in the basement that is not practical to use, but it makes a really good library. If a child needs a quiet space to work, they can go down to the “school room,” but in reality it all takes place right in our living room and I have actually grown to love that because our globe, our books, are always right there to grab when we just want to talk with Dad about what we are reading, or on weekends, etc. Thanks for sharing. I love your blog!

Using the space downstairs as a quiet space to work is a wonderful idea! I’m going to think about how I can do that with our space as I’m sure it will be needed as my kids get older!

I especially love the map/art study set up over the couch, and have already made a note of that table! We are about a year and a half from starting formal lessons with our little lady and are currently remodeling the garage into living space which will include a school area off the living room. I really appreciate seeing a CM area and being able to picture the organization and items specific to CM that other home school families might not include in their space. Thank you for sharing with us!

You’re welcome, Julie! Have fun setting up your space! 🙂

Thank you for sharing! I just purchased the Kindergarten curriculum and I’m excited to have a gentle year of learning together before we start Ambleside Online. Not homeschool related, but I like your sectional! Where did you get it?

I actually get that question a lot, which makes me think I should link to it. 🙂 We got it at Ikea several years ago and I think the newest version is called Finnala.

What a beautiful, inspiring , practical, learning-full place! Thanks for sharing! ?

This is fantastic! I wish I had seen this 15 years ago when I started Charlotte Mason, but maybe then I would not have appreciated how well curated it is. I love the unity of black in your color scheme. I like how you framed your map and prints instead of leaving curling paper edges. I like how you can see all the prints of the artist at once. I like the options the folding table gives you. And the mug warmer!! How i needed that years ago. Wonderful job. They really should link you in amblesideonline so that other members could benefit. This could save some mommas alot of headache.

Thank you for your very kind words, Holly!

Thank you for sharing, it was really fun to get a glimpse into your space! That table is a great find, IKEA is such a help! And didn’t know about the AO Master Booklist, thank you so much for mentioning it and linking to it!

I see Ikea things pop up a lot in homeschool spaces. 🙂

Wow, what a beautiful room and great set up you have there! I love the organization and the atmosphere that you have created. The distractions are gone and everything is set to encourage learning.

I want to give a shout out yet to encourage all the other homeschooling moms who might not have quite your beautiful setup: I homeschool from an apartment where we have no spare rooms, no basement or garage for storage, and my husband trying to work from home at the same time we try to school from home. I got rid of more clothes this year to fit another bookshelf in my closet (since that’s the only space we have left), and many reading lessons quickly relocate from the kitchen table to the master bedroom windowsill, which serves as a desk when my husband is in a meeting in our living room/dining room. It may not be quite the ideal setup, but I can still make it a lovely atmosphere through trying to stay organized, keeping educational things around us, and most importantly through my smile and loving reactions to the kids. Our living situation allows me to stay home and homeschool them, and that is the biggest contribution to their educational atmosphere we could ever make!

Still, set up indoor tips yes to strive for a beautiful, functional space. It is inspiring.

I clicked a link to this page to read about your homeschool carts…but I’m distracted by the pretty glass domes for your nature collection. Are those still sold somewhere? Thanks for the peek into your homeschool!

The taller one with the wooden base and the feathers in it is still sold at Ikea ( https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/haerliga-glass-dome-with-base-clear-glass-40327303/ ), but sadly, they don’t sell the smaller, all-glass ones anymore.

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Homeschool Room Tour: A Peek Inside Our New Room

Yes, I realize that it has been almost an entire year since we moved, but as you might guess, I have been a little bit busy since then. That is why it has taken me so long to put this tour of the new homeschool space together for you.

But better late than never, right?

To be honest most of the details of this room are the same as our old room. We didn’t do a makeover, we simply moved things to another space. Ah but what a space it is!

You see I had given up on having a homeschool room. We were moving for a very specific purpose — we wanted either property or a neighborhood for the kids to play in. After looking for a while it became apparent that we might have to give some things up in order to get what we were after. Before we found this house we were ready to sign with a builder and the house we were planning on building was not going to have a space for a schoolroom.

We were OK with that.

Fortunately the day we were going to sign the papers we decided to look one more time to see if there was something on the market we had missed. And there was. We found the perfect house for us that had everything we wanted — schoolroom included. We also found labor only movers near me that could help move stuff for us.

Do you really need a schoolroom?

In short, the answer to this question is, “No.” There are a ton of homeschoolers who homeschool quite successfully without a room at all. Mostly what you do need is someplace to put all the “stuff” that seems to accumulate with homeschooling — curricula, books, papers, books, art supplies, books… You get the idea.

Those can be contained on a few shelves, in a closet, or even in flat storage containers that might slip under a couch or a bed.

Your homeschool room needs are going to change

This is something important to consider. When I first started homeschooling 10 years ago you could not convince me that we didn’t need a dedicated space. This past year I was willing to trade that space for something we wanted more. It was no longer quite as vital to me as it had once seemed.

And that’s the deal, already kids wander off to do assignments in their rooms or we leave the school area and move to the dining room so a kid can take an online class. The older the kids get the more we seem to spread out all over.

Thinking back to when I had a toddler it was important that we be in the middle of the house so we weren’t far from all the places he wanted to be. We tried down at one end — he wanted to go to his room at the other end. We tried upstairs — he wanted to be downstairs. You just have to find what works, and then realize it is probably going to change.

Homeschool room organization

In addition to storage space (in our room that is shelves and cabinets), you also need a good writing surface and chairs for everyone.

We find baskets, bins, and file organizers to be really handy along with a space specifically for every person. Add pencils, a pencil sharpener, computer and printer and we have just about what we need.

[box] Read: Six Tools to Organize Your Homeschool Room [/box]

Watch the homeschool room tour video

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Our New Homeschool Room: Take a Tour!

I wrote a post months ago lamenting that I had finally found a perfect set up for our homeschool room…and then we were suddenly moving.

The move turned out to be SUCH a blessing, but there was a lot that needed to be done to get the homeschool room up and running again.

And of course, I was worried about all the things:

Was everything going to fit the same way in the new house?

Would it be as functional, was there a dedicated space for a homeschool room, or would i have to give up a common area (living room, dining room, kitchen) in order to make space for my classroom, would the kids like the new space, or would it be a fight to get them in the schoolroom every day.

I had of course seen the inside of the new house, but I just didn’t know how it was all going to fit until the furniture was there and we were unpacking boxes.

Let’s Talk About the Old Homeschool Room First

My old homeschool room was tucked into an offshoot of my living room:

The location was perfect because it got a lot of sunlight, I could see the younger kids playing in the living room, the kitchen was very close for quick snacks, and the nearby dining room provided another table surface when the kids were working on separate projects.

It was our first classroom and we really loved it!

There were some drawbacks though.

• It was small. I worried about where all the school things were going to go as my girls got bigger and we needed more space.
• There was limited wall space for 3 kids. We were always looking for places to display art work, large maps, timelines, etc. without it looking too cluttered or messy.

Even with the drawbacks, I couldn’t imagine another house having a better set up for us.

Thankfully I was Wrong!

Our new homeschool room turned out to be a huge step up in just about every way.

It took some time and rearranging, but it all eventually came together.

I did end up sacrificing half of our living room though to make it possible.

Here is a panoramic picture I took while standing on our living room couch:

Let’s Talk Homeschool Room Location Real Quick

Yes, I did give up part of my living room, but there were 2 other areas I could have put our classroom.

One was an extra bedroom and the other was an extra family room/den area.

I decided against those because both of them were out of the way from the common areas of the house.

I didn’t want to have to jump over the hurdle of getting my kids into a classroom every day.

The schoolroom is in the middle of our home where my kids are already spending their time anyways.

As you look at the above picture, the living room is behind me, the dining room is through the door left of my whiteboard, and the kitchen is through the door to the right.

My kids are always within a few steps of the classroom!

When they run off to play during breaks, it is no hassle for me to get them to come back.

I can also keep an eye on my younger kids and make snacks without ever being a few steps from the classroom.

Back to the Homeschool Room Tour!

As you can see, the above classroom picture is a little distorted because it’s panoramic, so I decided to take you on a tour of each area going from left to right:

I love that these bookcases make it easier for my kids to see the front of books, grab them, and put them away.

We usually get so many library books every week, that I found it was much easier to keep track of them if everyone knew they “lived” in their own bookcases.

The world map is hung a bit low for an adult to look at, but just perfect for my kids.

Homeschool Supplies

I had to take all the kids’ projects down when we moved and the bulletin board looked rather empty when we moved in.

I decided to cover it with the “letter of the week” cards from our kindergarten curriculum. This worked out really well because I couldn’t use my ABC border from the old classroom due to where the doorways are placed.

I organized my homeschool bookcase so that kindergarten things are on the left, 3rd grade things are on the right, and preschool things are on the bottom shelf.

This way the kids know where to look for their own stuff.

The stack of books in the middle is where I put my supplies for “morning time” with the girls.

Morning Time usually includes curriculum books, library books, our children’s Bible, and our read-aloud book.

Having them prepped this way makes it really easy to grab and go in the morning.

The bins labeled “books” on either side of the bookcase hold library books that are from my kindergarten and 3rd grader’s book list for that week.

I use the clock to have my 3rd grader practice telling time every couple of days. With digital clocks being everywhere these days, I have found I need to be really intentional with reviewing this with her or the skill seems to get rusty.

You would be surprised how hard it is to find a pretty wall clock that shows the hour, minute, and seconds. If I ever find another one, I will replace this one in a minute (no pun intended:)

The rest of the white space is a bit bare, but I left it that way intentionally .

I have learned that each year brings new history timelines, projects, maps, etc. and they all need wall space.

Leaving it blank allows us time and space to grow and not be distracted with too much clutter.

UPDATE 9/2021

Hey everybody, I just wanted to pop back in here a year later and share that we finally updated our bookcase!

We had outgrown our little 2 shelf one and it was absolutely time to find something more practical for my growing homeschool.

This cube storage system was perfect for us! 

Plenty of space for everything, bright, colorful, and it cost about 25% of what we paid for the original bookcase. 

Oh, and no trips to IKEA required!

That is my kind of upgrade!

Main Classroom Area:

Here is the main part of our classroom. You can see the magnetic whiteboard , our classroom table and chairs (just regular folding table and chairs), and our school supply organizers .

I LOVE our magnetic whiteboard. It is my favorite thing that I have bought for my schoolroom. I love that it holds markers, our routine cards, and any other papers I want up there.

I always post our “letter of the week” on the board so it’s visible.

I usually hide the card on Monday mornings and tell the kids I can’t find it. They first have to figure out which letter is missing from the bulletin board so they know what they’re looking for.

Whoever finds the card first gets a prize from my treasure box, so it’s usually a fun way to kick off a Monday for my little ones!

The clear organizers are my second favorite thing I’ve bought for the classroom.

I love that that you can easily see what you’re grabbing without dumping everything out, my kids can easily share supplies, AND they can easily put them away without trying to cram them back into a box.

Routine Cards:

After morning time, she and I usually go through what’s written on the board and make sure she understands what is expected from her.

I break them up in chunks to make it easier to understand quickly.

The top portion is Bible and we usually complete that during Morning Time.

The middle portion is independent work that my 3rd grader is expected to complete on her own. I am available if she needs me, but I try not to hover.

The bottom portion is the stuff that she and I do together.

I like having the notes to the side for a quick reference for both of us. No having to glance through teacher’s manuals to remember what book, page, or assignment is scheduled.

***Is that something you could use in your homeschool? Check out the bottom of this post for my free printable routine cards !

Interactive Calendar:

This is our interactive calendar for our kindergartner and preschooler.

It is very useful for helping them understand the days of the week, changing months, and how many days till a birthday/holiday.

I also really like the little slots for putting up the season and the day’s weather.

A lot of math curriculums will have kids graph the weather and this is a great way to remind kids to keep track of it.

This is the last stop on our tour – Our Reading Nook!

It holds all of our books – no library books.

I wish the seat was bigger, but it holds a good amount of books, has withstood a lot of abuse from my kids, and adds a nice touch to the classroom that encourages our kids to read.

Recap + Free Printable

I hope you enjoyed your tour of our new homeschool room!

Hopefully, it gave you some ideas but also showed you how simple and functional a classroom can be in your own house.

You don’t need a whole separate room or a ton of money to set up a homeschool room that works for you and your kids.

Are you still interested in getting your hands on a set of routine cards??

You can download them for free when you subscribe to The Simple Homeschooler (no spam ever!) today!

You can expect to receive Monday morning emails full of homeschool tips, support, freebies, and laughs to start your week off right!

Just fill out the form below and get your free Routine Cards Printable today!

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I really enjoyed reading all of your ideas about setting up a homeschool. My plan is to open a homeschool business in my house. I’m a retired teacher so I know the teaching side of the business, but arranging my space to accommodate all I want to do takes a lot of thought. I have two pages of ideas written down just reading your article, lol! Thank you so much!

Good tips. Not homeschooling per se but our school is hybrid 2 days in and 3 days home. Some of your ideas we’ve already done since March. Others I thought were great even outside of homeschooling like the chore list. Thanks. You can be sure some of these suggestions will be making it to our house in the next few weeks! Jenn

That’s great to hear, Jenn! Good luck with your school year!

I am new to homeschooling and am trying to learn all that I can!

That’s great, Jessica! Welcome to the tribe! Shoot me an email at [email protected] if you have any questions.

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2021 Homeschool Room Tour

Hi everyone! We’re cleaning up, cleaning out, and rearranging our school room , and so today I’m sharing our updated homeschool room tour with you! We have moved things around from last year just for a little change and we love it!

I want to start off by saying that you by no means need to have a dedicated “classroom” in order to homeschool. You can literally homeschool anywhere you have space and wherever you prefer. We often pack up and head to the library to do school, sometimes we end up in the living room, and other times we head outside. It really depends on the day and our mood!

That said, I do have a setup school area that we use the majority of the time. It works well for our family and we’re thankful to have this space! So I thought it would be fun to take a little tour and show you how we have it all set up now that we’ve moved!

Watch Our 2021 Updated Homeschool Tour  here!

For more details on our  school desk setup . Ikea discontinued the tabletops I purchased, but they replaced them with the  Linnmon Table Tops, white . I think everything else is the same. Here are links to the desk pieces.

• 4 – Vika Alex Drawer units
• 2 – Vika Linnmon Table Tops  (I purchased two 2.5′ x 5′ table tops and put them together for a 5×5 table)
• 2 x 4 Kallax shelf
• 4 Jules Jr. Swivel Chairs   (Update: Swivel chairs are working well, they’ve gotten over the spinning, so it’s all good now.)
• Marius Stool  (Not shown, but it’s usually under my teacher desk!)

As promised, here are some links to the products mentioned in this video and a few other products we’ve used in our homeschool:

• Expandable Drawer Organizer
• Desktop Supply Carousel
• Mavalus Tape
• 8×8 Clear Project Cases
• Reading Bench Tutorial
• X-Acto Sharpener
• Pokémon Figures
• Food Erasers
• Reading Incentives Chart
• Geography Terms Poster
• Ikea School Desks
• 1-100 Number Chart
• Days of the Week
• Months of the Year
• Calendar Time
• Gingham Calendar Numbers
• USA Wall Poster  (Sorry, I couldn’t find the exact one, but we like this one too.)
• World Wall Poster  (Sorry, I couldn’t find the exact one)
• Manuscript Alphabet Bulletin Set
• Cursive Alphabet Bulletin Set

Click below to download:

Gingham Calendar Days Part 1

Gingham Calendar Days Part 2

For those of you wondering about our birdies, they are happily vibing upstairs in my daughters room!

Where did you get the cabinets on the wall?

Our builder added them in when we finished the basement. They came from a local cabinet maker here in Colorado.

Hi friend…just curious where Sam will study. I havent been on the blog in a while and am just tuning back in..I’m sire I’ve missed a lot.

Hi my oldest two kids are both doing online dual enrollment classes so they do school in their rooms as they’re on zoom calls.

What can you recommended for 6th grade curriculum ?

Hi Lyn, Check my “Help by Grade Level” page then click on ‘6th grade’ and you’ll find all of that information there 🙂 https://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/help-by-grade-level

Oh wow! Such a beautiful space to learn in.

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Homeschool Room Tour with Farmhouse Style Updates

Our homeschool room tour with some farmhouse style updates for the new school year.

Well, here it is! Our new homeschool room, ready for a new school year! Even though we’re not quite ready to start yet, at least the room is ready!

So today, I thought I’d give you a homeschool room tour!

Through the years and in different houses and life situations, we’ve done school in various places.

Sometimes we sit on the couch in the living room. Sometimes we sit on a blanket or on the trampoline outside. Often we sit at the kitchen table.

When I had morning sickness , school would often take place on my bed.

That’s the beauty of homeschooling. The freedom to be flexible and do what works in different seasons.

I love the fact that we can learn all over the house (inside and outside).

But deep down, I love having a special place to store all the school-related paraphernalia that homeschoolers tend to collect.

Reevaluating Our Space

We’ve lived in this house for seven years, and I’ve always tried to claim a portion of our finished basement for our school space.

At the end of every year, I tend to reevaluate and see what worked and what didn’t.

Two years ago, I created the best set-up we’ve ever had . I portioned off a small section of the basement, and I loved how cozy it was.

But there was one thing I didn’t love. And that was the lack of natural light.

Our basement has one window, and that window was on the other side of the room. And it was surrounded by tall bookshelves, so much of the light was obscured.

I often wished for more light, but it seemed there was no way to get it.

Water in the Basement

Early this spring, our area had several days of heavy rain. Even though our basement didn’t flood, some water got in and damaged the carpet.

This wasn’t the first time we’d had water in the basement, with fans blowing on the carpet and a dehumidifier running non-stop.

This year, my husband and I decided it was finally time to pull out the carpet. We knew we couldn’t do the whole room, so we just isolated the one area where the water had come in and damaged the carpet.

We moved everything from that side of the room over to the other side (where my school area had been).

For months we had a mess in this room, as we tried to figure out how to seal up the cracks and finish the flooring.

We moved the school books we were using upstairs to various places during that time.

I wish I had a picture of this mess to share with you, but it was so depressing that I guess I deleted it off my phone (I looked, but can’t find it).

While we were in the midst of this huge mess, one day I had a revelation. I could move our schoolroom over to the side with the window, and actually have some natural light!

Now that all the extra furniture and bookshelves were out of the way, I realized that our one window actually lets in a decent amount of light (since it faces west).

Granted, it’s mostly light in the afternoon, but at least it’s light!

Finishing the Basement

Now that I had a vision, I couldn’t wait to get the floor finished and get everything moved.

The process seemed to take forever. First, we moved all the furniture, then we pulled up the carpet, and then we had to scrape the glue off the floor.

Scraping the glue was tedious and back-breaking work, but it had to be done if we wanted a smooth surface.

After finally getting it all scraped and cleaned, my husband sealed all the cracks. Then I gave the walls a fresh coat of white paint.

Because we wanted the area to be as bright as possible, I chose white paint for the floor. We used a heavy-duty garage floor type of paint.

I wasn’t sure I was making a good decision when I chose the white, but it turned out to be perfect! It really reflects a lot of light.

Homeschool Room Tour

So, we’re finally to our homeschool room tour! Here’s what our homeschool room looks like today.

Affiliate links included below. Read my disclosure here .

Even though our homeschool room looks quite a bit different than it did in my last homeschool room , the only thing we purchased for this space was the jute rug .

I think the main reason it looks so different is 1.) because of all that beautiful natural light, and 2.) because I removed so much from the walls so now it looks less cluttered.

Also, my mom gave us her old dining room chairs when she upgraded, so I was able to get rid of the metal folding chairs we had before and replace them with these.

These were old library chairs that we found at a flea market, and they used to be around our kitchen table upstairs.

We found our cute white farmhouse table at a flea market years ago.

All the bookshelves were given to us by my mom a couple of years ago when she downsized after my dad passed away.

They used to be in his library, so I love having them in our home. I also just love the natural wood look.

I keep most of the nature study guides and other nature study resources on these bookshelves.

The bird poster was found here . I just love the vintage look it adds to this wall.

Here’s the other side of the room, with bookshelves lining the walls and my two English thyme plants sitting cheerily in the window.

The bookshelves on this side of the room have picture books arranged by seasons, science picture books, and some animal storybooks.

All the other books (non-fiction and fiction) are kept on bookshelves on the other side of the room (not pictured since it’s not really part of the schoolroom).

We also inherited the microscope from my dad after he passed away.

The baskets to the right of the microscope have handwork projects (currently a weaving we haven’t finished), math flashcards, and the Classical Conversations History Cards .

At the other end of the room is a bookshelf with books and supplies we’ll be using during our school time.

The cabinet next to it holds art supplies, and on top of the cabinet are our Pin It! Maps.

One of the kids completed the flag map and wanted to keep it undisturbed, so that’s the one on top. 🙂

The math balance is from Right Start Math, which my youngest used last year, and it was such a great tool that we’re still using it.

I still need to go through some of the books on this bookshelf before we start our new school year in a few weeks. But these shelves will hold items we use on a regular basis.

The navy blue baskets hold math manipulatives, some art supplies, and some odds and ends like Thinking Putty .

I love that we now have enough light to enjoy plants on the windowsill!

The side of the table by the bookshelves has a bench, which is nice since we don’t have to push chairs in and out. The bench also came from my mom.

Favorite Homeschool Supplies

I thought I would share sources for a few of our favorite homeschool room supplies.

You can see in the photo above in our homeschool room tour that we’re still using the tabletop school supplies organizer that I made five years ago.

It’s not quite as shiny and new as it was back then, but it still serves the same purpose!

Here are some of the things we love:

• Lyra Groove Colored Pencils
• Lyra Waldorf Selection Giant Triangular Colored Pencils
• Prismacolor Colored Pencils
• Ticonderoga Pencils
• Stockmar Beeswax Block Crayons
• Watercolor Artist Set
• Liquid Watercolor Paint
• Bamboo Book Stand
• Watercolor Paint Jars with Wooden Holder
• Stockmar Watercolor Paint
• Stockmar Beeswax Crayons
• Julia Rothman Books
• Wooden Weaving Lap Loom
• Pocket Lighted Microscope
• Vintage Bird Poster
• Poster Hanging Kit

I hope you enjoyed our homeschool room tour! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Pin it for Later:

Related Posts:

Charlotte Mason + Eclectic Homeschool Curriculum

Pin It! Maps Review

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12 Comments

Hi there! New homeschooler here – love your space. Curious, what are the dimensions of that table? How many kiddos do you think it’s suitable for? thanks so much!

Hello! It’s about 35″ wide by 59″ long. It’s just a table we found at a flea market. It easily fits 6 kids (or, in our case, we had 5 kids and 1 mom!). We also have a bench on one side, so you could potentially fit three on the side with the bench, but then you wouldn’t have much elbow room.

What a wonderful space to learn in. I love the old library chairs! Thanks for sharing!

What a beautiful & organized space! Thanks for sharing on Homestead Blog Hop – we are featuring you this week!

Thanks Liz, and thank you so much for the feature!

Love how your basement school room turned out!!! Btw, and I’m sure you did this already, did you check the outside of your walls for leaks?? I see that on Holmes on Homes all the time ~ cracks and such. Anyway, if you hadn’t, then have someone come and check your wall out as you may have to dig up some of the dirt around the foundation to fill in the cracks and add a sealer and membrane to the outside of the wall. This post is kinda timely as my son and DIL are having to do that just now on their first house.

Great post and I pinned a few photos for you and our readers, Thanks, Barb 🙂

Thank you, Barbara! Yes, we’ve had some work done on the outside too. Unfortunately, I think we may need to do some more work on this soon. Basements are both a blessing and a pain to deal with!

Your homeschool space is wonderful! So glad you got your basement dry; I know what a mess that can be. But what a bonus to have the chance to rearrange things; your new space is so inviting!

I homeschooled for three years back in the late 90’s. I’ve often thought that if I’d had the resources that are available now, I might have kept going for much longer than three years. I’m always inspired when I see people who take homeschooling seriously, as you obviously do. Bless you!

Thanks so much for joining the Grace at Home party at Imparting Grace. I’m featuring you this week!

Thank you, Richella! Yes, it’s such a relief to have the basement finished and usable again. Thank you so much for the feature!

I love the way you have your homeschool room set up.

Thank you, Alice!

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A Brand New Homeschool Room Tour To Inspire You (2021)

The last year we spent hardly any time in our homeschool room. Which was sad because it was beautiful and everyone that saw it loved it. But, we never seemed to enjoy being in there anymore. That’s when it dawned on me that it was no longer working for our needs. Emily was getting older and I was hanging onto our early elementary homeschool room out of nostalgia. So, for Christmas I asked my husband to gift me a homeschool room update.

Boy, did he deliver an amazing homeschool room makeover!

For storage and organizational purposes our homeschool room is split into a few different sections. This helps us easily keep track of what we have as well as make sure we don’t obtain too much of anything. For instance, once I have outgrown the book shelves then it is time to either purge or stop buying for a bit.

For the most part the homeschool room make over is brought to you by Ikea. However, I will add links to as much as possible. The first thing I did was find a rug. I knew I wanted a statement piece and this rug is gorgeous and fit the bill perfectly!

Homeschool Room Game Shelves – A Must!

The game shelves are my personal favorite part of the homeschool room even though we really didn’t change anything here. The 5×5 Kallax shelf unit houses the largest portion of our game collection. We use the Recollection Photo Boxes on top for card game storage. The Trofast stores any odd shaped games and her physical activity resources (jump rope, wiggle disc, wobble board, etc).

Cozy Book Corner of the Homeschool Room

If the game shelves are my favorite area the book corner is Emily’s. She can be found her frequently curled up with her fuzzy pillows , on the bean bag , reading a good book.

The book shelves are three 3×3 Closet Maid cube storage units . I will be honest I prefer the Kallax units from Ikea but they did not come in the height I needed and these have held a ton of books for many years so they work just fine.

I love having a place to strew books for Emily that is also self contained, so I knew I had to have the Flisat book shelf from Ikea because it was perfect for that.

After looking for over a month and not finding anything I liked for book bins, Kevin made me some. You can see the materials he used and the plans he drew for making them below:

Our Practical Homeschool Work Space

This space is where Kevin and Emily both work. They do art side by side the majority of the time and when I need to teach a lesson I just stand next to her side of the table area.

The work space is made up of four Alex draw units , two Linnmon tabletops , two Janinge Stools , two Raskog Carts , and two wooden artist drawing boards .

Kevin built boxes/pedastals to for the Alex draw units to sit up that raised the entire tabletop are four inches. We wanted it to be a bar height versus a table height.

Stored in the drawers are their art supplies, paper, and ongoing projects. The carts house their laptops, chargers, and anything else they need quick access to. They also both have a top on them to allow for an extra place to set things when they are pulled  out.

Geography, History, Science & Nature Corner of the Homeschool Room

This corner is made up of three 2×2 Kallax shelf units . On the top of them we have our continent boxes, globe, and nature finds on display. The shelves we store all of our Who Was books and encyclopedia/reference books that cover geography, history, science, and nature topics.

Hung on the wall we have a world map , wooden clock , and a moon phase and calendar wheel . In the window we keep a bird feeder , bird guide , and a pair of binoculars to encourage bird watching.

A Homeschool Maker Space To Inspire Creativity

Emily’s maker space also known as her S.T.E.M. center was an addition we made for her last year. It has been a huge hit and well loved since then. The only thing we did here was to change out the color of the bins that were in her Trofast units.

The maker space is made up of four Trofast storage units , a Linnmon tabletop covered with Creative QT bases , and an Adde chair.

Homeschool Subscription Boxes & Kits Storage

I used to store all of the subscription boxes and kits in my office . Unfortunately, I found that they were out of sight out of mind. So, we decided to move them into the homeschool room so we could make sure we were getting more done.

This storage area is made up of one 2×4 Kallax unit stacked on top of one 4×4 Kallax unit . Inside the unit we have four Kallax drawer inserts and eight grey-white striped storage bins .

Additional Items Pictured:

• Grey Valance Curtains
• Eucalyptus Garland
• Architect Desk Lamp
• USA and World Maps
• Skeleton (Mr. Bones)

Watch the homeschool room tour video

We are all in love with the changes that we made to the room. I love how bright, cheery, and welcoming it is. And, I am thrilled that it has been used more in the past few months than ever before.

Related Blog Posts:

• Ten Things I don’t Do As a Homeschooler
• How to Start Your Homeschool Day on the Right Foot
• How to Turn Around a Bad Homeschool Day

Where did you get the continent boxes and do they come with items inside or do you fill them? Beautiful room and great video as always!

There will be a conttinet box video and blog post out tomorrow, stay tuned for all that information.

This was my same question too! I will be on the lookout for that as I absolutely love those boxes

Amazing space! Love how you organized it and it’s also beautiful.

Where did you find your nature supplies ie..rocks, dinosaurs, displays etc…I need a set up like this for my boys, time to look through your blog/You Tube channel for strewing ideas ☺️

We either find them on our nature walks or I buy a kit on Amazon. We just did a Fossil Dig kit and it had quite a few in it.

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Homeschool Room Tour

by Chelsea @ Making Manzanita

Posted on October 5, 2023 Last modified on March 19, 2024

Well if you can’t tell by the title of this blog post, we’re homeschooling this year!

Actually, a lot of things have changed in our house over the past few months…Logan got a full-time job in residential construction working with our brother-in-law. I stepped away from my “day job”, a 13-year career in commercial real estate. And lastly, we decided to step into homeschooling with our two kids at the start of the new school year. 

I’ve spent the last couple of months getting our home turned around, specifically setting up an extra space for our homeschool supplies. You may recognize the room, which we renovated a few years ago.

It was originally our home office and had two his & her desk spaces because we worked from home full-time. Since we both won’t be working from home anymore, we decided to go down to just one desk in the office and share it. 

Let’s jump right in and take a little tour of our entire homeschool room! 

This homeschool room tour contains affiliate links, but nothing that I wouldn’t recommend wholeheartedly. Read my full disclosure  here.

Watch the Video Tour of Homeschool Room

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Homeschool Table

In the space where the other desk was (in front of the painted arch wall ), we replaced it with a homeschool table. It is really just a small dining table and it works perfectly for the three of us.

When we’re doing lessons at the table, I usually sit at the end of the table and have one kiddo on each side. I did a lot of research and shopping looking for a dining room table that was small enough to fit comfortably in the space without feeling too large and overpowering. This one is 45″ by 30″ and is plenty of space for us. 

We added some nice memory foam seat cushions to the chairs so they are cozy and comfortable. 

On the wall under the sconce light , I added this United States of America artwork that I found on sale at Hobby Lobby ( similar version here ). It’s a great reference tool for the kids to learn the names and locations of the states, but also gives us some decor in the homeschool area. Gotta love the dual-purpose wall decor in a homeschooling room!

Homeschool Cart

There are a few homeschool materials that we use nearly every day, so I found a rolling cart to hold our most often-used supplies. I love it! 

I’ll go into more detail about exactly what we keep in the homeschool cart and how we use it on another day. But for a quick explanation, there are writing and coloring tools at the top, hourglass timers , Bluetooth speakers, boxes of math manipulatives, and plastic containers with stamps, flashcards, and games. 

Book and Magazine Rack

Above the homeschool supply cart, I built a magazine rack for the wall. But we’re using it for books in this room. It’s another great spot to store and display some fun reference books (like an Atlas) and books that interest the kids. By displaying the covers, the kids are immediately more drawn to the books. 

Learn how to build this wall-mounted bookshelf and download the free woodworking plans here !

Home Office Area: Desk

Since I’m still, obviously, spending a lot of time working on the blog (usually REALLY early mornings right now) and Logan works from home some days, we still needed to have a small office area.

We decided to go down to just one desk space and share it because we will rarely be working at the same time. We have a desktop computer hooked up at this desk with a large curved monitor and then we both have laptops that we can work with anywhere in the home. 

We switched out the old wired keyboard with something wireless so we can easily move it out of the way and the desk can also be used as a space for the kids to work on their laptops in the middle of the day. 

I still love this desk that was new but looks vintage. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have a large desk with a lot of storage space in the drawers too. We definitely every last bit of it since we’re sharing the desk now. 

Pegboard Wall

Of course, we couldn’t get rid of the pegboard wall . It was super functional when this space was a home office and now it is still incredibly helpful in the homeschool room.

I kept a lot of the craft supplies on the pegboard wall in the same spots. However, we made a few adjustments to the things on the wall. Like adding this pencil sharpener to one of the shelves. 

We’re also using a few of the pegs to hold the kid’s laptop bags and one to hold Logan’s laptop bag. I love having dedicated spots for those things. The key to keeping things organized is having a “home” where everything belongs.

One thing that I got before we started homeschooling was these small lap desks and they are great! If the kids want to do something on the floor or a chair, they can grab their lap desk and instantly have a hard surface. Those hang on the pegboard wall when not being used. 

Another great thing about the pegboard wall is that I can put stuff higher up don’t the pegs that the kids can’t reach they aren’t supposed to have access to – like the yarn, my nice camera, or my acrylic paints (#notwashable). This is a must when you’re working with young children. 

But on the flip side, things that they do have access to are put down at their level so they can access them easily. Like the jars of washi tape and buttons, which they love playing with. 

Learn how to make this giant pegboard wall !

Bookcase Storage

The bookcase that used to be styled pretty with decor and books is now filled to the brim with all sorts of kid’s books and homeschool curriculum.

If you can’t tell, books are a HUGE part of our day and learning. From morning basket picture books to read-aloud chapter books and several times throughout the day, we’re reading books. It is the best way for kids this age (and, heck, even older kids) to learn and grow a love of reading. 

The bottom shelf is used for picture books. I have them organized by seasonal vs. everyday picture books and a separate space for extra workbooks and curriculum.

I made simple and easy dividers with sheets of cardstock and a Sharpie. I am only keeping out our Fall and Winter seasonal books and I have the others backed up in the garage. After Christmas, I’ll swap them out with Spring books and fresh picture books to keep things interesting. 

On the middle shelf, I have a book bin for each kid that holds their curriculum, which I can into more detail about in another blog post.

Also on the middle shelf, I have a few things set aside to be part of upcoming morning baskets. Things like future bible devotions, poetry books, and reference books that would be fun to explore together. Mixing things up often is one of the best ways I’ve found to keep them engaged and interested. 

And lastly, my favorite spot in the whole homeschool room is the top shelf of the bookcase where I have my collection of chapter books that we’ll use for future read-alouds.

As soon as we decided that we were going to homeschool, I started collecting my chapter books at thrift stores. From classics like Little Women and Charlotte’s Web to series like The Chronicles of Narnia (which is what we started the year with and the kids are LOVING it!) and Magic Tree House books (my kids are obsessed with Jack and Annie’s adventures). 

This shelf brings me so much hope and excitement when I look at it. Reading aloud and jumping into these fun stories with my kids is the highlight of this entire experience for me. 

In the bottom two drawers of the bookcase, I have paper files and extra school supplies tucked away because it is worth it to get extra when they are on sale during Back-To-School season!

On top of the bookcase, we keep our morning basket and marble jar. The marble jar is a great reward system. Every time we finish a lesson or a task, we get a marble. When the jar is filled, we get to choose a fun reward together!

Closet with Art Supplies

In the closet with the sliding mirror doors, we have most of our art supplies stored. Inside the closet, I’m using budget-friendly cube storage racks as shelving.

Starting from the bottom, we have colored paper and paper scraps organized by color, which can be easily seen through the transparent drawer fronts. These paper storage bins from Walmart are perfect for organizing papers and containing small paper scraps. 

On the next shelf up, the large blue bin is full of 12×12 patterned scrapbook paper. The kids love looking through the paper and choosing different patterns for art projects.

Next to the patterned paper, I have one more paper drawer storage bin. This one has labeled drawers and holds scrap paper (printed on one side), lined paper, and monthly work samples (that we turn into their charter school). 

To label everything in the homeschool room, I used my trusty label maker that I am in LOVE with !

On the higher shelves in the closet, there’s a bin with packing supplies ( for my Etsy shop ), painting supplies, a paper organizer for extra worksheets and coloring sheets and papers/bills/etc. that need to be filed, bins with kid’s craft supplies, stickers, and other miscellaneous adult craft supplies. 

The key here for the closet with art supplies is that the lower shelves are things that they can get into independently and the higher shelves are things that I don’t want them playing with without my supervision. We’re still moving things around a bit here and there as I figure things out as a homeschool mom. However, for the most part, things are working out for us. 

Above the closet, I added an alphabet chart to the top of the wall. Each letter has a picture above it to help with phonics and is written in lined handwriting lines.

Reading Chair

I keep the linen armchair in the corner of the room near the closet as a little reading nook complete with a cozy throw blanket . I still use this chair every morning for my morning quiet time before everyone else in the house gets up. 

We got rid of the small side table that was next to the chair because the homeschool table takes up more room in the small space, so we didn’t want the entire room to feel too crowded.

Since I don’t have the side table with the magazine rack to hold my bible and bible studies next to the chair, I put a small basket on the floor to corral all of those things. There’s not a lot of room to get into the closet, but the side of the closet that is behind the chair is rarely accessed. 

The kids love using the reading chair when they are reading or doing computer work as another place to sit. It also is just big enough for one kiddo to cuddle with Mom while we do reading together. 

Book Ledge Shelf & Bulletin Board

Behind the reading chair, I left the ledge shelf that was originally on the wall. It used to have an arch mirror on it (that I love). I moved the mirror out to the hallway cabinet because I just couldn’t get rid of it.

Even though I love the arch mirror, I felt like I wanted the ledge shelf to become more functional in our learning space. So we turned it into a book ledge shelf instead! 

We built this ledge shelf at the same time as the picture ledge shelves out in our hallway, which I love.

Learn how to build the ledge shelves (which includes the free woodworking plans) and how to style ledge shelves for decor.  

It is a great spot to display some fun books that match our season or that we’re going to read soon. Having the covers shown encourages the kiddos to pick them up and flip through them independently. Since I switched over the shelf to display books, I’ve noticed the kids grabbing the books (even outside of our normal “school time”) and wanting to read them. 

On the wall above the book ledge shelf, I added a small bulletin board for the kids to display some fun items that they’ve worked on. We also put up some of our memory verse cards for our current devotional.

Kraft Paper Roll Holder

We left the kraft paper roll holder on the wall as well, which has definitely come in handy. It is great for quickly using it as a place to write a concept up for the kiddos, much like a chalkboard or whiteboard.

I also use it a lot for grabbing a large sheet of paper to put down on the table when we’re doing craft or art projects or in the kitchen on the island when we’re doing science experiments. 

Learn how to make this kraft paper roll holder here!

Do you need to have a dedicated space for homeschooling?

Here’s the deal. You totally do not need to have an extra room in your home if you are homeschooling. Truth be told, we only spend a small portion of our days actually in the homeschool room.

However, it does help to have an area of your home that is dedicated to containing your supplies. This can be an extra bedroom, a small corner of your family room, a cabinet next to your kitchen table, or an entirely separate homeschool room. 

One thing that I’ve learned about homeschooling so far is that it helps to have several spots around the house to move around throughout your day.

We do lessons at the homeschool table, in the reading chair, on the floor in the homeschooling space, in the kitchen at the island and at the kitchen table, in the living room cuddled up on the couch and sitting on the floor at the coffee table, in the backyard, on the front porch, and even sometimes at the park! The change of scenery does everyone good! 

Homeschool Room Sources

• Wall Paint Color
• Arch Paint Color
• Trim Paint Color
• Shiplap Ceiling (DIY Tutorial)
• Table & Chairs
• Faux Succulent in Terracotta Pot (on table)
• Wall Sconce Light
• USA Map Wall Decor (similar)
• Rolling Cart
• Pencil/Pen Organizer (similar)
• Hourglass Timers
• Magazine/Book Rack (DIY Tutorial)
• Desktop Fan
• Wireless Keyboard
• Round Rug (under desk)
• Pegboard Wall (DIY Tutorial)
• Pencil Sharpener
• Book Bins (similar)
• Alphabet Chart
• Closet Door Makeover (DIY Tutorial)
• Cube Organizers
• Drawer Paper Bins
• Linen Arm Chair (similar)
• Throw Blanket
• Ledge Book Shelf (DIY Tutorial)
• Bulletin Board
• Kraft Paper Roll Holder (DIY Tutorial)

Whether you have a small home or a huge home with tons of extra square footage, there are so many different ways to make homeschool work in your home. Even if you don’t have a dedicated homeschool room, hopefully, you picked up a great idea or two from our homeschool room tour to use in your own space. 

Do you have any other questions about our homeschool room? 

Let us know in the comments below! 

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Our Homeschool Room Tour

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this room tour has been something I have been working on for over a year. This project is one that has been a stressful one for me because I would think I had the room just the way I wanted it and after living in it for a few months it just didn’t work for our family dynamic. I tweaked things, returned items that didn’t work, and changed the setup a million times, until one day it all clicked. I finally felt like that organization we had in place really worked for our everyday life. This homeschool room tour is so important to me because this room is a big part of our lives. I hope by sharing this room we can inspire your homeschool room or playroom and help you make it into a functional space.

I want to give a big thank you to Lex from Coastal Lux Design  for helping me with this project. She has a beautiful floral design business if you are looking for someone with a true eye for design.

My daughter got this keyboard for Christmas. It has been one of our favorite gifts and we all find ourselves jumping on to play. I did quite a bit of research before buying and this one definitely caught my eye. This keyboard syncs with its app and teaches you songs with its light-up keys. My daughter takes professional lessons but I have seen a tremendous difference in just the two weeks she has been using this new keyboard. We use two apps with it that are both free. “The One” is the app that is meant for the keyboard and “JoyTunes” has a very user-friendly functionality and makes learning fun. Even though Joy Tunes doesn’t light up the keys I do find the learning style a little easier for myself. I also linked the stand and her lesson books for you in case you have a little pianist on your hands.

If you are wanting a piano (like I was) but can’t justify the price tag, I feel like this is the best compromise. This is a very high-quality keyboard and will give us a great learning foundation before we upgrade to a real piano in a few years.

The stool is one we had in their bedroom (similar one linked below) and the sign has a quote that sums up how I want my girls to feel about their education. I look at it, and read it, and feel empowered to continue to teach them best I can. 

My littlest has her little dollhouse and our mornings are filled with piano music and giggles coming from that little corner and its the most perfect way to start my day. This is the newest addition to our homeschool room but it has to be my favorite.

In our homeschool, I want to promote creativity and the way I do that is by having materials easily accessible. I find my girls drawing and creating without any prompts and that type of learning so important to me. This art cart is one of their favorite parts of the room for this reason. They often grab a container of markers and take it to their desk, or grab a glue stick and scissors without having to wait on me to get it for them. The art cart is a really functional part of our homeschool room but I had to tweak it a bit so it wasn’t constantly a mess. 

The first thing I did was get the containers on the top for our everyday necessities, like pencils and markers. I used six of these containers and it does drive me nuts it doesn’t fill the space but it does leave some room for some other supplies. I needed a few more containers so I got these to hang off the side.

On the second shelf, I hold all the paint supplies. I use this container for all of the paints, watercolor, and acrylic. This shelf also holds the painting smocks and paint trays.

The last shelf holds any other extras like stickers, our pencil cases for on the go trips, more glue, stamps, etc. 

I used little containers to keep the items enclosed since they are a bit messier.

I love that the art cart can roll so we take it with us around the house. If we decided we want to do a project in the kitchen we just bring it there.

As a focal point in the room, I needed these shelves to not only be functional but look good. It sounds easy but we had a lot of homeschool supplies and it became quite challenging to keep everything tidy. I ended up using glass jars to keep the supplies together and since these weren’t items, we were using every day it worked. We keep our glitter/gems for crafts projects, special drawing pencils, beads, pom poms, and more.

Some other items that we keep on these shelves are our calender, globe, telescope, and items for our corkboard like pins.

I also have a little basket when I keep treats for incentives throughout the day.

This has become the perfect space for our needs.

CLICK HERE FOR THE CURRICULUM STORAGE CONTAINERS

Curriculum Storage

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Hazel’s Desk

I hope this post gave you some inspiration. 

If you want to see a full video of our homeschool room be sure to visit my IG page 

Are you new to homeschooling? Check out my new ebook!

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I am a Pinterest mom of 3 who loves to travel. I share my mom hacks, simple ways to make magical memories, and ways you can travel the world with your kids.

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Homeschool Room Tour: 2021 Update

My eldest is now an incoming Year 1 student (my, how time flies!) and now I have a 2 year old who is also eager to join the lessons. This calls for another homeschool room update!

Taking inspiration from homeschooling the Classical and Charlotte Mason way , take a look inside our latest mini makeover.

Welcome to Halden and Clyde Academy! Yes, I’ve created a name and logo for our home “school” 😉 Haha definitely not something you need to do but it’s just one of the many things thought would make studying at home a little bit more fun. Haha.

I had the logo printed on sintra board from my favorite printer 3L’s Digital.  More on the name and logo next time!

Teacher’s Desk

This is my little personal space in the room.

I have a desk set up in this area and behind this is where I keep all my files, teacher’s guides and other supplies that I don’t the kids to have easy access to. (Like all my nice board paper collection! Hehe.)

New wall decors up!

I got rid of my old corkboard and deer head display (see photos here!)  and I also replaced the yellow paint with black chalkboard sticker. I think this totally changed the vibe of the room , and I love it.

But I want to talk about the gorgeous prints on the wall! I got the dinosaur poster as a gift, the banner and the space travel poster from an online shop but all the rest I had them printed with  3L’s Digital  again. And would you believe those beautiful natural history posters are available FREE? You can  download them over here!

I had such a hard time choosing that I had multiple posters printed and thought I’d just do a rotation every few months or so! And no CM homeschool room is complete without a natural history poster, am I right? 😉 Haha

Toddler Area

My 2 year old is always so excited to join “hom-skoo” so it was just fitting that he also has a special spot. This is where I place his books, toys and other manipulatives. I rotate the items here regularly.

I’ve shared more tips when making a room work for multiple kids of varying ages over here: Making our Homeschool Room Work for a 5 Year Old and a 1 Year Old)

Books and Displays

And here’s the other side of the room.

Here you’ll find our front-facing bookshelf (read here why I call it my magic shelf, ) a bookshelf for our school books, our display area and my all-new pegboard! More details on each below:

Display Area

This is where we display all of the kids’ works.

On the shelves are where I place their markers and paints. It’s intentionally out of their reach so that I can only give them the exact materials they need, when they need it. 😉

Art prints and Decor

Here we display the art prints of the artist we are currently studying. We take on one artist every 1-2 months.

I’m so happy with my new pegboard! I’m sure I’ll be switching it all up eventually and that this will undergo a number of makeovers and that’s what’s so great about it. I love how it’s so versatile.

Right now, it’s kind of my own #SparkJoy corner where I placed my super adorable Van Gogh Funko behind a Starry Night clay art that Luke and I made together.

School Books

And this is where we keep all the books and materials we need for studying. I place them on bins and categorized it per subject so it’s easy to pull in and out.

We follow the CM-way of doing short lessons. This means we cover a lot of subjects in our 2-hour study period so it’s crucial that I can easily access the materials fast. I imagine I’ll need to expand next time when 2 kids are studying and Luke has more more subjects to cover… but I’ll worry about that next time!

My David pen holder is one of my favorite fun purchases. I love that he gives off that Classical feel. Haha. Anyway, I turned it purely into a pencil holder because the kids seem to be eating up all our pencils (as we keep losing them!)

Let’s Talk Organization

Most of the things I’ll be sharing in this section, I’ve already shared before. And I think that’s a great testimony of how effective these are for us. I’m happy knowing that my system has worked over the years and that I didn’t need to do much tweaking.

We have a huge book collection and it’s always a challenge to organize. For now, this is how our system looks like.

Here on this shelf is where I place all our non-fiction books. You can read all about our system and get more organization tips here: Organizing and Categorize

Our storybooks are all located at the floor so that they are easily accessible to the kids.

LEFT:  This is where I put all of the kids’ crayons and pens. It’s easily accessible to them.

And if you see the signs below, this is where we temporarily put their projects that are either “in-progress” or “on display!” I think it’s so important to assign a place for everything so that the kids know where each place goes.

RIGHT: A photo of our paper tray for special paper. They are located on my desk.

OTHER THINGS:

And you might be wondering where we store all our little knick knacks: it’s in our covered cabinet! But I made sure that even if it’s in a hidden area, that everything still has a proper home.

Previous Room Designs

And there you go, I hope you enjoyed our homeschool tour!

If you’ve been following for quite a while now, you’ll notice that our homeschool room has undergone quite a number of makeovers and changes. And I think, that’s really just how it is, isn’t it? We keep updating the rooms to make it work for our kids and the current season in our lives.

Sharing with you some photos from our previous makeovers. I love our most recent look but do you prefer any of these older versions of the room?

2017-2019:  (Tour the 2018-2019 room here!)

2020:  (tour the 2020 room here), related posts:.

• Making Our Homeschool Room Work for a 5yo and 1yo
• Tips When Setting Up Your Homeschool Room
• Homeschool Room: 2020 Update
• Homeschool Room: 2017-2019
• For lessons and activity ideas, please feel free to check out this page:  Homeschool Lessons.
• For curriculum reviews, click this link:  Curriculum Reviews
• For more recommendations, visit my  Amazon Storefront .

Sheena Sy Gonzales

Sheena is a travel writer, designer, homeschooling advocate, wife and a mom. She hopes to inspire people to go and see the beauty of God's creation first hand so that they will stand in awe and praise Him alone (and that includes the little ones!)

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Montessori Homeschool Room Tour

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"The prepared environment is key to allow your child to fulfill his full potential. It is up to the child to make choices and he will develop through his own interactions with his environment. But it's up to the adult to prepare the home, the classroom, and the activities. We will provide opportunities to the child. So we need to carefully observe in order to offer what is needed. The child is active and the adult is the observer but the adult must also be active in her spiritual preparation and in the way she cares for the environment."

- Carine Robin, The Montessori Family

Welcome to the Montessori Homeschool Room Tour! When I was a passionate new homeschooler, I spent a lot of time researching homeschool rooms and materials. They're always so beautiful and full of inspiration.

Now that we're further along in our homeschool journey , I'd like to take this opportunity to share our homeschooling room with you. More details about these items and what we're using them for can also be found in our curriculum resources .

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Amazon links are not affiliate links. You can read my full affiliate disclosure .

There are several reasons why it can be advantageous to homeschool, including increased flexibility and control over your child's education, the freedom to structure learning experiences so that they are child-centered, and the added connection that comes with having that parent/teacher/mentor relationship with your kids.

The Montessori prepared environment is an environment (home, classroom, or otherwise) that contains materials and experiences carefully curated by the adult in order to meet the unique needs of the child. It is designed to be child-centered, meeting them where they are at in order to maximize learning potential and nurture their growth toward independence. This dynamic relationship between the prepared adult, the prepared environment, and the child is part of what makes Montessori education so successful, and therefore, a desirable option for many families.

Our homeschooling room is organized by age and subject area. There is a bit of overlap in some cases, but for the most part, we keep shelves organized this way to encourage freedom of movement during work cycles. We try to keep the space uncluttered and functional so that the children are able to focus on their learning. We use the shelf and wall space to arrange materials in such a way that promotes an environment of beauty and order. Learn more about creating a safe homeschool environment and safe environments for homeschooling and recreation at Porch.

Homeschool cost depends on a variety of factors. As Montessori homeschoolers, we've found that you can provide meaningful learning experiences using a mix of authentic Montessori materials, DIY materials, printables, household items, and items found in nature. Depending on how you incorporate each of those into your child's prepared environment, you will find that you can spend as little or as much as you want. In our homeschool, we started the primary (preschool years) with a very minimal set of materials and we slowly added on with time. We also chose to focus solely on this holistic method of education and we committed to it in every aspect of our family life, casting aside any impulses to purchase items we didn't need.

How to Homeschool Elementary

A Family-Style Approach to the Montessori Great Lessons

Free Montessori Great Lessons Series

Do you want assistance with planning your year? We've put together a FREE series on the Great Lessons for elementary and family-style learning that will take the overwhelm out of the beginning of your school year and keep you moving with ease all the way to spring.

Explore the Montessori Great Lessons, the introduction to the Cosmic Curriculum, traditionally given to Elementary students near the beginning of the school year. This free 5-part weekly email series will help you tell the story of how our universe began all the way to the origins of language and numbers.

Montessori's Five Great Lessons provide children with a contextual understanding of who they are, where they come from, and their unique purpose or cosmic task. Sounds like a big undertaking, right? Well, it doesn't have to be.

Learn more about this elementary homeschool course .

This homeschool room contains materials and lessons perfect for toddler, preschool/kindergarten, and elementary age ranges. It's a Montessori prepared environment for our four kids and we hope you find some inspiration from it as well.

Links are provided for items pictured and there's a handy printable list at the bottom of the post for your convenience. There are so many times I could've used that option when I was doing my own homeschool planning and research. I hope you find it useful.

Many of these materials are also mentioned in more detail throughout our blog posts and on our social media accounts so feel free to explore those places for more details as well.

Toddler Shelves

• Color Sorting Rainbow
• Montessori Spindle Boxes
• Magnetic Fishing Game {Similar}
• Pikler Triangle and 2 Ramps (middle of the room)

Our 1.5 y.o. son is really into gross motor activities right now and our almost 3 y.o. daughter is beginning more intentional lessons on some other shelves as well. Therefore, we keep a minimal selection of works on the toddler shelves right now. The color sorting rainbow is a favorite for all ages. Both the rainbow and the bag that holds the pom poms are great for practicing fine motor skills and developing the pincer grasp.

Montessori Number Rods and Spielgaben

• Montessori Number Rods

We usually informally introduce the Montessori number rods around age 2 for learning math concepts such as one-to-one correspondence. They continue to provide meaningful experiences throughout the preschool years.

Spielgaben is great for all ages. The balls in drawer 1 are even suitable for exploration with infants. As you can see, there are different playsets in each drawer and they're great for open-ended building, or for use with the included curriculum resources.

Sensorial and Geography Materials

• Brown Stairs
• Grapat Weekly Calendar
• Grapat Perpetual Calendar with Peg Dolls
• Knobless Cylinders (4 boxes total)
• Geometric Solids with 3-Part Cards and Sorting Extension
• Waseca Biomes Land Air Water Mat Bundle
• Mirus Toys Moon Phases Puzzle- Moon Calendar with 3-Part Cards (included)
• Constructive Triangles (5 boxes total)
• Mirus Toys Compass Rose Puzzle
• Geometric Cabinet with Control Chart, 3-Part Cards, and Form Cards (included)
• Waseca Biomes Landform Mat
• Mirus Toys Layers of the Earth Puzzle with Booklet, Diagram, and 3-Part Cards (included)
• Mirus Toys Layers of the Atmosphere Puzzle with Control Chart
• Waseca Biomes Continent Globe
• Waseca Biomes Biosphere Nesting Box
• Sandpaper Landform Cards (behind Biosphere Boxes)
• Treasures From Jennifer Montessori Continent Boxes

Save $15 on your first  Waseca Biomes purchase here .

These shelves are perfect for kids around ages 2.5 and up. Depending on the contents of the continent boxes, younger children may enjoy them as well.

A lot of the items on these shelves are discussed further in our first , second , and fourth great lessons.

The Waseca Biomes Cabinet of the Continents is a color-coded cabinet that holds three-part cards for the biomes of every continent. Kids can explore geography topics using this cabinet as well as the Biomes of the World Mat hanging on the wall.

The cabinet has adjustable trays to accommodate primary and elementary cards.

Montessori Continent Boxes

Explore every continent with these solid maple hardwood boxes.

Right now, these beautiful continent boxes contain schleich animals, printables, and postcards. When our youngest gets a bit older, we have a few other items we will add to them.

Food from Around the World: Free Cooking Lessons

Learn from some of the most talented chefs around the world!

Free Cooking Course for Families

Discover recipes for every continent! Sign up to receive free cooking lessons for the whole family. Learn from some of the most talented chefs around the world and participate in the quality practical life experiences Montessori education is known for.

Find out more about the cooking course .

Homeschool Room Math Materials

• Clipboards and 4-Digit Equations printable (Save 16% off your first  purchase from Montessorikiwi here )
• Golden Bead Materials and Numeral Cards
• Subtraction Strip Board , Box of Equations , and Subtraction Facts printable
• Subtraction Snake Game
• Division Bead Board
• Addition Snake Game
• Addition Strip Board , Box of Equations , and Addition Facts printable
• Multiplication Bead Board , Box of Equations , and Multiplication Facts printable
• Mirus Toys Multiplication Tables Petals
• Multiplication Snake Game
• Roman Numerals Time printables
• Mirus Toys Montessori Learning Clock
• Mirus Toys Montessori Geometry Board - Polygon Geoboard
• Montessori Large Bead Frame
• Treasures From Jennifer Multiplication Ring
• Mirus Toys Fraction Manipulation Board with Subtraction of Fractions Tickets (Save 16% off your first  purchase from Montessorikiwi here )
• Mirus Toys Treasure Map (comes with Compass Rose Puzzle)

We do a fair amount of rotating on these shelves since they're being used for both primary and elementary math.

• March Madness Math Printable Pack with the  Waseca Biomes Animals of the World Measuring Tape

• Montessori Teaching Clock

The order of materials for the math shelves is related to shelf configuration and size of the materials, not always necessarily the order of introduction.

Montessori Materials

Authentic Montessori materials for your homeschool or classroom!

Montessori Outlet and Alison's are the Montessori distributors I've purchased from most often over the years, especially for math materials.

You can see more of these materials in our fifth great lesson .

• Montessori Fraction Materials
• Elementary Fraction Cabinet

There are a lot of elementary geometry lessons to go with this beautiful fraction cabinet. As a result, we're collecting the fraction materials as we go and it's a lot of fun to learn the Montessori approach to geometry using these awesome fraction insets. We're using both wooden and metal insets and we use the free Cultivating Dharma geometry album (in our curriculum resources) for lessons specific to these materials.

Congruent, Similar, & Equivalent Figures

Free Geometry 5-Part Cards & Symbols

Free Congruent, Similar, & Equivalent 5-Part Cards & Symbols

Grab your free 5-part cards and symbols for exploring congruent, similar, and equivalent figures. This printable activity was inspired by and can be used in conjunction with the free Montessori  geometry album  we use.

After giving the lesson on congruent, similar, and equivalent figures, kids can work with the 5-part cards as they cement their understanding. The associated symbol cards can be used in practice. The symbol card with text will be most helpful as children are learning the vocabulary. Afterward, they can progress to the cards without the text.

This free printable works well square insets, fraction circles, constructive triangles, or any other materials you use to demonstrate the concepts.

The March Madness Math Printable Pack is another resource we like for practice with fractions.

Montessori Bead Chains and Sumblox

• Skip Counting printable
• Colored Bead Squares
• Colored Bead Chains
• Thousand Bead Chain and Bead Chain Mat

We are loving these right now. Our 4 y.o. especially loves the colored bead chains. He likes to make his own labels while skip counting, whereas our oldest likes to use the skip counting printable and the colored bead squares in her work.

The sumblox are fun for everyone. They're self-correcting and we can all build a mean tower - even our 1 y.o. gets into it. If your kids are practicing least common multiples or skip counting, the multiplication lessons work well to reinforce that content.

The thousand bead chain is a must-have for those of you not wanting to purchase an entire bead cabinet. You can see more of how we use the thousand bead chain and bead chain mat in our third great lesson .

• Montessori Bead Cabinet

If you're homeschooling elementary or plan to continue after kindergarten, the Montessori bead cabinet is a worthwhile investment. The bead cabinet is useful for primary and elementary learners.

Montessori Language and Science Area

• Waseca Biomes Reading Program
• Waseca Biomes Parts of the Biome Readers

Most of our Language materials come from Waseca Biomes and we're VERY happy with them. Our kids read in preschool and the Waseca Reading Program and supporting readers have been an invaluable resource to their individual journeys.

Waseca Biomes use the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching literacy. It's hands-on, lots of fun, and empowers the child to be in charge of their own lessons and progress. It's also a powerful tool that can help you identify language difficulties that may arise while learning how to read.

We love that their materials integrate several subjects, including Geography and Science, so we're taking full advantage of our learning opportunities.

Waseca Biomes

Save $15 on your first purchase!

If you're wondering how our kids reach the top shelf, I have a Rogue plyo box in here that they push up to the shelf as needed. It's also great for working out. 🙂

Language Shelves

• Waseca Biomes South America Parts of the Biome Cards
• Waseca Biomes Biomes of the Continent Boxes
• Small Movable Alphabets (Red and Black) and Wooden Storage Box
• Waseca Biomes Cursive Boards
• Treasures From Jennifer Letter Tracing Board
• Sandpaper Uppercase Letters and Blends
• Large Movable Alphabet with Box

The Parts of the Biome Cards are the primary set and are perfect three-part cards for the preschool/kindergarten crowd. We've been learning about South America and it's easy to rotate the biomes of the continent boxes as you travel to new continents.

Our oldest is using the small movable alphabets for word study lessons and the cursive boards for handwriting practice. She really likes the stories that accompany the cursive boards.

We keep our upper case sandpaper letters and blends as well as the large movable alphabet on the bottom shelf and they're used by both our 4 y.o. and our 6 y.o. We use the same shop for all of our sandpaper letters and we find that they're much lighter and easier for kids to work with than other brands.

Additional literacy activities that align with Montessori and the Science of Reading include the  Tap it - Map it - Zap it board (Orthographic Mapping)  and the  Phoneme Awareness Board (Fluency Board) .

Homeschool Room Science Shelves

• Fossilicious Clock of Eras Three-Part Cards
• Mirus Toys Clock of Eras Puzzle with Control Chart (included)
• Mirus Toys Life Cycle Board with Butterfly Life Cycle Coins (1 set included with board)
• Mirus Toys Layers of the Rainforest Puzzle with Control Chart (included)
• Parts of the Redwood Three-Part Cards and Booklet printable (FREE)
• Mirus Toys Parts of a Tree Trunk/Dendrochronology Puzzle with Control Chart
• Mirus Toys Periodic Table Booklet
• Mirus Toys Periodic Table Puzzle with Tiles, Control Chart, & Companion Guide (included)

All of these materials are part of our current earth science and geography studies. The puzzles come with labels (in the bags) and control charts.

The periodic table puzzle has been coming in handy all year as we cover various topics that relate to chemistry. We love that our 4 y.o. and 6 y.o. can both enjoy working with the puzzle.

Find heirloom-quality materials by subject or browse recommendations for homeschoolers!

Our kids work with Mirus Toys materials for every subject area and they are just as beautiful as they are enjoyable to work with.

We also use the Waseca Biomes Tree of Life Bundle for exploring the kingdoms and animal classification. Save $15 on your first  Waseca Biomes purchase here .

Geography, Grammar, and Math Mats

• South America Biome Mat Cards (comes with the continent biome mat)
• Waseca Biomes Continent Biome Mats (sold individually or as a set)
• Waseca Biomes Cosmic Story Mat
• Waseca Biomes Rock Cycle Mat
• Waseca Biomes Seasons Mat
• Waseca Biomes Water Cycle Mat
• Montessori Flannel Checkerboard Mat
• Plain Work Rugs {Similar}

All of these mats, with the exception of the seasons mat and the work rugs, were added for elementary. If you're a subscriber, you'll be seeing more of them as well.

We've shared more of how we use the Cosmic Story Mat in the first great lesson .

The continent biome mats are absolutely stunning and great materials for teaching geography specific to each continent. There are several presentations and activities for each mat to keep kids interested. We've had several Waseca Biomes mats for years and they're very durable in addition to being beautiful learning materials.

The Montessori flannel checkerboard mat is also lovely and very well made. It looks like it will last for years to come, just like the Waseca Biomes mats.

Grammar Materials

• Waseca Biomes Grammar Cabinet and Grammar Box Cards
• 3-D Grammar Symbols
• Waseca Biomes Grammar Symbols
• Waseca Biomes Grammar Stencil (kept in art and handwriting space)
• Detective Adjective Game (top drawer)

We use the Waseca Biomes Grammar Cabinet and grammar materials in addition to the free Cultivating Dharma albums for our elementary grammar lessons. In addition, we keep other language, handwriting, and grammar materials in our art space .

We remove the small extra article and the adverb from the 3-d symbols for our youngest, just as we do for the pink tower. If small pieces aren't out on display and within his reach, they're less enticing to him. The bottom drawer and wooden bin are empty.

You may notice in your own experiences that elementary learners like repetition through variety. Having printables, such as this March Madness Language Printable Pack , is a great way to keep things interesting.

Homeschool Room Art Nook and Storage Area

• Little Partners Easel
• Board Books
• More Sandpaper Letters
• Storage for printables and completed work

Continent Stencils and Work Trays for the Mats

• Waseca Biomes Celebration Sun and Labels for use with the Seasons Mat
• Waseca Biomes Continent Stencils (sold individually or as a set)
• We Are Water Protectors
• Work Trays for Land Air Water Mat and Landform Mat
• Bilingual Spanish-English Nature Cards
• Work Trays for Water Cycle Mat and Rock Cycle Mat

Most materials in this area were added for the Elementary years. You can catch more about them in our second great lesson and winter bucket list .

Best Homeschool Books

Find the best books for homeschooling preschool through elementary in our shop!

Our kids are also currently working on a timeline of life that we'll display on the wall above the shelf when it's complete.

Three-Part Cards, Continent Puzzles, & Continent Readers

• Animal Classification Cards (FREE)
• Montessori Zoology and Botany Puzzles and Cabinets
• Waseca Biomes Intro to the Biomes Three-Part Cards and Three-Part Card Tray Cabinet (also sold individually)
• Waseca Biomes Biome Stamps
• Map Legend Stamp
• Waseca Biomes Biome Puzzles (sold by individual continent or as a set)
• Waseca Biomes Continent Readers (sold individually or as a set)

We use the animal classification cards and puzzles for primary and elementary biology lessons.

The rest of the items are all excellent language, geography, and science materials by Waseca Biomes for preschool and up. All of the materials are gorgeous and the stamps are a lot of fun for stamping your passport as you travel the world.

Earth Science Theme Materials, Curriculum Resources, and Books

• Elementary Curriculum Resources
• Books about Homeschool Topics
• Mirus Toys Taxonomy Puzzle
• Sewing/Handwork Materials
• Sandpaper Numbers and Lowercase Letters
• Family and Kids Cooking Resources: Different Food Cultures

This built-in hutch makes a great homeschool area for our earth science theme materials and my books for homeschooling. We like to spread the love when it comes to creating opportunities for learning so this location works great for extending the fun to other areas of our home. Our kids are never too far from something that inspires curiosity or creativity.

• Mirus Toys Carbon Cycle Puzzle
• Mineral ID Kit - Streak Plate, Glass Plate, Magnet, Nail, Copper Square, & more
• Fossilicious Rock and Mineral Collection with Complete Curriculum (Igneous pictured)
• Fossilicious Paleontology for Kids Books and Fossil Set
• Schleich Prehistoric Animals Collection (Spinosaurus and Mosasaurus pictured)
• Creative Beast Studio Beasts of the Mesozoic Collection

The taxonomy puzzle and carbon cycle puzzle are beautiful pieces of art in addition to learning materials. The taxonomy puzzle is useful for many of our biology and history works, and the carbon cycle puzzle is also part of our Earth Day activities.

The rock and mineral collection is much larger than what you see pictured. We are currently studying igneous rocks and that is what is on display in the above images.

The Paleontology for Kids Book and Fossil Set by Fossilicious is very cool.

Paleontology for Kids

This complete Book and Fossil set includes a display box!

Word to the Wise: If you have a prehistoric animal tooth in your fossil set, you'll want to have the animal it belongs to or your kids will let you know you have work to do. I was quick enough to grab one up before we introduced this fossil set, and you better believe it was the first thing they wondered when they opened it.

"Does Schleich make a mosasaurus?" Well, yes. Yes, they do.

If you really want to up your prehistoric animal game, Creative Beast Studio's Beasts of the Mesozoic has incredible prehistoric animal action figures. The Diabloceratops eatoni and Baby Diabloceratops pictured above are from the Ceratopsian series and they're awesome to play with, not to mention gorgeous.

The points of articulation on each animal allow them to be poseable and much more life-like than their competitors. These action figures also come with cool collectible cards and stunning package art.

The Best Dinosaur Books

Find the best dinosaur books to match your interests.

Read More →

Trilobite from the 8-book Extinct series explores trilobites and the End Permian mass extinction further.

Collect all 8 books to learn all about the major mass extinctions.

Conclusion for Montessori Homeschool Room Tour

We hope you enjoyed our Montessori homeschool room tour. As you can see, you definitely don't need a homeschool room to home-educate a child. In fact, we like to create a few learning opportunities throughout our home. However, having a homeschool room is a convenient way to curate and arrange materials for your kids.

Several materials are stored away for rotation or if our child is working on different skills at the time. All in all, you're seeing most of our total homeschool inventory as it relates to hands-on materials. Most of the items not visible are math materials on rotation or printables, or practical life items specific to certain areas such as the kitchen .

If you're planning or organizing your homeschool space, we hope you found this useful. You can grab a printable list below for added convenience.

Welcome to our Montessori Homeschool Room Tour! Here's a convenient list of items found in our homeschool setup for toddler, preschool & elementary - a Montessori prepared environment, organized by age and subject area.

• Magnetic Fishing Game
• Pikler Triangle and 2 Ramps
• Knobless Cylinders
• Geometric Solids with 3-Part Cards
• Geometric Solids Sorting Extension
• Mirus Toys Moon Phases Puzzle- Moon Calendar with 3-Part Cards
• Constructive Triangles
• Geometric Cabinet with Control Chart, 3-Part Cards, and Form Cards
• Mirus Toys Layers of the Earth Puzzle with Booklet, Diagram, and 3-Part Cards
• Sandpaper Landform Cards
• 4-Digit Equations printable
• Subtraction Strip Board, Box of Equations, and Subtraction Facts printable
• Addition Strip Board, Box of Equations, and Addition Facts printable
• Multiplication Bead Board, Box of Equations, and Multiplication Facts printable
• Snake Game printables
• Mirus Toys Dollar Board
• Mirus Toys Montessori Teaching Clock
• Mirus Toys Montessori Clock
• Mirus Toys Fraction Manipulation Board with Subtraction of Fractions Tickets
• Mirus Toys Treasure Map
• Small Movable Alphabets (Red and Black)
• Small Movable Alphabet Wooden Storage Box
• Mirus Toys Tap It - Map It - Zap It Board
• Phoneme Awareness Board
• Mirus Toys Clock of Eras Puzzle with Control Chart
• Mirus Toys Life Cycle Board with Butterfly Life Cycle Coins
• Mirus Toys Layers of the Rainforest Puzzle with Control Chart
• Mirus Toys Periodic Table Puzzle with Tiles, Control Chart, & Companion Guide
• Waseca Biomes Tree of Life
• South America Biome Mat Cards (comes with continent biome mat)
• Waseca Biomes Continent Biome Mats
• Plain Work Rugs
• Waseca Biomes Grammar Cabinet
• Grammar Box Cards
• Waseca Biomes Grammar Stencil
• Detective Adjective Game
• Waseca Biomes Celebration Sun and Labels
• Waseca Biomes Continent Stencils
• Montessori Animal Puzzles and Cabinets
• Waseca Biomes Intro to the Biomes Three-Part Cards
• Three-Part Card Tray Cabinet
• Waseca Biomes Biome Puzzles
• Waseca Biomes Continent Readers
• Timeline of Life
• Mineral ID Kit
• Fossilicious Rock and Mineral Collection with Complete Curriculum
• Schleich Prehistoric Animals Collection
• Extinct: Trilobite
• See Materials List

Instructions

• This list is an inventory of everything you see in our homeschool room tour, which is organized by age and subject area.
• For information related to specific materials, images, and helpful links, including discounts, please refer back to the post at: https://happyhomeschooladventures.com/homeschool-room/

Full Homeschool Room Info, Pictures, and Links at: https://happyhomeschooladventures.com/homeschool-room/

More Elementary & Family-Style Mixed Ages

Reader Interactions

April 05, 2024 at 3:13 pm

I absolutely love your setup. I'm considering opening up a small Montessori homeschool for primary and early elementary aged children. I need to set it up in my basement. I would love to know how you decided how many tables/chairs, tall and short shelves you ordered. I love the lightness in color and calmness it welcomes for the children.

April 06, 2024 at 6:40 am

That's great! I started out with 1 child entering primary so I built from there. For us, it included a process of finding affordable shelving suitable for primary to display materials as we collected them. Once I had a collection of materials for each subject area, I worked on building spaces in the room dedicated to each subject. Now that I have 2 kids in elementary, I've been sizing up on some of the furniture and looking for opportunities to create additional or expand their workspaces for "big work" and also to allow for independent study. "I could use another shelf" is probably a common Montessori educator thought during day-to-day tasks but we're creative with our use of other areas in the home as well. Hope that helps!

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Homeschool Room Tour | Charlotte Mason, Montessori, & Waldorf Inspired

“Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.” -Charlotte Mason

“It is almost possible to say that there is a mathematical relationship between the beauty of his surroundings and the activity of the child; he will make discoveries rather more voluntarily in a gracious setting than in an ugly one.” – Maria Montessori

“The heart of the Waldorf method is that education is an art, it must speak to the child’s experience. To educate the whole child, his heart and his will must be reached, as well as the mind.”  -Rudolph Steiner

I took these three quotes to heart when designing a homeschool room for our children. I wanted our children to be surrounded by beauty and a sense of calm. I wanted a well-prepared environment that encourages child-led learning. I wanted materials and a routine that spoke not only to my children’s minds, but to their hearts as well. 

Today, I’m going to show you how these quotes have inspired me and give you a tour of our eclectic homeschool room , influenced by the Charlotte Mason, Montessori, and Waldorf methods. 

*Just so you know, this post contains affiliate links. And as an affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my full disclosure here . 

Homeschool Room Tour for 2020-2021

Watch the video below or continue reading for the picture and text version. 

Let’s just dive right in.

On one side of the room, we have two  Mainstays 3 shelf bookcases  to hold all of our Montessori-inspired activities. Above those shelves, you’ll find a lovely  Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit poster  that the kids just absolutely adore. I placed the poster in a gold frame to give it even more of an elegant touch. 

Beside the shelves, I have a Command Hook hanging to display various materials. Most of the time, we have a piece of art hanging in a protective sleeve that we found at the Dollar Tree. I’ve also used this hook to hang the kids’ anatomy apron and a string of Bible verses. 

Below this hook, you’ll notice a basket that holds all of our books to go along with the current theme. This basket often travels throughout the house. 

In the center of the room, we have our work table placed on a rug we found on Wayfair. We went with the AmazonBasics Indoor Kids Table and Bench Set and it’s been working out splendidly. It’s a beautiful table at a great price, and it gives the kids plenty of space to work. I think we’ll be able to continue to use this table at least a few more years. 

Here’s a closer look at our shelfwork setup. This often gets switched out with different themes, but right now we have an ocean setup for the summer. 

We also have a homeschool room plant that the kids help take care of. 

On the other side of the room we have our nature corner, which consists of our nature shelf, a display shelf, and vintage educational posters. 

I plan to switch out the posters every now and then, but for right now we have the Cavallini: 

• Butterflies

Over on the window sill, we have our weather gnomes that the children absolutely love using to record the daily weather, and then underneath the window we have our Backyard Birds of Iowa poster . And you can’t see it in this picture, but we do have a window bird feeder as well. 

You’ll also notice I’ve got the kids artwork displayed in the windows, using a string of twine and some miniature clothespins . 

Here’s a closer look at our nature shelf. I switch out this shelf seasonally, and this year we went with an ocean theme for the summer. I’ve got several wooden toys displayed along with some play silks, and the kids always have access to their magnifying glass. 

For books, we have Nature Anatomy , Guide to Marine Mammals of the World , and a Manatee book I got in Florida. 

Beside the nature shelf, on the floor, we have our toddler’s busy box, which he’s allowed to get into anytime we’re doing school. He’s got several interest-based activities in there for him to play with.

Above the nature shelf is our mounted display shelf , which currently holds several rocks and minerals, and then an acrylic butterfly life cycle set that I purchased off of Nature-Watch .

On the final side of the room, we have another Mainstays 3 shelf bookshelf, which holds general educational materials. Right now on the shelf, we have: 

• Days of the week gnomes (a fun DIY project)
• Coloring books and crayons
• Wooden tracing boards – both letters and numbers
• Montessori & Waldorf inspired wooden math board
• Montessori sandpaper letters
• Educational board games

We also have another small shelf that gets rotated around with items such as the abacus , globe, butterfly net, etc. 

Above the shelves, the kids have their Little Passport posters hanging up, and in the closet we have a rainbow cart, which currently holds workbooks, file folder games, felt maps, doodle boards, and more. 

And then lastly, in the top of the closet, we have several art supplies that get placed up there out of ways reach of our little wall artist. We have markers, glue, scissors, Do-A-Dot markers, etc. All the basics. 

An Atmosphere

I hope you’ve enjoyed our tour today and even gained some ideas on how to design your own homeschool room. 

Remember, you don’t have to have a set homeschool room.  It’s all about the atmosphere and bringing beauty to help develop a love of learning.  

So whether you’re learning on the couch, at the dining room table, or outside in nature, just remember to motivate the mind and the heart.

What About You?

What are some must-haves for your homeschool room? Where do you do most of your learning? Share your favorite homeschool room ideas in the comments below and be sure to share this post with other homeschool moms and dads. 

2 thoughts on “Homeschool Room Tour | Charlotte Mason, Montessori, & Waldorf Inspired”

Hello! I love the days of the week gnomes! Can you share the diy project details? I’ve seen them on etsy, but would love to know how to make them instead. Thanks!

Hi Allison! The week gnomes are so much fun! Unfortunately, the exact YouTube tutorial we followed to make them is not up anymore. 🙁 But basically we got some 2-3/8″ male peg dolls, painted the body portion with quality watercolor paint, and then sealed that portion with beeswax after it dried. We used wool felt for the hats. I cut out a triangle piece and rolled that to form the hat, and I used a hot glue gun to keep the hat together and glue it onto the peg doll’s head. I’ve also found the hats have a nicer form if you stuff the inside with cotton before glueing on to the peg doll. I hope that helps! I’m sure there’s other YouTube tutorials you could follow/get some ideas from, but again, the one we used is not up anymore.

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