Inside: Setting up a homeschool room can seem like a daunting task. With these homeschool room ideas, you can have an organized and efficient classroom, no matter what space you homeschool in.
You’ve finally given in to the crazy idea of homeschooling your child, embraced the fact that you’ll now appear weird to some family and friends, and once you’re past that hurdle, fear sets in!
How am I going to do this? Where do I even begin? Have I lost my mind?
You’ll be teaching in your home. The place you live, eat, sleep and attempt to keep some semblance of order. It’s bad enough trying to keep up with the dishes, laundry, and the Snickers bar that got smashed between the couch cushions no one noticed for several days, but now you want to throw a classroom into the mix?
*Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you make a purchase after clicking through, The Unexpected Homeschooler may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read full disclosure policy here.
No worries! Just like Luke Skywalker was facing the unknown and needed some wisdom and guidance along his journey, I will be your Yoda. (Sorry- we’ve been on a Star Wars kick here.)
Let’s talk homeschool classroom. When I use those words, I don’t want you to close this page and run if you have nowhere in your house for an actual school room. Neither do I! Never have and never will. If you do, that’s awesome! I’m jealous, but I’ll try to keep that to myself.
For those who don’t, your homeschool classroom is the “place” you do school. Whether it’s a kitchen table, a corner in the living room, or a closet you’ve cleared out.
No matter where your “classroom” is, you will find some useful ideas on this page you can use.
Here’s some homeschool room ideas I’ll be covering in this article:
Quick Navigation
Homeschool Teaching Supplies That Are Essential
Using Homeschool Posters as Homeschool Decor
Homeschool Organization Ideas for Small Spaces
Book Organization Ideas for Your Homeschool Room
How to Use a Homeschool Binder in Your Homeschool
Homeschool Room Ideas: Homeschool Set Up
How to set up a homeschool classroom is a big chore. So big you might want to sneak off and binge some Netflix instead, but stay with me!
✐ Determine Where in Your House You Will Do School
Will your classroom be in a room that’s only for school, or will you use the kitchen table or corner of the living room? This makes a big difference in how you will organize everything. (More on organization later.)
There are so many ways to do your homeschool room setup, don’t let it overwhelm you. Just start with the necessary areas and you can add to it over time.
Many of us homeschool without an actual room. It is possible. You just have to be creative in how you use your space.
Kim from Not Consumed, shows how she has set it up both ways and how it worked for her family.
✐Identify Areas For Homeschool Learning Centers
Homeschool learning centers are areas for specific activities such as a reading corner or listening station. These don’t have to be elaborate and could be a different spot at the same table.
There are different types of centers you can use in your classroom. These are great for when you need your child to work independently or are doing a deeper study on a topic. Pick what works for you and your kids.
✐Consider Setting Up Homeschool Workboxes- Seriously!
My number one all-time favorite strategy I have ever used is homeschool workboxes! This has been the biggest help with organization, efficiency, time, and teaching my kids to work by themselves. I cannot say enough good things about them.
Discovering workboxes is like finding a twenty-dollar bill in the back pocket of an old pair of jeans. You had no idea it was there, and when you discover it, it’s so exciting!
I knew I needed to use them and couldn’t wait to set them up. We’ve never looked back since.
If you haven’t heard of them before, homeschool workboxes are just what they sound like. Boxes used to organize your child’s work and help them work independently . It’s such a simple concept, yet has such great benefits.
Here are some articles to help you get started setting them up in your homeschool.
The Why and How To of Homeschool Workboxes
✐Essential Homeschool Teaching Supplies
Once you set up your classroom, you need to think about homeschool teaching supplies. What do you need? There are so many!
Despite what you think, when the school supplies go on sale in your area, you don’t have to break the bank. Repeat after me- “I don’t need to buy everything! The sale will be back again next year”.
Try to keep that in mind as you stroll through the isles with stacks of notebooks and their adorable puppy covers, shiny packages of pastel Post-It Notes, and spiral bound neon colored index cards you have no idea how you’ll use, but they’re too cool to pass up.
Although I do recommend you splurge on the erasable Frixion gel pens . They’re pretty awesome!
I’m getting excited for July just writing this. It’s my favorite time of the year and I could go wild. But I have to reel myself in.
If you’re like me, then you may need to make a list and stick to it. And remember, the Dollar Tree carries a decent selection of school supplies for emergencies in the middle of the year.
Having said all that, there are things you’ll want to stock up on while the price is good, just not 50 pocket folders with reversible sequin animal designs on them. Although they are fun to play with!
I’m talking items like pencils and glue sticks, which you’ll go through faster than the new loaf of bread you just bought.
Here’s a basic list of supplies you will want.
One thing I do is look over each of the programs I have bought and think about what my child needs for them. This way there are no surprises when school starts and you don’t beat yourself up because you actually found a use for that burrito roll pencil case you passed up.
After you’ve made a list of the necessary items, you can move on to other general items you may need or want and you’ll be ready for the year.
✐The Morning Basket
Setting up a morning basket in your homeschool room is a great way to start the day (although you don’t have to use it in the morning, despite its name).
What is it? It’s a time where everyone gathers around the table or couch to do a few subjects together, and you use a basket to hold all the materials in one place. The basket makes it easy to grab and do each day because everything is ready.
Yes, you get to buy a cute basket! Do you need any other reason to do this?
Oh, and it can also help save time, build family bonds, cover subjects you don’t get to, and keep your sanity.
You can check out my in depth morning basket article to get all the deets and even a big list of morning basket ideas for things to include.
You can also look a Chrity’s article from Homeschooling in Progress for more ideas.
✐Using Homeschool Posters as Homeschool Decor
One of the easiest and cheapest homeschool room ideas is using posters for decorations. Even if you don’t have a homeschool room, there’s somewhere you can hang a few posters.
While the bright and colorful images on posters are inviting, they are also an effective learning tool.
Here’s a post I wrote teaching you a simple hack for turning your homeschool posters into interactive activities as well as the many benefits. Use them to review skills in a fun way and your kids will thank you!
Finding posters on a wide range of subjects is pretty easy. The hard part is finding places to hang them all. If you’re limited in space, a great idea is to switch them out when you are working on certain skills.
Homeschool posters are fantastic use of your wall space.
Homeschool Room Ideas: Homeschool Furniture
We’ve discussed some ways to set up your homeschool. Now let’s talk homeschool furniture. What are your options and what are some creative ways to use them?
✐ Choose a place where your child can sit and do written work
Learning can happen anywhere and most often it will be on the living room couch, porch swing, or in a makeshift fort under the kitchen table.
Any of these places are fine, but there are times you’ll want an area with a proper writing surface. Does it need to be a real school desk? No, but you can use one if you want to.
Because we live in a small house and don’t have room for individual desks, I have opted to put drop-down desks in each of my girls’ rooms so they have somewhere to go and work by themselves when they want to. They don’t take up a lot of room and can be lowered when not in use.
I’ve put together an article with 23 of the best homeschool desks.
I cover everything from:
- Traditional school desks
- Desks that grow with your children
- Types of desks for small spaces
- Desks with storage
- Desks for the minimalist
- Ideas for building your own desk
- What to use for children who don’t like sitting at a desk
There’s a lot of homeschool furniture to choose from and it can be a big committment. You want to make sure you find something that works for your space, decor, and child.
Learn what things you should take into consideration when choosing the right homeschool desk.
✐The Homeschool Table
You may want a central gathering place. A table is a great place to do this. It doesn’t matter what kind you use as long as it’s big enough to hold everyone and they can write comfortably when needed.
Personally, we use our kitchen table, which is an 8 foot conference table I found years ago for $80 at an auction. It has been the best purchase! We can spread out and have one thing going at one end and another thing at the other end. Over the years, the kids have claimed their specific spaces, and that’s where they go each day.
If taking over your kitchen table doesn’t appeal to you and you have a homeschool room, you can set up the table in there.
There are round tables, square tables, or you can push desks together. And if your space just doesn’t have enough room for that, use TV trays. Get creative!
No matter what you choose, setting out certain items on the table can make school more efficient. Having everything right at their disposal keeps them from running around searching for supplies, which wastes time. On my homeschool table, I have an old tool caddy, which organizes things like pencils, markers, scissors, and other miscellaneous items they might need.
You don’t have to be that fancy. You can use this caddy or have the kids build one as a homeschool project .
The important thing to remember is to have all your basic supplies within reach of your students so they don’t have to get up and wander around the house looking for them. We all know what happens when they do that!
Homeschool Room Ideas: Homeschool Organization
One of the biggest hurdles of homeschooling is organizing all the materials in your home, especially if it’s a smaller home or apartment. Even those with a dedicated homeschooling room need a little help.
If you don’t get a system in place early on, it can take over. And then you must hang signs like these around the house.
I just have everything on display.
Our standards have lowered with each child.
✐Homeschool Organization Ideas for Small Spaces
If you live in a small house, you’re joining the ranks of those of us who have to get more creative. I’ve gathered some ideas for getting organized in small spaces.
Here’s a very in depth post with lots of ideas for homeschooling in small spaces.
✐How to Organize Art Supplies
Art supplies can take over the house, so you have to have some ways to manage them.
Here are 50 of the best ideas for how to organize art supplies in your homeschool.
Once everything has a specific place, you will save time, eliminate unwanted stress, and can focus on more important tasks.
✐Book Organization Ideas for Your Homeschool Room
Books, books, books. Oh, how we homeschoolers LOVE books! You can never have too many, right? Although my husband might disagree.
Just kidding!
I’m on the road to the bookstore.
The book problem is real and you need to get creative to deal with it. I’ve put together some posts from other bloggers that give some great book organization ideas.
This one is for organizing your homeschool library. Having a system in place makes it much easier to find a book when you need it.
Here is a great article that has a ton of creative examples for storing books and simple tips for the homeschool library.
Get the kids involved and make your own DIY book crate for storing books in different areas.
Here are a few nifty ideas you can use.
This is a sling bookshelf with deep pockets. It can hold a lot of books and it’s perfect for younger children because it’s at their height. You can find it in several designs to match the decor of each room.
When you were in school, did your chair have a seat sack storage pocket on the back? These are fantastic to hang on chairs in your homeschool room, at the kitchen table, or student desks.
Filling them with special books your kids love is one fun way to use these. If they finish their work early and need to wait a few minutes for you, they can grab a book and read without having to leave their seat. When they’re done, they put it back in the pocket and Voila- no books all over the table!
A tree bookshelf is a neat way to fit a lot of books in a small space. It’s vertical storage for your books and they won’t fall over.
✐How to Use a Homeschool Binder in Your Homeschool
Every year I create a homeschool binder for my kids. It might seem like a strange thing to add to a list of homeschool room ideas, but it’s the most important part of setting up for each new school year.
Each binder stays front and center on our homeschool table on these awesome book holders and they must fill it out every day.
These binders keep me from losing my mind. My kids start as early as second or third grade learning how to use one and filling out what they can. By fourth or fifth grade, they can take over and complete most of their subjects independently because everything they need to know is inside. Can you say hallelujah?
The homeschool binder has made our days run much smoother and calmed a lot of chaos we had in the past. My son, who graduated, has benefited from one.
They can track their attendance, daily lessons, grades, reading logs, and anything else you want to add in their binder. At the end of the year, my kids have completed most of my record keeping and I’m ready for a portfolio review.
The homeschool binder is a wonderful, time-saving tool to use.
Are Your Homeschool Room Ideas Working?
One last thing you should check out are some mistakes that can be made when setting up your room/area.
Having your homeschool space set up correctly can make your days run much smoother. The best way to get it organized and put together how you want it is to read through these different homeschool room ideas and choose what will work for your family.
And when you’re done getting it all put together, you’ll be so thrilled, you won’t care that your family and friends think you’re weird for homeschooling.
