How to Fit Homeschool into your Home...without a School Room

Floating around Pinterest are all kinds of beautiful drool worthy homeschool rooms.  Well that's wonderful, but what if you don't have a spare room to convert into a school room?

When we first started homeschool, I was determined not to let my dining room get eaten alive by school stuff.  But then I hung up the schedule boards... 

and then it only made sense to put the calendar up, as well...

and we added some shelves...

We also have maps on the wall and a hanging art gallery made from fish line, push pins, and Target dollar section clips.  

By this point, my husband gave me the go ahead to just turn our entire dining room into a school room.  

Even if we had a spare room, I'm convinced we'd end up at the kitchen table because we somehow always end up gathering in here.  Also, we weave our curriculum throughout our day so it'd actually be unrealistic for our family to "go to school" in the school room.  We'll see if that holds true next year, but for now, working in spurts works for us.  Instead of storing everything in our office and walking back and forth each day, I decided to use this area of cabinets as the homeschool nook.  It's just to the right of the table which makes it very accessible.  In the basket are our library books and I use a napkin holder for paperwork to go through.

So let's see what's inside...

The top shelf holds paint, a globe, and a clear shoebox of flashcards.

I used Ziplocs to make a cheap but efficient paint brush holder and a basket to hold the paint and trays. An envelope for stickers is taped to the other door. (see above)

The bottom shelf stuff got relocated to the office on an open shelf.  These are books that we are not currently using.

What's inside the boxes?

Manipulatives, felt and random teacher things

Math U See Blocks Organized

And inside the drawers...

Teacher manuals currently in use and bookmarks

Coloring books and my supplies.  I could go buy a drawer organizer and probably will but for now the top of a gift box taped to the sides of the drawer will work.

And for the oversized paper that would not fit in the nook, I reorgazined the pantry and created a homeschool shelf

I was able to organize everything by re-purposing stuff from around the house and using what we already have.  Being organized not only helps school go more smoothly, but helps me save money.  While doing this, I found a book I thought I had not bought yet and was about to order!  Being organized is possible, even in small spaces.