Are you thinking about homeschooling but don’t have space for a dedicated homeschool room? Or the money in the budget to decorate it? Don’t worry, you can easily homeschool around the kitchen table, kitchen island, or even in your living room! I’ll show you how we homeschool without a dedicated homeschool space.
When I first started considering homeschooling, I spent more time then I care to admit scrolling through social media, looking at beautifully put together homeschool rooms. I pictured turning our guest room into our homeschooling space and how I would decorate it.
Once we finally decided that homeschool was for us, I sat down and started planning out how I would turn our guest room into the homeschool room. But after some reflection I decided that I would skip creating a dedicated homeschool space and use our kitchen island instead.
Why we decided against a dedicated homeschool room
1. Budget – Although you can homeschool without spending a ton of money, there are start-up costs. I decided that I would rather spend the money on curriculum, books, and things like a zoo membership instead of “stuff” for a homeschool room.
2. We didn’t want to lose our guestroom – Our guest room gets used fairly regularly so taking it away completely left us with no space for friends and family who come to visit.
3. It would create a logistical problem when it comes to keeping an eye on the little ones – My younger two kids tend to crawl all over my oldest when he’s trying to do school work. So they need to have some separation if any work is going to get done.
Working at our kitchen island allows me to keep an eye on my other kids, who are usually playing in the living room. It also allows me to get somethings done while my oldest is doing independent work.
Where do we store all of our homeschool stuff?
This can be the tricky part. If you don’t have a dedicated homeschool space you’re going to have to find somewhere you can store all your homeschool stuff that is easily accessible.
After some trial and error, I found what works best for us is keeping the things we use daily on a shelf in our kitchen and keeping everything else on a bookshelf in our guestroom room.

In the kitchen cupboard, I keep his language arts book, reader, math manipulatives, math book, a pencil box, and library books. In our guest room, I’ve turned the old changing table into our homeschool bookshelf. There I keep all the books that we don’t use daily, extra supplies, and everything else.

It’s not fancy, it’s not Instagram perfect, but it works well for us right now. And it gives us flexibility as we figure this homeschool stuff out. It also didn’t cost me any money!
Do we think that we will eventually end up with a homeschool room?
I’m not going to rule out the possibility, but right now I really like the flexibility of working at our kitchen island. It’s allowed homeschooling to become part of our natural daily rhythm as a family and I really enjoy that.
If you find yourself homeschooling or distance learning this year but don’t have the room for a dedicated classroom, don’t stress! With a little bit of planning your kids can be just as productive working around the kitchen table or kitchen island.
Related Posts:
- 8 Reasons Why We’ve Decided To Homeschool- from someone who never expected to become a homeschooling mom!!
- Online Gym/PE Class For Kids! – Youtube videos that will get your kids moving!
- Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt For Kids – A fun and easy family activity!
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