Setting Up (and messing up) Your Home for Learning

Getting ready for a new year of homeschooling

This is the bookshelf in my living room. I did not stage or alter the photo. It’s raw. There’s even a piece of paper on the floor, sticking out from behind the bookshelf. I did not notice it until just now. I’ll pick it up later…

I’m almost ready. I only have one more math program and a few more reading books to order. I have a spreadsheet of lesson plans, book lists, and curriculum choices. We’re starting up again full speed at the beginning of August, and that means plans are well underway for the 2025/2026 school year.

But purchasing curriculum and sorting out lesson plans aren’t the only things I’m getting in order to prepare for this school year. I’m a homeschooler, so I’m setting up my home. Let’s see what that means (and doesn’t mean).

The first thing to figure out is where to put all of your shiny new curriculum. I know you all want to have a beautiful homeschool room that’s a replica of a public school classroom in your house with a border around the wall that shows the alphabet and big teaching posters with names of planets and the steps to writing a paragraph. This works for public school. It does not work for home. So let’s be clear about this before we move on—your home is not a school.

Your home is a home, and it should continue being a home as you move into a new year of learning. So, for the love of everything holy, don’t get your kids desks! I made this mistake in my first year. I got both of my kids desks and shoved them against a wall in my living room. Guess how long they used them…maybe a week? Let’s be real here—you’re going to be doing homeschool at the kitchen table and on the couch (mostly on the couch). If it’s nice outside, we take it all to the backyard and spread out a blanket. Occasionally, we do some learning at our local library or a coffee shop. Your kids can learn anywhere, so please don’t chain them to a desk with endless worksheets. Homeschooling is about having the freedom to learn when and where and how it best suits your family.

If you were to visit me during a typical homeschool day, you would see the kitchen table covered with books, papers, colored pencils, a few stuffed animals, multiplication flashcards, and a plethora of snacks. Our kitchen counter often has a few pieces of nature that my daughter collects on our morning walks. Sometimes she comes across a special leaf or stone and she just has to have it! Then you might look over to the living room and see too many blankets strewn across the couches, dog toys spread across the floor, and a coffee table covered in papers, more books, notebooks, washi tape, maps, a cold cup of coffee, and water cups that don’t belong to anyone in the house. “Whose water is this!?” *crickets*

This is my coffee table at the moment. I did not stage or alter this photo. This is real life. We are currently crafting doughnuts because our read-aloud is The Doughnut Fix by Jesse Janowitz.

I keep all that shiny new curriculum, including math textbooks, workbooks, notebooks, and other supplies in a closet in our home office. I’ll get it out when I need it. But there are some things that I keep out in our main living/dining area ALL THE TIME. I have two bookshelves in my living room that house our living books, a basket of art supplies, library books, and a small basket of basic supplies such as pencils, rulers, sticky notes, etc. I keep those things out in the main living area because those things are not just for “school.” They are a part of life. We all read all year long, so the books are always available. We all use paper and pencils and gel pens and tape all year long, so I keep it available and open to my kids. But that third-grade math book? It goes in the closet. That science textbook that we did last year? Closet. The vocabulary workbook that we never cracked open? Closet.

If you were to walk into my house, you could figure out right away that I homeschool. In addition to the overflowing bookshelves, I have a whiteboard and a small chalkboard in my dining area that are used frequently, even throughout the summer. Sometimes there are things taped on the wall, like my daughter’s artwork and science words.

We do have a home office. It’s small, but I’m thankful for the extra space to store some homeschool stuff. You may be wondering why that isn’t my “homeschool room.” I tried that my first year. I repainted that room, got a fun rug and bean bag chairs, and we tried doing everything in there. We did our morning calendar, history, vocabulary, and by that time, we all wanted OUT of that room. It makes no sense to do all of your learning in a separate designated schoolroom. Please read that again. I know it might make you feel better to have the rest of the house to yourself—a clean kitchen table and a nicely set living room. But it doesn’t work that way because homeschooling is a lifestyle. It spills out into every room. Embrace it! Enjoy it!

This is who you are as a family, and it’s weird to hide it away in a small room back the hallway. Sure, you can stack papers, put away books, and fold the throw blankets at the end of the day, but that’s just to keep you sane. It can be somewhat organized. We always do a little bit of homeschool clean-up at the end of the day (otherwise, we wouldn’t have anywhere to eat our dinner). But don’t be afraid to display the heart of your home. Tape up that messy artwork. Write wild words on the whiteboard. Use the Play-Doh sculpture as the centerpiece for your dining table. Let your daughter display her special nature collection on the TV stand. And then take pictures of it all because one day your house will be clean and organized—and you will hate it. You’ll miss the homeschool mess. Embracing it and enjoying it will keep your homeschool moving forward. Cheers to a new, messy, wild, but incredibly fulfilling school year!

Here’s a photo of our pets being helpful this morning. Notice my daughter’s fantastic drawings taped to the TV stand. Those were created in honor of Garfield’s birthday.

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