Homeschooling can be a strange world filled with lots of situations where you'll need to improvise or come up with a solution on your own. That can be seen as a challenge for some parents, while others may shrink away from it due to a lack of time or energy.
For this reason, we decided to put together this guide covering a couple of essential tips and tricks to get you started on your journey. If you've been looking for a bit of homeschool room inspiration, you've come to the right place.
Is homeschooling your kids worth it?
The lasting effects of COVID-19 have tossed a wrench into the school systems of many nations. More and more parents are deciding to withdraw their kids from class and set up an education system of their own, and this can be a tough transition – so it’s good to know if it’s actually worth it or not.
According to a systematic review published in 2024, the main advantages of homeschooling your kids are as follows:
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Academic flexibility in the form of less-rigid curriculum
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Quality time spent with family who have now also become teachers
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Learning that could be considered more meaningful – prioritizing your child’s individual learning needs
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Potentially higher levels of social, mental, and physical health due to holistic guidance and social support systems
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Kids with special needs or those that require more attention won’t fall through the cracks
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Homeschooling also allows you to be more flexible with your time as a parent
How important is a comfortable homeschool environment?
It’s hard enough to get a group of rowdy kids to focus when teaching in a public or private school setting – homeschooling presents a different sort of challenge; with the added distractions of your kid’s favorite pets, toys, and video games nearby.
And while you do want to limit their distractions and help them focus on the lessons at hand, striking a balance between comfort and productivity is essential. With that in mind, let’s dig into our list of tips and tricks for new and experienced parents:
Easy homeschool room ideas and strategies
Creating an inspiring place to learn isn't easy, which is why we've put together this list of our favorite DIY homeschool room ideas.
Create a designated space for learning
The layout and design of your kid’s new school room is going to depend on a few different things: your aesthetic preferences and home décor style, your budget, and your knowledge of how your child learns best. For example, you could go with a super-organized homeschool room setup with labeled storage spaces and supplies, or go with a more relaxed approach that doesn’t necessarily feel like a traditional classroom.
Either way, your priority should be to design a dedicated space within your home to be the learning center – this could be your entire living room or dining room table, your garage, or even just a comfy corner if that’s all you have available.
The point is to have a reliable space to get some learning done everyday, without having it overflow into the rest of your life and home.
Come up with a list of homeschool supplies
The supplies you buy matter just as much as the homeschool space you teach in. The good news is, it’s really not too costly or time-consuming to set yourself up with everything you need. To begin, you’ll likely want to write up a list of things you could see your kid enjoying in the classroom and everything else you deem necessary for lessons.
So, what does a homeschool classroom need? Here’s what we recommend:
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A reliable chalkboard or dry erase board for lessons and doodling
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Chalk markers or dry erase markers to go along with your new board
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Pencils, gel pens, erasers, and other writing utensils
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Notebooks and other school supplies like construction paper
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Other essentials like rulers, staplers, tape, glue, and more
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Novels, school books, and other written materials for kids
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Electronics like calculators, tablets, or a laptop for older kids
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Art supplies for kids, which will depend on what your little ones enjoy most
As you can see, there’s a lot to choose from when it comes to the actual supplies you’ll want to pick up. Not only that, but you’re also going to want to think about your furniture situation, which we’ll be discussing next.
If you’re not sure if you want a chalkboard or a dry erase board, you should read our chalkboard FAQ guide which covers how to choose chalkboard. Additionally, check out some of our craft ideas using chalk markers and find all your marker related questions answered in our chalk marker FAQ.
Set yourself up with appropriate furniture and décor
If you don’t already have furniture to use for a homeschool classroom, make sure you think about how comfortable your child will be using what you currently own. Sitting for many hours at a time on uncomfortable chairs isn’t very productive for learning or teaching. Further, trying to puzzle out some intro algebra or draw and paint can be difficult without a decent homeschool table or desk to work on.
If your kid prefers their lessons while on the couch and you're looking for some homeschool desk ideas, consider picking up one of our foldable lap desks – these are small plastic desks that come with a surface to write on and storage space underneath, light enough for kids to carry around and use for learning on the go.
Lighting and homeschool room décor matter as well, despite the bleak appearance of most public school’s classrooms. Add plants, maps, your kid’s artwork, or other fun and engaging items to your walls and shelves; as a cozy classroom is much easier to feel relaxed in compared to a sterile one.
With that being said, if you prefer a more minimalistic approach to furniture, there’s nothing wrong with that either. You really won’t need much to get started: a desk or table, a comfortable chair, and a bookcase is more than enough at first.
Organize your classroom properly
Once you’ve come up with a list of supplies and an idea of the furniture you’ll need, you’re going to want to organize it in a way that works with your individual home. Storage bins, bookcases, clips and magnets, toolboxes – there’s really no end to the ways in which you can organize a classroom, even if it's in your dining room.
In fact, organizing your space might be the single most important thing you’ll do when homeschooling your kids. Without a well-organized, dedicated homeschool room it’s likely you’ll eventually run into a problem or two from misplaced supplies, unfinished lessons, not enough desk space, or some other kind of preventable issue.
Hit up your local thrift shop or office and craft supplies store to find things like storage bins with latches and tops to keep supplies safe or a lazy susan if you want some kind of rotating supply station.
You can also use your walls to organize – dedicating space specifically for learning materials like calendars, world maps, a periodic table of elements, or posters that help teach your kids the alphabet are all efficient ways of using your wall space.
Finally, color coding your homeschool room for multiple kids is an easy way to stay organized. If you have two kids, you could choose red for one and blue for the other; labeling all of their classwork and other supplies with these colors makes it simple to find them later.
Set learning goals for your kids
The learning goals you set for your children will depend entirely on their age and abilities, but overall you should really set up some goals before you begin teaching them. Not every goal needs to be related to academia, either – things like making friends or going on a few field trips per year are examples of goals you may not have considered.
One way to organize your goals is by breaking them up into various categories. This way, failing to reach one goal doesn’t feel like such a big deal (it’s very likely you won’t reach every goal). Here’s how we recommend you divide up your homeschooling goals each semester:
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Devise a specific class schedule – think time of day and how days many per week
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General monthly homeschooling goals
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Yearly overarching goals
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Goals set by your child (also a fun activity to do together)
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Goals you set for each of your children – tailored to their specific needs
Separating your goals like this can help you fully visualize all the progress your child will make over time, instead of setting up random lists of goals and then not following through with them, which can be super discouraging. The best way to set you and your child up for success in terms of goals is by making sure they’re realistic – don’t set goals for yourself that feel impossible to achieve.
Bring your homeschool room outside
Giving your kids a quality education is about more than just lessons from your homeschooling space. Bringing your class outside is important too, and your creativity is the limit when it comes to scheduling field trips and creating learning experiences in the real world.
Here are some of our favorite ideas:
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Your local library: these public spaces are very underrated and usually have learning centers for kids, free audiobooks and movies, and other awesome homeschool resources
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History and art museums: the best thing about museums is that you can pick and choose your lessons based on the specific topic the locations cover (fine arts vs. local history for example)
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Botanical and community gardens: getting some fresh air and sunshine is one benefit of a garden field trip, as well as being a great location for lessons on biology, botany, and other science topics
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Zoos and animal sanctuaries: it’s likely you have a decent animal sanctuary or zoo nearby – they may even have free or reduced admission for homeschool trips (most kids are obsessed with zoos)
One way to look at this concept is that really anywhere you bring your kids could be considered a learning experience – having them help you pick out groceries could be a lesson on nutrition and finances, going to the dentist or doctor’s office could include an explanation of some interesting health topics, and so on.
You don’t have to go far, either. Set your kids up with some sidewalk chalk while you make lunch, or take a day off from regular lessons to do a bit of pumpkin decorating in October; again, you truly have unlimited options here.
Encourage your child to make friends
Even if you follow all of our homeschool room ideas, it does limit the amount of socialization your child will have, of course. This can be particularly hard if you’re also an introverted parent, as you likely don’t care to spend much time getting to know the parents of any friends your child does make.
Extracurricular activities like sports, nature clubs, and more that require you sign-up are some of your best options when homeschooling. These kinds of groups bring kids from all different walks of life together, and teach them to get along and socialize properly.
The reality is, with how popular video games and other relatively isolating hobbies are nowadays, your kid may need a bit of help to make friends if they aren’t surrounded by options like they would be in a public school. This can be a particularly troublesome issue once they reach their teens, so make an effort early on.
Remember to take care of yourself
Easier said than done, but taking time for yourself is still essential as a homeschooling parent. If you aren’t taking care of yourself, there’s a good chance it will directly end up affecting the quality of your child’s education.
Factoring in an hour or two each day to pursue your hobbies, cook your favorite meals, or exercise should hopefully be factored in when coming up with your new education plan and homeschool setup.
Sleep is also incredibly important – something which most parents know all too well – which is why setting up a specific schedule for your class time should be a priority.
Luckily, many parents who decide to homeschool quickly realize that it actually reduces the amount of stress in their life. Homeschooling has the potential to slow your life down, giving you more time during the day to hangout with your kids instead of staying busy reacting to stressful schedules set by traditional schools.
Final thoughts
Coming up with effective homeschool room ideas by yourself can be quite the challenge. Whether you're new to homeschooling or have been doing it for a while now, it's likely you sometimes lose track of the bigger picture and get stuck fiddling around with details that may not actually matter that much.
Hopefully, you'll be able to use some of the ideas we've covered here to create a stress-free learning environment for your kiddo too.