Setting Up Your Homeschool Space I get it. As a homeschooling or unschooling parent we want to create the best learning environment ever. We don't want to just replace school. We want to be better than school.  So what do we do?  We plan, we purchase, we organize and we create a space that will offer as much as possible to our children's learning life.  Some families create a separate space. A "school room" where homeschooling takes place.   Other families create or use learning spaces throughout their home or in different environments. They utilize the outside environment, community spaces like libraries and museums, or create comfortable spaces in the home to read, write, design and learn in many forms.  In this episode I share a few tips on how we can build the best learning environment for our family learning life by reducing overwhelm and making a space (inside and out) that is conducive to learning and living. Building The Learning Environment & Setting Up Your Spaces What steps can we take to build a learning environment that supports our learning life best? Is having a separate learning space, better than not having a designated space?  Here are a few areas that can help us in deciding what will work best for our family and how to go about it: Understand your values and guiding purpose. Why are you homschooling? Why are you unschooling? What motivated your family to choose this learning life? If the reasons WHY are because your values do not line up with how school is set up, then I urge you to consider that before you recreate a space at home that is modelled after the school classroom. This is your chance to create something different that better aligns to your children and family. Deschool. The deschooling process is not a cut and dry, simple formula. It's a long process of reflection and self understanding. It's about slowing down and getting to know yourself and each family member. It means stepping away from the expectations of others, especially when those expectations centre around measuring worth by success in a school framework. (Check out my episode on Deschooling to learn more). Taking the time to deschool, reflect and observe gives us space to get clear on our values and begin to see our children as who they are, instead of through the lenses of school measurements. When you do that, can you imagine what kind of learning life and space you could build? Add less instead of more. We don't need to have everything in a homeschool space. Having too much can actually create a sense of overload. Keeping your space simple will not only help our kids to feel more free, but it can also decrease our worry as parents. You don't have to spend a ton on supplies and curriculum. And by not buying it all, there is less to clean up and organize! If keeping your space neat and clean is a priority for you, try not to let that rule your homeschool. And with less to clean up, you can have more time with your kids instead of dictating to your kids.  Keep it fun. We may think that as homeschooling parents we need to keep things neat, organized and on schedule. But some of our best learning has been when things are not neat organized or on schedule. My suggestion is this- choose joy over scheduling. Connection over commandeering. And remember that this is not the classroom. This is our HOME. And our home should be a place where our family feels safe and secure.  Find out from your family- what do they really want their life to look like? What ideas do they have? How can you work together to create that? Often our children have better ideas than we do. Listen to them. Resources I'm curious to know, where are you in the learning journey? Are you just beginning homeschooling? Are you a year or two in? Are you looking to step into unschooling or self directed learning?  Here are a few resources that I recommend whether you are new or looking to "refresh" or "restart".  My episode with Monica Cochran~ Maki