Homeschooling in a Small Space

...and not going insane.

So... I was talking to a friend of mine who just got engaged. He has five kids, and will be adding 3 with the marriage to total 8 kids under 16y/o in their house. I asked if they would be moving, or staying in the area, and his reply was, "We'd have to move, with 8 kids we'd be on top of each other in this house." ...and they don't homeschool.

At this point I felt as though I'd been slapped with the silly noodle. Did he realize what he was saying? who he was talking to?

His house is 3,200 sq ft, has a recently finished basement complete with sauna, and a 3 car attached garage.


My family of six has lived in an apartment of 3 bedrooms; 1300sq ft for all of our 6 years of homeschooling. I recognize that in many parts of the world my home would feel extravagant and even luxurious with its amenities.

But still, I think I could redefine his idea of "on top of each other." He's a good friend and I am guessing that he just needed an excuse to leave the house his wife died in. Anyway, it got me thinking about things I do specifically with my day because of our space parameters.

Small Space Sanity Savers:

1. White Noise Machines- in each bedroom, before this it was me doing laundry every time I wanted to watch a movie without kids.
2. Headphones- for the piano and audio books
3. Keyboard- moveable piano!
4. Get out of the house--we take about a 2 hour break from 11-1 as this is about the time things start to fall apart and we are rolling on the floor eating each other's socks and growling like caged tigers. It also motivates us to get those brainy subjects done at a decent time.
5. Maps on table tops--under glass, or bully clipped to the coffee table day of.
6. An armoire for school stuff, in the kitchen-hides a multitude of sins.
7. Bins--"Math" bin," Language Arts" bin, and "Done" bin for all 3 kids stuff. I used to have bins for each child and realized it was redundant.
8. Lunchboxes-everyone in the small kitchen at the same time is madness, we try to take care of it earlier.
9. Bedroom with a lock--when things get really noisy and we just need 10 blessed minutes to finish the worksheet already!
10. Community Events & Memberships--we go somewhere just about every day. I know some people dread their busy schedules, but for us it's a lifesaver. We aren't at home breathing each other's air, making mess after mess, and we get out to experience quite a bit.
11. Clear Sleep, Wake Up, and Quiet Times-- I am not the best at this, but I see that where physical boundaries are small, we need more defined time boundaries to just get the space we need as individuals (and introverts).

Another friend was saying she felt she needed to be nearer her 4y/o son when he had friends over to play and make sure he wasn't being a bully. "You know?" she coaxed.

All I could honestly say was, "I've never had the luxury of that problem." Meaning, I am always within earshot of just about A-nything in my house, and while I dream of someday having a place to put bikes, and not have all my kids' clothes in one tiny closet because all the camping stuff is in the other, I know that it is far more comfortable than most of history's population, and can't bring myself to complain...too often ;)

My Headmistress

She's a little thick in the middle, prefers blue, doesn't take any nonsense, and holds me to a high standard. She's my Head Mistress.

Short and sweet, this is how I record-keep our school year from the administrative end.
Headmistress keeps me in line. Within her D-ring files are color-coded tabs for basic sections.

 These are  plastic dividers with custom cottage-made tab labels (a.k.a. packaging tape and used index cards) here is the breakdown:

YELLOW:
Schedules- individual student schedule templates
Calendars-the year divided into 36 weeks of school & planned breaks
Habits-
Goals- non-school programs and general home school goals
Exams- my "ExamLand" version. Each year gets a progressively finer home.
AO Masters- Booklists & 36-week schedules from the AO website for the current year only.

Then the subject Tabs in mainly blue.

The trick comes in organizing multiple students in different years.
Each subject has a student tab on the top of the page divider. Each child has their own color, as you can see in the very first picture from the top of the folder. For instance, the Literature section pages look like-

• LITERATURE (blue tab on right)
• Bowery Bird (pink tab on top)
• 36 week AO Y4  Literature schedule (2 page spread)
• Mockingbird (green tab on top)
• 36 week AO Y2 Literature schedule (2 page spread)

BLUE:
YO- World Book Preschool Curriculum Guide & stuff.
Language Arts-Charlotte Mason is a bit all over the board with it's Language Arts. It's wonderful, yet can be confusing to track.

Continuing with BLUE subject tabs:

Foreign Language-
Math-schedules
Science- AO reading schedules and Building Foundations of Scientific Study flow-chart
Literature- weekly schedules as for other subjects that I made. I just highlight the assignment after we've finished it.

History-schedule, original maps, and original timeline figures for Our Island Study
Geography-schedule

Then comes

PINK:
Term Studies-really, I have a separate binder for this, here I just keep a simple schedule
Nature
Handicraft
Art
Music
Shakespeare-the 3 plays AY4 will do.
Plutarch- Anne White's Guides here for the year with smaller tabs.
PE-Information for their PE class through UVU
Affidavit-formal declaration of public school exemption
Supply List-where I list books & supplies to get as we can and a pocket for receipts to turn in.
Inventory-

Kindle- a how-to reminder and list of the Yesterday's Classics huge booklist to refer to.
Field Trips- a record & reminder if tickets are needed
Free Reads- record for our family of what year they were read (so I know who is old enough to not remember it later...)
Contests-
Resources-local PERC hours, etc.
Incentive Programs- Pizza Hut, etc.

So there it is! I open it every morning to the subject we're on it and she stays there till school is over. If not, I feel I am sailing without a course.