Charlotte Mason Homeschooling - Combining Home and School in A Small Space

I don't post much!! Maybe one day I will post more. MAYBE.

My twin girls (age 7) are currently in form I, year 1, of 1A. That is so much to write but that is where we are aka... "2nd grade". I also have a year 0 little boy (age 4). We have been CM'ers since the beginning, but I am learning more and more every day.

I have read Volume 1 (fellow CM moms you should too), and I'm currently reading Vol. 2 with a great group of ladies online. I recommend reading the volumes with others interested in the Charlotte Mason philosophy. I am a wannbe purist, but of course, I am not. I am happy to say that I FEEL like I'm apart of the recent CM resurgence, and am elated that more and more moms are choosing Charlotte Mason's methods to homeschool their children.

When it comes to the details of building our cirriculum, I am blessed beyond words by the ladies at ADE or A Delectable Education. In addition to ADE, and since we are a Catholic family, I frequent the wonderful Mater Amabilis website when putting together our plans. Lastly, I will always take recommendations from Jennifer Mackintosh, Karen Andreola, Art Middlekauff, and Celeste Cruz. Those are my people. Every Charlotte Mason family has their "circle" beyond Charlotte herself, and I couldn't me more blessed by mine.

Every year before we start a fresh new school year, I get into super planning mode. I read books and blogs, I hang out in my favorite facebook groups, Charlotte Mason Soiree and Mater Amabilis, get inspired, and then I go to work! When I'm finished and ready to start, which is literally two days from now, I always want to share.

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This post is all about learning spaces and organization in a small area. Combining home & school. I do not have a big house, and somehow I have the challenge to acheive a beautiful atmosphere for learning and living. I am blessed that Charlotte Mason said, “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.” Still it's a puzzle that we are all trying to figure out, especially those of us with limited space.

I can honestly say after much planning, sorting, thinking, organizing, and working; I feel like I've put our puzzle together for this school year. I wish you luck in doing the same. Have fun!

feast table

The feast table. This is an idea taken from Jennifer @ the blog Wildflowers and Marbles. I've read what she has said about a feast table helping you to rebuild culture, learn about the liturgical year, and just to have a holy space in your home to pray. This is a small table that I had to find the "perfect" place for. A place that would be seen and noticed, but yet was also out of the way.

My favorite parts of my feast table:
Picture Frame - to be able to change out art prints
Ribbon - I'll change the color to go with the liturgical season
Box - I found a small box and recovered it using one of our favorite golden books. We had two of them so it didn't break my heart to cut it up! I couldn't figure out what to do with all of the beautiful prayer cards we've been blessed with. This solved my problem.
Salt lamp - I've been looking for a place for my salt lamp and this seems to work perfectly. I love the soft glow it gives off for the table.

Science and Nature Study Nook 

This is our science and nature study area. I had two open shelves below my kitchen island, so that is what we are using! I love that all of these items have their own place. The kids have spaces for nature collecting, nature journals, and for supplies like paints and and colors. 

1A Books and Supplies

Here is how I've organized the supplies for my twins! The top photo is all of thier books for the year and specific ones for term 1. I've divided them by subject with plastic dividers that I ordered on Amazon. I have to be able to visually see our different subject divided, especially since we have so many subjects, so this really helped me to do that.

The middle left picture are two baskets. One is for all of our math supplies and the other is for our drawing books, handicraft supplies (this term we are doing clay sculpture), and paper sloyd supplies. The basket on the left is one of two baskets, for each of my girls, and the bottom picture shows what's inside!

One note, I have vowed this year..... NO LOOSE LEAF PAPER in our house. (unless a particular craft requires it).

What's in each of their baskets? (from L to R)

Timeline - we are using our same timelines from last year. These are in a binder. I may convert mid year to a timeline book that we will be able to keep for longer. I just have gotten to where I don't really like 3 ring binders, but since it's already made and has plenty of space we will go with it!

Small nature notebook - this pocket notebook is for them to draw whatever they find on their own time. I give them no direction in this notebook. All I ask is that they draw in it every day we are home, and they draw something they observe in nature.

Singing and Recitiation booklets - I'm super excited about these! I like to take books to be bound. I did this with their spanish books as you can see above. I also spiral bound one of their tree books. However, I get tired of taking books to be bound at the copy store. So I came up with this idea! I printed their songs and recitiations, stacked them up, stapled the top together with a whole row of staples, then covered it with washi tape to make it look prettier. It was easy, and I love them.

Small drawing notebook - this notebook is for drawing. Drawing lessons, drawn narrations, drawing anything to avoid loose leaf paper.

Copywork notebook - this notebook is for all of their copywork. It's a spiral bound book with wider lines that I found on Amazon.

Spanish book - printed and spiral bound their spanish book.

Grid paper notebook - math notebook. All of their written math work will be done in this notebook.

Not pictured - nature notebook where they do their watercolor paitings. These stay in the science nook.

Pre-K Basket & space

This is kind of neat! Above is Silas' pre-k basket. He's 4 years old and will be in year 0/prep level this year and next year. This year for him... it's all about learning fun and lots of experiences. His seatwork will be limited to what he wants to do, but I will be reading to him. All of the Beatrix Potter books are on the docket & we will venture into the hundred acre wood. I have Foster's, My First Oxford Books of Poems, and Children Just Like Me, his geography book. I have a beginning handwiting book for fun and one of my favorite additions is a bucket of 250 little wooden letters. He loves to paint with his sister's and each day he'll paint a new letter. We'll work on it's sound and words that start with that letter. I also have his own paint set, play dough, a drawing book, his nature notebook, and a tray for him to use in his basket.

It's really cool doing this the second time around. I feel so relaxed, and am really going to enjoy our special learning time each day. He also chose his own place to do his "work" at. I love that he picked it and is already spending time in his black chair working on projects, painting, and learning. I know he won't stay in that chair much, but I do think it's a great anchor for his energetic spirit.

This last picture is of my own personal space. Last year I didn't have this. I kept most of my things with the kids. I'm sure I won't be sitting here most of the time, but it's nice to have found a place that can be my own. What's even better is that this little counter top really didn't serve a purpose anyway. It's just been our catch all, not anymore! 

On the far left, I have our daily schedule, which changes each day. We're involved in a lot, so I've made one general schedule for each day of the week M-F. I'll change this out each day so the kids know what we are doing....all day. This isn't a school schedule just the gereral morning routines, school, lunch, co-op, afternoon occupations, evening routines, dinner, children's hour, etc. 

Then I have my computer, a couple of magazines I'm reading, Paterson's The Bible For School & Home, pens, and then of course all of my planners. This year I created my own planners. I did use a few pages from My Humble Kitchen to get my weekly planner started, but I added in lots of other parts. Last year I tried combining a daily and weekly planner. That was just too big, so I split it up. I may do a planner post in the future becuase so far, I've been using this system for two months now, and I'm loving it. There are quite a few reasons, too many to list. I'm confident that my two planners, coupled with the general daily schedules, that the kids can all view, will serve us well. 

Below is our school basket. Each night I'll take a few minutes to look over the next days schedule and pull the books we will need from the shelf in the living room into this basket. Then at the end of the day I'll put those back and refill it for the next day's work. 

The last part of this area is our prayer board. Anytime someone asks us to pray for them, or if we have specific prayers we need to be praying for we add them to this board. We've had it up for a couple of years now and love having it in our home. 

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In closing, I'll say that between our dining area, living area, kitchen, and outdoor spaces we are ready to learn. Last year I was mentally confining our homeschool to our dining area. I called it our "school room". The problem is, it isn't a school room. It's our dining room and my husband missed having a dining room. We all did! So this year we are spreading out! I have more chairs, more blankets, more spaces, that will ALL allow for learning.  

We have a beautiful home that looks like a home. I don't think that anyone walking into our home would think "school" yet all of the learning spaces, school supplies, and school books are there if they were to look closer. I feel I've created an atmosphere that Charlotte would approve of. My family sure does! 

If you are like me and face the challenge of combining home and school in a small space, I encourage you to take a closer look. Think it over, pray about it, and work up a plan. It won't happen overnight, but with effort and the Holy Spirit's help you will create a beautiful atmosphere to live and learn in too.