If you have spent more than a few minutes exploring home education online then I am sure that you have come across that dream homeschooling space.

You know the one. Those beautiful spacious school rooms that you have seen on YouTube or Pinterest. The vintage chalkboard mounted on the wall complete with beautiful topic-based chalk art. The gloriously aesthetic posters and teaching aids hung around the room, mood lighting, bean bags and cosy blankets primed for reading time. The huge school table sitting proudly in the middle of the room on a pretty rug, ready for a picturesque ‘together time’. The globe proudly poised in the centre of the table, surrounded by pristine art supplies ready to go. An individual desk for each child, surrounded by ceiling to floor bookshelves housing a library that you could only dream of collecting and curating.

Isn’t it lovely?

I wouldn’t say no to that for sure, and if we are ever blessed with extra space you can bet that I will be dedicating it to schooling. I can imagine that it is absolutely wonderful to have a separate, dedicated school space.

But do you need a schoolroom? No.

When I speak to prospective homeschoolers, so often one of the many reasons that they are afraid to homeschool is space.

And that is a real concern. But it shouldn’t be the thing that holds you back. There are many legitimate worries when it comes to homeschooling, but I am here to tell you that ‘lack of a schoolroom’ should not be one of them. Is it ideal? Yes. It is essential? Absolutely not. 

For more, read: We started homeschooling in a one bedroom apartment

When I started homeschooling we were living in a one bedroom apartment in the city as J was working in NYC. We had two children and we had already maxed out our apartment with just living. When I started with Belle, I didn’t even have a spare bookshelf: I was storing her school supplies in a box under our bed. We have moved many (many!) times since then, and added a good few children along the way. 

We have lived in tiny apartments in London and NYC, a spacious house in LA, a glorious 3,000 square foot home in SoCal and then crashed back to a modest family home in England with six children ten and under.

Some of our homes have had more space, some less, but everywhere that we have been we have had space to homeschool.

We even homeschooled in a holiday rental out of a suitcase for seven weeks during our move back to the UK. Whether we had an abundance of space or a squash and a squeeze (that’s us right now!) 95% of our learning has taken place around the kitchen table and the other 5% on the couch. We have registered for the local library everywhere we have lived, however short-term that has been. Between our course books and fortnightly library runs for fresh books, we have been able to thrive home schooling wherever we have been.

Right now I am home schooling my 10, 8, 6, and 4 year old, with a toddler at my feet and a baby on my lap. We have just enough space to make it work. I have to be more patient than I thought possible and endlessly creative with the space that we have. I am forever rethinking and reorganizing every square inch of this house, getting rid of things that don’t serve us and refreshing supplies that we use hard. It isn’t easy but it is absolutely possible. When the Lord calls you to something he equips you and provides for what you need. I have seen the truth of that again and again in our homeschooling journey. Right now, our kitchen is our schoolroom and our schoolroom is our kitchen. We have topics cards on the cabinet doors and PVA glue next to the napkins. On the plus side, you can learn a lot about mammals whilst you butter your toast around here.

Keep in mind that the internet homeschooling world is skewed. I think you see far more of those with abundance than not. Let me tell you that in my real life experience with homeschooling families, a dedicated school space is not the norm. Most of the homeschooling families that I know online have a dedicated school space, and in real life almost everyone is running this homegrown operation in slightly too small homes, on a single income, around their kitchen table and making it work whether with one child or nine. 

So how to we make it work? Systems, schedules, minimalism and organization but I will write more about the specifics of our ‘schoolroom/kitchen’ in my next post.

For now, do not let Pinterest and the homeschool YouTube algorithm tell you that you need dedicated space to homeschool your kids. You don’t, and most of us don’t either.