Does Your House Have Homeschool Potential?

When everything went topsy-turvy in March 2020, virtual school slowly morphed into full-blown homeschooling for us.

Not the easiest thing to do when you are running a real estate brokerage serving a good portion of the state of Texas.

My office, which was professional and chic, turned into a collage of art supplies, various maps on the wall, and a solid bookshelf of the curriculum I needed to fulfill my son’s educational needs.

Needless to say, it got cramped VERY quickly. And I know I’m not alone. According to the Texas Homeschool Coalition, “… [in 2020] homeschooling more than doubled across the nation! On a national basis, those numbers went from 5% in 2019 to 11.1% in the fall of 2020.”

A jump like — paired with many working from home — makes many assess if their home is homeschool-ready. So does your home have what it takes to be a homeschool?

You can homeschool just about anywhere, but are your needs being met?

No, you don’t need a brand new home to be able to homeschool. However, you may find as you go along the homeschool journey that there are a few things that would make the whole process easier.

• SPACE & STORAGE: This is probably the most important aspect of homeschooling. When we made the transition, I had to rearrange some things. We added a dry-erase board, some helpful posters, a calendar, maps, and a kid-size desk. We also had to have a large bookshelf to store the many binders and supplies needed for everyday teaching.
• DESIGNATED LEARNING AREAS: Sure, I could teach my kiddo in any part of the house. But I didn’t want him to associate our whole house with school. Having a designated space for learning allows us to keep school time and playtime separate.
• ACCESS TO THE OUTDOORS: We live in a more rural area, so we can go on nature walks and get our vitamin D fairly easily.
• PROXIMITY TO LEARNING ADVENTURES: Kids take field trips in school, and the beauty of homeschooling is that you can take these trips as needed. Having a home in a somewhat close proximity to museums, farms, botanical gardens, aquariums, zoos, and more help with the homeschool journey.

We’ve made homeschool work in our current home, but we recognize that for many, that wasn’t the case. The pandemic made us all realize how we can edit our spaces — so if you’re wanting to find a home that suits your needs best, our brokerage is here for you.

Helpful Resources

In the meantime, I’d love to share some of the great resources I utilize for my homeschool ventures (many of which came as recommendations from dear friends who helped me when I went into panic mode at the beginning of this journey):

?@thegoodandthebeautiful This is the curriculum I use for my second grader’s English/Language Arts, math, handwriting, science, and some other supplemental subjects. Really easy to follow and the lessons are solid.
? @uponapancake I wanted to improve my son’s writing, and these books not only help with that, but since we are writing stories together, it makes for a great keepsake.
? @brainpop_official I use this online source to supplement my lessons. The videos and interactive quizzes keep my son’s attention and they get the info out in a succinct manner.
? @fiveinarowpublishing If you want your kid exposed to incredible children’s books, you HAVE to get these workbooks. You read a book 5x in a row, and each day, it tells you what subject to pull from the story. The conversations I’ve been able to have with my kiddo are priceless, and his comprehension of these stories and critical thinking that goes along with it has helped make him the excellent reader he is.

Who else is homeschooling? I’d love to hear what resources have worked for you!