While homeschool families utilize the whole world from home to yard to neighborhood and beyond, as their classroom, at some point even the freest thinking parent-teacher must dedicate a room or sections of a room to the home school. Logically, home schooling families quite often use the dining room table as command central. Even “out of home” schooling families use their dining room table for homework assignments, craft projects or as the family gathering place.

A visit to many of the home schooling forums shows one consistent wish from many of the home school mom-teachers – a giant dining room table for them to work at. Dining room tables like the ones crafted from solid woods by the Amish provide high quality, high endurance, and wear tolerant spacious work places for large family classrooms. Add an armoire or dresser dedicated to supplies, some sturdy solid wood chairs and quite functionally a dining room is converted into a one room school house. Some great tips gathered from these forums on how to best utilize the dining room as a classroom are:

1. Keep the table covered with a protecting pad and a plastic table cloth. The Amish have available elite custom pads to add many years to the table top. This investment will pay off after years of small hands pressing pencils into wooden surfaces or science experiments gone awry.

2. Cut a piece of white board to fit the table top as a giant dry erase surface. Local home improvement stores carry very low cost sheets of white laminate paneling. They can even cut them to size. Place these panels on top of the elite custom pads and pass out the dry erase markers. Kids become very enthusiastic at the chance to write on furniture! This also saves on paper product costs and consumption.

3. Since most families can’t afford to give up their dining room as an eatery why not redecorate the dining room with the theme of your studies? This is particularly fun for unit study type curriculum. Africa this month? Why not coordinate the napkins? Add some giraffes and elephants as center pieces. There are very inexpensive ways to keep the flow of your home while providing a homemade education to your children. Oceans next month? Why not a giant fishbowl as a living centerpiece? Just remember you may not want to serve fish sticks for awhile!

4. If you have opted to top your dining room table with a glass top why not use pictures under the glass as study points? One section of the dining room table can be algebraic equations, another section geographic pictures and another spelling words.

5. The second most desired item observed in the home school forums was an organizational element such as a bookcase, armoire, china cabinet, hutch, dresser or chest of drawers. With the well built, solid wood, dove tailed construction of Amish furniture it is easy to find sturdy organizing elements that match the woods, stains and designs of the Amish built dining room table. Sturdy shelves or cabinets for books, supplies and items like nature collections is important, no matter how small the space.

6. Be sure you have good windows and or good lighting in the dining room. Poor lighting makes the eyes work harder and the child grows weary faster.

7. Do a daily clean up of the dining room. Keep it a focal point of your home. Never let the table become only a place to collect things that need to be put away. A few minutes a day will pay off in peace and function. Keep the room a place that inspires good family meals when appropriate and good creative thinking always.

8. Remember that while Homeschooling is about “togetherness” it does not mean you have to be tethered to them as they work. By utilizing the dining room you are more able to multi-task why the children are working on school. They will know you are right there, in the near-by kitchen or living area but they will learn the much desired art of independence. Homeschooling children are best known for there self reliance, and if you can be multi-tasking and keeping a watchful eye the house and school run smoother.