5 Gift Ideas to Improve a Homeschool Space

Are you looking for gift ideas to improve a homeschool space? One of the many challenges of providing at-home schooling for a child is creating a good learning atmosphere.  Many children are used to separate spaces for school and home. So, it can be hard to fix up a home space that feels like school.  Here are 5 ideas (and 10 products) to improve a child’s homeschool space. These items can quickly transform any room in the house to a place that helps kids get ready to learn. They also make great gifts for a homeschooling parent!

But first, let’s take a quick look at the benefit of having a dedicated homeschool place at all. What are the reasons for transforming a room in the house rather than just using the kitchen table or a child’s bedroom?

Benefits of a Dedicated Homeschool Space

One of the main advantages of setting up a space in the home that is specifically for learning is that it helps a child shift into a learning mindset. Associating a specific place for a specific task helps kids through association and improves their focus. Let’s face it – kids are easily distracted! We can minimize distractions, though, by surrounding kids with as many school-themed objects as possible.

Another advantage of a dedicated homeschool space is that it helps reduce the mess. Or, it at least helps confine the mess! Students – especially the younger ones – go through a lot of material over the course of a school day, let alone a whole week. Keeping everything in a defined space can help with storage and then with cleanup.

Finally, when you set up a specific room or space for a child to learn, it shows the value you place on education and your commitment to their success. And it is a commitment. Fortunately it doesn’t have to be an expensive one. Even if the items highlight below fall outside your available funds, hopefully they still give you some ideas for setting up – or improving – a child’s school homeschool space.

Affordable Ways to Improve a Homeschool Space

Give kids their own desk

Kids need a functional workspace.  Working at the kitchen table or laying on floor can work in a pinch. But if you can give a child a desk of their own, it will be more comfortable for working and help to create a defined school space.  Each of these options are relatively small and easy to move around, giving you great flexibility to create a child’s very own school room.

The Diroan Kids Functional Desk and Chair Set provides an immediate classroom feel as the child gets a piece of furniture that is clearly just for her or him. Sturdy design and adjustable settings mean you can use this for years. And with a desk lamp, book holder and tilting desktop, it is flexible enough to handle just about every study need. The storage drawer and the metal hooks for hanging a bag or backpack are nice additions as well. For a full set of pictures and other color options, you can visit the Amazon listing here.

For an even more flexible option, consider the The Surf Portable Lap Desk from ECR4Kids. This desk weighs just 3.5 pounds and is designed to move around with the child to different parts of the room or even outside. It is a great alternative to lying on the floor for reading or writing, and the desk space is just the right size for a laptop. The desk is held upright by body weight, meaning that it tilts if no one is sitting on it. That doesn’t make it great for holding items when it’s not being used, but it does encourage kids to stay seated and focus while working.

Hang school-themed wall art

One of the easiest, and least expensive, ways to transform any space is with wall art.  If a child’s learning space doesn’t already have school-themed decorations on the wall, consider adding some.  These can be educational, motivational, or both.  And as the year progresses, kids’ homemade art becomes a great decoration as well!

A great choice for educational wall art is the Tinload Telling Time Teaching Clock. With detailed, but easy to read, labeling, this clock is great for helping little ones learn how to tell time. The clock comes with a 2-step teaching system to help guide the learning. It’s also a bright, attractive timepiece that will fit in nicely even after the child is a time-telling master!

Motivational, inspiring wall art is also a great choice for a homeschool space. Contributing to a positive mindset will positively impact all areas of learning, and setting the mood with posters can help. These banner posters from Sproutbrite are a couple of our favorites. The banner style makes them flexible for just about any wall space. Stack them to fill a medium-sized wall space, or separate them to tuck into a more narrow space at the top or bottom of some other display.

Use organizers

Do homeschool materials leave your space looking cluttered or messy?  It’s hard to learn in a chaotic environment, so a collection of organizers can go a long way in creating an effective learning space.  Bright colors and organized spaces are welcoming to your student.

The Learning Resources Create-a-Space Storage Center is bright, fun, and a space-saver. Keep supplies visible but organized with this carousel-style storage space. The containers are removable and just the right size to hold just about any school supply you can think of. The storage center is 12x12x4.6 inches, so it has a pretty small footprint consider how much it can hold.

You’ve likely noticed how stores often create special displays of items they want to promote. It is a popular strategy because it is effective, and you can do the same thing with books to promote reading. This Classroom Keepers Book Shelf puts books front and center to encourage a child’s reading and to make books an integral part of the homeschool surroundings. It is a sturdy, 3-tier storage unit that measures 10x20x17 inches.

Display a globe

Globes are a terrific additional to a home school space because they work as décor and as learning tools.  For a child, any time something can be interactive there is a much greater benefit.  Each of the options listed below let kids interact with their globes to keep them interested.

This Puzzle Globe is designed for ages 3+, and has 6 puzzle pieces that allow kids to place Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, and North and South America. (Antarctica is a stationary bottom piece.) Fun to put together, and a functional learning tool thereafter, this an excellent first globe for young learners.

For older students (4+) and more interactive features, consider the Little Experimenter Talking Globe. This globe includes a Smart Pen that, when touched to countries and various locations, gives information through a small built-in speaker. The globe also includes 300 trivia questions to promote interest and build knowledge.

Have extra workbooks

Most home-school curriculums provide plenty of work to keep children busy.  A good collection of workbooks, though, can pair nicely with their official school work.  Whether it’s something to provide additional practice or ideas to nurture a child’s interest, you can’t have too many workbooks available.

A great way to supplement early fundamentals, the Brain Quest Workbook series has separate editions for grades K-7. The goal of these workbooks is to review and reinforce grade-level material. With a focus on activities and games, the workbooks are a fun way to provide extra practice across the curriculum. The 4th Grade is featured below, but there is a full line for grades K-7 to choose from:

Brain Quest Workbooks

Help to develop or encourage a child’s interest in science with this Awesome Science Experiments for Kids workbook. The fun, hands-on experiments provide a highly engaging, educational outlet for kids’ curiosity about the world around them. The book provides difficulty and time estimations to help choose the right experiment for the right time. And with easy-to-follow instructions, no one will be left frustrated by the setup. It helps to look ahead at required supplies so that you can begin to source them around the house (things like empty bottles, jars, and cardboard tubes). That bit of planning, though, keeps the cost low. This book is already available with a Kindle Unlimited Plan – another great gift idea for a student or homeschooling parent!

Final thoughts on Improving a Homeschool Space

When it comes to improving a homeschool space, remember that it does not have to be an expensive endeavor. While the items featured here are certainly good additions, most people probably have things already in their home that can work as well. Think about items that can be repurposed or just relocated. The key is creating that dedicated learning space.

And don’t forget to involve the kids! Letting them contribute to choosing items and setting up the space gives them an immediate sense of ownership. Anything that helps them connect the area to their learning and to themselves will be a great help.