Montessori Homeschool Room Tour

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Today, I’m giving you a sneak peek into our Montessori Homeschool Set-up. 

In addition to having self-serve areas around the house, and a special kitchen cupboard just for Ella, we also have designated an entire room to our homeschool.

Montessori Homeschool Room Tour: Get an inside peek into what a Montessori homeschool set-up could look like. This family has been Montessori homeschooling for two years and runs a part-time Montessori preschool program out of their home

Although it is less of a focus on Sugar, Spice and Glitter then it used to be, I actually started this blog to share our Montessori homeschooling journey.

We’re a little bit more eclectic these days (and I would get so bored if I only wrote about that one aspect of our lives every day), but the Montessori Method still forms the majority of our homeschool work, as you will see today.
Homeschool room tour - A Montessori family shares their homeschool room and tips on setting up a homeschool space for your family

I started with attempting to DIY many of our Montessori Materials, but as I became increasingly confident that we were going to homeschool — and realized how much work saving money with DIYs actually was — I made the decision to invest in the entire Montessori Primary curriculum, and most of the Montessori Elementary curriculum.

The amount of stress that I avoid by not having to come up with alternatives to all of the materials was worth the investment for me, but if real Montessori materials are not an option for you, I still think that you can successfully implement the Montessori Method and have started collecting some fabulous ideas for DIYs and alternatives. I have also reviewed all of the materials that we’ve purchased so you can know what to avoid and what is worth the investment.

Montessori Homeschool Room Tour - can Montessori work at home? What does Montessori look like in the home? A Montessori parent shares her child's work space and how it works for them

I love having a separate room dedicated to our homeschool set-up and materials for a few reasons:

  • it is a special space for Ella (and older kids when we have them in our preschool) away from toddler shenanigans
  • children can work separately from the noise and clutter of the rest of the home
  • if the children make a mess, I am less overwhelmed than if it was in a shared living space and can be more patient when encouraging clean-up
  • children can have a safe spot for long-term projects that doesn’t impact how we live in our home
  • we are more likely to do work everyday if it is permanently set-up rather than something we have to set-up each day
  • it validates the importance of Ella’s work

Of course, if you need to be able to put up and take down your homeschool set-up each day, there are ways to do that which still give the freedoms of an entire room:

  • homeschool carts that can be rolled into a corner when not in use
  • homeschool cabinets with designated shelves for on-going work or projects
  • timers, signs, or other indications that the room is functioning as a homeschool space to encourage others to respect the work process
  • ear covers or sound machines to block out noise from siblings (or even mom)

While I can (and probably will) write an entire post on things to consider when setting up your homeschool space, today I just want to focus on sharing ours with you.

Montessori Homeschool Room tour - a sneak peek into our homeschool room. Find out how we make Montessori work for us!

Montessori Homeschool Room Tour

To answer two reader questions – the rug is a fair-trade woven plastic that lies incredibly flat and is easy for the children to roll out of the way, while adding some beauty to our room. This rug seems similar — both were incredibly affordable compared to typical throw rugs.

And, the shelving – except for the light table and geography cabinet – is utility hardware store shelving. I prefer it to the square Ikea-type shelving many Montessorians buy, as we have more openness on the shelves, and we don’t have to awkwardly position trays to fit in the square space.

Working from the left to right when you enter the room:

Independent Work Area

  • We have two child-sized tables each with their own chair which face the wall. This allows the children to focus on their independent work, but they also have the freedom to move their furniture around as desired, as long as it doesn’t impact the other people using the room. (Our last group of preschoolers has graduated so she has had the room to herself for a couple of weeks.)
  • These tables have basic stationary supplies and our daily workbooks (not Montessori, but something I grudgingly accept as a material my daughter loves) — we also like to add flowers from our garden.

Bulletin Board

  • I used to have my bulletin board set up like Counting Coconut’s board, but I actually just stripped it down after our last graduation.
  • To me, a bulletin board should reflect the interests of the child and communicate the relevant information about their day so they can help be an active participant in their daily planning and decision-making.

Camera Gear

  • Ella has a tripod and a hand-me-down camera that she is learning how to use. This is an ongoing project that she has been exploring for a couple of months (and I will share with you about that soon)

Work Rugs

  • We have a basket of several small work rugs for children to do their work on. Read our posts about the Montessori Work Rug here and here.

Light Table

  • This is one of my favourite investments. Our light table is a Reggio-inspired material that compliments our Montessori work nicely. I’ll make a note to write an indepth post about how we use our light table in learning

Paper Chain of Kindness

Sneak peek into our Montessori room - including where we deviate from Montessori to make Montessori work for us

Geography Cabinet

  • One of our favourite topics, we love our Geography Cabinet materials. Placing a child-friendly map above your geography materials is a great way to provoke children into deeper learning. My hope is to eventually replace this one for a pin-punched map created by Ella.
  • On top of the cabinet are:
  • We also keep a giant basket of animal figurines, our pin punch materials, and a flag matching game on an adjacent shelf

Practical Life Shelf

Note: I took pictures of these shelves exactly as they were when I entered the room. So, you’ll notice that some materials are on the wrong shelves, which happens when children put things away. I wanted to share an honest example of what our homeschool room looks like – not something that an adult has staged!

  • On the floor in front of the shelf we have the Montessori Dressing Frame rack.
  • We change out the trays for our Montessori Practical Life work often and we also like to incorporate some “toy” materials, like our Sorting Pie and Lock House
  • The plastic tub in the corner stores Ella’s snap circuits board. The batteries are currently stored in the tub, in a plastic bag because just Ella is using the room – if there were multiple children in the room, I would keep the batteries separate for safety precaution

A real life sneak peek into a homeschool family's Montessori room - find out what Montessori in the home really looks like!

Sensorial Shelf

  • We’ve mostly moved past the sensorial curriculum, but I’ve kept two shelves of our favourites plus the Pink Tower and Brown Stair around for Ella to revisit when she needs something calm and meditative to do
  • This shelf currently contains:
    • Sound cylinders
    • Scent bottles
    • Baric tablets
    • Thermic tablets
    • Touch tablets
    • Knobbed cylinders
    • Geography overflow: pin punch pad, flag matching game, animal miniatures
    • Brown Stair (lying in front)
    • Pink Tower (to the side)

(Check out our Sensorial posts here.)

Math Shelf

  • Ella has mostly been doing math work sheets recently, as she hit a stumbling block in her long division work. We actually made the decision to remove all but a few math works from the room so she could have a break – the two remaining being the “earliest” math materials, which will hopefully allow her to review and feel confidence in the subject again. I will slowly start re-introducing work that is at her level when she is ready
  • This shelf currently contains:
    • Spindle box
    • Sandpaper numbers
    • Bead Stairs
    • Pressure cylinders (supposed to be with Sensorial)
    • Two sets of geometric solids
    • Binomial cube
    • Knobless cylinders (again, supposed to be with Sensorial)
    • Scale and weighted numbers
    • Two math board games
    • Letter alphabet puzzles

Language Shelf

Biology Shelves

  • A simple metal filing system works as our Biology Puzzle Shelf. We only have room for 7 puzzles, so I switch them out based on what Ella is currently interested in.
  • I also provide 3-part cards corresponding to the puzzles, in small Ziplock bags on the puzzle shelves.

Our peace corner is an essential part of our homeschool room - check out the rest of our Montessori space!

Peace Corner

Seasonal Shelves

Cleaning Materials

  • Any child-sized cleaning materials that don’t currently fit on the Practical Life Shelves are stored here, empowering the children to clean up their own messes.

Montessori Homeschool Room Tour - check out our essentials for a great Montessori homeschool room, and what Montessori really looks like in our home

Check out some Montessori homeschool room tours from my fellow Montessori homeschool bloggers:

Natural Beach Living ~ The Natural Homeschool ~ Living Montessori Now

The Kavanaugh Report ~ Mama’s Happy Hive ~ Sugar, Spice and Glitter

Child Led Life ~ Every Star Is Different ~ Grace and Green Pastures

12 months of Montessori Learning

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16 Comments

  1. This is a lovely space and I love to see all your materials displayed so beautifully! I learn so much every time I visit your blog. Thanks for all the links and tips.

  2. You space is so beautiful. I really appreciate the wealth of practical and honest tips. I love the little touches such as the paper chain of kindness.

  3. I love how you talked about the reasons for having a homeschool classroom and discussed so many other aspects of your pictures. We’re in the process of investing in materials every month. I agree it’s completely worth it! What a great room to learn in!

    1. Hi Kara-
      They’re actually super-cheap hardware store shelves! I bought them for less than $10 on sale, but they usually run around $20-30. They also have a small hole in them so they can be stacked.
      I know they’re a bit bare bones, but they are super sturdy and I prefer them to the Ikea shelving that we have in the playroom and bedrooms because they are open and can fit trays of any size (our square shelves, work has to go in sideways and it’s not as attractive). I’ve also been told Jysk sells them, but I’d probably go with Home Depot.

    1. It’s actually an outdoor rug from Homesense. It’s hand-woven plastic but feels really nice under their feet – and it’s really easy for the kids to roll up if they want to do something on the bare floor. (I wanted something that they could roll and wouldn’t cause too much friction or extra padding when they were using their work mats.) Fair-trade and under $20!

  4. I love your space! And it was very interesting for me to read your reasons for setting up a separate space for G and your other daycare children. As I have learned myself in a very painful first experience, each person’s Montessori space must not only follow the child, but must reflect the parent/caregiver’s philosophy and style as well. I appreciate that you spent the time to outline your reasons for us, it helps to reflect not only upon the how but also the why.

    1. Very well worded, I will second that and save me some time. 😉 Thank you so much for sharing with us, I am trying to not only organize my homeschooling space but give it meaning to the children, too. I’ve searched for a concise example and this page sums it up nicely. You have been a blessing to this family! Best regards.

  5. I am so thrilled Ive come across this site. I am taking on homeschooling this year and I feel overwhelmed the last few days. Seeing this has given me clear directions and ideas of what I can do. Thank you so much for this! You did an awesome job <3

    1. Hi Gina, there are several sites that sell them (Adina, Montessori Services, etc) but unfortunately, I purchased mine second-hand and have not been able to track down where it was purchased from and the other sellers have different styles. I hope you can find one that you like!

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