Over the years, as Ive learned about the offerings of K¹², and read posts on making a purposeful home-learning environment, or pointers for a successful home-learning environment, and even explored ways for my children to use K¹² for their schooling, I have returned often to a passage from John Dewey’s Democracy and Education. He writes about the importance of environment in education. Here’s what he says…

…the only way in which adults consciously control the kind of education which the immature get is by controlling the environment in which they act, and hence think and feel. We never educate directly, but indirectly by means of the environment. Whether we permit chance environments to do the work, or whether we design environments for the purpose makes a great difference.

I know that a lot of deliberation has gone into the curricular environment for K¹² courses, but at the end of the day, students work somewhere, and that “somewhere” plays an influential role in their learning no matter how well the curriculum is designed. Here’s my question: We all know what a school classroom environment looks like—chairs and desks, blackboard, maps, encouraging posters, etc. But what are some of the keys you have found for shaping your home environment if you educate your child at home, or use online curriculum? Do you have maps? A list of handy websites? Paper and pencil? Background music?

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