Even if you live in a homeschool friendly state, like mine, it's still a good idea to keep things organized. It's important to know where you've been in order to know where you're going...but more than that, I like to make notes on what my children excelled at and what they might need a bit more help in.
Furthermore, every new homeschool gets overwhelmed with keeping up with everything....cooking, cleaning, school, play, family...we carry a lot upon our small shoulders. We also stress out when we feel like one of those balls in the air are wobbling. Keeping organized helps you make time for everything important to you.
There are 3 main areas of homeschool organization: The Records, The Room and The Schedule.
Even if you plan on using an online charter school or pre-packaged curriculum you still have to keep some records and be 'in on' your child's education. To plan out your own curriculum might seem a bit daunting to those just starting out. Much of it will depend on both what grade level the child is in and also what their interests are. Using resources like World Book *(see links) or Core Knowledge will help you get a better idea of what to include. Keep things simple to start.
Once you have an idea of what they need to learn, you have to figure out how to flow from one lesson to the next as well as keeping track of what has been done already.
Here's some of my favorite places for free tidbits:
Donna Young: Organizers and forms galore. Everything from homeschool planners, chore charts, to grocery shopping lists.
Homeschool Mom: A Homeschool Planner & Organizer includes meal sheets
Organized Home: Great planners, but also great free articles
Teacher Forms: These are the more traditional teachers forms: Attendance, grading, etc
Chart Jungle: Daily, Weekly, Monthly schedules/planners
Do you need a specific 'school' room? No. Having a specific area dedicated to school is going to depend on the type of learner your child is. If you're doing unschooling, then you don't really need anything fancy, but if you're following a more traditional path, then having a room for all the books and papers makes things a little more organized.
We use our living room for school. That's not to say we don't also do school in the car, or at the gym - because we do. But when at home (if stuck inside or if covering a more difficult topic) we use the livingroom. I remember when my livingroom was pretty, when I had my favorite pictures of my family up on the walls. Now it's covered in educational posters (nany of which I made myself!). Over the years I've just found it easier to keep the kids focused and everything organized to have a central location. They know where the books go, where their worksheets are located. Where the educational games are, etc.
My advice on decorating your school room is to again keep things simple. Too many posters or tools and you'll succeed only in creating a distraction for the kids. We have the tv off during the day so it's not a distraction either.
I found most of the posters and such for my school room at Walmart or Dollar Tree stores. They have these great place mats with the solar system, the presidents, states, etc on them (and now they decorate my walls). The Dollar Tree had several Alphabet strips in both block and cursive printing.Etc.
Delegation is the key to keeping the house clean. Look at how messy a public schoolers home is - and their kids are only home for a few hours a day. Between worksheets, experiments and play time, our house can look like the center of a battle. Everyone has to carry their own weight because as awesome as I am, I'm no Super Mom!
The kids are responsible for:
My DH and my responsibilities: