Raise your hand if you knew in March 2020 that school would be relocating to your house? No takers? Me either! And I’m a principal! LOL We were all in a state of shock when we came home for “Spring Break” and soon realized that our world had been turned upside down. In a couple of weeks I realized that this could last much longer than we thought, and that at best, we would need to make a huge shift in the way we had been approaching school, homework and learning. I felt like someone literally said to me, “It’s Time”. When I hear those small voices, I’ve learned to move on them because a few days after I ordered all this stuff, all the desks were out of stock everywhere.
Our house isn’t exactly equipped for 3 kids. Don’t get me wrong! We love our house and we know that we’re blessed to have what we have, but it’s not the ideal space for a family of 5. We figured out early that we’d have to give up a formal dining space to have a playroom, and honestly, we didn’t care. We don’t ever “formally” dine in our house anyway. The kitchen table works just fine for us, and if I’m honest, sometimes we don’t even eat there.
When our daughter was born, we gave up our “office” to make sure that the princess had her own room. It was actually a bedroom that we had made into an office anyway, so it worked out. The boys share a room and it’s not huge, so when learning at home became the norm, we were fresh out of space to make this work easily. The only option we had was to make it work in the playroom.
We were in spring cleaning mode around here anyway, so it was really easy to get rid of some of the older, space-taking toys like the basketball goal and the kitchen set. The kids had literally destroyed the kitchen set, so I was glad to see it go. LOL
To make this work, I knew that I had limited time and space. Ben measured the wall and I started shopping online for kids’ desks that would fit in our space. And we needed to be able to fit three of them in the space. What you’ll learn about me is that I have an expensive eye. I think I get it from my momma. š Of course the desks I found first were at Pottery Barn. There was no way that I could afford to spend that kind of money for three kids. I’m a huge fan of Pottery Barn and I know they produce quality items. I’ve bought several. But, with two educators paying the bill, we just simply couldn’t do it. I decided to search more and I found these amazing Kids’ Craft Children’s Desks. You can check them out here: KidKraft Kids Study Desk with Chair-White
Those desks are the perfect desks for what we needed. They are a good height for all three of my kids. My children were 4, 5, and 7 at the time. They are still a good fit for them although I don’t see my 3rd grader finishing elementary school at that same desk. But for now, it’s good. What I really love about those desks is the storage options. There’s a drawer and two cubby-like spaces. They have a lot of books and since we ended up having to bring them all home with us, it really helped with storage. Side note: My daughter has a whole sewing machine stashed in one of her cubbies. I love that the cubbies have doors too. It makes it really easy to clean up the area and let everything look nice and neat.
Trying to manage virtual school for three kids can be very chaotic and very loud. Everybody’s talking at the same time, so headphones are a must. Because I was really trying to protect my peace, I knew everything would need to have a space or I’d be crazy by the end of this. I bought these headphone hanger hooks for the wall. You can check them out here: Ledot 2 Pack Adhesive Headphone Hanger Hooks for Wall & Desk Table with Protective Silicone Pad, Universal Gaming Headset Mount Holder, Earphone Rack for Sennheiser, Sony, Bose Headphones
The mounting doesn’t mess up the wall and it was a great extra purchase to help keep things organized. The last thing I bought was these Cork Tiles. I wanted to be able to write encouraging messages to the kids, and the teacher in me knew how important it is to display their work in front of them. I also used these tiles in the earlier virtual school days to post all the new info the kids needed. You can check them out here: Quartet Cork Tiles, Cork Board, 12 Inches x 12 Inches, Corkboard, Wall Bulletin Boards, Natural, 8 Count (108)
The time, money and effort I put into creating this space has been well worth it. I cannot imagine trying to manage all of that at our kitchen table again. Although it’s not perfect, it’s working for us. The desks function as school desks, homework desks, eating desks, crafting and sewing desks, and anything else you can imagine. Everything happens at those desks and I’m so glad we got them.
The reality of situation is that virtual school is here to stay…at least for a while anyway. We’ve got to be prepared for our kids to abruptly come home for school at any time for so many reasons now. Even if you don’t create a space like mine, take a little time to define whatever it is you’re doing so that you don’t lose your mind in the process. It’s a lot to handle, so being organized helps a lot. For me, I can only imagine the crazy lady I’d be if I hadn’t taken the time to create this space. Hope this helps you all! Hang in there! And give yourself some grace!
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