Ah, there are such wonderful "ideas" out there and when we were planning on moving, I was browsing all sorts of pics of "school spaces". I was so so excited with the thought of having a separate school space. Why? I had a small house and lots of kids in the house!
My first year with MVCA, a K12 run online public school I had these kiddos....
the next year I had these... with a baby included by December.
Where ever we were...we filled up the room. Most days there were children in all rooms of the house and the bathroom/laundry room was covered in art projects. We had to clean up at every transition, AM snack, lunch, supper (in which we needed to find homes for all the materials until the next day). Things would go from table to counter to floor to table to counter to floor, etc. It was a hassle. Couldn't walk across the living room without stepping on something or someone. It was a house bursting at its seams. However, that being said, this fall when I was entering into applesauce season...I really missed schooling in our kitchen! I can't supervise school and wash/slice and cook those apples when the kids are in the basement! LOL And, yes, the kids do much better with an adult presence. In the old house, I could be anywhere in the house and hear and know just what was going on and they could hear me. However, in this house and them in the basement. Ha! Yep...it really cuts down what you are able to do during "school hours". I'm a pretty good multitasker....but set up really makes a difference. Ha! Ah, well, as I always say....
PROS AND CONS TO EVERYTHING!
So, back to the "new" house. We are "making do". It's lovely to have space where I don't have to clean up and move things every time I turn around. I really can't put stuff up on the walls like I wanted because of the dampness, temperature at night etc. Just like at a school I use to work at. By morning, most things were on the floor. Oh well. We were bumbling along. I'm mainly was with T., the kinder most mornings and I was constantly knocking things off his desk and complaining about lighting so this weekend I got to work and moved this half of the basement around to look like this.
There isn't a perspective to get the whole side...there are shelves along the right side that you can't see...I decided to go ahead and bring in the filing cabinet (even though I don't like it in there) so we had a magnetic surface to work on, right next to the kinder's desk. :-) Practicality weighing over appearance.
I put a table along the back wall...so I would stop knocking everything over. I moved T.'s computer to the other side of the room so that the lights were directly behind us. His desk was on the right side but as you can see....the lights were not placed in the middle of the room. Isn't that interesting? :-D Today was our first morning like this. It's not what I ever imagined...some day we'll get custom shelving in there and all the mismatched shelves gone. More organization but until then...I can live with it. :-D I could see everything and I had no issues with knocking things over . That table in the back I just set all his phonics activities in a line and we went from one to another. No pushing things to the floor to make room for something else, no shuffling through the pile trying to find what I need. All at our fingertips!
The HIGHLIGHT!
The dry erase board got mounted!!!! This was a $12 find at a sale this summer! YIPPEE!
My bet is that it's going to get a lot of use!
* This is one side of our basement. The stair case goes down in the "middle" and so the room is broken up. On the east side it is mainly storage cabinets and my two older son's desks/computers. A bit more cozy, but it works. The kids all play on the west side though....more floor space.
No comments:
Post a Comment