As summer is coming to a close (this being the longest and shortest summer ever), we’re starting to move toward thinking about Fall. A new season in the new normal. We’ve made some big decisions about school, sending Cash and Quinn for half days. They miss playing with their friends and building projects. They miss structure and routine. I miss those things too.
We also know that it is very likely that school from home will happen again so I’ve tried to prepare us for that inevitable reality. This time I won’t be two weeks post-partum. This time it won’t catch us off guard. This time I hope to plan ahead for those days of learning at home.
Like I did at our old house, I set up a room for the boys, but this time with school and play in mind. They call it their “work room” and so far they spend more time in there than they do their “play room”. I love that they love learning and building and writing and drawing!
There are a lot of things we already had that now have a new spot to live…like clipboards, markers, cookie cutters, notebooks, paper, or science kits.
Some of the things we’ve changed this time around (besides a bigger house with a work room) hopefully will help Cash and Quinn be more engaged with their friends and their teachers. For example, we bought a tv that we’ve placed at eye level so they have a larger screen, but will also be more visible from anywhere in the room while on their video calls. My hope is that they can move more freely around the room while working.
We also bought a bigger table that is centered in front of the tv. They each have their own space now, and even have their own drawer. And being six feet away from the tv, at a table, might allow them to doodle, build, or fidget while also paying attention to the screen. That’s the hope, anyway.
The boys each have their own caddy filled with supplies like scissors, tape, sticky notes, glue, pencils, dry erase marker, and colored pencils. We have the kind with handles so they can easily move it back and forth to their table and the shelf where it lives.
One thing I bought new is a bunch of bins from Target, while they’re available for $3 each. I was initially getting them to store Legos but then realized they’re also perfect for our bookshelves, and these cubby bins have lids, so they’re stackable! Right now the colored bins are for color sorting Legos in the play room and the black ones are for the “work room”. It’s nice to be able to separate paint from scissors from project building material from math manipulatives. The matching book bins are super useful too!
I also created a word wall with some words from Target and a bulletin board I bought last year at The Container Store. It was intended to go in their room, then maybe our office, but it’s perfect for a word wall in the work room!
At the old house, we had too much furniture and not enough space. Two love seats always seemed to take up more space than I wished and never quite fit where they were placed. One now lives in the work room. It’s one that Colin and I bought when we were living downtown and needed a small option for a guest bed. It folds out into a twin bed, which we rarely use, but it’s always nice to have the option.
We’re still growing into the space and learning what might be useful as we move toward the new school year. I hope we have what we need to be able to find joy in learning at home as much as they feel it at school. Right now, I’m excited (and nervous) for them to start the year as a rising preschooler and rising kindergartener. I haven’t quite processed the grief that is just under the surface around missing settling in or the reality of masks at school. Right now, we’re controlling what we can and letting go of what we can’t.
Joyful Striving 