Welp, we just finished our first week of school…at home. Remember back in March when we talked about the awful worst-case-scenario where we’d still be doing home learning in the Fall? Here we are!
Our school district is conducting 100% distance learning until at least Thanksgiving. So what do you do when you’re facing 3+ months with a Kindergartener and a 3rd Grader doing school from home? If you’re me, you completely ignore all the stressful parts of it and convert your dining room into a super awesome classroom!
I think it was mid-June when I decided to go all in on this. I knew that our method of lazily plodding through my daughter’s list of assignments wasn’t sustainable with 2 kids, so I decided we were going to need a designated space and a structure to our day. Then I went to Target, and the not-a-dollar section was full of cute little bins and school supplies and classroom decorations. So I bought…all of them. Then I went to the actual school supply section and went nuts (have I ever mentioned that I LOVE school supply shopping?) Then I did the same at Michael’s. And as things came together I started placing 6-7 Amazon orders a day for new stuff I’d just thought of.
And now here we are. Our house is on the small side. My husband set up an “office” in the corner of our bedroom. The kids each have their own bedroom, but they are cramped and every spare inch of space is used for toy and clothing storage. I have my craft room, but it is always (ALWAYS) a mess. It was clear that the best space we had for home learning was the dining room that almost never gets used (especially in these times when we can’t have guests over anyway).
The first thing I did was take the art off the open wall and hang a white board and 2 bulletin boards in its place. It feels like a miniature version of a typical school setup to me. Next, I created a calendar center and daily schedule. I want to start each day before they Zoom in to their classes with a quick overview of what they can expect for the day, and what to look forward to in the coming week.
The weather station is a little extra (okay okay, the whole room is a lot extra), but I saw it at Target and it seemed like a fun thing that can help get both kids (but especially my Kindergartener) engaged early in the day. Because I’m me, I had a large roll of magnet material on hand. So I added a cute border used double-sided tape to attach all the main pieces to it. Then I laminated all of the accessory pieces and glued little rare-earth magnets to the backs of them. The kids are already having a great time looking up the forecast and dressing the panda bear every morning.
To finish this wall, I got maps and the alphabet (it continues on the opposite wall) from Amazon, and a pad of different dry-erase charts from Target. The chip-board words are also from Target, and are strategically placed to cover the nail holes from the art that used to hang on this wall. (Notice anything familiar about the words I chose? When I found them it felt like destiny.) Everything is hung with Command Strips or Command Hooks, so when this long national nightmare is over I can take it all down and you’ll never know it happened.
The window treatment is my favorite (I loves me some decorated windows). I had already started gathering classroom supplies when I found this idea on Pinterest, but this is definitely the piece that made the whole vision come together. I got quart-sized paint cans and a bunch of tulle, and with an awl, some butcher’s twine, and a couple of tension rods, I had curtains!
In the back corner we have a little reading nook. I made the pouf years ago for Allie’s first “big girl room,” which was Frozen-themed. The book rack came from Amazon and the posters came from Michael’s. I love the “100 Acts of Kindness” chart. It’s another thing that makes it feel like an actual classroom to me, and helps bring the learning from online to real-life.
On the other side of the china cabinet, I put a low bookcase where we can store books, school supplies, the printer, and whatever other essentials we find we need this year. I added a couple of motivational posters because of course I did.
Finally, I found this adorable clock on Amazon and decided to hang it over the doorway. It fits my rainbow color scheme, and it has enough information on it that I’m hoping it will help me help my kids to learn how to tell time. The motivational sayings above the doorway (and above the windows on the opposite wall) are a border set from Target.