After setting up our home school last year; pencil pots and reams of paper at the ready we need to regain our home back. The dining table is for eating on after all, not a school table. So here are some tips on how to re-organise your home after home schooling, we needed to sort everything out anyway in preparation for our new offices which are starting this month. Also, we don’t want to get rid of everything as there is still that lingering worry that another lockdown could happen in the future!
When homeschooling, for the 3 periods we had to do it long term, we had different styles on how we went about this. The first lockdown we were full of energy, and anxiety, we worked long days to cover work and homeschooling, without effecting the kids learning and our work. Both are important and both needed us to carry on as best we could, it was hard to keep up. By the time the 3rd lockdown kicked in we had a completely different mentality; we were frazzled and worked our normal working days with a kid each sat beside us. So, whilst in board meetings I would be answering spelling questions! Not ideal, but we got through it.
Find the right storage
Now the kids are back into school full time, and hopefully from September this will be the case, we have had a Summer Clean up to make our house back to a house again! I have made myself a little makeshift working space area in the corner of the dining room. I have tidied all of the school related items into the big kitchen cupboard. It’s amazing what you can store away when you have the right storage boxes.
I used these fabulous SmartStore baskets with kids from Orthex, they are made from recycled plastic and they look really stylish with the bamboo lids. I think they look really nice on my shelving uni and when I have my office built they are going to take pride of place on my desk. They are perfect for hiding away the many stationery items I own, they are also great for organising the children’s items. We have the matching Orthex self watering plant pots too; Check out my future posts to read more on these!
Hide away the table covers
When we all worked from home and schooled from home, we covered the table up so that it had some protection from pencils and sharp objects – you never know what the kids might do when they are in daydream mode. Isla has a tendency to scratch at things with a sharp pen. So we protected our tables with a wipeable, cheap, PVC style cover that I grabbed from B&M. It lasted the year and was perfect for the task!
Make space in their bedrooms
Next year I will have one child in Year 6 and one child in Year 5. I feel that we need to take Noah’s learning more seriously at home, so does Noah. So we made him his own desk space and considering he has the smallest bedroom in the house, we did quite well. We made Isla a desk space too and she uses it for writing her stories on the laptop, or doing her hair. The perfect space. I feel like we will be a little more prepared for if we need to homeschool once more.
The good thing about storing the homeschooling items away in an accessible storage box is that they can be grabbed at any point, when we need them in the future. The dining table can be transformed into a school table once more and the snack pots can be put on the side.
What did you do with your home when you were homeschooling? Did you change it up? We have since made desk spaces in both children’s bedrooms, so they have their own space for doing homework or homeschooling if it arises it again.
