Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: School furnishings

This topic has 9 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 3 months ago by cre8something.

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

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January 10, 2012 at 7:12 pm
simple home
Member
I have been putting off buying any kind of school desks because we do school at the kitchen table for the most part. But it has become apparent I do need *something* for writing purposes for my younger kids. They have a hard time sitting on their knees the entire time. Do any of you have suggestions?
January 10, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Tristan
Participant
Booster seats at the table! We use several different ones we’ve gathered, but the two features we love are adjustable height (a must for getting the child at a good height for writing) and a seatbelt for little ones (hehe!). We have 5 using booster seats at the table right now, ages 7, 6, 4, 2, 1. The older ones don’t have seatbelts, but they still need the height adjustment.
We have these with adjustable height and seatbelts for littler ones:
http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Healthy-Deluxe-Booster-Green/dp/B0000DEW8N/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326223072&sr=8-1
And more basic ones with no seatbelt for older kids.
They all have straps to fasten the booster to the chair. WalMart carries several different ones at decent prices.
January 10, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Misty
Participant
I will just tell you my experiepence. We had “desks” you know school ones and it was more problems than it was worth. We put them to the curb!
Now if you are talking about a “normal” desk, we love that. I have one the kids go down to the typing at and my dh is in the process of building bookcases so I can move my stand up ones and we can put in a little “work station” (AKA desk) for them to have.
I know the table can be borning and hard but maybe just getting them up to move a bit might help. Also, unless you have the space either type of desk might be an issue?
Just some thoughts, good luck Misty
January 10, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Janell
Participant
For personal desks, we like the small lifetime folding table from Costco. The price is cheaper at the Costco store. This table is adjustable which makes a good fit for smaller people. We use the same lifetime folding chairs with a box, bin, or stepstool to help little dangling legs reach a supporting surface. The tables and chairs are folded down and slipped under a bed for storage when not in immediate use.
January 10, 2012 at 7:35 pm
suzukimom
Participant
We have little folding plastic tables… in theory you could put 2 kids side by side easily (so don’t think tv tray). The height is adjustable to about 6-8 different heights. When we aren’t doing school, they get folded up and put in the girl’s bedroom under the crib. The kids have little plastic chairs they can use with them too. They can move them to see the computer, put them together when we do stuff together, or move them a bit apart so they aren’t bugging each other.
We also used them at Christmas to setup places for all the kids to eat. We use them durnig “movie nights” when we have a veggie platter and meat/cheese tray.
Over-all they are very useful.
January 10, 2012 at 7:49 pm
jmac17
Participant
We have several of the Ikea “vika” tables. You can get them with adjustable legs so that they go as low as about 4 inches lower than standard. I like them because are light and easy to move around, so we can adjust the configuration as needed. It also makes vacuuming up craft materials easy. We use two as computer desks, as well as combining a few to make a large craft table, where we also do some things like copywork.
The other option is to use adjustable chairs. Most office chairs are, but you can sometimes find stools that are adjustable, or that are a bit higher than normal.
January 10, 2012 at 11:06 pm
Christine Kaiser
Participant
Another VIKA table user here! We have the 7ft long as a computer desk, depending on what kind of legs you use you can have 2-3 people sitting next to each other, with one iMAC and two MacBooks. We use the cheapest VIKA version as a worktable. The hight is fine for my 5 and 7 y/o but like jmac17 said, you can buy lower legs with it. One thing though, markers are hard to get off the table top, but since it is a “work” table I don’t really care and for 10$ for the table top it can be easily replaced if it gets too bad.
January 11, 2012 at 2:49 am
simple home
Member
Lots to think on, thanks to everyone for your input. I may have more questions after researching all these suggestions.
Thanks again ladies!!
January 11, 2012 at 3:10 am
thepinkballerina
Participant
We use a kid sized table with 4 chairs we had in our playroom already. It’s made by Kidcraft. It can used for playing on also as well as school work. Hope you find what works for your family!
Tara
January 11, 2012 at 1:28 pm
cre8something
Member
I would say stay away from school desks. We have two that we bought from a school that closed last year and they rarely want to sit in them. Wish I had just bought an adjustable table for multiple purposes…you can’t do much other than sit and do book work in a school desk the surface is just not big enough. We still end up doing most of our work at the kitchen table which is what I was trying to avoid. live and learn.