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schooling space and toddlers
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Hi friends. i am hoping you all can give me a bit of help. This past spring, my family of 7, (5 kids; dd-13.5, ds-9, dd-6.5, ds-4, & ds-2.5) moved in with my parents. Now, that has come with a whole boatload of its own issues, not least of which is that my DH works for my dad and the business is doing poorly and we’re not getting paid, much at all. It has cost us our home, our credit, and any shred of financial security we might have ever had before. However, extricating ourselves from the business is both emotionally and realistically tricky. We’re praying a lot. So now we all live here, and a portion of the basement was painted and loosely set up as a playroom/schoolroom.
In this basement space, we have our TV cabinet, our sofa, ALL our books (AAAAGHGHG!), nearly all the toys, our dining room table, and all the schoolwork/supplies. the space is about 16’x18′. there is no door or wall to keep the little boys enclosed. So occasionally they try to roam. Here’s the problem. The space is so cramped and overfilled that on one likes to be there for school. It’s always cool, b/c it’s a basement. the kids hate the creepy crawlies who inevitably visit. They just generally don’t like being in the basement all day. WHen we are all down there, the little boys will play, but it’s really a distraction to my older kids, esp my oldest DS, who really struggles wiith focusing anyway. When I work with one child, no matter how quietly, the others hear and want to be a part of or comment on it. They goof off a lot because of their proximity to each other and when it’s family subject time, it’s hard to get cozy enough.
Sooooo, by the end of last year, prople just started taking their work from downstairs and bringing it up and doing it at different spots upstairs…kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, etc. but then people are annoyed about going up and down the basement stairs and work didn’t always get put where it should be and things were getting lost. On top of that, ALL the toys are in the basement, so the little boys have nothing to do except cause trouble…and they just want to be where we are…they don’t like to be “Sent to the basement!” Sometimes they will go down to play, but it’s not wise to leave them very long b/c they get into things like scissors and markers, which despite being in bins on the highest shelf, they can now get to with chairs. Plus, our basement space is not enclosed, so they can get into other things that they shouldn’t like exercise equipment and my dad’s toolbench.
i’m not sure how to make this work! I don’t know how much I could bring out of the basement school or toy-wise, b/c there’s not a lot of space to put it on the main floor. PLus my mom’s dog is blind and deaf, so i can’t add too many obstacles to the house. but when i force them to stay downstairs, they are miserable, cold, and distracted. The little boys can only hold it together so long down there anyway. AAAAGHGHGHGHGH!
what do you space-challenged and toddler loving ladies do?
TIA,
Amy
I’m sorry for the hard situation you’re in. I pray things get better soon.
I don’t know where you live so I’m not sure if this is an option, but could you do some school outside? Charlotte says to never be indoors when you can be out. When it’s not 110+ outside we like to take our books outside (even if it’s just the front lawn) and read and study together. Sometimes we’ll hike out somewhere (books in a backpack, clipboards for writing, snacks, water, blanket) and study. I let the littles run around for a while but they also will sit for “story time”.
Maybe you could box up some of the stuff (books and toys) that you don’t need right now to create more space. And possibly provide the older kids with milk crates or another kind of box to hold their school supplies and books so that if they wander around the house, they have a place to put their stuff so it doesn’t get lost.
You could use all the bugs for nature study. Maybe if they knew more about the bugs they wouldn’t be scared of them. You could even name them!
Heather
Is it possible for your two oldest to take turns helping with the lotle ones while you teach individal lessons? Maybe the oldest could play with the 2 younget in the basement while you teach say math to your middle two upstairs. Then switch…….do you have a porch with a swing? or take a blanket outside? when the weather is nice I would try to do History readings and Read Alouds outside……maybe this is a goos ‘season of your life to incorporate more Nature Study which would lend itself to being outside…..
Can you do anything in the kitchen together while the 2 yr old is in the high chair occupied with play doh and maybe the 4 year old ‘plays doing dishes’ in the kitchen sink.
Are you older ones Early Birds or Night Owls where you could make quiet time while little ones are sleeping?
Is there any way to ‘fence’ off the space in the basement?
Schooling with little ones is never easy or perfect even in your ownhome. I am sure this makes it even more of a challenge and just mentally, physically and emotionally draining! Pray, Pray , Pray! This is prob a GREAT opp for habit and character training…..if you feel like you are getting nothing else accomplished just focus on those things for a bit.
We do the milk crate boxes for my 2 older ones–they were somewhat independently in their bedrooms so they keep the box with them where they are working and on a shelf when they’re not. I’d also box up some of the toys and rotate them which would help with some of the boredom and space issues (of course that assumes there is storage somewhere else?) Other than that I have no idea, that’s tough.
Maybe you could fill a toolbox with basic school supplies like pencils, crayons, colored pencils, paper, and backpacks or crates with math and language arts books. You could then go to a quiet place like upstairs at a table or the local library (private room) to get the basic core subjects done like math and language arts. Fill this time up with short lessons and bring simple activities to occupy the younger crew (paper to color, books to look at). Read alouds, personal quiet reading, and narrations can be done anywhere around the house and yard. My sister and her children lived at her local library. After their morning walk on a trail, she and her children stopped at the library to get the core subjects done and check out an abundance of books to read at home. I am thirty minutes away from our library…too far for me…but this seems like a dream to me (especially if the library has a beautiful atmosphere).
We do keep our school supplies locked up in orange toolboxes from The Home Depot. I organize like items in cheap pencil boxes and can fit eight in a toolbox.
I understand how frustrating it must be to feel cooped up. A walk before school gets our wiggles out, makes us so ready for that cool spot in the house, and settles us to do our table time. Maybe you could immediately get everyone exercised before going down the stairs and limit how long you stay down in the basement…again just doing math and language arts.
Janell
I don’t have much to add; you’ve gotten so many good ideas already. But I did want to mention one thing we have done for a couple of our easily distracted kiddo’s. We downloaded some white noise onto their mp3 players, soundtracks like rain water, waves, etc. That way my older kids can be in the same general area as my littles, but not hear every sound. It helps out a LOT.
I purchased the white noise tracks from Amazon and I think they were .99 each.
We got them each a decent set of ear buds, too (so that they can be worn without discomfort for longer periods of time). I found some that were last year’s model and very discounted.
~Jenn
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