Peacefully homeschooling. Zero conflict. No whining or complaining. Schoolwork that gets accomplished without nagging or tears (from the kids or from you!). Sounds ideal, right? It is definitely something we all dream of and hope for and strive to achieve. If your home is anything like mine, it doesn't happen. At least not every day, and not all day on the days that it does happen. I have four sweet kids... and four very different, dynamic personalities attached to those four kids. And those personalities don't always mesh.
We have had a lot of struggle with homeschooling this year. Not with the schoolwork itself, but just with life. There has been a lot of conflict between my two school-age kids this year. She's the bossy older sister, he's the irritating younger brother. She sits still (mostly) to do her work, he doesn't sit still ever.
We have a small home. Honestly, it's too small for five people. Someday, I know that God will bless us with a larger home and a big yard to go with it! (Because that younger brother who never sits still, ever, truly needs a lot more outside time than he currently is able to get.) For now, though, I am learning to make it work and to be content. We do not have space for a designated school room or school area, so we spend a lot of time at the table. She takes a chair on one side, he takes a chair on the other side, and they get to their work.
A couple of weeks into the school year, the bickering began. It was mostly petty stuff, and I found myself spending a good chunk of our school time correcting behavior that they should be well past by now. So, we went to Walmart and purchased two, small, tri-fold presentation boards. We came home, and I told them that they could decorate them however they wanted and with whatever they chose, and that was going to give them their own space to do their schoolwork. They were so excited and got right to it! They decorated their tri-fold boards the way they wanted and proudly set them up on the table each day so that they had their own space and couldn't see each other during school time. It worked...for a while.
Now that we are into the second semester, the bickering is back. Even the tri-fold boards provide fuel for their arguments. "She knocked my board down!" "He poked his pencil through my board!" What's a mom to do?
A week ago, I figured it out. My two daughters share a bedroom, and the dresser they had in their room was no longer functional. The drawers were falling apart and just couldn't be fixed. Believe me, I had tried. One of them wouldn't open without major effort on my part, so there was no way my four-year-old girl could get it open. I found a great dresser on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago to replace their old dresser, but I still hadn't gotten the old one out of their room. I knew I wanted to do something with it for my oldest son, but just wasn't sure what.
Last Monday, it hit me. Build him a desk! Since it was an unusually warm January day where we live, I decided to do it that same day. So, I hauled the dresser out of the girls' room and out to the driveway, took a few measurements, got out the circular saw and some other tools, and got to work.
First, I took the drawers out of the dresser and began removing the drawer glides from the inside of the dresser.
Then, I took the circular saw and cut the dresser down to size. That really impressed my oldest son, who is 7 years old. He told me afterward, "Mom, you've got some power!" After cutting down the sides, trimming the cardboard backing, and sanding where I had cut, I reattached the support piece to the bottom, put in the one functional drawer, and voila! A working desk perfect for a young boy!
The next day for school, he asked if he could do his work at his desk. He loved it! He got his work done quicker, he was able to focus on the work in front of him, and there was no bickering.
He still doesn't sit when he does his work, and that's okay. His not sitting isn't bothering anyone, he can tap on the desk or hum without bothering anyone, and both kids are getting their work done in peace, which means that we have peace in the home during school!
You can do it, friend! A little homeschool DIY may be just the thing you need to help your school time flow a little better. I promise, power tools really aren't as scary as they seem, and you just may impress your kids in the process. :)
