Preparing a Distance Learning Space

We (Los Angeles) have been in this COVID-19 pandemic for 173 days now. I don’t think any of us thought it would be this long. I know I certainly didn’t. When Ava’s school sent her home on March 13, it was just for two weeks. Then that two weeks turned to four. Then that four weeks turned to, “we’ll see you for Summer.” Then that turned in to “we’ll see you for Fall.” Now, here we are. Starting the Fall trimester of the 2020-2021 school year. Virtually. At home.

I, personally, don’t mind this. I’d rather err on the side of caution. Kids touch e-ver-y-thing. They share food and clothes. They sneeze on each other and don’t wipe their noses. Imagine trying to contain a deadly virus with all that going on! No, thanks. I’ll keep my kid home.

With that, I set out to get Ava’s distance learning space ready for the Fall, Winter, and maybe even Spring. It needed to be three things:

1. Compact. Our apartment doesn’t have a ton of space for extra furniture or separate areas. So I needed her learning space to be compact and minimalistic.

2. Interesting. Ava does not like school. She will find any and every excuse to get out of doing her work. She also doesn’t like sitting. Seriously, spend an hour with her and tell me if you ever saw her sitting. So I need her learning space to intrigue her, excite her, and convince her to sit for chunks of minutes at a time.

3. Functional. Friends? Friends. There are books, paper, pencils, erasers, folders, tablets, cords, scissors, craft stuff, headphones. And did I mention books and paper? Ava is a hoarder of both. And I’m a neat freak. So these things need to be within her reach, in an organized and useful way.

I scoured Pinterest at 2am for weeks over the Summer looking for inspiration for this space. I had bought the desk during week 2 of the pandemic. But it seemed so bare and lonely. I wanted to snazz it up (is that a phrase?!) a bit. So I made several trips to Target and Ikea, enduring hour long lines and sold out inventories. But I was able to get everything I needed.

I spent one Saturday afternoon putting it all together. I was proud of it. It hit each item on my list. But when Ava walked in, saw it, and then hugged me, I knew she loved it too. Then her dad saw it and said “that’s one damn good corner.” Let’s just hope the school year works out as smoothly!

Just in case you see something you like, you can find links below.

Cork Board
1st Grade Goals Chart
Chair
Desk
Pegboard
Accessories for Pegboard
Craft Cart