Chica’s Desk Necessity

Double-post alert! Don’t know how I’m managing this, but I’m in a groove, so I’ll keep typing. :)

So.

I think we can all agree that we’re about to kick off the most unconventional school year ever, amiright??

Everything feels just as strange and transitional and fluid and undecided as it did in the spring when this all began. But times one hundred, since we’re kicking off a new year instead of just closing out the final nine weeks of one, so we’ve really got to buckle down and educate some kiddos—some way, some how!

Now. Our school district informed us a few weeks ago that at least the first three weeks of the school year would be 100% virtual.

And following that announcement, we were required to turn in our household decision for the period after those mandatory virtual weeks. To distance learn, or to brave in person, that is the question.

I’ll spare you the heavy, heavy thought process of coming to terms with our household decision (impossible, no-win choice for parents the world over), and just say that we made the choice to continue with distance learning for the first “cycle” of 30 days following that mandatory virtual three weeks—in the event that our school district is even able to open for in person learning at all.

So what that means is that my kiddos will be at home and underfoot and “in school” within these casa walls through early October.

(Insert crying and prayer requests.)

Still surreal to type that, considering how this all began nearly six months ago. But it is what it is. And we have to soldier onward.

The positive of virtual learning: absolutely no back-to-school shopping for clothes or shoes or backpacks or lunch boxes. No need, whatsoever. And should they return to school in person in October, it will be time for a seasonal change in clothes, anyway. So, yay, for the ease of at least one thing.

On the flip side, one major downside of virtual learning: setting up a designated school space, for Chica, in particular, as she’ll have the heaviest work load and the most required hours of streaming classroom learning.

Kitchen table work just ain’t gonna cut it, folks. She needs a quiet place to focus without interruptions. And the dining room just happens to be across from the hubby’s study (he’s still mandated to work from home), so it isn’t exactly ideal, either.

Enter: Find Chica A Space-Saving Desk For Her Modest Room mission

All my kiddos are beyond blessed to have their own rooms—along with all the goods and gloriousness that fill them—but Chica’s is by far the smallest with the most difficult configuration. Complicated door and window placements, and very little free space.

So in my quest for a desk (hehe...rhyming), I decided on a corner configuration, to maximize every square inch.

Her giant, human-sized bin of stuffed animals got the boot from the corner (it’s currently hanging out elsewhere), and when I ordered and assembled this simple, inexpensive, raw-wood desk from Tarjay, it fit like a charm. Halleluiah.

And though the hubby really wanted a chair with a back for her, I was pretty keen on a tiny stool that could save even more space—and keep from being whacked into her lovely armoire. So when we found this little velvet one at Homegoods, we were sold. :)



So, thank heavens for swapping out the coats of back-to-school gear with a back-to-school desk. I can deal with that.

One additional run to the store to pick up some adorable decorations and functional items for her space, and we were all set.



Just look how precious (and condensed!) it all is. Woohoo!

Tucked happily into the corner with the lovely wall of windows next to it. :)

Chica is absolutely IN LOVE with her little space. And I DIED when she brought in her computer and rotary phone. She’s all set, hehe.









Sooooo grateful that this all worked out. And soooo grateful that Chicklet got a new leaning desk in her room when we moved to SA, so she’s already set up logistically—even though she won’t likely be doing unsupervised calls or streaming.

She did, however, adorably reorganize everything currently sitting on top of her desk so that she could make way for the decorative little school supplies she’ll receive mañana. So stay tuned for her setup. :)

And thank heavens Little Man is too young to need all of this hullabaloo quite yet.

So...working during these final days to make EACH kiddos feel special and specifically set up for this new, strange school year.

Hope all you other stressed parents out there are staying healthy and sane as the school year kick-off LOOMS.

Over and out.