Distanced. Episode 8 - Cartooned

And we're back!

We took advantage of the time off school to evaluate our learning environment. When we decided to school at home this year, we turned our dining room into the school room. And I set up a workstation at the table that over time took over at least half of it. 

When the weather was nice, it was easy to find alternative places to eat. We enjoyed a lot of our meals on the back patio. But, once the weather turned cold, we were forced indoors and have been eating in the living room. Not ideal, but it was a choice since we needed a stable place for school.

However, I got to thinking about the basically unused office. And when that happens, it usually means that furniture is going to move. I took some measurements and drew up a sketch of an idea. And then, I dove in.

I spent about a week slowly sorting through the stuff that had landed in the office over the past few months. Then, I rotated my desk so that my back is to the wall. Once we gave a shelf unit to my sister, we had room to put the boys desk against the opposite wall. 

The first week back to school was rough. Not because of the new space, just because we got into a night-owl routine that didn't work with getting up early. But, MeTV to the rescue. 

While I was watching Columbo on Sunday evening, Batman saw a commercial for "Toon in with Me" where they show the classic cartoons from 7-8am each morning. He decided that he wanted to watch. Well, on Monday, I ignored the alarm. But on Tuesday, I stumbled out of bed at 7:10, woke him up and we watched the "bad wolf" try to catch the roadrunner, a spinach loving sailor, a black and white cat and a few others. The next day, Robin joined us. And on these days, they were both mostly ready to start school at 9:00. The second week has gone much better.

We still don't have our dining room back to normal, but we'll get there. We're giving ourselves all of January to get everything back in order.