A Bed Is For Sleeping

A bed is for sleeping in.
A couch is for lounging around.
A kitchen table is where you eat your meals.
The toilet is for (hopefully I don't need to fill in the blank for you on this one.)
For so long our kitchen table has been the hub of our every day activity.
We eat breakfast at the table.
We do school at the table.
Arts and crafts, yup, the table,
Lunch.
Dinner.
Game nights, most likely the table.
So much of our lives revolve around this one piece of furniture. If you take one look at it you can tell. It is scrapped and scratched. It has remnants of nail polish. The underside is one giant unapproved art canvas. The kitchen chairs are beat to pieces. Some are literally falling apart. Others are stained. They really were white once. Really.
Because so much activity happens in our kitchen I think it has caused major distractions to my boy. And a first grade boy does not need any additional distractions. Trust me on this one.
Some of my recent frustration has been over the fact that the kids are unable to focus. Some of this is due to character development, which we are working on. Other factors are it is easy to be distracted in the kitchen. There is food! Snacks calling to the kids from the snack bowl. There is a giant sliding door with a portal to the outside world, where snow beckons. Then there is the dog, that has an attention disorder, she demands it. The kids can be in the middle of a lesson and she will drop her ball in their laps begging for some one to play with her. What 6 year old boy would not love to play with their dog rather than do their school work? Mine throws the ball and tells her to bring it back. So...you see the distractions in place. It is so not working for me at the moment.
The solution:
A school room.
We have more than enough space in our basement. There is no food in our basement. There will be no dog in the basement. No ringing phone to pull me away from teaching. My hope is to create a positive learning environment that my kids can thrive in.
I ordered two of these desks. They will be delivered sometime in the next 2-4 weeks.

I like that they are adjustable to grow with the kids. I am glad they have a large surface area. And the cubby on the side is perfect for the books they use daily. I figure we can make a tray or something, to put the essentials in for the top cubby. Now I am in the process of finding chairs. At first I wanted adjustable chairs. But it appears they only exist in swivel varieties and I really don' think we need swivel chairs. So I may go with the smaller size chairs and move up as the kids grow. I want something where the kids can put their feet on the floor. Which is one disadvantage of kitchen table chairs. And I know the result of those. On knees or as is most days, children hanging upside down on them.
Since the basement has been pretty messy lately, I am in the process of getting it in order. Things are coming together.
Pretty soon, in our house:
The living room will be for entertainment and relaxing.
The bedroom will be for solitary play and sleeping.
The kitchen will be for eating.
And the school room will be for learning!