Restructuring our Living Space for Lock Down
On Friday, I met with my school community to discuss whether or not we would close the school. After a great discussion, we decided it we would continue provided the government or other international schools don’t close. A few hours after that meeting, the government issued a statement that all schools are closed as of Monday.
That put a bit of fuel into my tanks, and over the weekend I sat behind my computer working through the details of providing structure for our new distance learning program. By Sunday, I realized that while we may have some reasonable online systems in place, it would be a big challenge to work from home without a designated space.
My home is not large: 70 square meters for a family of 4. However, with a good sized room we all sleep in, a playroom, and a living room/kitchen we had found ourselves quite content on the day to day. Things have changed though, and we were ready to adapt quickly.
We decided that the kids need more space, and we need private space. So… out with the playroom and in with the home office. And with social distancing now a thing, a living room really does not need to be anything but usable to you and your family… so welcome Melali Homeschool!
We started by removing everything from both rooms and putting it in a massive pile in the living room. I worked on getting the heavy stuff moved into place, while Mila went into a deep organizational binge.
We debated a few things… should be piano remain in the homeschool, or moved to the bedroom or office? Should we add things to hang up the costumes? How long was this setup going to last?
Over the period of a day, our supplies came out and found their way to a new spot. By the afternoon we had flipped our home into one which was designed as a shelter and respite from the outside world, to one which was our entire world.
The homeschool contains most of what I would ideally want in a school… Music, Science, Art, lots of crafting supplies and a kitchen to cook in. Oh, the student to teacher ratio is alright too :)
The office is kind of minimalist at the moment, but has one super important feature… a door that can be closed to allow for personal space (for both Mila and I) to be created as needed.
We radically changed the paradigm of our lifestyles as a society, so it feels fitting that we would take the time to re-arrange our living spaces to reflect this. It is a good moment to start to question the function and value of each space. I personally was thinking of how we could make our bathroom multipurpose as well, but fell a bit short on that one. The only thought was to move a bookshelf in and make it a library, not least because the best reading happens in that room already!
