5 Star Stories is a family-run business. My husband and I find ourselves in the enviable position to work at home remotely for travel companies around the world. While it gives us the flexibility to travel and choose our own hours, it also presents challenges. Particularly now, we have an 18-month-old as part of our clan!
Trying to work, run Zoom meetings, and keep a toddler entertained simultaneously is difficult, to say the least. And one of the questions I frequently get asked is how exactly I do that.
One of the ways that we have managed to keep our toddler busy and feeling like a part of the team is to create a homework corner. While our little one is too young to have homework, in fact, she doesn’t even go to school yet; by creating her own space with a table, chair, and activities to do, I believe that she feels a part of our team. And hopefully, we’re setting her up for good habits in the future.
Here she can colour, paint, play with her cards, and flip through mom’s files or travel magazines while still sitting alongside mom and keeping her little fingers away from my keyboard and mouse that seems to be catnip for a toddler. Sometimes I will even pull up my own little plastic chair and join her at the table if there’s work I can do off the computer. She loves handing me her crayons back and forth, making learning and work fun for both parties!
We have also made her homework corner moveable by investing in plastic furniture. While she loves to doodle indoors, the plastic table and chairs are so easy to pick up and move out onto the patio or the grass when it’s a beautiful day outside. This also makes it super easy to clean up the catastrophe that comes with painting or messy play.
One day, in the short years to come, I look forward to further decorating the space with wall charts, boxes of crafts, and bookshelves so that she has a space to go to when she knows it’s time to hunker down and do some work, creating the separation between play and work that children so desperately need.
When it comes time to do so, I’ll be sure to call Kandua, who offers a fantastic, hassle-free way to find a pro you can trust. Having done my fair share of DIY, dealt with more than a few unscrupulous contractors, and lived in a house while building it, I can think of nothing worse than trying to renovate with children. But thankfully, there are more than 30 000 vetted pros on Kandua available to assist with everything from emergency fixes to large-scale renovations or even crafting that perfect homework corner. Read how it works!
This post was sponsored by Kandua.