CHILDREN’S DESKS & HOMESCHOOL TABLES

Home and Organization
Written By Cassie Shepherd
 
 

TABLES FOR TODDLERS AND YOUNG CHILDREN - MEALS, PROJECTS, & SENSORY PLAY

When my twins were ready to transition out of high chairs around age two (they’re eight now, crazy!), we decided to get a child sized table for them to eat meals and play on. We kept it right in our kitchen and in our old house our toys were right by it so it served lots of purposes. Well, six years later and we still have the same little table set up in our kitchen! And, it is one of my favorite things in our house because it is child-friendly - it makes their life easier - and mine! My boys (5 & 2) eat on it every day and it isn’t uncommon for us to still do crafts and projects on it. If you’re in the market for a children’s table to keep in your kitchen, there are so many cute ones out there! But, we’re pretty practical and decided to go with the Lifetime Picnic Table for three reasons.

 
 

First, we felt like benches was a must-have for us because we didn’t want loose chairs being pushed around the house or being tipped over. Plus when we have little friends over we can often fit three on each side. Second, they’re convenient to fold up and store. If we have guests coming over and need it out of the way, we can put into the garage. Or, if we had ever been in between our kid’s stages, we could’ve stored it. Also, it is easy to move outside which we do a lot in the summer. Finally, and maybe one of the best benefits is that it’s easy to clean! There are no crevices or chairs to scrub - no paint to chip off. So it is just very durable and will probably last forever. We’ll hold onto it as the children grow out of it so as we have family/friend parties with little kids, we’ll still be able to quickly pull something out for them.

We also have the IKEA Flisat table and there are so many ways you can use it! I probably wouldn’t use it for meals because the table tops come off and it I just think when things spill, it wouldn’t be ideal to clean. But, we LOVE it for sensory play and we use it the most for that. We have four bin inserts we use that I rotate out based on the activity. I have two of the 16 1/2 x 11 3/4 x 4 inch Trofast storage boxes and two of the 7 3/4 x 11 x 4 inch Trofast storage boxes. We have the two small stools that go with the table. My five year old is really getting too big for the stools, but they’re perfect size for young toddlers! Young toddlers probably stand more than they sit though, so I wouldn’t say the stools are necessary. We do occassionaly use the table for play and school work though and if that’s something you’re going to do, you may want to grab the stools. We keep this little table in our playroom which is a bonus room we have upstairs. I’ve done dry sensory activities up there, but I also bring it downstairs when we have messier sensory fillers we’re using. And, as a side note, we have hardwood floors so we put felt pads like these on the bottom of everything in our house - including all the kid’s tables.

 
 

We definitely have a Montessori flare in our home and I love putting together learning shelves for the kids to come and explore. Alternatively to a desk, another fun thing and simple thing to do with young children is to use these Montessori Play Mats. We have the 43x27 inch mats. In traditional Montessori schools they’ll use these to help teach children to define the space they work in. This helps simplify their work or play space so it is easy to clean up and maintain. During work time, children get their own mat, unroll it, choose what they want to work on (or play with) and then once they’re done, they put their work back where it belongs and roll up their own mats. My three oldest went to a Montessori pre-school so this has been something we have adopted into their play space and I would say it has absolutely helped them learn to maintain our home better.

OUR HOMESCHOOLING TABLES

When we first started homeschooling, we had unexpectedly pulled our twins from public school mid-year so we weren’t prepared with supplies at all. But, I am so glad we had that experience because it really taught me you don’t NEED all the things. A dining room table or kitchen island works great for a lot of people! When we first started I wasn’t ready to commit to a full school room because I wasn’t sure how long we’d even be homeschooling so we just put up a folding table we had on hand. Again, we’re pretty practical and had this adjustable height table from Lifetime that we’ve used for so many things (playroom work space, family parties, camping, ect.) We knew this when we put it up, but the main problem with this for school work is the table surface is bumpy so it really isn’t a good long-term solution. But, I would say, if you’re worried about committing to anything long-term, you could use a table like this because it is so multi-purpose. We just used books and clipboards when we needed a smooth surface under our work. And, we already had these child-sized Lifetime chairs from our playroom.

When we decided to make a more dedicated homeschool space, I still really wanted an adjustable table that would grow with the kids. A few years ago my husband had picked up some tabletops from IKEA’s clearance to use for some other projects. He wasn’t using them anymore so we decided if we could make those work that’d be a great way to save a little money. The exact ones we have are no longer available but they were replaced with the Lagkapten Tabletop. Our tops measure 59 x 29.5. For a family style table, I definitely wouldn’t want to go any narrower though. I feel like Ikea is always updating their tabletops though so definitely keep an eye on what they have available.

We decided against using IKEA adjustable legs because we wanted something really durable - I know I am not the only one with toddlers who climb :) So we got these adjustable legs off Amazon because they have the triangular reinforcement. And, we just used the same four green Lifetime chairs we already had.

We liked this set up so well that when we re-did our playroom, we decided to add in another table just like this since we already had the tabletop on hand. So, we actually have two of these exact tables in our home and we bought four new almond Lifetime chairs to go with this table. One thought I’ve had is that as the kids get older and we need more space for family schooling, we can adjust the height and then push the two tables together and it won’t cost us anything. So, I just liked that these tables felt like a long-term solution where we wouldn’t need to be buying new tables as the kid’s grew.

I will say the only thing I don’t like about these table tops is that they don’t wipe clean very easily when we use watercolors and certain types on markers (permanent marker is a pain to get off). We have Quartz in our kitchen and that is SO friendly for paints and watercolors and markers - everything just wipes off so nicely. But, honestly, short of putting quartz on the table (which wouldn’t ever happen ha!) We felt like, especially for the price, we could deal with it. For daily cleaning, I’ll use Clorox wipes or my kitchen spray (Meyers). If there is a tough stain I usually work at it with a magic eraser and Oxi Clean.

TWIN DESKS

Last summer we decided to add some desk’s for my twins in our playroom. We mostly wanted a place for them to have their laptops and be able to keep some of the things they like to work on (journals, coloring/drawing books). We originally decided to go with three of the IKEA Alex drawer units with one long tabletop, but at the last minute I changed my mind and decided to do two separate table tops next to each other just in case we ever want to separate their desks. (If you can’t tell I like to keep my options open ha!) Ikea has lots of tabletops that will work with these drawer units, but, of course, we had stock issues so we found some butcher block slabs at Home Depot that we liked better. We got two of these exact butcher block slabs in 48x24 inches (we almost got the 8 foot one). And, then my husband sanded and sealed them with Polyurethane. We used this exact sealer because it is water-based which makes it so the butcher block doesn’t turn too yellow and we were really happy with the color.

We got their desk chairs from Hobby Lobby. They’re actually cheaper on Amazon, but they come in a 4 pack.

MY SON’S “DESK”

After we did the twin’s desk, my five year old insisted for weeks he wanted his own desk and the little IKEA Flisat table wasn’t cutting it. He doesn’t really need a desk by his sister’s (it’s upstairs and I don’t ever really see him using it independently at this age), but we have a desk we keep behind our couch that held coloring books and some of the kid’s art materials so we decided to clear that space for some of his learning materials. I suspect this area will transition over the next year as he begins more school work, but for now it’s working. I have a little peek into what that looks like for him in this post.

OTHER SCHOOL ROOM LINKS

Here are a few links to some of the other items I get asked about frequently in the pictures above:

If you have any other questions about our work spaces, let me know!

Cassie Shepherd
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