When did your kids need desks?

[konapoppy]

I don’t want our dining table to be the only place the girls do work. At what age did you need desks? Just thinking ahead a bit as their phonics work piles up on our kitchen counter.

[hermione]

When COVID hit and we we were all home trying to work and do school. If that had not happened, 4th grade was when there was too much for me to be happy with it on the dining room table.

[waverly]

We are fine using the dining room table so I don't think there is a set age.

However, of course during e-learning they both had desks. I have since gotten rid of both the desks that we used for e-learning.

DD has a desk in her room for crafts as part of her loft bed. DS piles his desk with crap and doesn't use it, so we never moved the desk back to his room, and he still does homework at the dining room table. DD does her homework on the couch but she is only in 5th. Maybe this changes in high school, but DS is in 7th and it hasn't changed. If he is in his room, he is distracted and not working.

[minniemouse]

I would say by 5th grade, which is middle school here. That said, dd1 got a kids size desk in 2nd grade. She never used it for homework though. It was mostly used for drawing,coloring, and displaying of knick knacks. By 5-6th grade she needed a work space and because that desk was so small, she ended up at the dining room table for most of middle school. She has an adult size desk now.

[steamboat185]

We have 5th and 2nd graders and still use the kitchen table. We had desks from 2020, but those are now a Lego/arts and crafts area. I feel like if any flat area we give them will just get overrun and we have to keep the table cleanish to eat.

[nsl]

My 7th grader still uses the dining room table even though he has a perfectly good desk 15 feet from the dining room, but my 10th grader uses their desk every day. That's a pretty recent development as most of their homework is on Canvas (and they have a full-sized screen at their desk) while my 7th grader still has a lot of pencil-and-paper work.

[Susie]

My DD is in 3rd grade and she has had one since 2nd grade, when she got my old childhood bedroom furniture.  She doesn't really "need" it yet though.

I'm actually not sure how I want to proceed at this point because a lot of her homework is on her school-issued Chromebook.  I don't like devices in the bedroom, which is where her desk is.  I'm thinking of where to set up a place that's more "public" for her keep and charge her Chromebook and do that work.

[Deleted]

My kids are 17, 14, and almost 12. My older two had desks when they were like 6 and 9 for a few years. Ultimately they were dumping grounds and they wanted to get rid of them. We got rid of them at some point pre covid. My oldest now has a makeup vanity in her room, but still no desk. My middle doesn’t have a desk, but I think needs a makeup vanity if she’s willing to part with her chair.

My youngest got a desk for Christmas last year against my better judgment because he really wanted one. It’s mostly a dumping ground.

Not a single piece of homework has ever been done at a desk in a child’s room in my house ever. They do it at the kitchen or dining room table, on the couch, on their bed, on the office desks, basically anywhere that is not their desk.



ETA: we also have three desks in the main office. One is my work desk now, one is where the desktop PC sits and the other was intentioned to be for the kids. It’s just where Chromebooks and drones charge. It was helpful in covid schooling times because I wouldn’t let my kids do covid school from their rooms.

[niq]

V is in 5th grade. We're still using a dining table but I think it's time to switch to a desk. He has a laptop that comes home from school every day, and he has some homework most nights.

In general we are really bad about keeping things in their place in the house.

[dcn]

Well we have a desk but my kids do any homework at the table, despite me encouraging them to use the desk. The table is more central and they like having me/H close by for help. Kids are 2nd and 5th grade. They maybe have a worksheet to do once or twice a week though so it’s not a huge deal yet.

[konapoppy]

Thanks! Sounds like we have a few years and I just need to figure out a solution to the current need.

[luckystar2]

I don’t really feel like it’s ever been a real need. When she was little she did homework at kitchen counter and it allowed for her to easily ask for help since I was right there. But that was when she had the most papers/worksheets and needed a surface to write things out. When she was older everything switched to chromebooks and there’s very little paper/writing that happens. So a lot of times she sits on the couch and does her work on her Chromebook.

We switched our guest room into an office with desk for her in 6th grade just a couple months before Covid. So she did use that space for remote school at least. Later on I started using her desk for remote work and she would complain she wanted to use it when she got home from school. So I finally got another desk for me…and she barely uses hers. Sometimes she will use it on the weekend when she has more work to do and wants some quiet.

[InBetweenDays]

DS is in 9th grade and still prefers to do homework at the kitchen island. And he has minimal homework. DD is a senior and she switches between doing it at her desk in her room, and doing it in the living room with us (depending on how tough the homework is and whether she wants company). I'd say it wasn't until last year that she really needed somewhere she could go, close the door, lay everything out, and focus.

[felicity]

I think it depends a lot on the kid and I'd wait until you think they'd use it. DS has his old little kids table in his room that he uses like a desk, but it's for his own art projects and stories he likes to write. He wakes up super early most days and likes to hang out in his room doing that stuff before we get up. He prefers to do homework and school projects in the kitchen, and I'm okay with that. I plan to upgrade him to a desk at some point since the table is getting small for him, but it works for now.

[thebreakfastclub]

My 5th grader doesn't have homework. I never had a desk growing up, I just used to sit on my bed with a lap desk. I suppose as a result, I've never thought about getting my son a desk!

[kitty]

6th grade (beginning of middle school). We have 3 kids and two desks. The bigger kids each use a desk and my 1st grader does his homework at the dining room table since he has the least. I’m thinking that by the time my youngest is old enough to have more significant homework, my oldest may rebel against the desk in the public area and try to spend all her time locked in her room leaving her desk open for DS2.

The desks in a common area vs bedroom was a conscious decision with how much time they were spending online on Chromebooks during the pandemic.

[cmeon]

My kids have had desks in their rooms (and the family room) for years. My HS junior started using his in-room desk around the time he started having HS homework (sometime in the 9th grade), and he still only uses it for paper based homework (for him, that's been calc and physics [pointed out because not all kids even take those classes]) where he needs to spread out more than his family room desk offers. My 8th grader rarely has homework, but she usually uses her family room desk (also where desktop computers live) or spreads out on the counter.

[expectantsteelerfan]

Both my kids have desks in their rooms and neither does homework at their desks in their rooms. Ds does his on his couch in the living room. Dd does hers on the island in the kitchen or on her bed in her room. I think the fact that most of their homework is done on their chromebooks makes having desks less of a necessity.

Ds does have a desk in our home office where he has his pc for gaming though, and he does use that lol.

[mrshandy]

My kids are 10 and 13. They both had desks during virtual learning that they used. We got rid of DD's because her room was too small for it. DS's currently has a snake cage on it. He does have another area in the basement where he could work eventually. Neither of them get much homework. DS does his at the kitchen table which works well because we can limit distractions or looking at his phone.

[momin2013]

DS is in 5th and no need for a desk is in sight (he hasn't even had homework yet this year).

[nicolewi]

We all prefer kitchen table...or other locations that are not desks! DS has a desk but it's covered with toys/stuff.

DD had a desk during Covid, which is now being used by her little sisters for an art corner. They love that, but they have no interest in doing homework there.

[fancynewbeesly]

My kids LOVE their desks. DD1 uses hers daily-she is in 7th grade. DD2 is in kindergarten and when she has homework she only wants to work at her desk.

[redpenmama]

My kids are 12, 9, and 6 and all use them regularly (not always for school purposes). We got them for the older two when they were doing school from home. We have a double desk in my office, and my 6-year-old uses the other side often for crafts, coloring, playing with small toys, etc. That said, no one really does their homework at their desks. They all congregate at the kitchen island or dining room table so that I'm nearby to help. But our desks have been well loved nonetheless.

[erbear]

Totally depends. DD2 started using hers for work around 5th grade. DD1 (14) doesn’t have desk and always does homework in the kitchen.

[konapoppy]

I am really glad I asked. Sounds like we would have wasted a lot of space!