The best laid plans....sometimes just don't work...

I was excited to have a room to use as a school/play room. Was.

Today I got the brilliant idea to move the small kid's card table from the kitchen (where Doorbuster in a walker likes to grab snacks he can't have off of) into the school/play room to hold the extra computer that is sitting on the floor. I figured we had a few toddler games and learning games and they could go on there to keep Princess busy while the older kids worked.

Bad, Bad Idea.

Apparently at the old house, that was Daredevil's computer and has his games on there (ok, it has rollercoaster tycoon 3, which is a big favorite around here), and he wants to play on it. No big deal! Princess has the attention span of a gnat, along with daredevil, so it should be fine!

Again, Bad, Bad Idea.

When the two of them fight it sounds like a bunch of cats hissing and yowling. They don't use words, they grunt, groan, screech, yowl and howl until I (I know, so helpfully) yell "CUT IT OUT! QUIT FIGHTING AND SHARE." it gets quiet for two more seconds and then the yowling starts up again.

(I generally don't put my kids in time out. I think its a bit silly sometimes. I usually put the object that is being argued about in time out.)

So I walked in the room, and click- off goes the computer. "Sorry guys, guess you can't find a way to play with it together, so off it goes."

Of course, to Princess this is the end of the world, which makes me put her in her room (yes..timeout...she needed a nap). She has given up her mid-day nap and you sure can tell she needs one! Did she nap? No. 5 minutes later she was back in her room after going in the front yard to look for her chapstick, wandering all around, and not coming back in when she was told. There is a no-playing-in-the-front-yard-unless-a-parent-is-outside rule.

After some lunch, some playing, some cleaning up, I allowed the computer to be turned back on. Daredevil is happily playing rollercoaster tycoon. Princess walks in the room, scopes out a empty computer, and instead of asking for help with a game or something, shuts it off. (Note, this computer has issues turning on and off, and once its off, its really really really a pain to turn back on). Then she takes the chair and starts the new joy they have found, gliding around the tile floors on the desk chairs.

Sigh. I was hoping for a lovely room with plenty of (semi)productive learning toys and games....I'm not quite sure if I'm there yet. Maybe I should try for some free cubicles on craigslist and divvy the room up. That kind of defeats the purpose of the room though.

For the sake of prosparity, pictures of the room, clean: