RE: Kids room in Common House
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com)
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 94 10:34 CST
In our commonhouse plan Sharingwood also designed the kids space 
adjacent to the kitchen, although ours is actually down half a floor (4 
feet below the level of the main floor).

We have currently been doing community dinners for two years now and 
based on that experience I will comment on your assumptions below:

1)   The kids (say ages 2-8) will tend to play where the adults are. The
adults in the common house before dinner, will generally be in or near the
kitchen. If the kids room is far away from the kitchen it won't be used.

This is very age and kid dependent.  My observation is that 2-4 year 
olds want to be near adults, 5 and up could care less as long as they 
are not alone. Our experience is that two or more  5 years olds will 
play happily in a basement as long as there is something fun to do.  A 
single kid wants company and will want to be near adults if there are 
no other kids around.


2)  Kids will tend to play where the warm sunlight is. If the kids room is
not visually inviting (say, placed on the shady cooler north side), kids
won't use this room.

I have not observed this at all in our 10 kids.  They play where ever 
the "action" is. Sunlight has no measurable affect on their play. As a 
matter of fact, as a parent I am amazed that while I bask in the fall 
sunshine, my kids are running in the shadows of the Island.

3)   Because the kids room is placed within view of the cooks (but separated
by glass) parents with toddlers or pre-toddlers will still be able to
effectively participate in the cooking.

This depends on the parents and the toddlers.  Our experience shows 
that kids who make a lot of demands on their parents for attention make 
cooking miserable and the parents usually work out childcare so they 
can cook free of distraction.  There are times as a cook when you do 
not want to be distracted by a 2 year old clinging to your leg and 
frankly, most parents enjoy a break.

Now to answer some of your other questions:

>How have other Kids rooms worked (or not worked)?

Our current kids space is 8 x 10, very small, very little to do.  We 
originally filled it with cast off toys and the adults spent several 
minutes after dinner coaxing the kids to pick up all the toys.  We 
removed most the toys and the kids do fantasy play now, lining up 
chairs to make trains, last night they wadded up a bunch of the old 
drawings and stuffed the "treasure" in various nooks and crannies and 
played find the treasure. Less is more with kids.  I would recommend 
rotating adult supervision and attention to kids activities 
occasionally. Stories, art projects are good adult lead activities.  
Having an adult focus the energy every now and again is a great way for 
elders to have a chance to spend time with the kids and the kids,(our 
kids anyway) love stories.

One of the problems of having a kids space is that it is usually 
infinitely more attractive than dinner so your kids take two bites, 
then run off and play, then come back as you (and all the other kids) 
are leaving and whine for food.  Having a locking door so that no one 
gets to use the playroom until 20 minutes after dinner starts is a way 
to get kids to sit at the table for long enough to eat something.

>Is it too small (big)? Ours is 11 x 13 with a corner of stairs/stage

Go to a lawn and measure off 11X13 and put all your kids into it.   Add 
a paper cutout of  a desk or two and a bookcase and arrange it around. 
How does it feel?

>Is it contiguous to outdoor covered/enclosed space? Ours opens onto a small
>covered deck and then to the only hard, flat space in the development

Good plan. Having an outdoor spill out is great in the summer, and not 
bad in the winter either. Kids are loud little things and it is nice to 
get them out of the house. Of course the 2 and under set will want to 
have some responsible older kid or adult keeping them from eating slugs 
and such.

>What time of day is it mostly used?

Our kids space is used from about 6 to 7:30, the dinner hour.  We 
discourage kids from using the space unless their parent is in the 
commons.  We hold childcare for general meetings in houses.  There was 
too much distraction having all the kids so close to the meeting and we 
hire childcare anyway.

>Is it used for home schooling?, Structured daycare?

In our state (WA) the regulatory requirements for building daycare 
space are very cumbersome.  If we do home schooling in our new 
commonhouse, we won't tell the state about it. We have left that option open.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood Cohousing







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