Today – Kids’ study space ideas for the ultimate learning environment
With Christmas behind us, as a parent, one of the next big thoughts will be your child’s studies. Perhaps your child is trying to get a firm grasp on understanding the world around them, or studying for A-levels with an eye to university and the future.
Whatever age your kids are, it is important they have a space to study where they can feel positive and focused without having to sacrifice their mental health. Read on for our top tips on how to create the ultimate learning environment for your kids.
Kids’ study space ideas for the ultimate learning environment
Let’s take a look at what they need to study well:
Small and frequent intervals
For building a study space, it is worth planning how your children will learn in it first. An unavoidable fact of the modern world is our generally low attention spans, which average 14 minutes. It is likely that your child, however old they are, will have to stop and refocus at frequent intervals.
When you help them set up their learning environment, it can therefore be worth locating it near a window if they want to be able to stop for a bit and then refocus afterwards. Alternatively, working near the kitchen can accustom them to regularly getting up to stretch their legs before refocusing back into their work.
One idea you can teach younger children, to help them establish effective learning habits, is to take ten minutes at the start of a work session to divide what they need to do into a series of smaller tasks. If they have a long list of small tasks, each of which should take no more than 20 minutes, then they can turn an open-ended task, which could quickly take up a full evening, into a tightly-panned set of achievements.
The presence of a list of goals whenever children work can hugely help many of them. Obviously, all children are different – so, if this is not what works for your children, it can be worth trying a different approach.
Good lighting in a kid’s study space
With the evenings getting dark quickly, it can be easy for a child looking at a screen or reading a book not to notice the room getting dark while they are focused. Reading books in poor lighting can lead to eyestrain and worsened sight, as can extended periods looking at screens turned up too brightly in otherwise dark settings. Hence, it is a good idea, when arranging your child’s learning environment, to make sure there is enough light.
Creating a warm, secure but not blinding lighting environment is important. Table lamps are handy options for lighting a study area without feeling too harsh or clinical, allowing your child to work well with good focus.
Multiple colours can be surprisingly useful in a kid’s study space
All children are different, and all children learn in different ways. For many children, having multiple colours of pen to write with can help free up their imaginations and make it easier to remember what they are writing about. It can also be very useful when it comes to looking back over what they have written if the colour changes with every new topic, as it makes their notes seem less like one huge, intimidating block of text.
Kid’s study space is a feature post – you may also like a read of my post on the qualities of a good parent
