Setting Up A Space For Success: Tips On Workspaces for Remote Learning
As the school year ramps up many parents are faced with the difficulties of setting up space for their children to do school from home. The environment has a huge impact on learning and can either benefit or hinder your child’s productivity. Here are some simple tips on how to improve your child’s workspace and make learning from home easier for both them and you.
Why Is a Designated Space Important?
Plants, Lighting, and Air Quality
Why Is a Designated Space Important?
Having a designated space for your child is very helpful when they are doing their school work. If they do not have a space set up already, it is a good idea to give them a spot in the house where they do their work in peace. They do not have to have their own desk as long as the place where they do their work is consistent. They don’t need a lot of space, as long as it is consistent. It will get them into the mood to learn and help them focus. If your child has their own space, they can leave their work supplies and come back at a later time with everything the way it was. This will help them remember their tasks and begin working again.
Ideally, you would put your child in a place that you can easily access but also gives them a bit of privacy. You want to be able to check in on them while also allowing them a little bit of independence and freedom so they don’t feel nervous, distracted, or pressured by you.
Plants, Lighting, and Air Quality
You want to be sure that your child is comfortable while they work so they have positive associations with their school work as well as aiding them in focus and productivity. Plants, natural lighting, and humidifiers are all beneficial for your child’s learning.
Proper natural lighting during the day is better for your child’s eyes and helps your child stay focused. This is because the body runs on a cycle called your circadian rhythm and light plays a large role in maintaining it. Natural light keeps your child awake and alert, ready for a day of learning.
Plants can also help your child stay focused while also increasing the air quality in your home. Research shows that children who spend time around plants learn better. Plants and being able to look out the window allows for children to break their attention, which is actually a good thing. Our brains experience fatigue after long hours of working, so providing short distractions helps us stay on track. The act of looking out the window is enough to give our minds a break and refocus. Plants also create a calming environment that doesn’t feel quite so monotone and oppressive which helps with concentration and memory.
Humidifiers provide many benefits for everyone. They help ease symptoms of asthma and allergies while making breathing easier. Though, dirty humidifiers will cause more harm than good. With Miro humidifiers, you can take them apart easily for simple cleaning that won’t take longer than twenty minutes. Obstructed breathing also leads to obstructed sleep that will leave your child feeling tired and groggy when they wake up. Putting a humidifier in their workspace and in their room will help them maintain their focus and health.
If your child has access to windows, they get access to plants and natural lighting. You can kill two birds with one stone without having to go out and buy plants or care for them. If you do choose to adorn your home with plants, another benefit of humidifiers is that it will also help the plants stay healthy and moisturized.
Make it Personal
No one knows your child better than you which is something that can bring great advantages to their learning. Creating a space that your child feels like they own will help them be more comfortable and confident, which also nurturing their creativity and knowledge.
Add books, posters, and interactive toys that pertain to your child’s interests while also educating them. Provide them with objects that are relevant to the things they like learning about.
Music has also been proven to help children concentrate and reduce stress. Especially for children with learning disabilities, music aids in many brain functions such as the ability to retain memories, reading comprehension, and brain organization. You can provide your child with music they like whether that be classical music, binaural beats, or simply white noise. Even pop and rap music can be of great help because they have strong repetitive beats.
Keep it Clean
Keep your child’s workspace clean and organized. This is also a good opportunity to get them into the habit of maintaining their own space. A cluttered desk leads to a cluttered mind with distractions abound. Give them the tools to organize with desk organizers that have enough compartments for their pencils, erasers, paper, calculator, and whatever else their teachers have recommended for their classes. You want to make learning easier for them so making their tools within arms reach will lessen their burden considerably. Additionally, if they are the ones organizing their space, they will know where all their supplies are and decrease the number of headaches and frustration that can build up from simply not knowing where they put their stuff.