With increased school days at home due to the current times, it can be difficult to know how to create the best space for learning at home, especially with the many distractions available at home. Below are some tips to create an optimal learning environment at home.
Set-up a designated learning space: Having a designated space specifically designed to stimulate a school classroom environment will enable your child to get in the right mind-frame for learning. This space should be set up to represent a working area, such as a desk or table with minimal distractions, in a separate area from big household distractions, such as the television/loungeroom. Minimising distractions has been proven to increase productivity and learning in children, by increasing their concentration, attention, and ability to listen effectively.
Limit household distractions: Household distractions such as iPad’s (if not required for learning), access to the television, toys, and games should be restricted from the child’s study area during allocated learning time. This will allow sole focus on their learning. This will help their productivity, and attention to the tasks at hand. It will also be useful to minimise distractions from other family members in the household during online learning. This will ensure that the child can learn to their fullest extent by stimulating a classroom environment.
Create visual to-do lists: Creating a visual list of the day’s activities will help your child to feel motivated by crossing off each task as you go. Studies show that 75% of what we learn is through seeing, and since children are visually wired, creating a visual to-do-list of the day’s activities will help them to keep track of the tasks for the day, and when to do them. This will increase their motivation to get tasks done, and hopefully encourage them to complete more activities.
Structure the day to mimic a school day: Schedule the day to mimic a regular school day, with a 9am (or similar) start, recess, lunch, and a 3pm (or similar) finish. This will ensure that they keep a routine that is familiar to them, which will reduce anxiety related to a change of routine with online learning. Scheduling regular 5-10 minutes breaks outside of recess and lunch will also be beneficial, as it is known that taking short breaks in-between work can allow you to stay focused for longer. This also means they can transition back into the regular school routine with ease once the isolation period is over.
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