Home learning can be a really difficult adjustment, for parents and children alike. Whether you are investing in online tuition or electing to do the teaching yourself, having the perfect workspace is essential for your child’s learning experience. It’s also important that you understand everything you need to know about online learning, which is why we have previously created informative articles such as “Everything You Need To Know About Online Tuition”.
At Achieving Success, we provide online tuition and teaching across the UK. Our programmes follow a bespoke curriculum that was created to maximise success, and all teaching is completed by highly qualified and experienced teachers with a passion for what they do.
Our extensive expertise in all areas of teaching, including home learning, means that we know what kind of environment children need to excel. On this basis, we have collected all of our top tips to provide you with a comprehensive guide to setting up the perfect workspace for home learning:
- Invest in a desk
- Essential items
- Good lighting
- Make it personal
- Get rid of distractions
- Hydration stations
- Snacks at hand
- Dress for success
- Consider parental controls
- Have a plan
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Invest In A Desk
It’s important that your child has a dedicated workspace when learning from home. Not only does it create a direct association between that space and their schoolwork, but it means that they have a proper set-up. A desk and an appropriate chair provides them with somewhere to sit and write that won’t hurt their back or mean that they get easily distracted (which we’ll get to in a moment).
With so many desks to choose from, it is best that you do your research. It should be of a suitable height and size, and having drawers or shelves in which they can store their work is an added benefit. You’ll also need to consider its size, colour and style, to ensure that it fits comfortably within your home without compromising the safety or interior design.
Essential Items
It’s important that your child has everything they need to get the most out of their education from home. We’ve compiled a quick list of the basic things that a child needs to succeed with online schooling:
- Access to the internet
- Access to a laptop
- Lined, squared and plain paper
- Pens, pencils, rulers, rubbers and other stationary equipment
While there are other things that would greatly improve their learning experience (such as a printer, headphones and a second screen), these will be enough to get your child off to a great start!
Good Lighting
Poor lighting can cause headaches and eye strain, and can also make it more difficult to concentrate. Fortunately, the really easy solution to this is to make sure that your child’s home learning environment is well lit. This means choosing a study area that receives lots of natural light (which is always best), or ensuring that you have enough overhead lighting and lamps.
Make It Personal
Incorporating some familiar items or stories into your home learning may make it easier to keep your child’s attention. This is especially true if they are transitioning from learning from a school to learning from home, as they will be used to certain processes and routines.
Keeping familiar items at their learning space could mean that they are allowed to decorate it with stickers and ornaments, or that they are allowed to use pens, pencils and rubbers that they previously used in a classroom. Adding in familiar stories pertains to the lessons themselves – using their friends and families as examples or problems, can make them more invested in finding out the answers. It’s little things like this that make all the difference.
Get Rid Of Distractions
Your home is full of distractions, especially if your child isn’t used to their home doubling as their classroom. The television, their toys, their siblings, any pets and even you, may pose a distraction. This means that you have to make it as easy as possible for them to concentrate, by putting some strict rules in place. This could be things like no television during a certain time, or no playing with your brother or sister until a certain amount of work has been completed.
While these rules might be a source of tantrums at first (no matter how old they are!), once you have established a steady routine, it will hopefully be smooth sailing.
Hydration Station
Making sure that your child is drinking enough water throughout the day is essential, both to their education and to their overall health and wellbeing. Water makes up approximately 80% of the brain, which is why it’s so important that your child has it available at all times. Setting up a hydration station means that your child can help themselves to water, juice or another beverage of their choice, without having to leave the room, ask permission or disrupt their lesson in some other way..
Snacks At Hand
In this same vein, make sure that your child has a selection of snacks available, even during lesson time. For all of you parents that have been working from home recently, you’ll know first-hand how important snacks are to an enjoyable and productive day. The best thing about your children learning from home, is that you can control the kind of snacks that they eat, which means that you can ensure that they have a lot of healthy choices available.
Some of our favourite healthy snacks include: apple slices, frozen grapes, carrots and hummus, and rice cakes.
Dress For Success
We’ve all heard the phrase “dress for success”, and while your son or daughter won’t be headed to the boardroom, it still applies to their home learning. If they are dressed properly, they’ll be in the right frame of mind to absorb new information. This means that they shouldn’t be in their pyjamas or in lazy-day clothes. A fun activity for you to do together, is to create a home-school uniform!
Consider Parental Controls
Parental controls sound incredibly restrictive, but they can actually be really useful for both home learning, and the safety of your child online. Almost all learning from home is conducted online, especially if your child is enrolled in an online tutoring programme, and this means that they will likely use the internet to do their work, in one way or another.
You can set up parental controls that safeguard your child – on specific platforms, on the internet and even on your broadband. This will prevent them from accessing information they shouldn’t, from visiting dangerous websites and from potentially putting themselves at risk. On a lighter note, it can even stop them from accessing non-educational websites during school hours.
Have A Plan
The perfect home learning workspace wouldn’t be complete without a clear plan in place, to ensure that your child is learning to the best of their abilities. If you are enrolled in an online programme, having a plan is considerably easier. This is because you can correspond with their teacher and find ways to support their teachings. A great example of this is knowing your child’s curriculum and being familiar with the lesson plan.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help
This is really important; setting up the perfect workspace for home learning is one thing, but it will be entirely useless if you are not prepared for the realities of learning from home. So whether you are paying for online tuition or attempting to teach the curriculum yourself, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help. There is a wealth of information and support available online, so that you can be the most well-informed parent or teacher possible.
How Can Achieving Success Help You?
At Achieving Success, we are hugely passionate about child education. We are proud to offer high-quality online tuition that is available across the country. If you have any questions about our curriculum, our capacity or about home learning in general, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. A member of our team will be more than happy to discuss your needs, and to support you as much as possible. Contact us today by completing an online form, phoning 0121 769 2795 or emailing info@achieving-success.co.uk. And if you’re interested in receiving further guidance on the education and development of your child, be sure to take a look at our other tuition-related articles.