Tag Archives: children and homework

How to Create the Ultimate Homeschool Workroom

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Whether you homeschool your children or they attend school outside the home, creating an organized and inspirational place for them to do homework has a ton of benefits for everyone! The space needs to be a place in the home that promotes creativity, critical thinking, and makes it fun to learn! We have listed some easy tips below for creating the ultimate school workroom at home. Let’s take a look!

Seek the Perfect Spot

If you are like most of us, your space may be limited, so organization and using the proper furniture is critical in the overall design of the room. If your home has a basement or upstairs play area, then you have the perfect spot! Seek out locations for this learning area by looking at unused space in your home. It could even be as small as a corner in your dining room.

Make the Space Fun

You can add pops of color with floor pillows in red, blue, green, or yellow. If anyone suffers from respiratory ailments, eliminating carpet is a step in the right direction. Also, depending on your child’s age, you can use colorful geometrical area rugs, or tiled puzzled mats made out of rubber/silicone. Keep in mind standing on a hard surface can be hard on your back and legs. Rubber padded mats and rugs are an excellent option for eliminating aches and pains.

Install Shelving

In just about any case, you will need to maximize space for storage by going up by installing vertical shelving. Luckily, you can purchase inexpensive shelving from big box stores, online retailers, yard/garage sales, and second hand/nonprofit charity stores. If you are buying used shelving, you can easily paint them by using spray paint or rolling on paint with a small roller. If the surface is a laminate surface, we recommend taking a fine to medium sandpaper and hitting the surface to ensure the paint adheres to the surface. Priming before painting is also recommended.

Add Your Personal Touch

If you have the room, create a space for a reading nook and quiet time depending on the children’s age. Also, you can purchase an inexpensive water feature for relaxing and enhancing their creativity! The options are truly endless when it comes to adding your own personal touch to the space.

We hope you enjoyed these tips and have fun creating this special place for your children, and by all means, please let us know your creative ideas for the project below in the comment section!

Homework Central Approaches

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DSC_0184 (1)What can you do to help facilitate your children’s attention to homework? There are a number of approaches suggested, ranging from insisting that homework be finished immediately after school and parents keeping close track, to a more hands-off style where you expect the child to stay on top of it or suffer the consequences in school. Most parents fall somewhere in the middle.

There are things you can do to make the homework process easier without taking a “homework police” role. Here are a few suggestions.

Help each child create a test and homework calendar. Different classes could be designated by color, and milestones set for larger projects. This way both of you can keep up with what is due when, and “Have you checked your calendar” seems friendlier than “Did you do your homework yet?”

Designate a homework location in your home, complete with desk, office supplies, and a computer if needed. In this teen room located in the O’Connor model at Legacy, the desk provides good lighting, room for a laptop, and drawers and cupboards for books or knapsacks. You could add some office features such as in-and-out boxes, and there’s even room for a printer. With just a few additions, you can create a special “homework central” so that everything is ready whenever your child is.

To make it feel even more like a personal office, you could replace the artwork with a bulletin board and pin the current month’s calendar to it. Providing the opportunity to be organized makes the entire homework process easier and more enjoyable.

Finally, a few simple rewards such as a snack waiting when homework is done provide an extra incentive to finish and get to more fun activities.