WITH THE SCHOOL YEAR WELL UNDERWAY, IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT YOUR CHILD WILL SPEND A LOT MORE TIME INDOORS STUDYING DURING THE SCHOOL TERMS. WITH MOST OF THE LEARNING TAKING PLACE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT IS CRITICAL.
Below are a few things to take into consideration when creating a study environment for your student.
DISTRACTIONS
There are a few things to consider regarding a study environment. Distractions are always the largest obstacle to studying properly. Surely there are many things surrounding you as a student that compete for the energies that you would much rather do than study. Any environment can be destructive and magnify existing bad habits with too many interruptions. Some students find their living spaces that are combined with other family members far too distracting—they sit down to do work, but a pile of dirty dishes, the sound of the doorbell, or the hustle and bustle of other family members causes them to lose focus. Some students find background music soothing and others can’t concentrate on it playing and need complete silence. Do this as a joint project with your child and get them to see how important a good study space helps them with their schoolwork.
THE PHONE
The phone when it comes to distractions then doesn’t forget - detach from your phone. It is hard to ignore the appeal of your phone when studying. The modern smartphone is perhaps the ultimate tool and the ultimate distractor – with everything at the touch of your fingertips it can be incredibly difficult to pull away from it. Put it away when you study, or you may find yourself browsing Facebook or texting a friend without even realizing you’d picked up the phone.
Shut your phone off or put it in silent mode so the temptation of the notification chimes doesn’t drag you away from what you’re meant to be studying. If possible, try placing it well out of reach so you can’t grab for it as part of a reflex.
ORGANIZE THAT ROOM INTO ZONES
Another tip is to plan the room and divide it into activity-based zones, so it feels bigger - this is just because zones make spaces to change things up. You can also paint the walls of one room in a different colour. For example, painting the study zone in a lighter colour because the light is such an important factor and then the zone where the bed is with a deeper darker colour and the area where store a brighter colour that shows a little more style and character. At this point, cupboards would be handy to keep things tidy. Store any bulky clothes like jackets and blazers away from sight. Colour also plays an important role here, if you prefer to have a block colour then a good choice would be turquoise, magenta, light gold, light green, beige, and burgundy. These colours are not so bright enough to distract you, but also not dull and boring so that it puts you to sleep.
FIND A GOOD STUDY DESK AND CHAIR
You want to be comfortable, but not so comfortable that you lose focus or fall asleep. (Your bed’s not the greatest option for homework, it turns out. You also need an adequate workspace to spread out.
Find a desk or table with a top that rests somewhere between your waist and ribcage when you sit at it so that your elbows can rest easily upon it without having to hunch your shoulders forward. You also want to be able to rest your feet flat on the ground.
Use a comfortable chair that fits the height of the desk/table. You may want to skip the fancier desk chairs that rotate, roll, recline, lift, etc. if these will only become distractions.
Now that you’ve found the right desk for you, it’s time to organize all your writing gear and study material. This is your chance to get organized so make to stock up on some pencil cups, desk organizers, bookshelves, folders, file carriers, boxes and plastic containers to store all your needs.
Also, organize your cables and cords with a coated wire basket – this is especially handy with those excellent ergonomic students’ desks that support your back during longs hours of studying. And last but not least, if you need help keeping track of all your tasks, hang a bulletin board.
LIGHTING
It’s important to consider some simple lighting tips to avoid the fatigue and eye strain that comes with insufficient and ineffective lighting for studying or reading. It’s important to consider the need to have as much natural light as possible and have fresh air.
Firstly, position and direction of lighting is an important factor – if you do different kinds of work (reading, drawing etc) then these also require requiring different intensities of light then you need the flexibility of a desk lamp that can be manipulated and angled. Place it on the opposite side of your writing hand. You might want to consider facing away from the window, as staring out the window can be tempting.
Secondly, the right amount of light is also a factor to be considered. With so many people now spending so much of their lives at desks staring at computer screens, eye strain is a real concern, and you need more light as you get older. LED bulbs are generally best for task lighting, and you’ll want an LED of at least 5-10 watts for most desk work purposes.
