A homework station is necessary as coming home with assignments or homework is quite common for children today. Many children if left to their own devices, will sit on the sofa, legs hanging from the backrest, doing their homework at a snail’s pace or not at all. Creating a homework station can help them concentrate, stay organized, inspire them to finish their homework, and improve their body posture. We look here at how to develop their concentration once working.
How to Set up a Homework Station at Home
Follow the steps below to set up your child’s homework station.
- Choose the right location. It matters where you set up your child’s homework station in the house. You don’t want to set up a homework station with distractions like TV, toys, and other gadgets present around the place. This defeats the reason for setting up the station in the first place. Therefore, look for a quiet corner of the house free from distractions and set up there. Remember that a good homework station combines comfort, functionality, and the child’s interests.
- Collect supplies. As upset grows is not the time to be charging around the house for a pen that has disappeared. After finding a quiet location in the house, draw up a list of the supplies with the child’s comfort, interest, and functionality in mind. Involve the child in drawing up the list. Let them tell you what they need. You don’t need expensive items to set up a homework station. It doesn’t need to cost you an arm and a leg. Get things necessary for the space to be comfortable but not too comfortable to become a relaxation spot for the child.
- Make sure lighting and network are adequate. Lighting and network are crucial to a homework station. Without them, there’ll be poor visibility and connectivity, which will affect the child’s productivity and focus. Provide a table lamp for the child to move around and focus on specific areas of their desk. Also, ensure the router is close enough to the homework station for maximum connectivity.
- Suitable seating. Your child will be sitting for an hour or two to get their homework done. A comfortable padded seat should be high on your list of supplies. An uncomfortable chair will see the child abandon their homework every so often. Or worse, they might develop back pain. Whichever chair you decide to go for, you must consider the child’s age and height before purchasing. Even when you get the right chair, you need to encourage the child to sit with their back straight. Make sure that the table is the right height, too, so they won’t need to stretch to use the table. Search online for homework table ideas. We use second-hand wooden kitchen chairs from IKEA, so don’t think it has to be a very expensive office chair. Remember the chairs in schools are basic and work fine.
- Give the child ownership. Giving the child ownership is a sure way of personalizing the homework station, increasing the likelihood of getting invested in that space. “Tell your kids that it’s their spot to do their work,” says Lisa Sugarman, a nationally syndicated opinion columnist, and parenting expert. “Giving your kids ownership of their homework area is a really big deal to a kid. Next, always make sure to help them get invested in the space by encouraging them to help shop for the items they’d like and then set it up and get it organized together.”
Know When to Get Involved and Be Supportive
While providing a homework station goes a long way to help your child’s academics, it’s not enough in and of itself. You need to get involved when you can. However, it is easy to focus on that one test mark and ‘helicopter in’ to do it for them. Bigger than that one test is to help them to study independently and accept that there will be so failures on the way. However, they are relatively low-stakes tests rather than career-defining college exams. Support does not mean always being present. A study led by Swantje Dettmers, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Hagen, found that the quality of parental homework involvement matters more than quantity. According to the study, supportive parental involvement in homework positively affected children’s achievement, while intrusive parental involvement impacted children negatively.
As a parent, you need to focus on providing the child with structure and routine. Set aside a particular time for doing homework so that the child knows when it’s time for their assignment. On days you get involved, be supportive rather than intrusive. Understand their academic struggles, reiterate your belief in them, encourage effort, and reward for effort strategy.
