Creating a Learning Space for Your Home Schooler

One of the bonuses to home educating your children is flexibility. A great way to enhance that freedom and engage your sons and daughters in learning is to create a space to promote it. Whether your home size enables there to be one room with the sole purpose of acting as a classroom or just a corner space within the family room, altering that space with learning in mind can be a wonderful way to supplement your child's education.

Young Children

Young children love bright colors and images of their favorite characters. Painting or wallpapering a room devoted to school is a fantastic way to allow for a little daydreaming but a vast amount of creativity. Engage your young ones in choosing colors and shapes they prefer, and then have some fun transforming the space into a bright, colorful environment to promote learning. You might paint or hang mobiles of shapes, the alphabet, numbers zero to ten, or animals throughout the space. You could even elect to paint a portion of one wall with chalkboard paint and provide colored chalk to promote your young person's own creativity and imagination. The possibilities are endless!

Tweens and Teens

Similar to young children, tweens and teens can benefit from bright colors as well. Once again, paint can be a cost effective and creative way to enhance a space and promote a sense of belonging and ownership. Instead of mobiles or a wall-size chalkboard, consider stenciling mathematic problems on the walls, chemical equations, and quotes from the Constitution or whatever other thought-provoking educational triggers may come to mind. The overall key is to engage your sons and daughters in learning by encouraging them to be involved, contribute and have a vested interest in their education. As children grow older, the more freedom and choice they are given, the more ownership they will feel toward themselves and their future.

Limited Space Ideas

Creating a learning space may require some limits based upon your home situation. If you rent, for example, maybe painting and/or wallpapering are not options. There are still plenty of creative ways to alter a space without making more permanent changes, which may not be allowed. Consider purchasing some White Boards or Wipe Boards for your child's space. The markers for these boards come in standard, general colors and can be removed easily with a white board eraser, old towel or even an old sock. A couple strategically placed boards can serve the same purpose as the chalkboard paint mentioned above.

If you have old picture frames stacked within a closet, haul them out. Leaves, flowers, insects or any combination of things can be glued to a mat and displayed within an old frame on the walls of the learning space. Go a step farther and paint the frames in bright yellows, blues or purples to add those splashes of color without having to paint the entire space. Once again, the possibilities are endless with things to alter a space from mundane to "wow!" and provide that extra spark of creativity within your child to learn.

Creating a learning space for home schoolers, or even for doing homework from public school, will spark further interest, imagination and creativity within your children. Engage them and have your young scholars assist you in creating a space, the sense of pride and ownership your sons and daughters will gain is immeasurable. Also, don't neglect the concept of having class outside when possible. A change of scenery now and then will promote just as much creativity and learning as anything else.

Have fun with education!