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apdk As students across the country settle in to a new school year, you might be asking yourself, ‘What can I do to help make this year the most successful one ever for my kids?’.
One important way you can contribute to your children’s success this year is to create what I call a “Super Study Space” for each student in your home.
While you already have made your back-to-school shopping trip to stock up on school supplies, you may not have given much thought to your kids’ home study area. Yet, designing a customized homework and study environment can have a huge impact on a student’s results in school by putting the individual in the correct state for learning and playing to his or her personal learning strengths.
Here’s how you do it. First, gain your son or daughter’s buy-in by making it a joint project to design and select the items for the space. It’s best to claim a separate space for each student in the family in order to head off distractions. If there isn’t a separate den or enough room in the bedroom, find a quiet corner of the house you can section off.
Sit down together and plan it out based on your son or daughter’s personality and learning style. This can be a fun exercise, especially when your child gets to contribute to the final design. Have your child think of situations in which it was easy to concentrate and do a great amount of work without stress. Some kids will be happy with a more formal set-up, which includes a desk (or table) and a chair. Other students may lean more toward a non-traditional arrangement.
I would classify someone who likes to study and do homework on a bed, for example, as non-traditional. For that type of person, or someone who likes to curl up in a chair to work, a desk arrangement will be counterproductive. So, get creative! Look for a rolling desktop that can slide up to a big chair or sideways over part of a bed.
As I mentioned, learning style also comes into play. Everyone has one dominant learning modality: visual, auditory or kinesthetic. A kinesthetic learner is someone who learns by doing and likes to move around while learning. This type of student could benefit from a drafting table type of study space, where he can stand and walk around or sit on a stool.
When you know what you need, plan a trip together to IKEA, Office Depot or Target; wherever you think you can get the best deal on what you need for your Super Study Space. But wait! Before you leave, think about what else you can do to make the study area special. Here are a few ideas.
You want your student’s study space to be well lit, of course, but this is another area in which personal preference comes into play. Some like a room that is uniformly bright, while others like a light focused on what they’re doing at the moment. Another way to brighten the area is with color. Colors stimulate the brain, particularly for visual learners. Posters and artwork on the walls can add color to the environment.
It’s a good idea to add a bulletin board to the study area, where your student can put visual aids to prompt their thought process. Examples include charts of work in progress, lists of upcoming projects, positive affirmations and quotes, and awards, certificates, photos and mementoes of your student’s peak moments, all of which help maintain a “winning attitude” frame of mind.
Whether or not your child has access to a computer in his or her study space, it’s beneficial to use a physical daily planner to organize their time. The planner can be purchased in the store or created at home by printing out weekly and monthly calendars from the Internet. The planner can serve the dual purpose of being a motivating tool by adding study, homework and other learning tips on the side of each page.
Music is important in an effective learning environment – certain kinds of music, that is. It’s important because music actually corresponds to and affects one’s physiological conditions. During heavy work, your pulse and blood pressure tend to rise. Your brain waves speed up and your muscles become tense. During relaxation and meditation, your pulse and blood pressure decrease, and your muscles relax.
The right type of music is the key to induce relaxation while leaving the mind alert and able to concentrate. The music that is most conducive to creating this state is baroque, like that of Bach, Handel, Pachelbel and Vivaldi. These composers used very specific beats and patterns that automatically synchronize our minds with our bodies. For instance, most baroque music is timed at 60 beats per minute, which is the same as an average resting heart rate.
So, make sure the study area has a source for this music, whether it’s a CD player, and iPod/MP3 player or a computer.
Now, with your plan in place, it’s time to make that trip to the store with your son or daughter and get the new school year off to a successful start.
Reprinted with the permission of Learning Forum International.
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