Tips for Turning your Home into an Educational Environment
When you choose to homeschool you make the choice to have your entire life consumed with learning. You quickly realize that children learn all day where ever they are and that means school becomes part everyday life even if that was not the plan. When we first started out we get up every morning and started school with breakfast at the kids “desks” made from end tables and child chairs. After a while, we completely changed gears and found that we could turn out entire home into an educational environment.
Create a learning environment in your home.
Read about and become familiar with some of the best classic educators like Charlotte Masson, Waldorf, and Montessori. By filling your home with things these educators recommend you essentially turn your home into a life skills educational environment. We have step stools everywhere so the young children can be part of everyday life from an early age. It is amazing the skills they pick up long before they would start school.
Fill your home with books. When a child has access to books at every turn they are more likely to find a love of reading and develop the skill with less effort and tears. Books open doors to the world beyond anything you can experience in everyday life.
Encourage learning by purchasing toys that force your child to use their imagination along with gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and problem-solving skills. Quality toys and manipulatives make it easier for children to grow and learn while playing. Look for items made to last that have multiple uses.
Provide quite cozy areas for reading and doing basic lessons. Comfortable and quiet learning spaces make it easier to focus and learn. A reading nook is perfect for encouraging your child to snuggle up with all of those great books. A clean and tidy desk is perfect for spending time studying, working on workbooks, and for older children to focus on.
Provide music. Music helps with focus and is great for helping young children transition between tasks. Music and dance are proven to build creativity and music is a great study tool for those with focus issues.
When building an educational environment in your home keeping healthy brain building snacks on hand is a great way to encourage learning and growth. Fruits, veggies, proteins, and plenty of healthy fats packed with omegas will help your child’s brain grow.
Keep things as tidy and organized as you can. Having your children help with cleaning the home helps them learn important life skills and keeps clutter that can get in the way of learning under control. Keeping your learning environment clutter free helps eliminate distractions that can make focusing difficult.
One thing we love about Mother Goose Time when you first start out they send a FREE circle time set up to help you create an interactive learning space. Each month they send more goodies for your educational environment, healthy snack ideas, a new book, quality manipulatives and even a new CD! Mother Goose Time makes it easy for me to build our atmosphere into one of love, joy, and learning.