Three Ways to Make Your Home Study Friendly

photo via istockphoto and humanmade

Now that the study spot is ready to go, what about the rest of the house? Obviously, the whole house doesn’t have to follow the same rules as the study spot, but there are several ways to make the whole house study friendly for your student (and they’re good for the rest of the family too!)

1: Stock The House With Healthy Food

Nutrition can have a surprisingly large effect on student performance. If students snack on foods high in sodium and sugar (such as potato chips and candy,) it is likely to result in the oft-noticed “sugar crash.” Just imagine trying to have your child study the night of Halloween when they’ve eaten twice their body weight in chocolate.

So what kind of foods should you be stocking in order to help your child focus? This article by our founder Candice contains all the details, but to summarize, you want to be feeding your child foods that are high in things like Folic Acid (leafy greens,) and good fats (such as fish and avocados.) In general, avoiding junk food in favor of fruits and vegetables is the way to go when stocking study snacks!

2: Have A Movement Space

Kids need to move. It’s true for toddlers, and it’s even true for high schoolers. It is simply unrealistic to expect any student to sit silently for hours on end. This is why it is crucial to schedule “brain breaks” during study times. And some of the best types of “brain breaks” are ones that involve some sort of movement.

Exercise has two extremely important benefits for the brain. First, it produces endorphins. These are the chemicals in the brain that produce feelings of happiness and are linked to lower levels of anxiety and depression. And second, much like note-taking, it engages the proteins in the brain that work on retaining information.

It is important to facilitate these benefits in the home. This means having a space in which the student feels able to take a break from studying and move around. It could be a front yard, a play area, or a room with an exercise bike or other workout machines. There’s no need to fundamentally change the home for this: it’s just about giving the student a space to move free of the homework stress. 

3: “Marie Kondo” It

However, if you do want to fundamentally change the home, the Marie Kondo method is a good way to start. Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant who advises families on how to tidy up their homes. Her method involves identifying items that do not “spark joy,” and getting rid of them

Our founder believes in a variation of this: “mess creates stress.” The best thing that a study spot— and a home— can be is TIDY in order to promote stress-free learning. Of course, the study spot should be clean, but the rest of the house is important too. Keeping a house clean and tidy (and encouraging the child to clean their own spaces as well) will lead to a happier life for everyone in the house and better results for the child in school.