5 tips to creating conducive learning environment at home..

Parents nowadays spend tons of money outside their child's school hours, at tutorial centers, enrichment classes and even indoor playhouses, they look at what different programs the place has to offer, how good the teachers are, how many sessions their child need to attend in order to show improvement, etc, etc. However, in the hustle and bustle of the hunt, parents often forget that the best place for their child to start learning is always - the home.

No doubt that teachers in school can teach both academic and social needs, but the home environment is most crucial to reinforce and retain the concept as children spend most time at home with their parents. With that in mind, it's no surprise that the number one favorite topic Daddy Chan and I share most often, is how to create a more conducive learning environment at home for the boys, and here are a few tips from us after much exploration and experiment.

1. Always have a routine
If you search the keyword "routine" or "timetable" on Renzo's blog, I guarantee it will return highest amount of posts, that's often I emphasize on it.  We foster routine by introducing a timetable since Renzo was a baby. Now that he's in Primary One and spends his every afternoon at home with helper, I can tell he's benefiting so much from a great routine. He memorizes his timetable by heart and can pretty much stick to it without much supervision. With a proper routine, it's easier for children to develop self discipline, which is key to developing great learning habit. We always tell Renzo, to have good self discipline now, he will enjoy more freedom in the future to choose the kind of lifestyle he enjoys. 

2. Set up the positive mood
A few months back, I read an article about how this mummy changed the family's habit of watching TV after dinner every night, into reading/playing together instead, simply by adding a "book wall'" in the living room. I shared that article with Daddy Chan and immediately he agreed to take some actions. Well it's not some major renovation in the house, but we do need to make a decision to let go our sofa in the living room, which means it's going to be rather inconvenient for guests. But I love what Daddy Chan said, we design our home based on our daily needs, we don't prepare our home for guest visits.  So, there goes our 3-years-old sofa, and here comes our new favorite piece of furniture in the house, a giant 2.3meter x 2.3meter IKEA bookshelf! To fill it up full is harder than we expected. I thought we have quite a substantial amount of book collection at home, considering we have 3 bookshelves before getting this huge one, one in each room. So after this small make over in living room, we still have the TV and the boys still watch their educational programs in living room as usual, however, they do spend more time reading, especially Rynus who didn't really show much interests in books in the past.

We also have flashcards wall in kids room, where we hang up flash cards and amazingly, a new set of card may stay on the wall for a few weeks, and without anyone noticing it, Rynus managed to pick up those words by himself. All he did was to stare at the cards, flip them from front to back, and back to front, again and again..

So that's what I meant by positive mood in their environment. You don't need to force them to learn, you just give them an environment that motivates them to learn. 

3. Make room for creativity
I was inspired by an online video to create this "weekly family wall calendar". Renzo has a timetable to follow on routine tasks daily, so I thought it's quite a cool idea to have this wall calendar which allows us to track our individual goals throughout the week. Nothing beats modeling behavior when comes to parenting so I really like that now the boys also get to see what Daddy and Mummy are up for. This also encourages Renzo to incorporate some of his creativity in artwork into his daily plans.

4. Make school activities relevant 
Finding a continuity between what kids learn in school and at home can help build the character of loving to learn. Renzo has a section of his bookshelf dedicated for any book that is relevant to school curriculum. We also display his test schedules and even his spelling list, so he knows when and how to get himself prepared at home.  Rynus is still young to map out his own plans for the day, but we still can use this wall calendar to track his major school events. He will have great sense of accomplishment seeing how "busy" his week is, just like his daddy, mummy, and elder brother's.

5. Change it up
Once a while, Daddy Chan and I will hold conversations about what need to be changed, or added to the boys' home environment, that can accelerate their intellectual development. Be it hanging up a new Multiplication table on the wall, or adding a new reading chair in study room, or a clearing away an old writing table that they've outgrown from. Changing up physical environment which they've been used to for some time already, gives them something new to look forward to and makes them excited to learn about other things.

Our next biggest challenge, is to provide them with separate study corners with minimum distractions by the time Rynus enters Primary School. Both Daddy Chan and I used to share study table with our own sibling and there's just too much distractions, I still remember telling myself I would study hard if I get my own table when I was young. So it's our priority to separate the boys once they both need a proper area to study. Yes we have slightly more than 2 years to work on that! 

In the end, the most important thing to remember in making the home conducive for learning is to let the love be visible and felt. A loving and supportive environment is what makes the home the best place to learn.