It's nearly time for kids to return to school:
Have you considered putting a homework center together in your home? A place where your kids can find the TOOLS they need to do their homework? Here are a few ideas you can use:
Dining Room Redo:
Many people have an extra room in their house. The Dining Room isn't used as often as the kitchen for dinners - it's less convenient, the table, chairs and set up is more formal and especially during the week most people don't have time for a formal sit down dinner. Why not turn that room into a study room - sans a TV but with the dining room table turned into a giant family sized desk. Bookshelves on one end can contain the family's encyclopedias, math dictionaries, phonics books, tools to help teach math concepts (giant jars of cheerios or m&m's for counting, adding, subtracting skills - why not keep the family change jar in there for practice money skills.) Be sure to set up a small desk in the corner for the family computer - it's in a central location but out of the way. Plus you (Mom & Dad) can keep an eye on what the kids are doing on it.
An added bonus is - everyone works together on their homework at the same time. Mom & Dad can sit and read. Older kids can help younger ones, parents can help anyone that needs it and if no one has homework - you have a place for Game Night.
The above snapshot is an example of what you can do - I created it on homestyler.com. You can start from scratch, play around with color, furniture, rugs, flooring, etc. Use what you have, or make up a shopping list and either go all out furnishing your new Homework Zone or buy it a piece at a time.
My thought for the above room is that it's a multi-use room. You can use it for everyday use - homework, playtime, game night and if you have company throw a leaf into the table, get the good dishes out of one of the armoirs (use one of them for the good stuff & linens) and the other armoir can hold a small flat screen or better yet add some shelves for books, games, etc. If you possibly can nix the flat screen and video games and make it a true family room. Best of all the dining room is usually next to the kitchen so you can do the cooking, etc while the kids are in the homework zone so you can pop in as needed to help them out - or break up any fighting you hear.
What do you think? Do you have a homework zone - someplace away from the TV where your kids are close by, you can read, play games, etc. Is it formal, unformal, the living room, the kid's bedrooms, the kitchen table??? We'd all love to hear!
That is really cool. I should use that site to re do my bedroom/craft area so I use the space more effectively.
ReplyDeleteIt's really easy to use to. You can also measure out your room, windows, where the doors are etc and then find the best floor plan for you.
DeleteThen take a snapshot or do a 360 degree shot and save it to your desktop. Cool beans!