How to Prepare the Back to School Workspace at Home for the Kids

After an unstoppable summer how do you get the kids back into school habits?

If you’re anything like my mom, you will throw the new Staples supplies in a new backpack and hope for the best when we return home. We turned out okay. However, I can’t help but wonder; could my youth have been a little bit more stress-free if homework time was organized?

Kids now are bogged down with more and more homework. They need that at home support more than ever. So how do you prepare to tackle this coming workload? Create your own at-home workspace. Despite my lack of homework organization, my parents were always crafty. I’ve used some of their tactics to pull together this workspace by re-using materials that are already in the home.

Most of us don’t have a separate room for the kid’s workspace; however the workspace should be separate from the eating and playing environments. (i.e. The kitchen and playroom/bedroom) So make a separate space in the basement, your current home office, etc. I remember that you retain information best in a spot that mimics the testing environment, without distractions or similar associations.

How to transform the workspace; think re-use, recycle and re-build

1. Have a place for everything

To re-use what you have, use old coffee mugs that get pushed to the back of the cupboard can be great pencil holders for the kids. Not a coffee drinker? Have the kids finish up their summer by painting old paint cans bright colours.
In the drawer or on top of the desk keep extra pens, scissors, rulers and erasers in old cutlery trays that your kitchen may no longer need. Don’t have any? An unused opened egg carton can do the trick as well.

2. Have the school work handy

On the side of the desk or the nearby wall create your backpack hanging hooks. Simply screw on old dresser knobs or bathroom towel hangers so the kids can have their backpack upright and ready to pull material from as they do their homework.

3. Think outside the box

Need a chair? Old milk crates can be the perfect height for children. They are also durable. For comfort, glue on an old square decorative throw pillow. Vinyl, fabric and plastic adhesive can get the job done. Any local hardware or craft store will carry this.

4. Have it ready before their first day of school. 

Kids, like adults, respond fluently to habits that begin at the same time as a change of scenery. In other words, to break an old habit or start a new you would change your routine. Think about the idea to frequent the gym. You start each day with a typical morning routine and may still barely make work on time. After, work plans, obligations effectively get in the way of a regular gym appearance.

So how would you change this? Switch up your daily routine, and even your sleeping habits.
Similarly, that new routine of going back to school can be the jumpstart to kids daily school work routine at home.