Creating an environment for learning

Creating an environment that encourages learning is the key to success for home learners. What does that look like for your child?

To learn, we need to feel relaxed, safe, and ready. As a homeschooling parent, before you start planning what exactly the homeschool curriculum will teach, think first about how the environment in which your children will learn will support their needs.

Do they need the structure of a classroom – with scheduled start and finish times – or the softness of a space with no clocks? 

Some homeschools thrive with a strict timetable for lessons, others function most effectively when lessons follow a routine rather than a schedule and other homeschools go with the flow of the day, slotting lessons into gaps of a day filled with other interest-based activities.

There is no right or wrong way to timetable a homeschool day. Are your children most comfortable with scheduled time slots for learning, or happiest when learning happens in a “we’re free now, let’s study” kind of way?

Does the home-learning space have to look like a school classroom?

If you rely on social media it can seem like all home educators have dedicated classroom spaces in their homes, with desks and blackboards, filing systems and clearly labelled cabinets for supplies. If you’re starting a home-ed journey, it might feel like perfectly crafted ‘pinnable’ class spaces are a necessity. Let me reassure you that the aesthetics of a homeschool space don’t need to look anything like the traditional layout of a classroom; and while colourful walls with themed displays can add an element of fun to a homeschool space, not having them doesn’t mean you’re failing before you’ve begun.

What’s important is that the space children are asked to learn in is a space they feel relaxed in and that means different things to different learners and different homeschooling families.

If you want to recreate a classroom at home, and your child likes the idea of studying at a desk during school hours, great! Do that. But if the idea of a desk and a classroom puts pressure on your child (or you to maintain that space!), skip it. Learning can happen just as effectively on a sofa, using an easel as a table in an outdoor classroom or lying flat on their bellies on the floor.

Supporting SEN in a homeschool classroom

The layout of your homeschool space can be a used as a tool to help children learn more effectively at home, supporting individual learner’s needs.

• A dedicated learning space in an SEN-friendly homeschool would make sense. Children with autism/ADHD often struggle with sensory overload. A classroom area that allows learners to control the lighting (dimmable light/reading lamps etc), is free from visual distractions (minimal decoration, neutral colours) and offers seating choices to accommodate students’ stimulus needs at the time (eg. a bean bag + a computer chair) can remove sensory overload that might prevent learners from focusing on learning.

• A visually labelled/colour-coded supply station can encourage learners to take an active role in setting up the classroom space and preparing for lessons – in the same way packing a backpack for school would.

• Assigning job roles & encouraging students to take responsibility for a specific aspect of their homeschool is another way to support students’ needs for continuity & routine – ie. It is the homeschooler’s job to wipe the whiteboard after class/put out supplies for each lesson (using a visual checklist to help them match subjects to supply needs), or – a favourite in our house – assign the role of “Librarian” with the responsibility of putting books away after lessons/organising book-shelves (bonus points if these job roles come with badges!)

• A clear timetable, an easy-to-read clock, and clearly labelled supplies per subject can all help provide a sense of order that helps learners thrive.

• Individual work stations for different activities can help homeschoolers who struggle with transitions – eg. a reading area identified with cushions; a ‘maths area’ with number-based displays; an arts & crafts space that ensures mess doesn’t overflow into the classroom area etc.

• Stand-up desks or wobble cushions can make a big difference to a student with ADHD, or simple excess energy, whose body resists being still for long periods.

A calm-down corner

One homeschool classroom design feature that is always useful – for all home-educated pupils not only neurodiverse children – is a calm-down corner: A safe space homeschoolers can retreat to – or be sent to – where they can reset and relax.

The purpose of a calm-down zone is to offer students the option to remove themselves from the lesson until they feel regulated again, without expelling them from the classroom. For home-educating parents, this is an incredibly useful way to balance the difficulty that is being both parent and teacher in the classroom.

The calm-down corner might have a bean bag, a seat with a weighted blanket or a swing to help students regulate their emotions in a tactile way; or could be just a couch slightly away from the school table that offers the option for homeschoolers to physically remove themselves from the learning area.

In the calm-down space, offer sensory regulation tools like kinetic sand, fidget tools (Rubix cubes function as great fidget toys and are a passive learning tool, too), colouring books etc. Lego/similar blocks are a great passive regulation manipulative to include in a calm-down corner. Calm-down corners are a safe-space for homeschoolers to re-regulate not a punishment zone.

Use scents!

Scent is a brilliant sensory regulation tool and used in a home-ed environment can both help students relax and wake-them-up to learn. We use wax-melt burners to infuse the homeschool space with jasmine, cinnamon & citrus scents during active learning times, and vanilla or lavender to help calm nervous systems.

Does your child need to be in a focused frame of mind for learning? Or do they learn more in a passive-learning environment? 

All children learn in different ways. Some, no matter what the classroom looks like or who the teacher is, are resistant to the idea of forced learning. For children like this – who may or may not have additional educational needs – being told “You need to study now!” can cause their brains to rebel. Instead of becoming focused, they’ll zone out. Likewise, some children need to be helped to focus before they can begin to learn. Children who thrive on instruction and routine like to be told “Now it’s time to learn”.

This overlaps with the style of homeschool timetable you create, and the way you structure your homeschool days, but understanding which camp your child falls into – responsive to guided-learning or pushing for autonomy – can help you create a home-ed environment that supports their learning needs.

As with all aspects of home education, there’s infinite room for flexibility. A structured homeschool timetable can function within a passive learning environment; and a passive learning environment with an unschooling approach to education can be supplemented with structured lessons to the degree your child can manage them.

These posts on passive learning environments, structured unschooling and taking a Montessori-style approach to homeschooling might be useful.

How can you help homeschoolers focus on subjects they need/want to learn?

It’s a myth that all homeschooled children love learning and eagerly engage in self-led study. That may be true for a percentage of home learners – and is likely to be more true the longer a child has been homeschooled and thereby adapted a style of learning that engages and motivates them – but a lot of home-educated children will need their parent/teacher to help keep them focused on learning.

This might mean parent/teacher-led lessons, supported learning whilst students adapt to online homeschooling resources or tweaking the environment to remove distractions.

One of the most effective ways to help students focus is to find learning materials that engage them. Using a study week approach to explore different learning materials, online courses and textbooks can help you narrow down the type of resources that most appeal to your unique learner. Understanding the style of learning resources that most engage your child can help you prepare a curriculum that enables them to self-focus.

Using a timer can be an effective way of helping homeschoolers develop a habit of focusing on active learning. Starting with short-bursts of learning – “until this 5 minute timer goes off we’re going to list all the elements of the Periodic Table that we can remember..ready, steady, go!” – and increasing the time gradually – “yesterday you focused on handwriting for 10 minutes and wrote a great list; can you write a short paragraph today? The timer’s set for 15 mins – go!”

What accommodations can you give home-educated children to help them succeed at actively learning? 

If, after tweaking the environment and resources being used, revisiting the homeschool to match a child’s natural rhythm and making sure there’s enough of a balance between HOME and school in your days (n.b the boundaries can sometimes get blurred and home can begin to feel more like school and a parent more teacher than parent..); if after all that something’s still not quite right, you might want to try some of these accommodations that have proved useful in our homeschool over time:

Offer struggling readers the option to listen to textbooks instead of reading them.

If the purpose is for them to learn specific information, does it really matter how they access that information? I’m a huge believer in the importance of reading but when the purpose is to learn, reading is not the right medium for every learner.

Allow learners to move!

For a lot of children, especially those with a neurodiversity like ADHD, one of the difficulties they face with traditional schooling is having to keep still and learn at the same time. At home you don’t need to enforce that rule. Practice mental maths while throwing balls to each other, check spellings while on a walk, allow them to balance on a beam while participating in a read-aloud lesson and let them watch video-led courses while running on a treadmill.

If your home learner is fidgeting in class and struggling to learn, encouraging them to move – actively as in the above examples or passively via hand-held fidget tools – might make a significant difference to how easily they find it to learn and process information in class.

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Don’t Forget: Home education can move at the pace of the learner.

For home-educated children there need be no race to the finish line. Learning can move at a pace that suits your child – whether that’s faster or slower than traditional schooling would progress children through school years. An environment that removes the stress of completing a curriculum within a set time frame can adversely work to speed up the learning process as the learner remains relaxed and so, is more able to retain information, process lessons and develop skills.

If you’ve switched to homeschooling from a negative schooling environment, don’t worry about figuring everything out in one go. Take your time. Let your child relax and begin to enjoy learning again: Encourage them to read what they want (either actually with a book or via audiobooks), explore hobbies and spend time outside and exercising. Encourage them to engage with learning by taking a scattering materials approach, library visits, museum trips and exploring future options for structured learning together.

If you’ve wound up here because a homeschool routine that was working well now isn’t as productive as you’d like, do the same! Take a break – maybe assign home learners a study week to free up some of your time to reevaluate the current homeschool routine and the ways your home learners are studying. Home education is an adventure and sometimes we need to change the path we’re taking in order to reach the finish line. That doesn’t mean what you were doing before was wrong, it just means what you were doing before isn’t working now – well done for spotting that!

Coming to terms with the idea that the best curriculum/homeschool environment is the one that fits now reduced the level of stress and doubt I felt around homeschooling. If you’re struggling, know you’re not alone. Home-ed is challenging even when everything’s running smoothly and after 10+ years of home-educating 3 children, we’re still continually adapting and tweaking our routine and resources as the needs of those children (and our family) change.

If you need some help figuring out ways to tweak your homeschool to create a happier, more productive learning environment, do get in touch.