Create 5 Areas in the House to Promote Study Habits in Young Children

Initially, I thought of writing about effective study habits in teens. My son, giving his all at the premiere science highschool is reflective of the study habits he has acquired through the years. But much as I wanted to, I could not or would not. I guess I am not the resource person anymore -especially on that topic. I have to interview my son on that.

Plus, I do not know if he would oblige, he of course is a teenager now ( insert smiley face in here). And I will have to reduce his exposure on my blog. Teeners,yeah? Yep, another milestone in our lives taking a lot of getting used to. Therefore, I thought it best to write about study habits in younger children. Besides, I can now freely speak about my son and his younger days, since that seemed long time ago already and he is now a teenager.

I have to agree that the study habits my son developed while he was younger highly contributed to the study habits he has now. “Start ‘em young” so they say. As parents, we of course have to set in motion the things needed for our children to develop study habits. Even before my child started school, I have already encouraged an atmosphere of learning in our house – something I might have picked up from my own family——where my mother had encouraged reading and learning activities. I also felt compelled to write on this topic because this question seemed to be one of the most asked in my fb messenger.

I have to juggle my memory a bit, a bit way back to when my child was around three or four years old. I skimmed through some of my journals ( my journal named Alej). I tried to look for words with regards to the topic of study habits. I browsed through when my son was younger and how I was able to encourage study habits in him —without him knowing that I was doing just that. I remember how my good friend Iris (she’s an educator, my college bff and my son’s god parent) told me how I should give my little son checklists to help establish routine. Or that how I should create designated spaces for him. The spaces by the way needed not to be on different parts of the house. All areas can even be located in one room like in our case, where we have limited space.

You will just have to assign areas in the room–like on the left would be the study area, on the right would be the play area, eating area and so on in that manner. But to make myself clear, it was not as rigid as how the word study habit sounded. He was after all that time, a four year old kid. As parents, we cannot have our children’s recollection of studying overcast their entire childhood memory, should it? It was still learning through play. It was that way between me and my son really—another thing I must have picked up in my own family —-learning was fun, creative and not forced upon us.

I once made the mistake of forcing him into writing and I regretted it terribly. Then I got inspired and wrote Five Things My Mother Taught Me That Had Helped Me Read And Write .So with younger kids , introduction to learning should always be fun —like a happier memory. However, I also thought that learning has to have some semblance of structure and organization. So here goes…

1. Create An Activity Area

My son had a child’s table and chair set. Nothing fancy just the garden variety —straight from the department store type. It was a small plastic table with matching chair. I could vividly remember Rafa’s four year old self saying, “This is Rafa’s table and chair ONLY.” That was where he did a lot of activity. He pasted, cut, drew and painted on that table. He played his rubik’s cube, built lego bricks and did some science experiments, the classic baking soda volcano sort. Not that I could remember every detail of that table. But what I remembered most about it, was that it gave my son a sense of ownership. The table gave him space—and yes, independence. Just so you know, my son’s activity table was different from his study table. I had to set two separate areas because when I did not, he got distracted by the colored pen and pencils, paint and scissors while we were trying to do math or read books.

2. Create a Study Area

As for the study area, the space I wanted had to have an atmosphere toned down a notch, in terms of activities. The study area I assigned for my son was “tadaaaah” —the table in our room –my husband’s and mine. I was very particular on having a subdued setting for the study area when especially compared to the other areas. It is because my son like most young boys his age that time could easily be distracted. I chose a quiet area conducive for studying . It really was difficult to study, read and do math in his room, for it meant his eyes would be wandering around the room leaving me “marvelled”. You see in his room, I would most likely be competing for his attention with Captain America, Ironman, Spiderman and anything Marvel! Therefore, I decided that our room should be it. It really was essential that his study area was favorable for focus and concentration. You see, I realized that whether my son likes it or not, he will have to study. Whether as a student or as an adult -when he has to prepare or pitch ideas for his boss at the office. He will have to do some studying at one point or the other. So, he really has to develop the habit of studying. But I would like to point out though that although the study area was subdued, studying still was not forced on him. I remember we sometimes had some soft music going on. It was to temper study period with a bit of gentleness. And a foot note ( now that he is in highschool and we had to swap rooms) he is as comfortable in studying there now since as a child it was his study area anyway.

3. Create a Reading Area

I remember assigning the manager’s chair ( my husband’s chair in our room ) as his reading area. But of course, when he developed the love for reading—he was reading everywhere, anywhere and anytime. That chair was where I usually sat as I read books to him. So when he turned three, he just naturally sat there when he wanted to read his books. He just got used to the area that he dragged his books there and read. And so you know his reading comprehension was higher when he read the books in that area.

4. Create A Checklist

My son had a routine which he followed. I wrote it on a piece of paper and stuck it on a wall in his room. And of course for your child to be faithful to that routine, you the parent or the guardian should also follow the routine. So I had to be consistent with what I wrote on that piece of paper. Thus when I wrote “playtime at 9:30 am” on that sheet then I had to play with him when it was time to do so. Remember, consistency in routine encourages discipline. It will help him accomplish goals in the future.

5. Create A Practice Test

When my son was younger, we used to play game show scenarios. I was the game show host and he was the contestant and sometimes the other way around.The questions I asked were usually about what we have learned , new words we have read or discovered during the week.I used to make worksheets for him too, when he was younger. The worksheets I made would include his favorite STARWARS, DC OR MARVEL. In fact, I used to ask him to spell words like Captain, Incredible and Amazing. You must have figured by now how “marvelled” I was, really.

*Note: So, I have to share with you that setting separate places did not only help set different moods for every activity, it helped me most especially settle my child’s thoughts which was the most important thing if not the priority for me, since he was a very active kid. He was always curious and he wanted to do so many things at the same time.