When the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to abruptly shut down in the spring, my family, like many others, scrambled to make distance learning a reality. My 14-year-old daughter would sometimes work on her iPad on the couch, at my desk in my home office, or even in bed. It was emergency remote learning, with the emphasis on “emergency,” rather than on “learning.”
This school year, many school districts are employing a hybrid remote and in-person schedule, or offering remote as the only option. For children who are preparing to learn from home, one of the best ways parents can support them is to provide a dedicated space to focus on their studies amid all the distractions.
Here are some of the best tools and tips for setting up a permanent or semi-permanent remote-learning space for your child, now that their classroom may be your living room, kitchen, or a home office you have to share.
Carve out space for schoolwork based on your child’s age and learning style.
A desk of one’s own isn’t a necessity for success at school — after all, many of us grew up doing our homework at the kitchen table. The most important thing is to have one consistent spot, even if it’s in a multipurpose room like a dining room, where children can follow a learn-at-home routine.
The younger your child is, the more you’ll want that study space to be in a central location. Some older children also work best in environments with plenty of people around them, such as a library, so consider sharing your work-from-home space. If you can find room in your home office, a separate desk for your child that’s free of your work items is ideal. If that’s not possible, you can cordon off part of your desk (if it’s large enough) or use a folding table for a temporary solution (we’ll get to more desk suggestions below).
Older children may want more privacy, especially if they’re frequently in video classes and your presence is distracting. You can create a dedicated, semiprivate study area by partitioning off part of your living room or dining room with a privacy screen, curtains hung from the ceiling, a tall plant, or an open bookcase.
If you decide to set up a desk for your child in their bedroom, make sure you’re aware of the potential issues:
Everything in a child’s bedroom — toys, books, even the bed — can be a distraction from schoolwork. Wirecutter senior engineering manager Erik Erickson said his 6-year-old daughter did her daily one-hour Zoom kindergarten classes on her own in her bedroom. But she was supervised during homework time — “otherwise it would have become toy time.”
Having a computer, tablet, or mobile device in the bedroom may tempt your child to stay up past bedtime, playing games or socializing on their gadgets or even doing schoolwork. (Like many people who regularly work from home, I keep my office work outside the bedroom for a similar reason: It’s too tempting to overwork.)
Still, a desk in the bedroom can be a good option for focused schoolwork — if your child will use it properly. Establish some ground rules for on- and off-line times, and check in to make sure your child is doing schoolwork at the desk.
Essential gear: Sharing a home office can be challenging, even when it’s with another adult. So make sure you and your new office mate have the flexibility to temporarily move to another area so you can both work isolated as needed. A rolling cart — like the Ikea Råskog (about $30) or The Container Store Arts and Crafts carts (about $115) — or even a large basket will make it easy to move school supplies on the fly.
Alternatively, consider keeping everything your child needs daily for school in a backpack. We like L.L. Bean’s Junior Original Book Pack (about $30) for second-graders and below, and L.L. Bean’s Original Book Pack (about $37) for third-graders and up. Although your child won’t be schlepping the pack from classroom to classroom, it might put them in the mind-set of “going to school.”
A pair of children’s headphones like the Puro BT2200 (about $80) can help both toddlers and older children concentrate on educational videos. And if you need to block out their online classes to focus on your own work, we recommend the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 (about $380).
Consider desk needs based on how your child will use it.
Children’s learn-from-home equipment needs grow as they do. The one consistent requirement is a stable, flat surface to work on.
Children who are in preschool or kindergarten need a space for art and hands-on learning tools. Any flat surface and a chair they can sit comfortably on for short stints will do. At this age, children don’t sit in one spot for long, and even though tiny desks for toddlers are cute, they’re about as necessary for learning as basketball sneakers are for infants. For this age group, a side table, play table, or the dining room table can suffice.
Elementary school children have more books, work sheets and other school supplies to contend with, and they’re learning the skills they need to study more independently for longer periods of time. For children in this age range, British furniture manufacturer Bluespot Furniture recommends getting a desk that’s between 31 inches and 47 inches wide, if you want the desk to grow with them. However, the desk doesn’t have to be as deep as typical desks for adults. A compact desk that’s about 24 inches deep accommodates a laptop and can be a better fit.
For junior and senior high school students, who spend the majority of their school days doing focused work at their desks, it pays to get something that’s sturdy and durable, and that they find attractive. They’ll likely be using more equipment, like a wireless keyboard, so look for desk features that make working with their tech easier, such as a keyboard tray or grommets to corral messy wires.
Essential gear: Ample storage is key. If the desk doesn’t have enough drawers or shelving, storage units like the Ikea Kallax Shelf Unit (about $80, and useful for toy storage as well) can corral papers and supplies. Wirecutter senior staff writer Lauren Dragan recommends the Kid Made Modern Arts and Crafts Library (about $40) both for the craft supplies it comes with and as a place to store art supplies.
Adjust their desk chair to support sitting for long periods of time.
Many desks designed for school-age children, like Pottery Barn Kids’ Desks, are the same height as typical desks designed for adults: 30 inches. This height best fits people who are around 6 feet tall, so most children will have to strain upward to write. They may raise their chair to accommodate the desk height, but chances are their feet will be dangling.
The solution to this is the same as it is for adults: Adjust your child’s seating situation with pillows or other supports. If the chair is raised as high as it can go, and your child’s arms and wrists are still below the height of the desk or keyboard, add a seat cushion to prop them up. If their feet are dangling, use a footrest, a box or other sturdy object for support. If the seat is too deep for them to sit with their back against the backrest, use a lumbar support pillow to help them maintain good posture.
Essential gear: Any chair is fine for brief stints, but for long study sessions get a height-adjustable chair with a backrest (pictured above is the Ikea Skålberg, a $40 chair that does the job). You can supplement with cushions to make the chair fit them better.
Help them organize their desk and classwork.
Many schools now use virtual calendars, schedules and assignment lists. But a physical reminder of a child’s daily schedule can still be helpful at any age. Consider placing a cork board, whiteboard or chalkboard by the desk, and writing your child’s class schedule on it, as well as your own meeting times, so you can coordinate schedules. As a bonus, your child can decorate this area to personalize the work space.
Teach your child to keep all of their school books, binders and notebooks in the same spot, and let them know they are responsible for these. (My daughter has asked me countless times where her math book or library book was, when it was buried under a stack of comic books.) If you use the keep-everything-in-the-backpack approach, this will be easier on everyone.
Place all frequently used daily supplies — pencils, pencil sharpener, screen cleaning cloth, and so forth — within easy reach. And keep everything else in storage bins, or even in an over-the-door shoe hanger.
Essential gear: A label maker, like the Dymo LabelManager 420P (about $90), can make any work space feel organized. If you have more than one child who’s in school at home, color-coded labels or stickers can help everyone see whose pencil case is whose, avoiding battles when siblings have to share a work space.
For video classes, an iPad stand like the Heckler Design @Rest Universal Tablet Stand (about $45) can help your child avoid craning their neck to connect with their classmates and teacher. A laptop stand like the Rain Design iLevel 2 (about $60) can also position a laptop’s camera appropriately for meetings. Or you can invest in a webcam, gaming headset and microphone for the best full-time-schooling-at-home computer setup.
Safeguard their computer.
Your child’s computer is the final element to consider in their work space. Although teaching your child to be safe and smart online is a lifelong process, and it’s impossible to childproof a computer 100 percent, a few basic precautions can help you get set up to learn right now.
First, create a child account on the computer. With their own user account, children will get their own desktop, user folder, applications and app settings. The computer’s built-in parental controls can also block content you don’t want them to see. See the instructions for Microsoft Family Safety for Windows and Xbox, Screen Time for Mac, or Family Link for Chromebook.
Consider installing a browser extension to protect privacy and increase security. For children, we like uBlock Origin for Chrome and Firefox, which provides ad blocking, prevents online tracking, and can protect against some forms of malware. (Malicious ads can deliver malware by tricking people into visiting harmful sites.)
Teach your children to be good stewards of their expensive and fragile devices. Make sure they always use a laptop on a flat, stable surface, rather than on a bed or the couch. Keep tower desktop PCs out of kicking or footrest range. And ban food and drinks from the computer’s vicinity.
Most important, don’t stress if your child’s work space isn’t as perfectly organized or as meticulously set up as a proper classroom. If you engage your children in the process and give them a place to sit, think and learn, your family will be one step ahead this school year.
A version of this article appears at Wirecutter. Interested in learning more about the best things to buy and how to use them? Visit the site, where you can read the latest reviews and find daily deals.
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September 15, 2020 at 06:21PM
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