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I’m a person who likes to organize and keep things visually pleasing. That’s why I designated a spot to learn and play with my 4-year-old son. This the place I call “Study Room “. I categorized some of the things I want to teach him and organized them in a file pocket organizer on the wall. This organizer has name tags that provide good visual reminders for me.
The items in the first column are the categories unique to our family. I feel they are crucial for my child, and I don’t expect the school to teach them.
Languages
At home we speak 3 different languages other than English, therefore I made it a point to include pockets for each.
Executive Functioning
This section of the house is also our play area, and here we do a lot of pretend play. Above all it is intended for free play, I also want to use it to teach my child executive functioning skills, hence, I put some reminders in the pocket.
Social Skills/Puppets
I have written some stories, and use puppets to teach social skills. There are plenty of puppet storybooks online if you’re interested in puppets. They are best for teaching social skills and came recommended by our pediatrician.
Yoga
My son loves different yoga poses. Here is a beautiful book that I use to teach him. Yoga increases flexibility, is easy to practice anywhere and helps young children to foster a healthy lifestyle.
Mindfulness
I have been a strong advocate of teaching mindfulness to kids early on. It helps with emotional control, sustained attention, meta-cognition, and some of the factors of executive functioning. The second column is a placeholder for materials related to his school and the classes he attends.
Dance
This category is here to remind me that my son must practice for his dance class. The pocket also acts as a placeholder for class information, class schedule and any other documents the class provides.
School
Here I keep a school calendar. This comes handy and me helps talk about events coming up at school. Having a reminder of events in the study room keeps these on the radar.
Swimming
We live on a lake, and for safety reasons we want our children to learn to swim. We enrolled them in swimming classes. My older son does not appreciate it. This section is here to remind me to prep him for the class. One way I prep him is by borrowing swimming books from library and reading them to him. I think it mentally preps him for the class.
Literacy and Math
I believe parents should be part of a child’s academics, even though schools and teachers are wonderful at teaching them. I have designated some pockets for academics. These are for work books, puzzles and exercises here. When I need one I simply pull one out.
Geography
I bought an atlas from Costco, and my son loves it. This is an essential to any study room. We learn about different places and use it in our pretend play. We plan imaginative trips, meet people and try different foods in our play. The possibilities for pretend play are endless with an atlas. It has also helped him learn and appreciate traveling. The third column is the fun one.
Weekend materials
I have some maps that we collected while visiting the zoo, children’s museums, Mammoth Museum, Shedd Aquarium and other places. My son likes to look at the maps, and sometimes he talks about them and asks questions. They have contributed in our pretend play, too. They also help us plan upcoming trips.
Theme pockets
We have theme-based pockets like Halloween, snorkeling and dinosaur excavation. These are based on what’s going on and what my son is interested in at that time. This is a reminder for me to collect materials, books, pictures and share them with him. This is what I base my library visits on, and the stories from the books often become our plots for pretend play.
I am determined to make learning experiences as fun as possible, but at the same time,I want them to be informative and educational. Having an organization structure for the study room is key in achieving this.
