HOW TO STUDY
Get students off to the right start with a proper study space
The bedroom was never a good place, and the kitchen table a second-best alternative. Set your kids up with a dedicated study space away from distraction.
Barbara Champagne remembers hunkering down over the kitchen table on her family’s Prescott-area hobby farm as a child, her mother nearby, ready to help if homework assignments were extra tough.
“The kitchen was the biggest room in the house and the natural spot to do our homework,” says the design and drapery marketing manager of Westboro Flooring & Decor.
Bedrooms were for sleeping, not studying, she says. “Mom was always watching, keeping a study system in place and sticking to it.”
Four decades later, the youngest member of the Champagne clan studiously follows her own study system for her children, Karlene Bergeron, 16, and younger brother Nicholas, 13.
Bedrooms are still for sleeping and some private time, but studying is done together, and Champagne and husband Don Bergeron are closely involved.
Laptops, iPhones and Google have replaced the pens, paper and multiplication tables of the 49-year-old’s study years, yet the basics remain unchanged.
“The more organized kids are, the fewer distractions, the better they learn,” says Champagne. The system is working — both children are earning top marks.
Instead of closed bedroom doors after school, the Bergerons head to an open study area in the loft of their five-bedroom home in Moffatt Farm, between Prince of Wales Drive and the Rideau River, and work on their own. There are two desks and cubbies and shelving for books and paper.
“When I am home at 5 p.m. and making supper, they come down and show me their homework and we talk about the day,” says Champagne, who vehemently rejects the philosophy that the job of educating rests with schools and teachers. “It is also our job to teach our children.”
After supper, the younger Bergerons head to their bedrooms for private time, maybe watch television or play with their iPads.
The key to raising successful students is to keep the communication lines open, says elder sister Deb Champagne, director of sales for Tamarack Homes.
‘Everything is wireless and it’s a bit of a worry, when the bedroom door closes, to know whether they are really working — or are they surfing and playing games?’ DEB CHAMPAGNE Director of sales for Tamarack Homes
“Open spaces are good, so parents can keep track of what their kids are doing on their iPads and laptops.”
She has seen an increase in open study areas built into second-floor lofts, like Tamarack Homes’ Bradbury family home in Findlay Creek, which is open to the kitchen below yet provides a homework area for young scholars.
“Everything is wireless and it’s a bit of a worry, when the bedroom door closes, to know whether they are really working — or are they surfing and playing games?” says Deb Champagne, who also sees computer niches and work areas built into kitchens, convenient for paying bills or reviewing for a French test.
“Study lofts are a great space for more than one person working,” adds Kelly Maiorino, co-owner of Unique Spaces and a lead interior designer for Tartan Homes. “Kids are not fighting over space and parents can keep an eye on everyone.”
It’s also possible to create a second-floor study area when there isn’t a large open loft, if there is an extra-wide hallway, says Kirsten Vent, owner of Kirsten Vent Design and the designing smarts behind Minto’s Walnut model home in Manotick.
She has created study areas in wide hallways — space that could easily be wasted. Yet add a bank of cabinets and doors that open up to a study area and then can be closed to hide away the mess of papers and computer wiring, and you’ve made it efficient.
“It can be very simple and very classic,” says Vent, who is also a big booster of open study areas. Bedrooms should be for sleeping and reading, says Vent, who likes the idea of a small antique desk and pretty boxes for jewelry in a girl’s room, but not a complete study area.
However, there are times and ages when privacy is key and study demands walls, says Maiorino, who recently transformed her daughter’s bedroom into a funky, colourful dorm.
“She chose everything, the colours, the furniture.”
Micayla, 19, lives at home in Riverside South and is starting her second year in the biopharmaceutical sciences program at the University of Ottawa.
The Maiorino design team turned to Pottery Barn’s website, PBteen.com for inspiration.
“It is neat to create a dorm space for Micayla, yet it is here at home. It is fresh, clean and functional. She lives in the room,” says Maiorino, who says her younger daughter, 17-year-old Olivia, still uses the kitchen table to do her homework.
“When students are younger and have a lot of questions, it’s good for parents to be more accessible, and still have a more watchful eye and to study on the main floor. When you are an older academic, quieter spaces are better,” says the veteran designer.
Whether, it’s a private study area in a bedroom or an open, study loft, IKEA, the reigning master of affordable, colourful and compact furniture, has design solutions for young scholars to university undergrads.
The retailer even has furniture that will grow with a young student, says Alicia Zoffranieri, national public relations specialist for IKEA Canada. For instance, the Glasholm or Linnmon tabletops can be paired with legs that can grow with your child, adjusting up or down by 30 centimetres. And while fun, colourful and easy to adjust chairs are appealing to young students, for older ones it would be smart to invest in a functional, ergonomic chair that will be comfortable for longer study periods, she says. Your scholar will likely take the furniture when leaving for university or a first apartment.