Designing Spaces for Children at Home
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Illustration by L., age 4
If you live with children, you might read the title of this post and think, Designing space for children? I make plenty of space - and between their furniture, their clothes, and the sprawl of their toys - I need some space for me!
It may feel that all your space is taken up by the children you have at home. And, since so many families are in the midst of a total sea-change regarding child care, schooling, and staying and working at home, the issue of space is more important (and potentially fraught) than ever. Like so many other parts of our society, the culture of house and home is being illuminated, exposed for its comforts and challenges alike, and we are changing the way we do things as a result. Perhaps you’ve invested in a nicer coffee maker, an ergonomic laptop stand, or finally sorted out that black hole of a spare closet. These are the kinds of changes that make our daily life and work more efficient, pleasurable, and true to the kinds of experiences we want to have. But where do children fit into the flow of our home lives?
Even in “normal” times, our social messages about children are swing between extremes, either:
We view children as “temporarily dependent soul-suckers we must usher begrudgingly to adulthood.”
or
We view children as “precious, fragile emotional keepsakes we must protect, shield, and actively nurture every second of the day for fear they will “miss out” on something vital, like self-esteem or childhood itself.”
In practice, then, we experience children as either:
Uncontrollably underfoot (Oh my god, I love them, but there are toys everywhere and this kid still won’t leave me alone!)
or
Overwhelmingly at the center of our every action (Obviously, this child is demanding my attention because they need a playmate and a caretaker, which I will do no matter what because I love them).
No wonder so many families feel such a sense of grief over their loss of childcare support during the pandemic. Neither of these visions of children leads to a sustainable life alongside them. But what can we do to move past them? And what does this have to do with setting up a space for homeschool?
Let’s agree to throw out those old narratives and focus on the real lives we live alongside children - children who also happen to be real, multifaceted people we love. Reassessing our values and beliefs about children, what they need, and how they develop is the first step toward creating a meaningful, manageable life alongside them - even when it comes to setting up a place for them.
Children deserve a well-considered environment by virtue of their rights within a family/community but this investment in space for children is one that supports everyone in a household. Having usable space decreases the friction between all the routines and people who live in a home or classroom. Whether you have a whole room for children, a corner in the living room, or just a special bookcase-turned-homeschool next to the kitchen table — that’s enough. Functional space will keep you logistically afloat, and the specialness of that little nook will signal to the child that you care for them and respect their needs, social graces which they will, in turn, learn from you.
Now for the nitty-gritty. Well-designed spaces need to account for children’s situational needs, developmental needs, and the individual needs of each child and family.
Situational needs:
Ask yourself: What purpose does this place need to serve each day? Do children need to entertain themselves for a longer period of time? Do they share the space with other children? Do they need an environment for distance learning?
Create a clear sense of purpose for the area and design only for that purpose. This is the place where you will work on your projects/play with materials while mom and mom are working. You can use everything here until I am done working and then I can come to see what you did.
Extraneous materials will only prompt your child to find a purpose for them. So, if you want to set your child up with things like legos and colored pencils to use while you can’t supervise them, don’t store glue or glitter nearby - just an ample supply of legos, paper, and pencils and a clear and open working surface.
It’s fine if the area needs to be rearranged throughout the day, say, to return it to the table for lunch. Just make sure you can easily remove and replace things as needed and make it a regular, predictable part of the daily routine. After breakfast every day, we set up our special school supplies. When Zoom school is over, we put everything in this basket and set the table for our snack before we go outside.
Developmental needs:
Appeal to children’s concrete thinking and need to be active, creative, and expressive by making things accessible, usable, and readable (meaning you know what to do with it just by looking at it).
Children need to use their hands and bodies as much as possible - set up supplies and materials that will allow them to do this in a way that is okay with you and works for the level of supervision you can provide during that part of the day.
Limit what is available but make it totally available for the time it’s in use. Clear limits + freedom of choice within those limits = self-regulation
Explain how to care for each thing, but not a singular way to use each thing. Constraints + creative liberty = critical thinking.
Individual needs:
Streamline the environment and curate it for your particular children and family. You don’t have to provide every cool toy at Target or activity at Lakeshore.
What does your child love? What irritates them or makes it hard for them to focus?
What matters to you as a family? Lean into that. Do you value creativity and exploration? It sounds like you’d love pastels and different paper textures. Do you spend every weekend hiking? Consider a domed jungle gym.
Adults can’t provide every kind of experience for their children, especially right now, but we can focus on the ones that matter to us and the children we live alongside.