For many families with school-age children, classrooms in the new school year will be next to the great room, in the kitchen or Mom and Dad’s home office space. For parents, this presents a new challenge: finding room and creating an environment conducive to in-house learning, often while they are working from home themselves.
So, what makes sense for your home if your children need a designated learning environment?
“In-home classrooms are no longer a luxury reserved for an elite few; they are now a necessity that we see more and more new homebuyers inquiring about,” according to Gary Naim, President of the Broadview Heights-based company. “No longer just a place for homework and after-school social fun, buyers want and need a space where it’s possible to focus and to learn. ”The buyers that are coming through our door this year seem to know that this new virtual at-home learning is a here to stay possibility going forward.
Naim cites that families today do not have the equivalent of the old-time attic-level or backyard schoolroom, so he advises that buyers work with their architect to create dual-use space solutions in their new home plan.
“Setting up a designated workspace in a kids’ bedroom, den or seldom-used dining room can provide the separation necessary for home-based learning,” he points out. “Since we are seeing an increase in requests for flexible home school space, we have been introducing changes to some of our popular plans that answer to this new and important need.” Naim is also quick to point out that his company excels in customization, something many other builders don’t offer.
“The key to creating this new in-demand space is looking at under-utilized space that exists in the overall floor plan and making it flexible and easily adaptable to more than one type of use,” says Naim. Dining rooms, in particular, do not see heavy use during this time of coronavirus isolation. Families are not entertaining as they once did; guests, rare as they are, are mainly kept to porches, decks and other outdoor spaces. The dining room table can become the new classroom, with space for books, homework, projects and computer monitors.
While parents find learning space for their children, they are often looking for their own places to work from.
An area that is separate from the main flow of the housecan be repurposed as a home office or classroom. Since most people use laptops and tablets, anywhere with some privacy and a good Wi-Fi signal can become an office.
