How can I create spaces in my older child's room for the room's different purposes?
I think when it comes to creating spaces in older children's rooms, it's great if you can work with them and talk with them and see what it is that they actually do in those rooms. A lot of times older children really like to spend an enormous amount of time in their room with the door shut. So you want to say, OK, do you watch TV in here? Do you listen to music? Do you talk on the phone? What is it that you're doing in the room and what can we do to create spaces for you to do that? I also think it's really important to have different spaces in the room so that the bed doesn't become the place where everything is done. You don't necessarily want to do your homework in the bed and talk on the phone in the bed, and read in the bed. Because more and more studies too are showing that really what you should only be doing in bed is sleeping. You don't want to develop these bad habits of using the bed as sort of your office. It's good to work with the child and to really find spaces in the room that you can create areas. Put a chair somewhere, this is where they can sit and talk on the phone and they can read. Or this is where they sit to do their homework, this is where they watch television. Or however that's going to work out. It just depends, it's on a case by case basis. You can definitely do that.
