You may not have realized it but lighting in the classroom is an essential part of learning. It has been discovered through research that fluorescent lights, when they flash, can cause severe challenges for students who are trying to learn. Fluorescent lights are often uneven as one wears over time, and this flicker is distracting and disrupts eyesight thus slowing down the learning process. It can cause nausea, drowsiness, and even harm the immune system.
Obviously, this is not good for schools, but what if you are homeschooling? Have you thought about the lighting, shading and level of lighting in your home? At the 2013 Strategies in Light Symposium and Conference, there was a workshop on interior lighting and one of the questions explored was the challenges we face in our schools, not only the costs associated with changing lighting, or energy requirements of various kinds, but the impact of all this on the workplace and in the classroom.
See here is the deal, if education professionals are so concerned about this, if companies and businesses realize they are losing productivity due to poor lighting, maybe you as a homeschooling parent should also take notice immediately. You might think you’re saving money by using those special light bulbs or by using LED lighting, but if not done correctly, you’ll cause eyestrain, sleepiness, and, well, your child won’t learn optimally, and may lose focus, comprehension, and/or retention scores greater than 50%.
The first thing you need to realize is that natural lighting is the absolute best. If you are homeschooling, try to use a room with natural light during the day. When the sun goes down or during a cloudy or overcast day, use UV lights, not fluorescent, not LED. No, LEDs aren’t that bad, but they’ll get enough LED lighting from computers, laptops, tablets, and possibly flat screen TVs in the future. UV lamps are closest to natural lighting.
Your child should sit near the light, not across the room in a shaded area, as this makes the eyes tired, and your child may have some difficulty concentrating. It is also worth asking your child how he likes the lighting. Are you bothering them? Does it bother them? If so, that’s a good reason to lower the intensity a bit or adjust the proximity of the light source. All of this is important and noisy light or poor lighting will make all the difference in the quality of your homeschooling progress. So, please consider all of this and think about it.
