Being a kid and learning these days can be a bit rough. Currently, with the global pandemic of Coronavirus, most children are participating in their schooling at home. Children are doing so via Zoom or the aid of their parents. The current situation has also caused some concern between parents, as well as the current frustrations they have with the school boards. As the global pandemic continues, many people are continuing to adjust to make sure their children get the best education they can.
This unfortunate situation has made it where children are spending most of their time studying and doing classwork online for several more hours than they used to. Much like anyone who works in an office can tell you, this potentially can put a strain on your physically and mentally.
With this being the current norm of schooling, most kids are using their parent’s home office desks or even kitchen tables to do their school work. Sitting in a make-shift classroom for hours on end can be very uncomfortable. This can cause some issues when it comes to their growth and posture throughout the years. There are quite a few cons when it comes to your child sitting at your home office desk during class time. Certain problems could occur, such as:
- Potential heart disease in later years
- Diabetes
- Prolonged sitting leading to childhood obesity
- Liver disease
- Metabolic syndrome
If you think about it, prolonged sitting could be potentially dangerous to your child. One of the best ways to rectify these potential threats is having your child use a height-adjustable desk.
What is a height-adjustable desk?
Height-adjustable desks are in fact desks in which you can adjust the height for standing while working. A lot of progressive start-up companies and companies internationally are switching to height-adjusted desks to give their employees a healthy alternative to their day-to-day work lives. Height-adjustable desks allow anyone who uses them to simply change their postures from sitting to standing height throughout their day.
An article from Btod.com about “The Surprising History of Standing Desks” states that “height-adjustable desks have become quite popular as early as the 18^th^ and 19^th^ centuries. Back then many of these could be found in the homes and offices of the rich. The advice of an English dissenting minister in 1797 may have played a big part in the rise of this furniture”.
Throughout the years there have been many studies on the benefits of using height-adjustable desks on the human body. These studies are one of the biggest reasons corporate businesses have made the switch. With people more focused on their health in the workplace and in their personal life, it makes you think how starting early with your children can help. This can impact them in many positive ways, such as:
- Reducing the risk of heart disease
- Promoting healthy muscle growth
- Protecting your child’s spine, ankles, and knee strength
- Keeps your children knowledgeable of proper sitting postures
- Helps to promote more mental activity
- Could help to prevent chronic illnesses
- Protect from child obesity
- More efficiency with their time and focus
- Can be more motivating to stay on task during class time
- The sit-to-stand conversion can relieve the fatigue of long term studying throughout the week
Being health-conscious for your health is important, but even more so when it comes to your children and their time learning at home. Most of the time when we are at home our immediate default is to relax in any way possible. The same can be said for children after a hard or mentally exhausting day at school. Height-adjustable desks provide a great way to even help children experience school in a fun new way. This also is important as it helps children be more encouraged in their school work and interest in the lessons being provided to them.
The big question is that once you’re in the correct mindset to get your children a height-adjustable desk, where do you go from here? There are many resources when it comes to finding a height-adjustable desk that will be perfect for your children. One of the best ones out there is the FlexiSpot Study Desks. These study desks are perfect for your children from ages kindergarten to well into their college years. It is a standing desk that is specially prepared for your children and all their at-home schooling needs.
The FlexiSpot Study Desks encourages a healthier learning environment by encouraging your children to alternate from sitting and standing positions, as needed. This height-adjustable desk requires no manual lifting or lowering to get to the desired comfort. It is simply adjusted by using a one-touch button that can easily raise or lower the study desk with the 2 buttons for up and down. Some other helpful features include:
- A beautiful design for children
- Waterproof round top plate for accidental spills
- A hook for their book bag is attached right next to the desk
- A device that prevents collisions with rounded corners on the edge of the feet
While there may be times where standing all day can be exhausting for your children, you may need a chair to keep them comfortable. When looking into a chair you want to make sure you are considering the same health risks as you would with the height-adjustable desk. Looking for an ergonomic study chair will be the perfect companion to your children’s desk.
Lumbar support is one of the most important things when it comes to using an ergonomic study chair. This is why they are the perfect choice for your children while they focus on their school work. Lumbar support helps to promote good posture as well. It does so by filling the gap between the lumbar spine and the seat. This is important for your children because it will support the natural inward curve of their lower back. Without having good lumbar support, their larger muscles in the lower back will have to work harder to support the proper curvature and alignment.
After a while, your children’s body will grow more tired, the muscles holding the spine in such a poor condition will start to become weak. To compensate, their head and upper back will lean forward the wreaking lumbar muscles. Our natural thought process when sitting is usually to slouch or lean forward in a desk chair, but having an ergonomic study chair will help prevent that.
With your children having great lumbar support from an ergonomic study chair their muscles surrounding their spine are going to be relieved of a lot of the responsibility of having to keep their spine naturally curved. This is going to be very important when they are shifting from sitting to standing during an average school day, ranking from 6-8 hours a day.
Ergonomic study chairs will be the way to go when it comes to finishing the perfect setup for your children’s height-adjustable desk. We know no matter what we do, comfort and less lower back pain for anyone in our lives is a goal we always want to achieve.
A lot of people don’t realize that ergonomic chairs are also important to hip health. Hips take most of the weight when you sit. In an average desk chair, your child will put more weight when they sit than they would in an ergonomic study chair. These chairs will help to replace hip pressure by providing a much more suitable seat depth
With what seems like no end in sight, homeschooling will most likely become the new normal in the next year or so. The school experience much of us grew up with may become a thing of the past. A Forbes article from December 2020 stated, “At its peak, the numbers have reached nearly 1.3 billion children learning at home, with varying degrees of remove connection to their school or district”. With Coronavirus numbers fluctuating these numbers could be unpredictable in the next 1-3 years.
It’s interesting to think when most adults were in school themselves, staying at home and not going to a classroom day after day sounded great. Looking at the kid as today where being social is more important than 10-20 years ago, not having that classroom experience may leave them feeling like they are missing out. Considering homeschooling your children will continue for quite some time, now is the time to start setting up the perfect environment for them to stay healthy, learn and consistently enjoy their new school experience.