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5 Ways an Indoor Herb Garden Helps Your Child Focus
Concentrating on homework is important. It helps your child get ahead. Here’s the problem: it can be difficult to focus sometimes, especially if you’re easily distracted by the world around you. After a tiring day of school, who can blame kids for wanting to zone out in front of the TV? Parents and teachers are constantly looking for ways to improve their children’s focus. In fact, a recent survey published by the National Parents Union showed that 64% of parents are more involved than ever before in their child’s education. If you’re a parent, guardian or teacher, here’s how a Click & Grow indoor garden can help your child stay more focused during school and homework time.
1. Plants help increase attention by 70%
Fascinating research carried out by The Royal College of Agriculture indicates that plants can boost both focus and attention. The study spanned an entire year and found that students were 70% more attentive when taught in rooms containing plants. The same study also found that attendance was higher for lectures given in classrooms containing plants. (Amanda Read 2005, Royal Agriculture College in England). On average, students spend six to eight hours every day in a classroom and an extra hour or two in their bedrooms doing homework. Having a Smart Garden 3 or a Smart Garden 9 on a desktop, windowsill or shelf is a fun, unique way to add brain boosting plants to your child’s study environment.
2. Greenery helps to boost concentration
Ever noticed how a simple walk through nature clears your mind? Or perhaps how you feel inspired when looking at beautiful green scenery? Attention restoration theory helps to explain this sensation. The idea is that people can concentrate better after spending time in nature or by simply looking at scenes of nature. Research supports this concept too. In a study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, participants were randomly assigned to look at pictures of a green meadow or a concrete roof for 40 seconds. Brain scans were taken during the process. Guess what? Even a momentary glimpse of nature was enough to make the brain move into a more relaxed state.
The same researchers asked participants to do a task to measure their attention. Those who had seen the picture of the meadow performed significantly better than the others, making fewer mistakes and getting less distracted. In an urban home or classroom, an indoor garden is a way to bring nature indoors. Simply looking at green plants can serve as a mental pick-me-up for your child.
3. Nature helps minimise distractions
Research suggests that scenes of nature can have a soothing effect on children, helping to minimise distractions that would occupy their minds. It seems that adding plants to a child’s study environment can actually help them learn better. Improved focus makes it easier for them to absorb information. This study found that the presence of foliage plants had a positive effect on concentration and emotional condition in elementary students. There’s also research to suggest plants can reduce noise levels when placed strategically at the edges and corners of a room. If you have the vertical space, an indoor garden such as the Smart Garden 27 will add serious foliage to your child’s study environment.
4. Plants help to improve behaviour
A study conducted in a Taiwanese junior high school revealed some interesting findings. The aim was to examine the relationship between plants in a classroom and students’ psychology, behavior and health. Two similar classrooms took part in the study. After an initial assessment period, six small trees were brought into one of the classrooms to serve as the experimental group. Immediately, this classroom started to demonstrate stronger feelings of preference, comfort and friendliness compared to the other classroom. They also had significantly fewer sick leave hours and punishment records when compared to the other classroom. Furthermore, they produced higher test scores on academic measures.
5. Plants help to improve air quality
Air quality is an important factor in any study environment. Working in a room without fresh air can lead to headaches, fatigue and difficulty in concentrating. When air quality is diminished, our health and performance suffer. In addition to having an adequate air conditioning system, your child can benefit from being surrounded by plants. Plants are natural air filters, replacing carbon dioxide with oxygen. Synthetic furniture items in the room may be releasing harmful chemicals into the air such as formaldehyde and benzene. This NASA study suggests plants can help to filter out such chemicals from indoor air. While your child is busy studying during the day, plants will be performing photosynthesis, reducing VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and increasing oxygen to carbon dioxide ratios, leading to cleaner air.
Ready to choose your first indoor garden?
Read our ultimate smart garden guide here