At-Home School Ramp Up

95% of my thoughts lately have been about school and the education of our kids. If I am being honest, this has been at the forefront of my mind since last March as I know it has been for many families. We are very fortunate to have options this fall where many families do not. However, because we have options doesn’t mean that we haven’t agonized over them and will probably continue to do so for foreseeable future. These decisions are just hard for everyone involved and there are no easy answers.

In the spring we had two school aged children but now in the fall we have three which makes everything just a bit more stressful. It became very clear during e-learning in the spring that one of our kids were able to adapt better than the other and neither of them wanted their parents to be their teachers. As the school year starts next week we are going to send our kids to in-person school, for now ( I feel that most every decision sounds better with this after it because I know everything could change). We are bringing greater risk into our lives (which is scary) but have worked so hard to be cautious to get to this end point. Two of them will be in-person for a couple of hours every day while our oldest will be following a hybrid model of two days in-person and three days virtually. I am so grateful for our school and the community around it that has spent countless hours developing procedures to keep the staff and students safe. It’s going to be an adjustment but we are up for the challenge.

Despite all of our gratefulness there is still a lot of anxiety and a loss of a sense of control that washes over us daily about this decision. If you’re new here organizing and planning is often how I attempt to regain that sense of control. I know it’s really a false sense of control but it still makes me feel better! So with that being said, I am trying to mentally prepare myself for a time when all of our kids are back at home e-learning. Living in the Midwest with colder temps and a looming flu season I fully expect this to happen so I have been collecting loads of supplies (especially for our pre-schooler) to help prepare us for a time when the Wilson School for Wayward Children is fully back in session. Back in March I shared our Homeschool Cart so the new tools will be able to complement what we already had in the home. Read on for my TAKE on ramping up your school supplies at home!

Pre K + Kindergarten

• Three Bear Counter Families

• Matching Eggs

• Weather Station

• Four Color Sliding Puzzle

• Peg Number Boards

• Sensory Table

• Water Beads

• Sensory Bin Tools

1st Grade and Up

• Timer for Silent Reading

• A new set of books for Silent Reading

• Silent Reading Caddy

• Think Tank Scholar Sight Words Flashcards

• Think Tank Scholar Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division Fast Fact Flashcards

During the past six months there have also been a lot of great ideas shared across Instagram and my favorite accounts for ideas and encouragement are as follows: Days with Grey, ETST, The Workspace for Children, Busy Toddler and Jordan and Co. I love the idea of learning through creativity so aside from some flashcards that’s what we will be attempting to focus on this year. If you have found something that works well for your family, please share I’m always looking for new ideas!

Best of luck to all of you on this school year and stay healthy!

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Our Homeschool Cart

Our days at home now number 19 and we’ve become somewhat resigned to the reality that we will be here for a while. All five of us in our home can be a lot sometimes especially when two of us are trying to work while help the kids succeed at e-learning. We only have one true office/desk area and the bedrooms aren’t large enough for desks so it’s been a bit of a free for all with laptops and school supplies all over the place. I love myself some school supplies but after not being able to see our dining room table for the past two weeks I needed to take control. Perhaps this was my way of dealing with the uncertainty of the times but creating a homeschool cart to organize all the supplies the kids need for school plus a bunch of educational games and books felt so good! The kids loved helping to organize the cart and so far have actually kept it organized. So if you’re like me and are opening to regain a bit of control during these times, read on for my TAKE on a homeschool cart. Hope it helps at least one more parent stay sane!

I’ve always wanted to build an art cart for my kids so when the dining room table became a school desk for two (sometimes three) kids I took it as an excuse to create a homeschool cart. Having everything in place makes it easy for the kids to grab what they need throughout the day and alternatively, put things a way when they’re through. Plus the cart is easily wheeled into other rooms when the need arises.

The cart itself I ordered from the Recollections line at Michael’s. I opted for the larger version as I needed to house items for two kids but there is a smaller version with a lid accessory that could help the cart transition into a desk. Aside from the cart itself we had most if not all of the educational games, school and art supplies at home and I just pulled them from different closets and arranged on the carts shelves. There is a lot that can fit into this three tier cart and despite being jam packed is quite durable.

We have the cart full of the standard workbooks, pencils, crayons, paper, scissors and glue sticks but some items that have been helping to make our transition into e-learning a little bit easier are as follows:

• Osmo Base for iPad - We do have Osmo and love it but the base has been particularly helpful when needing to prop the an iPad up to join a Zoom meeting or to use the Seesaw Class app.

• A new set of these Crayola Double Doodlers have been a hit and have helped to get the creativity flowing during art projects.

• We start each day with journaling and writing a letter to a friend so a journal and stationary are located in a prime spot on the cart. Thankfully, I randomly stocked up on some stamps in early March so we will be able to keep up with our letter writing efforts for a couple of more weeks.

• Supplemental games for Math and Spanish are played a few nights a week in our house. Mobi a fast numerical tile game, Math Dice Junior and eeBoo’s Time Telling game are most popular. As for Spanish our workbooks were accidentally left at school so we’ve been using eeBoo’s Spanish Bingo and vocabulary flash cards to supplement. Luckily regular Spanish lessons are starting this week!

• Kinetic Sand and Mad Mattr have been popular for my younger two. They love sensory things and you can use these materials to trace letters or to discuss textures.

• Headphones! Don’t forget the headphones! They help my oldest of focus when there are many distracting younger siblings abound.

• And of course, painters tape which has been the most surprisingly useful homeschool product to date. Mostly for the pre school set in creating invitations to play but also for chalk art.

There are so many supplies that you can add to a cart to make it useful for your family…books for quiet time and Magna-tiles have also been really helpful for us. Hope you have fun with putting your school supplies together and most of all good luck with this e-learning adventure!

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Camp Corona

Today we embarked on our new reality in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. We have been working from home and have been practicing social distancing for a few days now but today is the first day the kids are home from school and any without any extra curricular activities. Adapting to this new normal is going to be a challenge especially as it is very likely to extend beyond two weeks but we 100% want to do our part in helping to flatten the curve and protecting our community. I’m so appreciative of the work the medical professionals are doing to treat the sick and educate the masses on best practices.

I’m not sure what we should call this new normal and it’s hard for the kids to understand so for now it’s going to be “Camp Corona” as we’re partially out of school and on Spring Break. We’ve received a lot os support from teachers, friends and educational companies as we all come together to aid our children and come up with ideas to creative routines and foster learning during this time. If you’re on the hunt for some educational ideas/games as you navigate this time please read on for my TAKE.

Know that I’m not an educator and these ideas span multiple age ranges so they may not work for all but they are a starting point for my family as we navigate this uncertain time. The most important thing to remember here is to give each other a break…we’re all doing the best we can. As time goes on and you come across new ideas please share, I’d love to adopt more and will plan to continue to share on my Instagram account. Stay healthy friends!

Daily Routine

• Get dressed and out of PJs each morning

• Exercise in the morning and afternoon (We started to train for a mile run this morning)

• Set up a school/desk area to do work (Do this away from toys and the TV)

• Adopt daily chores like making a bed or taking out the trash (I’m going to teach my kids to fold laundry)

• Our kitchen has been coined the “Cafeteria” and snack and lunch time will be in the kitchen

• Quiet reading time and journaling will become a part of daily life

• Adopt play and self direction into learning as much as possible

• Take time for arts/crafts

• Recycle paper towel holders, bags and boxes into boats, spaceships and robots

• Write a daily letter to a classmate

• Find ways to connect with family/friends via FaceTime or Marco Polo videos

Educational Tools/Games

Many of these games we had prior to locking ourselves in but I stocked up on new workbooks, math games, a couple of new books and the volcano set via Amazon over the weekend.

• Brain Quest Workbooks

• Brain Quest Cards

• Priddy Learning Wipe Clean - First 100 Words Workbook

• Alphabet Go Fish Matching Card Game

• Osmo Genius Starter Kit

• Osmo Little Genius Starter Kit

• Math Dice Junior Game

• Rush Hour Junior Game

• PlanToys Sort and Count Cups

• MOBI Fast Fun Numerical Tile Game

• National Geographic Exploding Volcano Science Kit

• Imagination Magnets

Additional Resources

• Virtual Museum Tours (ex: National Museum of Natural History)

• GoNoodle - dance along activities to help kids stay active

• Jack Hartman - Kids Music Channel

• Cosmic Yoga - for when the weather outside is frightful

• Mystery Science - School Closure Lessons

• Scholastic Learn At Home - Lessons by Grade

• Listen to stories read aloud on Instagram by favorite authors such as Oliver Jeffers

• For Elephant & Piggie lovers - Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems!

A Silver Lining

In the absence of our normal routines I’m trying to find a silver lining…

• More time together when our kids are in this short season of life called childhood!

• Game Night, Dance Parties and Movie Night will become a regular occurrence!

• While the museums may be closed, there are many that we plan to view virtually.

• We can finally get back to reading the kids Harry Potter - we’ve had a long break but just started the Prisoner of Azkaban again!

• Family baking - the kids have always loved to bake but now we’re going to find more time to do it.

• The kids are excited to start their own research project…my oldest has selected her favorite state, Florida. TBD what the end report state is but something similar to a book report with visuals.

• Purging - I can finally prioritize time to clean out the kids closets!

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**For accurate information about COVID-19 please refer to the CDC.