I have already been five weeks into my summer quarter but my son is about to enter 1st grade like next week! At home and in front of a computer. Once again I'm faced with accomplishing a balancing act I'm not exactly ready for. However there are a few things I can do now, like this weekend, to prepare for the fact that I will resume as student and co-educator. I thought I would share what I'm doing in case it helps or inspires!
The Dry Erase Board and Chalk Boards
We got lucky with these, we already had the large dry erase, and a small chalk board. My mom was an educator and left us her teaching materials after her passing. So we also lucked out on a roll of chalk board paper plus a lot of other teaching and crafting materials. All of these I'm hoping will make the difference in keeping us organized with a calendar, schedule, zoom class rules and activity area can help to keep my hyper active child focused and on schedule. I believe right now a fear most of us parents have is our child being left behind in his education. All the extra help to make sure we cover all we can is essential in making home-school turn out to be the miracle of 2020.
(our board is a work in progress)
The Creativity Caddy
With home-schooling being a reality that will last a-while making our educational space make scene has been one of my main focuses going back into it. The space my child and I share is a rather small sun-room. When this began I had my son doing his work in the living room and that was a problem so I turned my crafting space in the sun-room into a space for both of us. It still needs work to be functional for both us. Adding extra storage and organization will hopefully help to make the space function well for both of our educational needs.
Activity Boxes
My son will be doing online classes, I too will be doing online classes. The time hes not, I want to fill that time with structure that may not, to him, seem like it. I have been digging on pintrest for ideas for other things for him to that isn't just workbook pages. Which has been a battle to get him to do for several hours on ends even with brakes. I have seen these activity boxes and I had to jump on the idea. This is perfect for science projects, art projects, math and spelling projects masked as games to add additional educational support to what hes learning during his zoom class time.
Incorporate their Fandom
My kid has been obsessing over any and everything Super Mario for the last 6 or 7 months. Its honestly the only thing he thinks about and has told me so repeatedly. It has sadly lead to arguments when it comes to his studies. I figure let him have his fandom and incorporate it into the learning process. I'm hoping it will help to engage him in his studies. A super Mario notebook to write in, the classic Mario magnets to assist in counting money. Any and all ideas well here!
