Close your eyes and imagine that Covid 19 is not a thing, that your child is back in school and things are as normal as they once were. Now imagine your child’s backpack, their desk and depending on their age, their school cubby or locker. If your child is in high school, they probably also have a car full of books and supplies, I did at least.
Now snap back to reality and imagine all of the things you just saw in your child’s school nooks are on your kitchen table or scattered around your house from bedroom, to living room to basement. Being organized as a virtual school learner is extremely important. Students have so many things, text books, workbooks, notebooks, pencils, pens, folders, binders, highlighters.. I could go on forever, right?
Helping your child organize their materials is going to go miles in helping them stay organized throughout the year. So what does this mean? For one, it’s important to have a space designated to school work. You want to make sure your child’s workspace is:
- Free of as much distraction as possible (this can be challenging, even as a work at home adult, there are so many distractions at home!)
- Bright (you want the space to wake your child up and not make them want to crawl back into bed)
- Comfortable but not too comfortable (no sleeping in class!)
- Accessible (everything needed for schooling should be in this area, I’ll make a list of supplies below)
- Organized (head on over to the dollar stores and snag some inexpensive bins, binders, labels and any other organizing tools your child might like)
- Supportive of learning (depending on your child’s age, you can put up relevant posters and resources that will support their learning just like they would have in a classroom. Some great ideas are a word wall, multiplication table, maps etc.)
Supplies
Your child probably got a school supply list from their teacher, if not, here are a few basics you’ll want to have to help your child be successful this school year. One important thing to remember is that while your child is virtual learning, there is no replacement for paper and pencil, especially for math! You will still need these supplies so that your child can work through problems but also because this medium is most familiar to your child for learning and you’ll want to have it available as an option.
For all ages:
- Notebook (one per class)
- Plain white paper
- Graph paper
- Pencils, pens, highlighters
- Sticky notes (great for organizing)
- Ruler
- Small whiteboard with dry erase markers and eraser
- Printer & Ink (some things will be most beneficial for your child printed out)
- Something to help keep a schedule – a planner, calendar, schedule chart
Elementary Aged (add these):
- Crayons/Markers/Colored Pencils
- Manipulatives (math counters, letters & numbers)
- On level books (above and below level books too)- audio books are also great!
Your home is not a classroom BUT think of all of the resources available in their classroom that they no longer have. Without spending an arm and a leg, you want to have as many resources available as possible for your child. Little ones tend to be hands on learners and you want to support that as well.
Once you’ve decided where your child’s learning space will be, you can get it ready with these ideas in mind. Using your organizing supplies, you can help your child create folders, bins or binders for each class. Now that your child is learning in a virtual setting, many of their materials are going to be digital so you’ll also want to help your child organize their digital “room” or computer in the same way. Google apps are really great for organizing digital files. Do you feel like you need help with getting your child organized “digitally”? Comment below and I’ll be sure to share some tips on getting your virtual space organized!
I hope you found these tips helpful and are on your way to a successful school year, be it in a face to face or virtual setting!
XO,
Work at Home Chaos 