Our pandemic-induced school-at-home time has come to an end. It can officially be summer! I know that many are returning to “normal,” but because there is a possibility that somebody out there will need to accommodate their children in an at-home learning environment again, I wanted to share some things that we did this year and some things that really helped us succeed while they’re still fresh on my mind.
In case you are new here or you’ve forgotten, I need to preface this by saying that at the time of the quarantine, we had four boys in school (grades 1, 3, 5, & 5). So my plans were based around the need for schooling four different boys and keeping them engaged while providing space for our 4-year-old girl to play and learn, too.
Stations for the Win!
I established four stations. Each hour for four hours, our kids would rotate between the four stations until they had completed all four stations. And then they were ready for lunch! Think about it: most kids have very structured days in school. The structure helps them know what to expect and makes learning easier. So I wanted to be able to duplicate that in our home. Stations worked for us, so I am going to explain in detail how we did it. Feel free to adjust this however you see fit to make it work for your own family–if you want. Or ignore this altogether, it’s all good. Please keep in mind that all children are different. If you don’t feel like this idea would be a good fit for your family or your situation, that is A-OK! I hope at the very least it helps give you some ideas for what would work for you and your family.
Each day, the child whose day it was started at Station One.
Station One was a desk near the top of the stairs with a laptop and headphones. We set up a separate keyboard and mouse, too, so that it was easier to operate and the screen could be a little further away. Station One was where I gave some enrichment assignments to my kids. I helped each of them create their own Windows login and their first email addresses. Each day I emailed them individually with specific assignments that changed typically every 15 minutes. For example:
8:00-8:15am: email
8:15-8:30am: typing
8:30-8:45am: Imagine Math
8:45-9:00am: enrichment video
I encouraged the boys to email their grandmothers daily. Since both of their grandmothers were home alone and pretty isolated for most of the pandemic, I thought this was a perfect time for our boys to practice writing and typing while sending daily messages to their wonderful grandmothers.
We used Mavis Beacon to help our kids learn how to type. After a couple weeks, we started having them set goals to increase their typing speed and accuracy each week. They made major improvements! Having them improve their typing significantly helped them in their other school work as well.
The older kids had Imagine Math subscriptions through their school. The boys would login and get some extra math practice in for a few minutes several days each week. I also used homemade quizzes when my twins were struggling with a little Algebra and used some math songs to help my first grader start memorizing his multiplication tables.
These enrichment videos varied. Sometimes I sent them to the Houston Zoo website to let them choose from one of the phenomenal animal talks (seriously, these were such a fantastic resource–thank you Houston Zoo!). Other times I provided a link to some fantastic virtual field trip or other educational talks that I could find. Our kids learned how things like peanut butter and mattresses were made, they spent a week studying polar bears in the wild, how math is used in sports, drawing with Mo Willems, and so much more!
The next child in age rotation started his day at Station Two. Station Two was an iPad set up on a table upstairs at the opposite end of the hallway from Station One. We had a pair of headphones and a Bluetooth keyboard set up there. This is where the boys could login to their Google Classroom and begin completing assignments. We soon learned, though, that because all four of them used it during the day, we had better luck if the boys used the iPad for watching video assignments and using some apps and saving quizzes and other forms for Station Three. Maybe if we are doing this again in the future, we will consider replacing this station’s iPad with another laptop. Maybe.
Station Three was a laptop set up on the table in our dining room. We set up another keyboard and mouse and headphones there. The boys were able to use the same Microsoft logins that they did for Station One and I got reports each week from Microsoft on the sites they visited–just in case. This helped ensure that they were logged in to the correct Google accounts and it made submitting assignments go much easier. We didn’t have this laptop for the first couple weeks of school at home. We ordered it in February when we thought we *might* need it.
Before the laptop arrived, Station Three was divided into 30 minutes of piano, followed by 30 minutes of PE. At least one of the 30-minute PE activities each day was the latest PE with Joe video on YouTube.
Station Four was originally 30 minutes of reading followed by 30 minutes of PE. But after the Station Three laptop arrived, we changed Station Four to be 30 minutes of piano followed by 30 minutes of PE. You’ll notice that in our first iteration of stations, we had the kids from Station 3 and Station 4 doing PE together each day. This had its pros and cons. But after we changed Stations Three and Four, we had to add another PE activity. We tried going for an afternoon walk together, but it was too hot! So my husband started taking the boys each morning before school to the neighborhood park’s walking trail where they ran a mile or two each morning before they came home and started on the rest of their school day.
The morning run was the perfect solution for everybody. It helped get the kids moving in the morning and it helped us take advantage of the cooler temperatures. Plus, nobody else was ever at the park early in the mornings, so it made it the perfect time to maintain social distancing.
Morning Rituals
Brain research has proven that having a consistent signal each day at the start of learning helps the brain get into a “learning mode” faster and more efficiently. So I thought I might as well continue with a morning routine similar to the one they’ve been doing all their academic careers: we began each morning by pledging to the flags. Yes, flags–plural. If you are not from Texas you may not know that we have a pledge to the Texas flag that is said each day after the pledge to the American flag. There’s a lovely piece of trivia for ya!
We said our pledges, sang a song together, and then we said a prayer. I figured that since schools typically do a “moment of silence” to accommodate all people of varying faiths, we could simply pray together since everyone in our household is of the same faith.
We began each school day and ended each school day at the same time, give or take 5-10 minutes. Consistency helps keep things flowing. Our kids knew what to expect from each weekday and they didn’t have to be told. It was just one way to avoid constant reminding to go do school work–it was just built into each day.
Folders–Everything In Its Place
If you think back to what most elementary school classrooms have in common, you will remember some sort of folder system and/or cubbies. So, I set up folders for each boy. We put their names on the fronts and when they had work in progress when it was time to switch stations, they could place any papers they needed to keep track of inside their folders. That saved us from getting papers mixed up between stations. We set up a home for folders near Station One along with drawers that included school supplies like pencils, pens, crayons, glue sticks, and scissors. We also returned headphones and keyboards there at the end of most days (or weekends at the very least).
So, there you have it! These are a few ways we made our at-home learning work for us as we finished the 2019-2020 school year. I guess we’ll see what the 2020-2021 school year has in store for us. If you already know you’ll be doing some at-home learning, I hope something we did inspires you in your plans for next year.
Summer Classes
And in case you feel like your kids need a little extra summer enrichment this year OR if you have kids who miss school and love to learn, I am offering some summer reading and writing classes again this year. Hop on over to AlissaMcClure.com/summer and check them out! I’d be honored to have your child doing us for a week or two this summer!
