8 At Home Learning Tips That Work Wonders For Us
We are officially a month or even a bit more into distance learning and running our own little homeschool for Mila. Click HERE for how we set up our at home learning + my lesson plan template! I’d love to say that things have gotten a ton easier and all the kinks have worked themselves out. Though there wouldn’t be much truth to that. In fact, today was a tornado with lots of tears and we tossed all our school out the window. We moved our bodies outside and breathed in some fresh air to clear BOTH our minds. Then settled in with a movie and popcorn. And ya, we sprinkled candy corn on top of our afternoon popcorn. Why not?!
A lot of us are making ourselves crazed with balancing at home school, zoom meetings, homework help, working from home, working out of the home, having our kids do some hybrid version of school + in person, and even a handful of us have our kids actually in school! Every. Single. One of us has a different scene happening at home and it bounces back and forth from a horror movie to a sunny romantic comedy where everything clicks into place. No one is doing it right and no one is doing it wrong! Just remember that. When you see these photos here, just know they were taken on a day where things were moving smoothly and my four year old was actually excited about counting. I’m telling you, that is not always the case.
While every day is different and with a nine month old baby cruising around my feet, I’ve actually developed some routines that have helped us get from one day to the next. I’ve listed them below and why they work for us. I’m not saying these will all work for you and you may be doing a few already yourself! Take what you need and leave the rest. Share in the comments below how things have been working out for you! Any must know hacks you’d like to share?! I’m continuously sending you all positive vibes, we got this!
8 At Home Learning Tips That Work Wonders For Us!
Set Up Everything The Night Before. I learned this one hard and fast. We have a pretty great school supply area and I’d have Mila help grab school items that we needed. I’d be back and forth from the printer, grabbing water for a paint project. Getting up and down and leaving Mila sort of sitting waiting for things to get together before starting any activity, worksheet etc. So, now I get everything we need together the night before and set it up for success. This way when we start school we don’t have to get up for anything until it’s time to move our bodies, have a snack or are done for the day! Oh, or unless the baby wakes up and needs some attention ;)
Set Alarms For Movement Breaks. Mila is a pretty good little learner (when she wants to be) and will sit for her work for the most part. At the beginning we’d try to get all our work done at once which would leave us both tired and tense. So now I set little alarms on my phone to remind us to get up and move. Taking small breaks to move our bodies, get some fresh air, take a breather, you get it! It might mean things will take a bit longer, but it truly is worth it in the long run.
Snack Boards!! I’ve shared about snack boards on my blog before HERE and they are a great idea! I used to make them with Mila once a week after she got out of preschool. Now we brought back the tradition and they are fun to have around while we do schoolwork! We can both snack on healthy foods to keep our spirits high. We don’t make these everyday, but when we do school seems to be a bit more fun!
Make Lunches In The Morning. This seems a little nuts since we stay home most of the time and Mila does at home learning. With the kitchen just steps away from us in the afternoon I could easily make her lunch come noon. BUT I found that it was a total time suck! I have resumed making Mila’s lunches in the morning when the girls are playing nicely before breakfast and I’m happily drinking warm-ish coffee. This way come noon, Mila can grab her own lunch from the refrigerator and I can do a load of laundry, check/respond to emails, feed the baby, or just leave Dan with the girls and take an afternoon moment to myself! Trust me, the more you can prepare for the day the better and that includes lunches!
Set A Hard End Time. Much like when 5pm rolls around and most everyone is off work, make a hard end time for school + school work. This end time actually changes for us because some days look different, but knowing when school will be over helps manage the day. It also gives Mila and I something both to work towards. Once our end time hits we pack it all up and forget about it all until the next day and that feels great!
Small Reward System. I got this from my own mother who was (and still is) obsessed with celebrating the small things. And I’m talking real small! I grew up celebrating my brother’s loose tooth, yes before he even lost it we’d celebrate. Getting halfway through the week my mom would celebrate with French fries with dinner! Honest my mom is the most positive person in the world and one of the ways she stays upbeat is celebrating life in every way. If Mila gets through a hard math worksheet or cuts paper better than she did last week we celebrate! An extra fruit snack, playing hide and seek, popcorn before dinner. We have a long list of silly albeit fun small rewards that Mila gets to enjoy for defeating school at home. It keeps her motivated and truthfully is super fun for the both of us.
Changing My Tone During School. Adjusting to ‘mom as teacher’ hasn’t been easy for Mila. In the beginning she would actually tell me that her teacher is better than me. Which is probably true! But my husband noticed that when I’d sort of “play” school with Mila she was much more engaged. I’d pretend to call on her in my class, use a white board, let her choose what color dry erase marker to use for the day. Little things that teachers may do in their actual classroom I’ve adopted. Sometimes I’ll pretend to call on an imaginary kid and Mila laughs. So, we don’t necessarily play classroom and I’m not speaking crazy. But I do watch my tone and keep things light and fun when doing school. I’m not sure that makes sense, but in my head we have school mom and regular mom now. Who knows, it works for us!
End Of Day Ritual. On thing we do everyday is a kitchen dance party. This is something the whole family partakes in at the end of the day and it is necessary! It gives us a few minutes of pure silly-ness that we all need. We laugh and move our bodies, make up new moves. Doing something small as a family at the end of the day to reconnect and let loose is extremely helpful! If you aren’t into dancing then talk a walk, sit and play with your pet, just do something small all together at the end of the day.
