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Planning an Enjoyable At Home School Experience

Planning an Enjoyable At Home School Experience
By Ryan Hellyer - Jul 30, 2020

As the summer nears an end your child may be preparing to head back to school for a new semester. This year however, many of those lessons may conducted from a room in your house. We’ve prepared some helpful ways to make your home an enjoyable learning environment.

Going back to school virtually may pose additional challenges with staying connected to peers, since students may have less frequent or no in-person interactions to each other. You may want to talk to school staff to learn more about what they are doing to support connection among students, interactive learning with feedback, building resilience, and social-emotional wellbeing for students who will not be onsite. In addition, if your child receives speech, occupational, or physical therapy or other related services from the school, ask your school how these services will continue during virtual at-home learning.

 

  1. Create a schedule with your child and make a commitment to stick with it. Structure and routine can greatly help your child from falling behind with assignments. Discuss your family’s schedule and identify the best times for learning and instruction, as well as family-oriented physical activity, such as walks outside. A family calendar or other visuals could be useful for keeping track of deadlines and assignments.
  2. Try to find a space where you live that’s free of distractions, noise, and clutter for learning and doing homework. This could be a quiet, well-lit place in your dining room or living room or a corner of your home that could fit a small table, if available.
  3. Identify opportunities for your child to connect with peers and be social—either virtually or in person, while maintaining physical distance. Many mobile apps like House Party are free to use.
  4. Ask your school about any plans to support school connectedness to ensure that students do not become socially isolated during extended periods of virtual/at-home learning.

 

It’s not the same as going into the classroom but try to keep the same routine that you would during the school year. Need more advice or resources? We recommend using the Parent Portal on the CDC website. The link is below.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/parents/teens/index.html