Supporting Remote Learning at Home

My son’s school has chosen to be fully remote for the first quarter; I had a feeling it was going to happen. Now that I’ve had some time to process that his kindergarten year is going to look much different than what I envisioned in my mind, I’ve come around and am fully on board to make it the best possible experience it can be for him.

My school is full in-person every day, so we scrambled, and happened to find the most amazing mom down the street that will take him everyday (along with her own 3 kids) and help him with his remote learning. Even though I won’t be there with him each day for his remote learning, I’ve been prepping for what I CAN do when he is home for the night. It’s important to me that I’m still involved in his remote learning and I want him to see that I value the work he is doing every day.

A couple weeks ago, Pottery Barn Kids had a HUGE sale on backpacks, and I sat with him and let him look through all the different designs so he could pick out which one he wanted. He picked glow-in-the-dark Avengers…obviously…and I went all out and got him the matching water bottle and lunchbox.

Even though he’s not actually going to “school” each day, I still plan on packing his lunch and having him carry his backpack and water bottle when he goes to “Miss Amanda’s” house. I’m hoping it will help with the mindset of being in school and not just going to a friend’s house to play all day.

Next, I knew he would need a reliable device to use everyday, that included a webcam and easily accessible internet. To Amazon I went, and purchased this Samsung Chromebook. It’s small, but mighty: easy for my 5 year old to manipulate and carry without a problem. I also, of course, got a case for him to put it in before throwing it into his backpack.

I’m still not quite sure of what his daily schedule will look like, or what sort of materials he will need to have at home, but I even still took him school supply shopping….I was NOT going to skip that back-to-school ritual. We went to Target and he proudly carried his list and “read” it to me as he threw his supplies into the cart.

I also have purchased a few extra things to keep at home to reinforce and support what he is learning at school. Again, I’m not quite sure what to expect and I’m sure his kindergarten teacher is going to be amazing, but it can’t hurt for me to have a few extra tools at home!