We are using an adjustable dining table as a desk for our son. He loves it because it is so big and he can spread out and have everything that he needs on it. We also have a side table for him to park stuff like printer etc.



We also got him an extremely comfortable office chair. He has all the tech he will need - large monitor, video camera, wifi mouse and keyboard, headphones with mic, laptop, ipad, printer...He also got whatever he needed to play online video games with his friends.

We are using an adjustable dining table as a desk for our son. He loves it.



We also got him an extremely comfortable office chair. He has all the tech he will need - large monitor, video camera, wifi mouse and keyboard, headphones with mic, laptop, ipad, printer...

Tech: We are having an IT person set up a home network with wireless printer/scanner/fax for home learning purposes. He will cast my incoming Kindergartner's e-learning platform to smart TV in hopes a larger screen helps hold attention better than tablet.

Supplies: I ordered our schools' Handwriting Without Tears & math workbooks, lined dry erase board, play clock to tell time, and counting aids. We stocked up on glue sticks, kids notebooks with lines to practice handwriting, crayons, construction paper, colored pencils and washable markers. I also bought collected works of children's authors (Shel Silverstein, Beatrix Potter, Aesop's Fables and Rover Louis Stevenson, etc.) so we can read together at nighttime.

Activities: We will include some supplemental learning re: holidays, cooking/baking, chores, & prayers. We do outdoor play--swimming, tennis and neighborhood walks right now. Hopscotch, riding a 2-wheel bike, & jump rope this fall. For winter, indoor (online Irish dance & Cosmic Kids Yoga, etc.), plus outdoor (ice skating, snow shoeing, shoveling & sledding). We also have games (Connect Four, CandyLand, Jenga) and card games (Concentration/Memory, Uno, Old Maid).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping to ask if anyone's had any success finding a headset/headphones for an upper-elementary kid in DL. Our 10yo complains about standard earbuds being too big.

Any gaming headset works fine. Just go to amazon and look for one.

DP - would you please just tell us what you’re using for your kids? kids have different head sizes and what works for kindergartners would not be the same as an adult. Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:I have spent countless hours I dont have trying to figure out how to prep for DL with a K. We are keeping him enrolled in MCPS, and are not doing a pod. I bought a small desk and chair from Wayfair and put it next to mine in our office so that he has a "school zone" and he can keep using the rest of the house and playroom as a fun space. Then I will print/prepare his schedule and assignments for the week and have it ready for DC on Sundays. DL is going to be wholly inadequate, so we are planning on heavily supplementing with worksheets and arts and crafts. This is what I have bought:
- BOB books
- workbooks
- All the arts and crafts materials: air clay, wiki sticks, paint, etc.
- worksheets from Etsy that are around themes like fall, Halloween, dolphins
- magnetic letters
- flashcards for when/if he actually moves on to sight words

We are planning on having a tutor for one hour a day in the afternoons...

If any other moms have suggestions as to arts and crafts supplies their kids like, or tips - please share! We need this info!

For the sake of your kindergartener, I'd say take a step back and realize that the most healthy thing for him is probably free play, with a little time each day reading with a parent and then independent "reading" (library has a lot of storybooks without words, many of which are excellent), and also some practical math (counting things, eventually moving on to harder word problems, e.g. here are two napkins to set the table with. How many more do we need for our family of four to each have one). If he enjoys the zoom classes, that's fine.

Anonymous wrote:This method worked out great for my 3rd grader last spring:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/kanban-kids-how-i-used-agile-become-homeschool-parent-meghan-mcinerny

I printed her weekly assignments for her, and each day, she organized the post-its to show what she needed to do (in addition to schoolwork, it included things of her choosing, like "play!" and "lunch break"). She approached them in the order of her choosing - outside of scheduled zoom calls - and moved the post-its around to reflect progress. This allows the kid to see what needs to get done and have some choice on when to do it.

I recommend!

Love this!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re outfitting each kid with laptop and headset with mic.
They’ll work in the dining room so I can supervise.

Still need some kind of cubby/organizer system for their supplies and mounds of paper, binders and textbooks.
Any recs?

Textbooks? No one uses textbooks.

My teen has AP textbooks and both my kids have textbooks for the native language schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just ordered a patio heater so that we can have outdoor/socially distant study buddies come over through the fall.

Great idea. And good to order now before the hordes of people buy out supplies!

That is a good idea. We have a screened in porch and a patio. I was thinking about getting some sort of heater for the porch. Do you all think there is enough air movement in a screened porch to be "safe" for socializing, compared to fully outside? We have had a couple of people over for backyard playdates and such, and have on occasion moved to the porch to escape the sun. I notice that the air definitely moves less once we are in there, but thinking it must still be safer than inside?

Nope. Not enough air flow.

Even with fans & 3 sides of screens?

We have 4 tweens/teens. In the spring somethings worked great and others we had a big learning curve. For the Fall we are doing the following:
-our 6th and 7th graders will be sitting in our home office with dh and myself every morning. I always work remote, dh has since March. We are lucky that our home office is big enough to have two full desks plus we have a large table the kids will be set up on. We are hanging another white board on the wall for the kids. All due dates and meeting times are listed on the white board.
-we have a small desk set up in the living room that the kids will move to for Google meets.
-NO school work is going to be done in their bedrooms
-our 10th grader will be out of the house in the morning for a tech program that is hands on. In the afternoons he will move into the office to do his school work. Cell phone will sit on my desk until his school work is complete.
-oldest is scheduled to go to college. When that shifts to online either at Thanksgiving as planned or sooner if needed she will do her work in our guest room. She is the one that figured out doing school work in her bedroom was a bad idea. In the spring she started having problems sleeping. We tried separating school from her bedroom and it helped solve the restless nights.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just ordered a patio heater so that we can have outdoor/socially distant study buddies come over through the fall.

Great idea. And good to order now before the hordes of people buy out supplies!

That is a good idea. We have a screened in porch and a patio. I was thinking about getting some sort of heater for the porch. Do you all think there is enough air movement in a screened porch to be "safe" for socializing, compared to fully outside? We have had a couple of people over for backyard playdates and such, and have on occasion moved to the porch to escape the sun. I notice that the air definitely moves less once we are in there, but thinking it must still be safer than inside?

Nope. Not enough air flow.

Our outside porch is screened on 3 sides and has a ceiling fan. But any fan works to keep fresh air circulating. That’s good airflow.

I have spent countless hours I dont have trying to figure out how to prep for DL with a K. We are keeping him enrolled in MCPS, and are not doing a pod. I bought a small desk and chair from Wayfair and put it next to mine in our office so that he has a "school zone" and he can keep using the rest of the house and playroom as a fun space. Then I will print/prepare his schedule and assignments for the week and have it ready for DC on Sundays. DL is going to be wholly inadequate, so we are planning on heavily supplementing with worksheets and arts and crafts. This is what I have bought:
- BOB books
- workbooks
- All the arts and crafts materials: air clay, wiki sticks, paint, etc.
- worksheets from Etsy that are around themes like fall, Halloween, dolphins
- magnetic letters
- flashcards for when/if he actually moves on to sight words

We are planning on having a tutor for one hour a day in the afternoons...

If any other moms have suggestions as to arts and crafts supplies their kids like, or tips - please share! We need this info!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, if you're planning to do all virtual school this fall (or even if you're not), how are you going to manage it? Are you making any changes/buying things your children might need? Thinking about changing up our small office space so it's more like a classroom, with supplies out, etc. Are you planning on taking regular days off to just do something fun with your kids? Going to travel around (will certainly be easier if everything is online)? Signing them up for fall sports?

I'm a working mom and have been home since March like most of us. DH still going out to work. It's been a struggle, but I'm looking for systems to help DC and I thrive. She's not very organized and has ADHD. We've been at each other's throats off and on since corona started. Don't have family nearby. Need to bring some harmony back. Thoughts welcomed.

Skip distance learning and homeschool. Let her choose the order for her subjects, provided she covers them all. Either invest in a good curriculum or commit to spending time each night/weekend making sure everything is ready.

In my experience, it works best to have the child set up in the office with you. You need a shelf (or portion of the desk against the wall). At minimum, she needs a folder for the day’s work, an index card box (if she does well with index cards), a binder for completed assignments, any notebooks or workbooks, any novels for school, a pencil cup, possibly a laptop or tablet. By keeping her in the office with you, you’ll know if she’s working, and she’ll know she can leave as soon as she’s finished.

The best thing for a child with adhd is to allow her room to structure the day in the order she wants, with only one day’s worth of assignments for perusal, and someone who can be available either to help or to keep her on task if she daydreams for more than 5-10 minutes.

Hopefully this is advice for K! Older elementary kids need a chrome book and their own desk. (But the above is adorable. Pencil cup! Index card box!)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just ordered a patio heater so that we can have outdoor/socially distant study buddies come over through the fall.

Great idea. And good to order now before the hordes of people buy out supplies!

That is a good idea. We have a screened in porch and a patio. I was thinking about getting some sort of heater for the porch. Do you all think there is enough air movement in a screened porch to be "safe" for socializing, compared to fully outside? We have had a couple of people over for backyard playdates and such, and have on occasion moved to the porch to escape the sun. I notice that the air definitely moves less once we are in there, but thinking it must still be safer than inside?

Nope. Not enough air flow.

Anonymous wrote:Bumping to ask if anyone's had any success finding a headset/headphones for an upper-elementary kid in DL. Our 10yo complains about standard earbuds being too big.

Any gaming headset works fine. Just go to amazon and look for one.

Bumping to ask if anyone's had any success finding a headset/headphones for an upper-elementary kid in DL. Our 10yo complains about standard earbuds being too big.