Back to School, at Home

Project: Organize your child’s home school space

We all know the term by now: it’s our new ‘normal’. Our families are, for the foreseeable future, all working from home in one way or another, on various days and schedules. In my house, Marco is at home Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and Prue on Tuesday and Thursday some weeks and Monday, Wednesday, Friday on others (or did I mix that up?)

It’s all a lot to think about all tinged with uncertainty. What is certain, is that organizing your home space to accommodate your child’s schoolwork is critical, both to their success as well as your entire family’s mental well-being.

How do you set up a brand-new space for your child to help them feel ready to learn, focused, and comfortable?

Create a dedicated workspace

Whether your child is older and wants a designated desk space in their room, or you have younger kids who want to “work” together and be where all the action is, assigning a dedicated space is crucial to create consistency of work and clear boundaries between schoolwork and home life. Regardless of age, if you have the space, create one. Having a separate space helps kids get into a different school mindset so they can show up and be ready to focus for the day.

Organize their desk

This is your child’s space where all day schoolwork will be done. Make sure the desk does not have any clutter on it. A computer/laptop, a lamp if necessary, a container of pens/pencils, tape/scissors/. They can have a water bottle nearby. If your desktop space is limited, go vertical. We are big on that. Install floating shelves, corkboards, or pegboards above the desk. That’s it.

Organize a space for their school supplies

Having two separate shelves and/or cubbies is a great idea. One designated for all related books and the other for their school supplies. Give each child a designated shelf so there’s no confusion about which items belong to whom. Art supplies and books can be stored on this shelf as well in cute little bins!

A comfortable ergonomic chair is a must.

Children tend to want to sprawl out on the rug or the table and unfortunately, this will set up for bad habits in writing and attention. Giving them a comfortable chair really helps set them up for success.

Chargers

Many schools are giving our Chromebooks for virtual learning. Or perhaps you have your own home computer. Set up your desk near an outlet. As for the phone, unless one is needed for a school project, we are big on not having phones in the learning space. The distraction, as we all know, is simply too big. Kids can check their phones during their lunch break. (We encourage even older teens to put their phones to bed—outside of their bedrooms—during school and at nighttime. Our charging station is in the kitchen and during the day phones are left there.)

Headphones

Headphones will be critical for virtual learning especially if like in my house, your kids are sharing a workspace. This will give them the necessary privacy during class time.

Reading nook

Create a reading corner for younger kids designated for quiet time reading. A nice nook with comfy pillows and low shelves with all the favorite reading materials. We purchased a beanbag this summer to create the perfect reading nook!

Lunchtime

Now that your workspace is set, the next task is getting ahead of the lunches, so that your kids’ lunchtime is seamless (my kids only get 20 minutes!) and healthy.

Just as when your child goes to a physical school, their lunch should be prepared before work/school begins. Get the plates ready either in the refrigerator or kitchen table so at the kids’ break, the meal is already set up and ready to go. Snacks too! Your kids should have two snacks during the day. Most of the time kids are yelling all day long that they are hungry. That doesn’t happen in school and should not happen at home.

School Emails

If you haven’t already done so, create a separate folder in your email inbox for the abundant emails coming from the schools these days. We have one main folder for the school, and then sub-folders for each class. This way communication is easy to retrieve when you need it.

 Afterschool activities

If you are like us, we are more than a bit concerned that all of our children’s activities have been pulled out from underneath them with the pandemic and we are facing a fall season with little or no activities scheduled. However, there are many online options with an amazing diversity of classes on offer! Here’s one, and a plug for myself, I’m teaching a “functional fitness” class for grades 6-8! Adventure2learning is incredible. Check it out!

Taking all of these steps will make your child’s virtual learning so much easier and definitely more successful in this very uncertain time. As always, feel free to DM us @2of9organizers if you need any help at all.