Back to School at Home

This school year, over 80% of schools in California will be starting remotely. While I was relieved that a decision had been made, I was experiencing anxiety surrounding both the consequences of starting remotely and those of starting in-person. I’ll admit it: I was really struggling with the idea of continued distant learning. The first week the information was made available, I took time to settle into the idea. I was very unsure and apprehensive but, by the weekend, I started to make an outline. I knew that I needed to create a game plan to ensure that remote learning not only worked for my rascals, but also for myself and my family.

I want to take a moment to recognize the place of privilege from which I am able to share this advice. Myself and my husband are very fortunate to have the opportunity to work from home. However, we also recognize that, no matter who you are, this will be a difficult process. We will all need to learn to manage and reorganize our space and our time to make this new normal work. Understanding that is the first step to help your rascals get back to school and back to learning.

Here are 5 things we’ve done to prepare for back to school in our household. This is what works for me and my rascals in our home, but feel free to adjust and adapt it to work for your space.

Create a school station for your student(s)

Right from the start, carving out even a small space will make a big difference in helping your rascal adjust to this new learning environment. Even if it’s just your dining room table or a space in your living room, be sure to have a space dedicated to schoolwork. We don’t have a desk or workspace set out for each of our children, and we recognize that this is the case for most people. Because my boys will need to have time with their classmates separately, we knew they needed to have a space where they could be distraction-free. I share my work desk with my boys, and we bought a desk for AJ’s (our oldest) room.

The space won’t be perfect, and it likely won’t exactly mimic the classroom environment, but do your best. You can even get creative and pull up a table in the backyard or set up a space in the garage. The main thing is to make sure it is designated for studying.

Set up snack and lunch areas equipped with healthy and quick options

I typically like to make things fresh for my kids, but, with needing to login and set-up for remote learning, it can be a bit of a hassle at times. Even though we are working and studying from home, I’ve found that I need to do more pre-planning to ensure that our work and school days go smoothly throughout the week. I’ve gotten into the habit of preparing food for the kids over the weekend. One of my favorites tricks is a quick “leftovers and egg” bake! I mix up some eggs, milk, and whatever leftover meat or veggies we have in the fridge, pour them into cupcake pans, bake, and pop them in the fridge.

For snacks, we make sure that whatever we buy is quick, healthy, and easy to grab. We set up the snacks in a designated space easily reachable so our rascals can get them on their own. This way, if I’m on a call or in a meeting, I don’t have to stop in the middle to grab an apple for Ben or AJ. They’ll just be able to grab these options from their snack section throughout the day.

An important thing to remember for food and snacks is the typical school routine. During the first few days of remote learning, I let my kids eat when they wanted a snack, but I quickly saw that they then weren’t hungry during meal periods. School has kids on limited times that they can snack and eat so they’ll have an appetite for meal times. We try to maintain the “school day meal routine” as much as we can.

Schedule time for your kid(s) to be active

In our home, we keep all of our PE and sports equipment in the garage. We have all the equipment ready to go so it’s not a long set-up process every time we want to incorporate physical activity into their day. The main thing is to make it easy for yourself and your children - what matters is that you’re being active, even if it’s just for ten minutes.

We like to schedule our activity time when it’s a bit cooler in the day, either in the early morning or after dinner. I don’t structure it too much; I just tell them to go outside and play! I’ll have my laptop on me to work outside and get some fresh air, too. Sometimes we just walk down the street, turn the corner, and walk right back. Some days our outside time will be long and some days it will be a bit shorter. Give yourself the flexibility to fit outside time into whatever schedule you have for the day.

Create a family calendar

Communicating time and scheduling needs with your family and your partner is the key to making remote learning work. Family calendars work great for us because I need to know when Albert is in a meeting, on a call, or cannot be disturbed, and vice versa. This helps when deciding what times each of us has with the kids. On the surface, you may assume that working from home is easier, but it is actually really hard and takes a lot of planning. You can’t help each other as parents if you don’t know the other’s busier times. We know that every family looks different; this calendar idea can also be adapted to best fit single parent households/co-parents not living together/parents who are essential workers and will be using the assistance of outside help or caretakers. Everyone will be approaching their schedules differently and with different levels of anxiety, the key is to communicate your schedule and your needs.

Create a classroom environment to the extent that you are able

After the anxious feelings had passed, I sprung into shopping mode. When we first started remote learning, I would talk to my kids about what we had planned for the day, but I didn’t have any visuals or anything to write on. This made remote learning especially difficult, so I placed an order with Lakeshore for resources, workbooks, and other materials for us to use during home learning.

I wanted to make sure that, when the kids had free time, they still had something to stimulate their minds. I didn’t want them to get into the habit of using their electronics during free time, so I supplied them with reading materials, workbooks, and even just a space to be alone. With creating a classroom environment, it’s important to understand that it’s not always about a teacher speaking to a student. We often think of instruction as a teacher talking to children and children listening, but learning does not have to be that linear or black and white. Learning can be more organic as long as we provide our children with the tools and resources to do so all over our homes.

No matter what you are doing to adapt to distant learning, it won’t be wrong. If you utilize one of our suggestions or realize right from the start that one won’t work for your family, that’s great! We are all trying and learning from trial and error. If you have some suggestions of your own, please share them because learning is not a one-size-fits-all model.

It’s very easy to feel discouraged, so give yourself time to cope, but then it’s time to get into planning mode. We prepared our kids by telling them that they will not be going back to school in the Fall and reaffirming this for them so it doesn’t come as a surprise or overwhelm them. Whatever your children’s school ends up doing, don’t let go of your back-to-school traditions. Keep doing back to school photos and first day of school outfits. It’s important to keep these things alive so that you can maintain hope and remember this unique and unprecedented time.

At the end of the day, we are all doing the best we can.

Written by Head Rascal (Ngoc Nguyen Lay), mother of two rascals, ages 5 and 7. Photography by Simply Adri Photography.