Tips for Building a Home Learning Environment During the Pandemic

 In this past year, parents have used every trick in the book to give their kids a space to stay focused while on Zooms with their teacher, but there has yet to be any formal guidance. If you are lucky your school will chip in for a nice set of headphones to go with the Chromebook and they will wish you luck!

Now while the kitchen table is a flat surface and makes it easier to keep track, these types of common areas are the worst place for learning, as they are often busy and full of distractions. It’s important to define a space with your child that is dedicated to learning.

At my school, we send home school supplies typically used by teachers and encourage parents to build a learning environment. While you can use their bedrooms, it is best that the space is not used for other activities, and far away from distractions. 

Posters with learning targets, calendars, phonics cards, multiplication tables, are all simple ways to create the mental space for your student to focus. When something is on the wall a student may read it hundreds of times per day, as they take breaks from the screen.

If you want to place to start, I highly recommend googling the closest teacher store, (LakeShore Learning is my favorite) or look online for places teachers go to set up their rooms. 

 The Agenda 

  One of the most important parts of a good home learning environment is a daily agenda board (either magnetic or dry erase) that can be used to structure the day.

We discuss this in further detail in other posts, but dividing the day into smaller digestible chucks allows your child to manage their energy and focus. You will want to work with your teacher to better understand their plans, but be sure to add “brain breaks” and exercise times in between Zooms. 

Its best if this agenda is a white board or can somehow be renewed each day. I recommend leaving an open slot on the agenda in the afternoon for your child to earn a choice activity.

One of the most powerful ways to use this agenda is as a place of reflection. You could give happy faces or points for those activities that went well and find a way to signal when you need a change in behavior in others. 

The Calendar

The Calendar is something in every classroom that helps students better understand the passage of time and if used correctly can help them to chart their progress. For little ones, it is critical to use a calendar and discuss the day of the week, the month and any upcoming holidays. There are so many great conversations that come spontaneously out of a discussion on what day it is. For those of you Tiger Moms and Dads, you can do a quick google to find an important event in history on each date.  

When it comes to charting progress, its simple. At the end of each day, maybe after reflecting on your agenda, you turn to the calendar and write a few words or a symbol you have agreed on to sum up the “highlight.” For example, you could write “Finished Charlotte’s Web” or “got my first fraction problem.” You will likely miss many days, but the ones you catch and write something will be magical by the end of the year. I promise!

The Learning Target Board

If you haven’t already, please check out our student friendly Printable Learning Targets for your grade level. These are taken from the Common Core Standards and provides a list of skills your child must master in each grade. Before the pandemic, the good teachers would set the goal for the day or week based on these standards and post it on the wall. 

“By the end of the week I will be able to ….”

Every home is different, but if your learning environment allows for some extra color (maybe in a garage, closet or guest room), I would go all out and get bulletin board materials like fadeless butcher paper and borders. They are very cheap but can quickly transform the emotional experience of a space. 

 A dark garage becomes a classroom when you staple a large sheet of bright green paper with blue borders. Even better they sell these products in themes. Ask your child to pick out their favorites. I guarantee that if you hand the learning target on a wall that is covered with dolphins and sea creatures, you will have captivated their interest.

Now is the time you need to use your brain. You may want to ask the teacher which the learning target they will be covering in the next few weeks to stay on the same page. Look at the skill and try to model out how you would answer the question on a chart paper or series of pages that your child can refer back to. In a pinch, you can google the skill and you will find downloadable images that look like worksheets that you can use. I think its best, however, for you to put yourself out there and show them YOUR way of doing it. 

Now as the class starts working on this skill, your child will be the first to raise their hand. While it may take them time to fully master it, you will have set their efforts squarely on this target. I encourage you to make a big deal and use stickers or colors to celebrate mastery of a learning target. You will find your student will ask more questions and be more motivated to listen in class. 

Graph paper and Wide-Ruled Notebooks

The learning environment at home is completed with a few extra tools that are often over looked. In Remote Learning, a huge part of learning was disrupted by the keyboards and screens. No matter how good the teacher or learning software program, nothing can substitute for a piece of scratch paper. 

 Every brain on this planet has a slightly different way of learning and processing new information. We each have a different way of taking notes to answer a word problem or outlining an essay. The Parent Partnership has many different ways to maximize the use of a Graph Paper notebook to support learning in Math, and a lined notebook for reading and writing. (line width is based on age)  These notebooks allow your child to show their thinking on paper, and I highly encourage you to read through it regularly to see if you can spot any confusion. If can message your teacher on what you see, this can greatly help the school be more efficient in serving your student in class. Even better, you can try to guide and review these skills yourself on the next page. The world is yours on a blank notebook!!