5 Major Ways to Prepare for Virtual Learning While Working From Home

Everyone is well aware of the country shutting schools down at the end of March.  What was expected to be a two week thing turned into the rest of the school year.  Now it’s back to school season and schools around the country are faced with the big question, “Digital or In-Person?”.  My daughter is starting Kindergarten this year, so I didn’t experience the spring transition to virtual.  Now that she's entering the school system, her district is starting the school year all virtual and I’m still working my 9-5 from home, I will be faced with a new challenge that many parents will be facing and wondering...how do I do it?!

I have been planning for the virtual school year for around one month now and I wanted to share some of the things that I have done to help set my family up for success while we venture into this new reality.  Here are 5 things that I have done in preparation.

1. Health and Wellness

I knew from the beginning when we decided to do virtual learning (initially parents had a choice between virtual and in-person until my county’s positive cases became one of the highest in the state), I was going to need to be physically and mentally prepared.  Health is a top priority because I want to be the best self that I can be in order to be the best support system for my daughter.  One major thing I started doing again was taking my vitamins.  I knew I needed to build the vitamins and minerals back up in my system since I had stopped taking them consistently around March.  I also figured one month was a great amount of time to start really feeling the positive effects of the vitamins in my body. I’m a person that needs to see the bottle of vitamins in my face in order to take them, so they now sit on my work desk and I have no excuse not to take them anymore.  The vitamins I have been taking are Vitafusion Organic Women’s Multivitamin Gummies (I also take Nature’s Bounty Hair, Skin and Nails Gummies which was a recommendation from my friend Katrina and is always a good thing for women to take).  I have a hard time swallowing pills, so these are perfect for me and taste delicious (another way to make it easier to remember to take them!).

I have also been listening to more meditative music and sounds and really trying to be in tune with myself. I want to be mentally prepared and handle challenges with ease. I want to be at the best mental state that I can be.

2. Created a fun and intentional workspace

The next thing that I needed to do was create a work area in our office for my daughter to attend her classes.  As I mentioned, I am working from home still, so we will be in the office for the majority of the day together.  My husband has a split schedule so he goes into work some days and is at home other days.  This meant that it was important for Ava to have her own space so she can feel like she’s a part of our home office as well!  Here are a few items that are in her space to make it cozy and fun:

• Comfortable desk and chair- this is crucial to have since your child will be sitting at the desk for lessons and also doing school work for multiple hours of the day.  She already had a table and chair set, so I brought it into the room for her to use for school.

• Decorative/fun background- I thought it would be a fun idea to decorate the wall behind where she will be sitting to show her personality and make the backdrop a little more interesting. A few things you can add to the walls are peel and stick wallpaper/decals, your child’s name in decorative paper, paint, shelving, garland, etc.  I chose to put a paper garland, her name and a puppy paw since her school mascot is a Dalmatian.

• Headphones with mic- this was an important purchase because I want her to be able to listen to her lessons and talk to her teacher and classmates as well.  The mic on the headphones was key because I have meetings all the time for work and don’t want to have her lessons in the background during meetings, but I want her to still be able to talk to her teacher and classmates when needed.

• Pencil cup or pencil box- this is a great item to have to keep writing utensils handy and organized. I got her this expandable pencil box so she can fit more items as needed in it throughout the school year.

• Backpack- Since her area is small, I don’t want it cluttered but I still want to incorporate smart storage solutions.  I thought it would be a good idea to use her backpack to store items that won’t be used daily such as markers, glue sticks, scissors, packs of paper, etc.

• Magazine holder- Again, since her area is small, I wanted a storage solution for items that will be more frequently used such as folders, notebooks and loose leaf paper.  I decided to use a magazine holder to store these items for easy access.

Quick Tip! So many schools are starting the year virtually, so the supply lists may be a little different as well.  Ava’s school posted the normal supply list before deciding to start virtual, but I purchased the school supplies anyway since school items usually go on super duper sale right before school starts.  For example, folders that she needs were normally $2.00 but were on sale for $0.15.  Yes, 15 cents!  Even if certain items won’t be used immediately, get them now anyway while they’re cheap.  Also, when the shift to in-person school starts, you won’t want to have to do a mad dash to do school supply shopping in hopes that everything you need is still available!

3. Tweaked our Schedule/Routine

It’s so important to have a set schedule because kids tend to thrive with routine.  In February, I created a schedule that we were following pretty well.  Of course, when everything went down in March, the schedule kind of became obsolete as I didn’t have two hour commute to factor into the day.  The same is still true that I will not have a commute, but we now have a set school schedule to follow.  Now, she will have to be online by a certain time for attendance and live lessons, so there is more accountability.  

A schedule is a crucial part of successful time management and stress reduction. Being home more can give a false sense of reality when it comes to time.  Time can totally escape you when you don’t have anywhere to go.  BUT I don’t want to have hectic mornings which is what would happen when I didn't have a schedule for my household.  I don’t like the feeling of anxiety from rushing in the morning. It tends to set the tone for the rest of the day. I know a schedule and routine is necessary in order to stay on track (and sane!).  I tweaked the initial schedule that I had from earlier this year to make more sense for how our days will now be.  Knowing Ava’s school schedule makes it easier to plan the days in advance as well.  I encourage you to do this as soon as you know what your child’s schedule will be and more importantly when they are required to be in live sessions.  Of course, as the school year progresses, our schedule may be tweaked to best suit us, but planning it out in advance is a great way to stay ahead of the curve.

One final and incredibly important thing to consider when creating your schedule is adding a block of alone time in there.  Even if it’s just 10 minutes for you to collect yourself and breathe, it’s necessary.  We often only need a little time to reset and get our minds back in the right place, so please schedule a small window of “Me Time” in your day. The kids need it, too, so go ahead and schedule “Me Time” for everyone!

4. Digital Organization

You may already know that my method of choice for note taking, appointment reminding, etc. is through virtual tools.  Something as simple as adding the school calendar to your Google Calendar can make it easier to remember school dates throughout the year such as holidays, test dates, etc.  Ava’s school had their calendar posted and available to copy to your own calendar, so I did it and scaled it down to only view the events that I want to know about for the school year.  I also added reminders to certain days so I can receive an automatic message letting me know something important is coming up such as a teacher workday/student holiday.

Calendar Organization can also be implemented on a smaller scale by just adding parent-teacher or student-teacher meetings to it.  Ava’s teacher will be having multiple one-on-one sessions throughout the week with each student, so I plan to add these dates and times to my calendar so I will not forget. Since teacher's availability will be even more limited now, it's important to keep track of your parent-teacher meetings and your child’s one-on-ones with their teacher to get to them on time.

5. Meal and Snack Plans

Now that Ava will be home all day, I realized that I would need to start purchasing more food for her snacks and lunches.  I don’t want to give her random junky snacks and lunches, so I decided to look for easy lunch and snack ideas and create a bank of things to choose from when doing my weekly meal planning.  I meal plan dinner for the week every Sunday morning already anyway, so I will begin doing the same for snacks and lunches.  She’s at the age now where she loves to help and she’s really interested in prepping and cooking (we watch Giada on HGTV and she loves it!).  Because of this, I want to incorporate a few things that she can help me make as well.

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These are just a few things that I have done or plan to do to help us ease into virtual learning as smoothly as possible.  Have you begun prepping for virtual school? If so, please share in the comments...we can all use it especially since many of us are in the same situation together!