The New Year is here and we know many families set goals around getting organized, healthy and hitting markers in homeschooling. So we’re taking an education twist on 2021 resolutions with creative ways to set ourselves up for success!
ORGANIZATION: LESSONS PLANS AND CALENDARS, LET QUARTET BE YOUR MASTER COMMAND CENTER
While it may seem like we are staying home more this year, there are still endless things to organize and stay on top of. From lesson plans to virtual meet-ups with friends, one of the things that our family does to stay organized is to start with our calendar. We use the Quartet monthly dry erase calendars. I love that the glass is magnetic and it looks great in the home or office. We use two side by side so that we can see what we have in the upcoming month as well. Each person has a different color dry erase marker so that we can keep track of each person’s work commitments, sporting activities as well as things we are doing as a family. One of the reasons that we use a dry erase calendar in addition to an app is that those are usually personal. So while my husband shares me on his calendar, he isn’t writing down all the stuff the kids have in his work calendar. When you can visually see everything in one place it helps you to track everything. It helps us to say no to commitments when we can see how all of the things stack up. I can also glance at the calendars when I am in my office and look forward to things we have coming up.
Another thing that has worked for us is to have a command center. We use the Quartet Glass Dry erase board. From writing down our weekly menu plan to tracking the honey-dos, we love having a place that everyone can look and write down what they need so they don’t forget. With everything being so hectic, it is great to have one place that you can jot a note down so you don’t forget. We love that it is magnetic. It gives us a place to display the kids art work, post bills that need to be paid, or homework that has to be turned in.
We have also found the dry erase boards to be especially beneficial in our home learning experience. From personalized boards to larger dry erase boards, it has been helpful to have as the kids practice math problems and write spelling words. They have found them fun to just draw on as well.
CREATIVE STORYTELLING AND READING REDEFINED WITH CINEMOOD 360
Since at-home learning is now continuing past the semester marker, families are looking for ways to get creative with curriculum and keep the excitement for education high. We absolutely love the educational value of CINEMOOD 360. Not only can you watch movies on walls and ceilings, or even outdoors, but you can also do screen-mirroring, or sync up with your teacher and project your zoom lesson up to 12 feet in a dark or dim envieonment.
It’s light, durable and wireless with up to 5 hours rechargeable battery life so it’s a definite game-changer with safe and active screen time through popular streaming apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube. Plus the Cinemood 360 is preloaded with educational content and interactive VR games. We love all the digital books it comes with and it’s so fun to have them read to the family while the pages are life size on the wall.
Families can also turn an entire room into an exploration of national parks or galaxies, or even upload their own content. Plus, there is a 32GB internal storage so families can download content for viewing without WIFI. And we love that we can use our phone as a remote control. CINEMOOD 360 has been a welcomed mainstay to learning in our home.
A HEALTHY TAKE ON MATH & STRATEGY WITH WONDER & WISE
When zoom and worksheets are getting to be too much, get the kids moving and outdoors, but the best part is, the learning doesn’t have to stop! Wonder and Wise is a staple in our home when it comes to pretend play, so we were so excited to take the learning outside with a healthy twist on math and strategy.
Jump forward 2, then add 3… that means we advanced 5 spaces and just did math. Our kids love the Hip Hopscotch Play Mat and most of the time don’t even realize the educational value. You can find worksheets online that are addition or subtraction, even multiplication and division work if you want to yell out the answers as you hop. It comes with 3 bean bags so you can skip over where the bag falls, or shout out multiple of the number… however you choose to play, you’ll be burning energy and sharpening your skills at the same time.
We love to golf and want to get our kids started early. A great introduction is mini golf and we especially enjoy the Good Wood Mini Golf Game that can be played indoors or out. From geometry to velocity, strategy is center to understanding the game and getting the ball into the hole. There are so many different configurations make this game different every time, plus you can even add in household “obstacles” to make the course more difficult too! Solo or competing against siblings, we give mini gold FORE stars.
HOUSEHOLD ITEMS MAKE FOR A SIMPLE DIY SENSORY BIN
When rainy days, snowy days or just bored days strike, a sensory bin can be a great solution. It can be used as part of your school lesson or just something for the kids to do for fun. The best part is that it can be made using items from around the house. For containers, you can use Tupperware, bakeware or even old restaurant takeout bins that have been cleaned out. Next, find items to fill the bins as a base. This can be pasta, rice, play dough, or even art supplies like pom poms. Then, you will want to have an “activity” for each bin. For ours, we put carrots from a game in pom poms and you had to use tweezers to pick them out, which works on fine motor skills. For another bin, we put magnetics letters in pasta and they had to spell some of the words we have been learning in our lessons. In another bin, we had play dough and straws with cubes that had to be placed on the straws. They could do this to practice counting or their math problems. In the last bin, we put kinetic sand and rubber game pieces that could be used for open-ended creating. The kids love sensory bins and I love that they play together and get along.
