Category: Classroom

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Allergies Big Kid Classroom Health How To Parenting

How You Can Help Keep Your Child Safe At School

Primary school may be overwhelming for both pupils and their parents, and this is exacerbated even further during a pandemic. Parents are concerned about bullying, emergencies, and other frightening situations as their children navigate through school and important developmental years. Learn how to keep your child safe while at school in this post.

Keep Your Child Safe At School
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How to Keep Your Child Safe At School

1. Familiarize yourself with COVID-19 updates

We all have a lot of additional questions when it comes to the health and safety of our children this year.   Is there really anything done at the school to stop the spread of COVID-19? What happens if a student in my child’s class or at his or her school contracts the virus? What will the school do in the event that a teacher becomes unwell as a result of the virus? Is the school COVID safe in general?

Even as we all work together to negotiate these difficult decisions, you may take steps to equip yourself, prepare your children, and assist teachers in preparing classrooms. Remind your children of the importance of regular handwashing. They should wash up after using the toilet, before eating, after playing outside, and if they have sneezed or coughed.

2. Find out how schools deal with issues

It is critical to understand how a school handles emergency circumstances as well as the policies that students are required to adhere to. Every school year, take time to go over the school’s handbook with your child at the beginning of the year. Many questions are answered in this guide, which covers topics such as school uniform, visitors policy, disaster drills and routes, and the school’s position on bullying.

3. Talk to the teachers

Speaking with teachers and administrators on a frequent basis is the most effective approach to stay up to date on the school’s safety policy. Plus, it’s the best way to follow up on any safety issues that may arise. If your child is experiencing difficulties, these discussions may offer insight into the situation. In order to keep physical contact to a minimum during COVID-19, you can conduct them via Zoom, email, or phone.

If your child’s school does not offer parent-teacher conferences, ask for one with each teacher toward the middle of each term. Staying in contact will help your child succeed and stay safe at school.

4. Make sure your children’s records are up to date

When you first registered your child for school, you had to fill out a mountain of paperwork. However, it is easy to forget about updating their school files as the years go by. In the event that your child develops an allergy or if there is an emergency at the school, this can be a problem.

Additionally, if your personal or contact information changes, make sure that you notify the school as soon as possible. Review and update your child’s files at least once a year, or at the beginning of each term if possible. 

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Big Kid Classroom Infant/Toddler Learning Kindergarten Age Learning Toddler and Preschool Age Learning

5 Cool Devices and Tools Your Kids Need for Virtual Learning

tools your kids need for virtual learning

COVID-19 quarantines and lockdowns have caused many disruptions to children’s education. It’s (hopefully) not going to be a regular occurrence because scientists have already developed Covid-19 vaccines, but in the meantime, it’s crucial that parents offer some form of home-based learning for their kids. With that in mind, you may be wondering what the best ways to engage with your children are. One answer is through the use of technology, and there are many helpful devices and tools your kids need for virtual learning.

***This post contains affiliate links. It costs you nothing extra, but I may receive a small commission.***

tools your kids need for virtual learning
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Devices and Tools Your Kids Need for Virtual Learning

1. Virtual Reality (VR) Headset

A cursory look on YouTube will reveal many VR-ready videos that allow viewers to enjoy an immersive viewing experience. The available video content ranges from rollercoaster rides and views of Earth from space to close-up videos in wildlife reserves.

VR headsets allow children to feel like they are at the heart of the action and enjoy a truly interactive and immersive experience. One fact about VR headsets is they are affordable. Inexpensive VR headsets start from $10 and can range up to around $500 for an Oculus headset.

2. Noise-Canceling Headphones

When your child has virtual school lessons via Zoom or Skype, they can learn and focus better in an environment free of distractions. Setting up your child’s computer in a quiet room is one way to do that. Sometimes, especially if you have a large family like we do, there are no quiet areas in a family home, though.

In these cases, it’s better to equip your child with noise-canceling headphones. They’re available to suit various needs, and it’s also possible to get headphones for autistic children who find it hard to concentrate when there are noisy distractions around them.

3. Tablet

It’s no secret that we all live in a digital age. Most people, even kids, have several electronic devices they use for communication and productivity. Tablets are essential for kids these days, and they’re easier for little ones to use than other computers. It’s smaller, cheaper, and more interactive to use than a laptop.

Your kids can use tablets as part of their virtual learning as you can download apps for productivity, video conferencing, and more with ease. Of course, you should moderate each child’s time on the tablet, so they cannot access online content unrelated to their learning.

Make sure your children are being safe online!! Check out my blog post, Keeping Kids Safe Online – 8 Simple Tips for tips and advice.

4. Touchscreen Pen

You will undoubtedly include creative learning as part of your child’s home learning curriculum. It’s for that reason touchscreen pens (also known as Stylus pens) make sense and are the perfect complementary accessories for their tablets.

With a touchscreen pen, each child can draw and color with ease on their tablet screen. Touchscreen pens help to foster your children’s creativity by letting them make artistic digital creations. Plus, if your child’s learning requires that they write words, sentences, or numbers, a touchscreen pen can help them do so neatly.

5. Activity Tracker

Finally, an activity tracker such as a smartwatch is ideal for kids who are taught physical education from home. Activity trackers are wearables that monitor a child’s physical exercise and give you and them an overview of their physical activity during a sports session.

Activity trackers are also useful for encouraging and motivating children during physical play as they can quickly check their progress. Plus, such progress can get reported via a linked fitness app on their tablet. It will help them get enough exercise and movement each day, and it can encourage them to set and meet goals.

If you choose a smartwatch as your child’s activity tracker, there are additional benefits, too. Many times, you can set up the watch to receive calls from recognized numbers (such as yours or a grandparent’s). Plus, you can track your child’s location in case you accidentally get separated from them.

Devices and Tools Your Kids Need for Virtual Learning

There are many devices and tools your kids need for virtual learning. You might already use some of these devices, and you can simply add the other tools to help your child out. This is an incredibly uncertain time and it is essential that we don’t let our children’s education suffer.

What devices and tools do you use for your kid’s virtual learning? Tell me in the comments and let me know if you recommend them!

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Classroom Family Activities Learning Toys and Games

5 Educational Board Games To Play With Your Kids

Educational Board Games To Play With Your Kids

Playing board games with your kids can have many benefits. Board games can get your kids away from the screen and allow you to enjoy some family bonding time. On top of this, many board games can have educational benefits while still being very fun.

Educational Board Games To Play With Your Kids

***This post contains affiliate links. It costs you nothing extra, but I may receive a small commission.***

Best Educational Board Games to Play With Kids

Chess

Chess is one of the oldest board games that is still played today. It’s a great game for teaching problem solving and strategy skills. In order to win, you need to keep track of all the pieces on the board while planning your moves ahead.

On top of traditional chess boards, there are chess boards available in all different themes from Harry Potter chess boards to Disney chess boards. You can teach chess to kids as young as 6 as this guide explains, although older kids are likely to appreciate the game more. Chess is a 2 player game, making it better suited to one-on-one time. 

*If you are looking for board games for younger kids, check out this post: 12 of the Best Games For Kids

Scrabble

Scrabble encourages players to earn points by forming words. On top of being a great game for expanding your child’s vocabulary, Scrabble helps kids to develop math skills through adding up points and forming patterns. Plus, it helps with teaching forward planning.

You can play Scrabble with up to four players. As with chess, older kids are likely to appreciate Scrabble more.

If you run out of word ideas, don’t worry. There are lots of tools online that can help you play scrabble better such as this word unscrambler tool.

Monopoly

Monopoly encourages players to buy property around a board until one person owns all the property. It’s a great game for teaching kids money management because in order to win, you need to be able to budget well and take calculated risks.

On top of the classic version of Monopoly, there are now many other versions themed around everything from Star Wars to Pokémon. You can play Monopoly with up to eight players, making it ideal for large families.

Qwirkle

Qwirkle is a game that involves matching colors and shapes using tiles. On top of helping to build logical skills through patterns, Qwirkle is a great game for teaching strategy much like chess or Scrabble (in fact, it’s a bit like a combination of chess and dominoes).

The game is easy to set up and can be played by all ages. Up to four players can play Qwirkle at a time. 

The World Game

If you’re looking for a game to teach geography skills, The World Game is the perfect option. Players compete to find the strongest fact about a country and win.

In doing so, players learn trivia about various countries from capital cities to flags. The game also teaches map orientation, helping kids to work out exactly where countries are in the world. It’s suitable for players of all ages and can be played with up to five players. 

Educational Board Games To Play With Your Kids

Learning doesn’t have to be boring, and you don’t have to force it on your kids. By finding the right ways to help them learn, you can have fun and bond while doing it. Board games are the perfect thing for that because they are fun and educational.

What are your favorite educational board games to play with your kids? Tell me in the comments!

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Classroom Learning Parenting

Reasons to Choose an Online Charter School for Your Family

Reasons to Choose an Online Charter School for Your Family

This year has presented parents with a lot of challenges, and many parents have considered an online charter school for their children. There have been huge hurdles, including hurricanes, major elections, and the big elephant in the room, Covid-19.

For families, 2020 has been a balancing act or more likely a juggling act of being a parent, an employee, a teacher, a physical trainer, and even a master banana bread maker.

You may be looking for more help around the house. You can only wear so many hats until you are not good at any of the roles. Well, now is a good time to consider letting the teachers do the instruction with online charter school options. 

While there are many options to choose from for your children, this is just one of the popular options. Each family has to consider what is best for them, without considering what everyone else is doing. Keep that in mind as you consider this option.

Online Charter School
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Why Choose an Online Charter School?

School is Closer than Ever Before

When you considered buying a home or settling down, you probably thought about many things, including proximity to your work as well as the local school. However, with the advancements of technology and educational institutions, your physical location is not necessarily a factor in where your kids are enrolled.

In fact, you can’t get much closer to your classroom than waking up and getting out of bed to your laptop, desk, and chair. In a world where many in-person classes have been cancelled, online charter schools are a very safe and wise decision for 2020 and into the future.

Moving or Relocating Concerns

When you have kids, you really think twice about a move. There are many things that you should think about when considering a big change like moving.

One of the most important things to think about is the education that you desire for your kids. Do you want your kids to go to a neighborhood school with the same kids on your block? Do you want them to get to know kids from around the world from different backgrounds?

If you select an online charter school for your kids, your kids can learn from anywhere regardless of where your home is or where your career takes you.

Best Teachers from Around the World

When you choose an online charter school, you get the best educators from around the world. Just picture, your child’s art history teacher is based in New York City where she has been a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Likewise, the Spanish teacher is a native speaker from Madrid, Spain with over twenty years of teaching experience. No longer does an online school need to source its teaching talent from the local region.

Online learning can source the best educational talents for its curriculum. Online charter schools can skim the cream of the crop, getting only seasoned professionals.

Reasons to Choose an Online Charter School for Your Family

This year has been one obstacle after another. First and foremost, you were concerned about your family’s health and keeping your job during an economic downturn.

However, the education of your family was (and still is) also a worry. While you think about your options, consider an online charter school ease your thoughts. Trust your child’s safety, health, and education to an online charter school.

While the best option for our family is to have the kids in a face-to-face learning environment, our local schools have closed back up for now. We are hoping it is only short-term, but everything is unpredictable now. What option is best for your family? Tell me about it in the comments, I’d love to hear about it!

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Big Kid Big kid fun Classroom crafts Family Activities Sensory Play

Dyed Rice Layers of the Earth 3D Project

layers of the earth model, layers of the earth 3d project, layers of the earth project, dyed rice, mason jar

Peyton (our 11 year old) loves school projects where he gets to use his creativity. In 4th grade, he had to create a 3D animal and he chose a paper mache diamondback rattlesnake, which turned out SO cool. This time, he had to create a 3D model of the layers of the earth (6th-grade science) and he chose to use dyed rice in a mason jar.

How to Make the Layers of the Earth with Colored Rice

What you need:

  • 2 cups of white rice
  • 2.5 teaspoons of white vinegar
  • Food coloring (yellow, orange, red, green, brown)
  • 16 oz. mason jar
  • Ziploc bags (any size) – one bag per color
  • Paper towel — *You’ll be mad if you don’t check out this AMAZING deal I found on paper towel!!*
layers of the earth model, layers of the earth 3d project, layers of the earth project, dyed rice, mason jar

This post contains affiliate links. It costs you nothing extra, but I may receive a small commission.

How to Make it:

  1. Divide 2 cups of uncooked rice into 5 parts. The parts should be divided based on the sizes of each layer of the earth… some will be smaller than others.
  2. Add each of the 5 parts into individual Ziploc bags and add 1/2 teaspoon of white vinegar to each.
  3. Then, begin adding the food coloring to each bag. The amount of food coloring you use will depend on how you want the colors to look.
  4. Dump each color out onto a dry paper towel, keeping all colors separate.
  5. Allow the dyed rice to dry for one hour.
  6. Pour the dyed rice into a 16 oz. mason jar, beginning with the innermost layer of the earth. In Peyton’s case, this was the inner core, which he made yellow and poured into the bottom of the jar.
  7. Pour each additional layer on top of that one, working from the inside layers to the outside layers. The outermost layers will be at the top of your jar.
  8. Put the lid on, and your layers of the earth project is complete!

Layers of the Earth Used in this Project

  • Yellow: bottom layer, inner core
  • Orange: 2nd from the bottom, outer core
  • Red: 3rd from the bottom, lower mantle
  • Green: 4th from the bottom, upper mantle
  • Brown: top layer, crust

Tips:

*Fill the mason jar ALL the way to the top with rice. This prevents the rice from moving around and mixing together. You’ll want to keep your colors separate, as those represent the layers of the earth.

*Distribute the rice to 5 bags before dying any. Determine which bag of rice will be making up which layer, and write it on the outside of the bag. This way, your largest layer (the upper mantel in Peyton’s case) has the most rice in the bag and it doesn’t get mixed up with a different layer.

*—->This<—- pack of food coloring is the exact one I bought for this project. It contains all the colors Peyton needed plus some additional colors, too.

layers of the earth model, layers of the earth 3d project, layers of the earth project, dyed rice, mason jar

Other Ideas for Layers of the Earth 3D Project

His original idea was to use 5 different colors of glitter, which I thought would have looked super cool. He changed his mind and decided on the rice model instead, however.

Some other ideas include:

  • Styrofoam ball
  • Play-doh or clay
  • Colored sand
  • Glitter
  • Cake

Final Thoughts on Layers of the Earth 3D Project

I’m always so excited when Peyton is assigned a school project. He is SO creative and has so much fun with them.

What project would you create if you were to make a 3D model symbolizing the layers of the earth? Tell me about it in the comments!