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Hybrid Fall Learning
The New ‘BTS Gift Guide’ for COVID 19 for the fall of 2020.
This year will be like no year ever before. Depending on where you live you and your family you might be on campus, might be a hybrid of distance learning and on campus some days or might be 100% distance learning. It is so crazy that it is up in the air for many. The meme of ‘should I buy back to school clothes or more pajamas is so fitting. On top of not knowing for the kids, I will also be doing my student teaching and the district I’ll be doing it in still hasn’t announced how the learning will take place. I’m preparing for all three scenarios, just in case. My kids will both be in college classes. Most likely the classes will be 100% online. Sports, for now, are still on campus, but that might change as we get closer to school starting. For all of us it will start in about five weeks. I’m hoping we learn the plans soon. Here are some things for the new ‘hybrid’ BTS gift guide. Some are for me (as a teacher or for my student teaching) and some for the kids or are great gift ideas for other kids. We homeschooled for years before all of this but for some people this hybrid or distance learning might be all new. Hold on to your hats! I’m hoping things settle down soon but prepare for a bumpy ride as we jump into the plans for the fall 2020!
Get A Good Planner!
If you are a teacher (in class or distance learning) have children school, hybrid learning or if you are homeschooling them you will need a good planner. I love these from Order Out of Chaos. They come in two sizes (going to use one for class and one for home) and I also received some academic planner stickers and tabs. I love how versatile they are, large spaces for writing, easy to plan ahead and each one runs July-June school year.
Prepare for at-home learning. I know it depends on the state you live in but in California (or at least in the counties near me) I think we will be distance learning for the fall semester. If not, it’ll be hybrid. So get some supplies. Figure out where you are going to teach. Kitchen table is great but you’ll have to clear it for meal time. Desks in kids’ rooms are good if they are older and can work independently. Take over the dining room or living room with some tables and desks. If your kids fight make sure they have plenty of space. Don’t go overboard but get supplies. Pens, pencils and a container for them (or make one with a soup can). Younger kids will need scissors, crayons, a glue stick. Older kids might need a stapler. Get a folder for each subject, packs of paper, notebooks. A way to keep papers organized. A place to keep completed work. We kept this in two folders when we were homeschooling. A folder of to-do or 1/2 way done work and a folder with completed work. If your kids are doing hybrid work a lot of their assignments might be online. But you can still supplement with hands on art and crafts.
If your libraries are open create a tote bag for each kid and fit it in your week to get new books weekly. Have the kids store the books in the totes when they aren’t reading them as a safe place to store them so they aren’t misplaced. You can use a Cricut.com to decorate the bags! Put your kids names on them, let the kids help design them. I’m going to make some pencil bags for my family this week (technically cosmetic bags but I thought they would be the perfect size for pencil bags as well).
I’m updating this to show the picture of the Cricut.com cosmetic bags (that I’m using as pencil bags). I love how they turned out. The Invisible Ink is beautiful. I love how the colors blend into other colors. There was a little bit of a learning trial with using Invisible Ink for the first time but I think this is now my favorite Cricut product!
Still have fun and make learning fun. When kids are at school they are not doing work every single minute. There is downtime between classes, between subjects, recess, lunch break, etc. Make sure you kids get those breaks. For younger kids do lots of hands-on. Cards are a great way to learn numbers, build card houses, play Go Fish, teach your kids the card games you played when you were younger. You can also get some fun magnetic manipulatives for hand-eye coordination, building, some good imagination and to learn how magnets work. I’m loving the Glow-in-the-Dark Science Lab and the Creatto light up craft. This Shark one is going to look so cool once it is built. You can do this and make it educational. Discuss different animals in the ocean, the food chain, how they swim, pollution, etc. There is so much you can do to make learning fun. Especially with younger kids. Right now the Aquarium of the Pacific is open for outside exhibits only so you can spend a day there exploring.
Plan to be outdoors a lot. Once the super hot days of summer are gone it’ll be better to do things local. For those near a beach- do it in the afternoons. Make it a weekly trip. If not, get in the pool or sprinklers, go to the park, many museums are closed but the gardens are open. Go on bike rides, nature hikes, bird watching. Get some sidewalk chalk and have fun. Find creative ways to break up the day and get kids off of multimedia and social media. When I was homeschooling our day-to-day would be different depending on classes, sports, field trips but the days at home I planned. Something like this: 8am breakfast, get dressed, make bed. 9am English (and details of assignment). 9:45am chore. 10:15am Social Science. 11am 20 minutes free time. 11:20am science (and I’d try to get fun hands-on experiments at least once a week) 12 noon lunch. 1pm Math. 1:45pm art and crafts. After that the kids could do their second chore (yes, my kids had two chores a day) and they we had free time. I also assigned 30 minutes of reading a day, usually later in the day or before bed.
If you are a parent or teacher you might be on Zoom a lot. Get some cute tops. Don’t forget to add some earrings. First impressions are important. The memes of a man in a suit and tie waist-up and pajama bottoms is so fitting right now. I love the outfits from Nadine West. I get a package once a month with 2-3 different outfits in it as well as some jewerly. They are great to mix and match too. I can choose my clothing size and my style (romantic, hippie, modern, etc). I can go back and change the settings too if I want a new variety.
If you are going to be spending a lot of time outside get some good sunglasses! Ones that fit well, are UV protected and are a design you’ll wear often. I like ones that fit well so when I’m wearing a face mask they won’t fog up too (new normal, right?). Smart Buy Glasses has over 80,000 sunglasses to choose from, ship straight to your door and have a 100 day return policy.
I also have this really cute Portfolio Briefcase from KeySmart. Right now it is just sitting in my car but I used it before the distance learning started and have it for when I work as a sub and when we get back on campus to carry lesson plans, books, folders, etc in. There is so many different pockets it is easy to keep everything organized. It is a great way to keep everything organized without piles around my house too.
Get a good calculator. If you find a great one it can be used for middle school, high school and college math and even chemistry classes. I love this Casio one that is great for my kids. It has a large screen, USB cable, can be used for spreadsheets and they can even do 3D graphs and pictures on it. It is definitely an all-in-one calculator with a lot more features than the ones I had when I was in school. If you get a good one you won’t have to buy one for each math class, as your kids advance grades (but you might want to buy one for each kid). This one is the Casio FX-CG500 and is available on Amazon for $129.
I’m still getting used to wearing a mask and haven’t really been wearing makeup. But if I’m in an important meeting I will at least do my eyes. Eyeshadow, eyeliner and mascara. If we go back on campus I’ll be wearing full makeup. I’m loving this new collection from Merle Norman. Treasure Chest shadow palette, Blush & Go face palette, and the Chubby Lip Crayon in Ladybug, Calypso and Sienna. The makeup is long-lasting, dermatologist tested, fragrance-free and oil-free. Merle Norman is also a local company, based in Los Angeles.
I saw this and it made so much sense! If we are back on campus or on campuses 1/2 of the day teach your children to wear a mask now. You will need more than one mask. They will get dirty, need to be washed for sanitary reasons, get lost, break. Plus they are becoming stylish (crazy, right?) and people are matching them to their outfits and as an accessory. I get kids should stay home as much as possible if you are going places, like the grocery store. But if they never wear a mask and you drop them off at school and expect them to wear it for a few hours it is going to be a pain. Masks are not fun. They are uncomfortable. No one is eager to wear them. But it might be necessary.
Mabel’s Labels has reusable face masks (that are really cute) for kids.
Right now you can also Enter to win a ONE YEAR FREE subscription at Groovy Lab in a Box! They have awesome monthly boxes for kids that are hands-on fun and learning.
If this distance learning is going to last a while (and it might) there are a few additional things you might want to invest in.
Get your own pens, pencils, coloring utensils, etc. Find your children a desk. Last semester (March-June) I had a large plastic party table set up in my living room. This year I got a smaller one for $20 on Facebook Marketplace. You can shop around online. Brand new you are looking at $100+ for a desk. I am happy spending $20 on a used, scratched one. Your kitchen table is great for a little while but it might be too hard if you are having to move everything for dinner and set back up again in the morning.
Get a pencil sharpener. This one is electric and only $18 shipped on Amazon.
https://amzn.to/3aSeKuS
Have fun. Make sure you break up your day. Remember, if your kids were on campus they would have breaks between classes, before and after school and at lunch to see their friends. If they can’t hang out with friends, than make sure you make some family time. A time between chores, homework, sleeping, etc. Get some board games or puzzles, have some silly fun.
I’m loving these two brand-new-on-the-market board games. Perfect for middle school kids. The first is Bye, Felicia! and the second is Who’s the G.O.A.T.? Both are 3+ players and game time is about 20 minutes. Pumpkin has decided she likes them as a pillow too.
Learn about the U.S. or the world with this super cool map by Newverest. It comes with a wood frame too. Besides that it is a nice sized wall map, it is also something you can ‘mark off’ as you travel with your family. They have a world edition too. This is something can be used when studying social science and to discuss your travels, travel goals and where other family lives. Check out Scratch Off USA Map for the choice of maps and frames.
This is a great ‘PE’ idea and an encouraging way to get out and exercise. I love being able to track my exercise at a glances and it checks my pulse. It is stylish, slender and comes in 7 different band colors. The Pulse HR is available online for only $99.95 and you can purchase an additional charger (but you don’t really need to, it has a long battery life).
What state are you in and how are you preparing for the upcoming school year?
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