Selecting and Using Media as Launchpads for Informal Learning

First, younger children, especially preschoolers, love seeing familiar faces and environments. By now, they are probably asking about them and struggling to understand why they can’t go anywhere. Check out your local library or local businesses’ Facebook pages or websites, as many of them are live streaming or posting videos of story times, arts and crafts activities, or dance routines. Finding that local touch will go a long way for these kiddos!

Here in Vermont, we’ve been watching the amazing Ms. Jess and Ms. Marcie doing story time and music. They do the same routines (sprinkling listening dust or singing the same songs and doing the same arm movements) that our girls know and look forward to. One of the songs was The Bear Goes Over the Mountain. We found something to use as the mountain, and then the girls each used their teddy bears to go over, under, and around the mountain, which are words that help kids develop spatial thinking skills. (These words are also great for describing everyone’s positions at a table during a meal or activity (e.g., I'm across from/next to you!)

Second, children in the K-2 age group often teeter on the edge of distinguishing fantasy from reality. This makes the job of selecting appropriate media even more important because far out things can feel real and scary to them. Knowing what they are watching can help you guide them through this. Here’s what I mean:

Last night we started the movie Hook with our 7- and 10-year-olds. They have both seen the Star Wars movies and never questioned whether those events actually took place. But our 7-year-old was clearly shaken by some of the events in the movie, and went to bed quite concerned about scorpions being dropped in a box with a pirate who betrayed Captain Hook. When we reminded him that it’s a movie with actors and not real, he was still concerned for the actor and if he was okay (nevermind why Captain Hook did that). There are many layers here, but an important point is that children don’t have the same knowledge we do, and, if we’re there, we can be aware of that gap and begin to fill it.

This then led to a further opportunity: This morning, when that same 7-year-old woke up, he was still asking about scorpions. So we decided to find out more. We have access to Pebblego, which scaffolds the research process for kids, but you can also use National Geographic for Kids. We spent some time looking at fun facts and learning more about scorpions (did you know some scorpions can survive eating only 1 insect per year?). He decided to organize this information in a short PowerPoint presentation that he is excited to share with his brother and dad tonight before we finish the movie, and to anyone who will listen after that! 

Homemade Math Games

Being one kid’s Suddenly Homeschooling Mom (SHM) is complicated. Wearing that hat for multiple kids adds other layers of complexity. Some of those layers are more like comfy blankets, in that it’s reassuring to know that they at least have each other if/when you need a break or a virtual happy hour with your friends. But when it comes to doing an activity together that you want to fit nicely in the “school time bucket,” hitting the mark for kids of different ages can be hard. Oh, and then there’s the need to keep your cooped-up angels from killing each other a la War of the Roses when they fall from the chandelier.

Games are great, but unless your kids are a different species from mine, games work best when everyone has a reasonable chance of winning. To level the math playing field for C (4th grade) & E (K), I made this deck of cards.

C’s handwriting is as illegible as my own, so I’ll explain that cards are drawn one at a time and it’s a race to solve the equation, with E focusing on the top (addition or subtraction) and C focusing on the bottom (multiplication or division). Whoever solves it first gets the card, and the person with the most cards at the end wins. We tried it out and realized that there needs to be a penalty if you get it wrong. E suggested that in that case you roll a die and give back that number of cards. In practice this was a really steep penalty and kept the game going a lot longer than I expected. Given that we have nowhere to go these days I consider this a plus!

The kids made their own variations, too. In C's version, they draw simultaneously from their own decks (E with addition/subtraction cards and C with multiplication/division cards) and try to lose cards by solving the problems first. 

E’s is a solitaire version with a timer, where you have to solve the problems on the cards within a certain time limit. For us, a meaty component of all three games was deciding the title and writing out the rules. 

When I tell people that I do research to develop and test media for learning, the conversation usually turns quickly to a discussion of digital games, apps, shows, etc. But I think of media a lot more broadly. It’s not just about going digital-- it’s about choosing the right materials for the purpose in mind. In this case index cards and our leftover wedding stationary* fit the bill.

*We got married in 2006, so props to the hubs for still having it.

Happy Hour

Lest you think we’ve forgotten about YOU, we haven’t! We’ve collected some inspiring, comforting, and humorous resources (at least to us!) to keep you going. And we thought we’d time it on a Friday afternoon to help you kick off happy hour, which is well deserved at the end of a week doing 5 jobs!

First, a reminder to be kind to yourself and to take care of yourself (cheers!). For me, this often means taking a walk on my own, and it gives me time to think, breathe, talk with a friend, or listen to a podcast. My favorite podcast is This American Life, and this week I heard this beautiful explanation by a 12 year-old of what we all really want. Need other ideas? Check out Yale’s Happiness Course, which is now free to audit online!

Also, remember that this is hard and new, and that we all are feeling various forms of loss, whether it’s of normalcy, purpose, or relationships. If you’re a teacher, remember that you can’t design online learning overnight, and that you are also adapting to new relationships with students while managing your own transitions.

I also appreciated this advice from an astronaut on how to survive in isolation, including keeping a schedule, pacing yourself, getting outside, staying connected, and having a hobby. This blog is a bit of a hobby for me, and I’ve also learned finger loop knitting (taught to me by my 10 year old) and it’s addicting!

I also really appreciated this article on how learning is everywhere--so don’t stress out about creating the “right” or “enough” learning experiences for your kids. Circling back to the importance of self care and connection, learning experiences that add to our stress levels are counter to both of these goals. Things have gone topsy turvy, but perfect is still the enemy of good.

And, finding humor and levity in these serious times can never be underestimated, so here’s a roundup of some funnies that are circulating on the internet:

Intelligence is not contagious

In the spirit of happy hour:
"Heard some advice on the radio last night, it said to have inner peace, that we should always finish things we start, and we all could use more calm in our lives. I looked through my house to find things that I'd started and hadn't finished, so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Whiskey, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, an a box a chocletz. Yu haf no idr how feckin fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner piss. An telum u luvum. And two al bee hapee wilst in de instalation.

 

For Kids in Grades 3-5!

One thing we really like about having kids in upper elementary is that the games sustain our engagement, too! Gone are the days of inner torture as we watch them inch a game piece along a Chutes & Ladders board, counting the spaces so slowly that we just want it to be over...and then they land on a slide right at the end and the torture starts anew.

Strategy games are more the norm now. Connect Four, Othello, Mastermind, Chess, Monopoly Moncala, Boggle, and Scrabble are common hits for this age group, and some lend themselves nicely to different levels of challenges when kids and adults play against each other. Take Boggle, for example, where you may need to find 5-letter words while kids can look for any word at all. Note that many traditional board games have app versions with single or multiplayer options.

Many kids in this age group enjoy being the creators of media, rather than just consumers of it. The video feature on your phone can capture talent shows, magic shows, recitals, or anything else they’d like to watch or share later with family and friends. iMovie, which C uses regularly to make trick shot videos a la Dude Perfect, is also pretty user-friendly. And if you’re trying to keep things more “school-like,” kids could write scripts for skits or shows they can act out, write interview questions and then video chat with a friend or relative to ask those questions and “produce” a news-like segment, or just create a multimedia presentation with Adobe Spark.

In TV Land, things also can get more interesting. We find that National Geographic’s Brain Games, which in their words “messes with your mind and reveals the inner-workings of your brain,” is as fascinating for us as it is for our kids. PBS KIDS shows like Odd Squad and Wild Kratts continue to capture their attention, too. More recent, oldie-but-goodie obsessions have been with Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right. Just ask C if you’re wondering if you paid too much for dishwashing liquid, Pepto Bismol, or “a brand new CAR!!!!!”

Looking for some topic-specific resources? Here are a few we like! Also, in using these with our kids, a tip we’ve discovered is that having them write a review of the experience for a peer not only gets them writing about something they are interested in, but is a great way to check what they understood or learned from the experience, what was confusing, and whether they would want to use it more.

Solve Me: Digital math games to foster pre-algebra and logical reasoning skills, which sounds scary but is mostly about patterns, number relationships, and understanding equivalence (remember balancing equations? Using models like mobiles means it doesn’t need to be as scary or confusing as we remember!)

Science Resources: We’re cheating a bit here because this is a compilation of resources that our colleagues have been involved in creating, but it does give a nice variety of options.

National Parks Virtual Tours: These are as cool as they sound!

But Why: A podcast where kids ask questions and get answers about a variety of topics

Kiwico: Fun STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) maker-type projects for kids and families, organized by age, along with resources for families during COVID

Art Hub for Kids: Nice to have actual instructional art videos for all those kids out there whose parents are lacking in artistic ability (ahem…)

WWF Learning Resources: For those who are a bit more ambitious than we’re feeling at the moment, but they sure look well done!

Hour of Code: Many kids have already used these tools at school, but they’re fun and a skill they often don’t have as much time for in school, so this is a great opportunity!

Duo Lingo: For those of us who have lamented that foreign language doesn’t start until middle school, now’s our chance to get our kids (heck, ourselves too) learning a new language!

Of course, we’re not the only ones trying to narrow it down for families. Check out this article that recommends 11 great sites for online instructional resources.

K-2 Edition

Your early elementary students are probably used to doing more formal learning activities, but informal options are still hugely important. Their bodies are built to move, and there’s no need to confine learning to a discrete box, desk, or assigned space on the rug. (You’ve likely seen several versions of an article like this and there’s truth in there!)

This is an age group that I spend a lot of my professional time thinking about, so it is hard to narrow down the resources (just like it was for Common Sense Media!), but my favorite digital resources include:

Math/Science

• Young Mathematicians Project: Recommendations for books and games to foster math learning, as well as suggested family activities by some of the people I most respect in the field
• Apps for Math and Science: These are repeated from the preschool edition, but it’s for this age as well (even aligned with early elementary standards), and were also created by some of my favorite people (including Marion!)
• Mystery Doug: Our kids love these 5-minute videos based on science questions submitted by kids, and Doug is enthusiastic and informative at a level that kids enjoy and understand
• Scholastic has put together a lesson per day for kids that is not-surprisingly really well done. Fun books, videos, and suggested activities around a sustained theme for the day, which is typically a science one, but they do have one social studies (communities) and one social and emotional learning theme as well.
• If you have an animal lover on your hands, use a virtual zoo to watch and learn about animals.

Literacy

• In addition to celebrities reading children’s books that we included in the Preschool Edition, Audible can help you find the exact book your child wants to hear and has longer books as well, and is currently free.
• Mo Willems is doing livestream “LUNCH DOODLES” weekdays at 1pm Eastern Time for the next few weeks, and has already been called the modern day Mr. Rogers. The videos are also available for streaming afterward and include an activity to download.

Wellness

• Cosmic Kids Yoga offers free yoga adventures that will keep you moving and calm. They have a wide range of adventures, including these favorites: Frozen, Harry Potter, and Pokemon.
• Smiling Mind has great mindfulness meditations and activities for all ages, and for all areas of wellbeing (sleep, relationships, self-care, etc.).

Please don’t forget that time being together without media is also critical. Playing games together is one great way to have fun together and build on developing skills. There are classic games like Chutes & Ladders, Candyland, Yahtzee, Connect 4, Mastermind, Battleship, Pictionary and newer ones like Hoot Owl Hoot, Robot Turtles, and Cauldron Quest. There are card games (including a favorite of ours, Rat-a-tat Cat, that you could easily make your own cards for if you don’t have the game), word games (like Hangman or Boggle), or social games like Heads Up.

And no post would be complete without my go-to PBS KIDS. Favorites for this age include Wild Kratts, Odd Squad, Ruff Ruffman, and Word Girl.

Preschool Edition

If you’re like we are, you are receiving about 50 great ideas every day for activities to do with your kids. Even though I have a background in sifting through these resources, I still feel totally overwhelmed by the quantity, and that actually makes it less likely that I’ll actually pick any of them to try. So here are my top picks, by age, starting with preschoolers!

Preschool Edition

For starters, most preschoolers just need time to play and explore, use their imagination, and have someone read to them. (Here’s a nice overview of ways to engage.) Here are some ways we’ve been doing this with our twins:

You may have heard that less is more when it comes to toys, and that is very true. In that vein, you might just have farm animals to play with and see where that leads. Children might act like animals, do yoga poses like those animals, sing songs like Old Macdonald, feed their real or pretend animals, draw a picture of a farm, or have races with the animals. (Another “station” idea could include cars/trains and building or drawing roads/tracks and making or using items to be landmarks like a house, store, school, or friend’s house.)

For the craftier among us, playdough is always a huge hit! Bonus points for making it, which is easier than you think, so it’s actually soft and usable. Of course, if you have a cardboard box, there are endless possibilities of how to decorate it and then use it as a fort, rocket, racecar...

If you’re able to get outside, give your child a bucket or container (and a magnifying glass or binoculars if you have them so kids can act and think like a scientist) and go collect things, like acorns, leaves, and cones. When you come inside, you can use these as a counting and/or sorting activity, or simply as a way to observe closely, noticing similarities and differences between things. What questions does your child have? We all know about Google, but here’s a kid-friendly search engine too.

By now you’re probably exhausted, so take advantage of celebrities reading children’s books online. A favorite quote I once heard is, “I’m a parent. My hobbies include silence and going to the bathroom by myself.” Now’s your chance to foster those hobbies.

My kids all love music and there are lots of great online options for that as well, like Go Noodle, Mr. Steve, Mr. Chris and Friends, Jam with Jamie, and Ramblin’ Dan.

Putting on my professional hat, here are some awesome (and free!) hands-on games and apps that support early math and science learning.

Finally, when it’s time to just let them watch a show, my favorites are almost always on PBS Kids (special shout out to Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, but there’s also Sid the Science Kid, Molly of Denali, and Super Why!), and Peppa Pig is also a fan favorite.

I’d love to hear your top choices for preschoolers too. Please comment or email us!

Our Homeschooling Contexts

We thought it might be useful for us to describe our respective homeschooling contexts and the school/district-related resources we have to work with. Then we’re hoping to get some quick posts out, by age group, to help people truly jump in with ideas. Along the way, we’d love to hear from you about what you’re doing, what you’re finding helpful, and other suggestions.

Marion (from a burb in NY)

Based on my experience with a K and 4th grader who go to one of our community’s four elementary schools, our district has done an amazing job, seemingly overnight, to get remote learning resources together and out to families. Just a couple of days after schools closed last week, we began getting daily emails (sometimes an overwhelming number of them) from the district and my kids’ teachers. Those emails include Google Classroom links to semi-structured lessons and access to handouts, videos, and other resources needed to carry them out. Lessons also draw from a list of activity suggestions that the district provided, tagged by grade band and domain.

Math and Reading/Writing activities are daily blocks, with Science, Social Studies, Art, PE, and Music activities included on some days. The plans are not associated with a schedule (like Math at 9am, Science at 1pm...), but collectively they’re designed to add up to about 2-3 hours of activities. Since the district’s remote learning launch last Wednesday (after 2 days of DIY homeschooling), my focus has been to guide my kids through the day’s “required” activities, and supplement them with additional fun, sneaky-learning activities that elevate the ones the school recommends, extend them, and/or bring my kids together. I’ve already found that some of the activities can last a forgettable 5 minutes, (like “go outside and write about something you see”), or with some planning can take fun, challenging turns that get my kids thinking deeper and for longer.

I’ll share some examples from the home front in the coming days. In the meantime, I’d love to hear how others who are local feel about how our district is doing in terms of supporting families, and what additional supports you wish were available. And I’d love to know more about how our district is approaching this situation differently from other districts near and far.

Deb (from a town in Vermont)

Our district is currently engaged in “maintenance of learning.” This means that we are trying to avoid the “slide” that we typically think of happening over the summer months. We are keeping up the learning that has already occurred, reviewing and keeping kids engaged. As such, teachers have provided some materials and menus of options. The menu is organized by subject area, with options for the various ways to approach those subjects. For example, my 2nd grader’s menu for literacy includes things like videos of the librarian reading books to kids, independent student reading, writing in journals, trick word sheets, and writing prompts. The advice is to try to check each box within a week’s time. All of this is explicitly optional so there are a wide range of ways that families are staying engaged in learning during this period. And for me, I’m taking advantage of this time to connect with my kids in a way that I typically struggle to fit in, giving them focused attention on their interests and supporting their approaches to learning (curiosity, persistence, collaboration skills, etc.). Similarly, I am very interested in keeping it light and fun, using more games and projects that they initiate, and finding and fostering the learning opportunities within them.

I’ll share examples of the games, resources, and projects we end up trying, discuss whether they were quick or sustained the kids’ interests, and also describe the total failures, including the inevitable frustrations we all will have in trying new things.

And with all of this, we'll try and keep our senses of humor as well!

Reality Check

There is the pie in the sky version of what we'd like to do to support our kids at home while schools are closed, and then there is the reality version of what we actually do to support our kids and ourselves while schools are closed.

As researchers of educational technology, we are often advocating for joint engagement with media (JEM). Families that view and play together, learn together. You get the idea. We know this is important. But knowing and doing can be two totally different things.

When you take a break from work and you need to get dinner on the table, it is hardly the time you're thinking about sitting down with your child to watch a video. In fact, you're counting on that video to entertain and occupy your child (or children) so that you can actually put said dinner on the table.

So let's be clear--we too use media to accomplish household and family tasks and, let's be honest, to take a break and recharge (which is very important!). When doing this, it's still great to choose resources that are educational, even if they don't have the same benefits without some support. You can count on them not having inappropriate content, whether that be a scary villain, language you'd rather not hear your 4-year-old use when your parents come to visit, or confusing social dynamics. Perhaps encourage children to re-watch or re-play videos or games that you have viewed or played together so you are still able to talk with them about it afterwards, for some nice dinner conversation. "What happened with [insert specific character] today?" or "How did it go working on that [insert specific challenge] today?" Having the context to still engage and hear what your child understood, where they were confused, what they enjoyed, and so on will give you the tools to promote after-the-fact learning, and build some great connections with your child who then knows you're thinking about and interested in what they're thinking about and interested in. Yay for you--you're officially a cool parent (and you didn't even have to use an xbox!)...for now. They will still become adolescents!

And sometimes media just gets you that workout you desperately need!

Getting Started: Learning at Home with your Family

As the panic of COVID-19 washes over us, the parents among us are facing the worst: 

school closings! But as you switch into survival mode, fear not. We've got some tips and 

resources to help you make this an exciting and engaging opportunity to spend time with your 

children and keep them learning.

First, we are not including resources about how to talk with your kids about COVID-19. 

There are plenty of great resources for that already (like this)!

What we do plan to do is offer tips and resources, share what we actually do, and use your 

comments to help us update this as we go. To get us started, here are some basic tips for 

surviving and thriving with kids at home for an extended period:

1. Keep a schedule and a basic routine: You know best what works for your family, but most 

kids do well with structure and consistency.

2. Combine learning in different formats and in different environments (kids need to move!).

3. Pick digital resources that are research-based and effective for learning: 

Common Sense Media keeps a great and up-to-date list.

4. When using digital resources, watch or play with your child, talk to them about what they 

are seeing or doing, and make connections to other experiences and learning outside of 

the digital world.

5. Play non-digital games together, like board games or word games (e.g., hangman).

6. Read and tell stories together, or even act them out! 

7. Write! Writing should be fun and meaningful, so kids can catch up on thank you notes, 

write letters to friends and family, write out the daily schedule, write about how they're 

feeling...anything that gets them excited!

8. Use what you have around your home to ask questions, make predictions, explore and 

experiment (worried about using up your toilet paper? At least the empty rolls can be used in 

a fun ramp activity!) .

9. Curiosity drives learning, so don't worry about whether you can teach your kids or answer 

all of their questions right away. See their questions as a chance to learn together.

Here are some other resources that can also get you started:

PBS KIDS has a website for parents that also has activities organized and search-able by 

age and topic, and that feature many of kids’ favorite characters.

NYC Public Schools has a website by grade level with resources for learning at home.

An article in the NYTimes by a school administrator in Philadelphia about what to do with 

kids when schools are closed.

Best of luck, and more coming soon. Thanks for reading!