Homeschool/Distant Learning Essentials for a First Timer

This year we are enrolling our kids in our county’s virtual school option. I couldn’t completely commit to home school (where we are not with the state/county but have our own curriculum) just because I myself need some structure, and want my kids to stay on track with Florida standards so when they return to school they are at grade level. And in no way am I saying that kids who are fully homeschooled are behind in any way, I just know myself and my children and believe that virtual school is what’s best for us as we start a new and somewhat unknown journey. But who knows, maybe we will end up liking distant learning and venturing out to homeschooling fully. But for now, we are taking baby steps with virtual learning, with a real virtual teacher, but me as the home teacher, to help whenever.

Why we chose virtual learning vs going into the classroom: 

Florida is a hot spot. Our county is not bad in comparison to Orange County, or South Florida. But who won’t say that will change between now and October? I stay home exclusively, and if I can play my part in keeping my kids home to minimize the amount of children in the classroom for the safety of them, their peers and their teachers, I will do that. Elias really should be in a school setting, because Kindergarten is such a big year socially, and developmentally. But I feel more comfortable keeping him home because he’s a young 5. When Back to school season rolls around, he had just celebrated a birthday over the summer. Whereas my oldest, RJ, has an October birthday, so when the school year starts he has had time to mature. So I’m almost confident when January comes should we decide to bring them back, or August 2021 Elias will be more mature as a face-to-face student.

So anyways, now that I POURED my heart and soul with you all, I’m sharing everything we bought for the kids for our new virtual learning journey. I’m not sure if I’ll need anything else, but so far I feel like this is everything we will need for a successful school year! I broke everything down by grade, and for reference, we have an upcoming 2nd grader, kindergartener and Pre-K 3’s, and then you know Laila is 22 months old so she’ll just learn from watching her big brothers.

2nd Grade:

Kindergarten:

Pre-K: 

For Arts and Crafts/Sensory:

Administrative/Me, the teacher lol