Today is the second day back at online school for three of our children in Grades 7, 6, and 4. Each child is at a different school. Although they're all in the same urban public school district, each one has different systems, schedules, protocols, and online tools. The vision I had of each child sitting peacefully at their desk with district-issued Chromebooks open and ready to go has already proven unrealistic!

Instead, each child has hunkered down in a spot that feels comfortable to them. We are fortunate to have enough space that they can each be in a different location in the house, but the result is that I find myself hustling around to help reconnect to wifi, troubleshoot different apps, and try to locate class codes. I’m getting a lot of steps in for sure, but we’re going to need a better system!

Here’s what we’re going to try for now. We hope these suggestions might help you too!

If sitting at a desk all day isn’t appealing, consider letting your child try something else. As long as each child is getting their work done and not distracting classmates on video meetings, a productive work space might include, for example, a lot of pillows and a pet hamster for company. One child prefers to work on the stairs for comfort and (she claims) a superior wifi connection. As long as it works (for the child and the family), consider letting go of what you thought this was supposed to be like.

Debrief what’s working and what’s not. “Did it work well when you spilled tea on the stairs during science class? If not, what changes can we make? What support do you need to get more independent?” Older kids will probably roll their eyes when you do this, but reflecting on and reinforcing success is so important! For example, “I noticed you plugged in your Chromebook before bed. That was super responsible!” Or, “That was really cool when you wrote to the teacher to ask for the class code. I bet other people had that same question!”