Forget Social Distancing - Try Some Virtual Togetherness!
Last week, we wrote an open letter to corona schooling parents. We shared our own struggles with homeschooling during a pandemic. We shared how we’re having to cope and create our own version of normal to best serve our children that looks so different than our normal homeschooling life. As part of our coping, we decided to plan an amazing schedule of Zoom meet-ups for our sweet homeschool friend group.
Three years ago, Mandi and I decided to coordinate a group of homeschool families to enjoy field trips, adventures and play dates with. While we are not a traditional co-op, we definitely experience cooperative learning and share adventures together while our children cultivate relationships.
My 8 year old daughter has really been struggling to adjust to staying home during this pandemic. In just 3 weeks, she has already expressed how much she misses our regular routine - all of it. She told me she wouldn’t change a thing in our “before” schedule. While we may sometimes have too many things in our schedule, I’m confident we have a pretty good balance. Three weeks of home isolation has also taught me what my daughter needs right now: unique, novel interactions with her friends. She does not want a replacement for her normal activities and play dates. So, we’ve cut down on the virtual private piano lessons and are letting her skip virtual dance classes. No need to push. But, the plan for our homeschool group was exactly what she needed!
Our homeschool group would normally meet 2-4 times per month and the moms would have a night out every other month. We had some great adventures planned for March and April - but we worked quickly to come up with a fun alternative.
One night on a Zoom chat with Mandi and another sweet homeschool mama, we brainstormed some fun ideas for our kiddos. This is the schedule we came up with:
It’s been working out wonderfully! The meet-ups have ranged between 30 minutes to an hour depending on the activity and how much fun they are having. None of the families feel obligated to attend anything that doesn’t sound fun or fit into their day’s routine. We get a mix of different kids each time, and that’s awesome. The kids have so much fun greeting each other, commenting on whatever we are doing, and just having time to connect.
Monday Madness
We decided to kick off each week with games! It has been so much fun so far. We picked games that weren’t very competitive and that didn’t require people to shout out answers. We found ways to play games that were mostly round robin style or with just a host while everyone else was muted. We kicked off our Monday Madness with our Bingo Bash and Mandi decided to spice things up by announcing the bingo numbers as The Bingo Bunny:
While it would normally be fun to win prizes, this mellow version meant that no one really felt sad or left out that they didn’t “win.” It was short, sweet, and to the point, and the kids had a blast! It left them excited for our next event and eager to play more virtual games.
Not into dressing up and being on screen to host these games? Me either! Today I put a bra on under my t-shirt and called it good and ran our 60 Second Drawing Challenge off-screen. The kids still had a blast and enjoyed their time together!
Wednesday Wisdoms
We wanted a way to keep the cooperative learning alive with our kiddos even though we couldn’t be together in person. We also wanted to give the kids an opportunity to be the leaders right now - let them control something while so much feels out of their control.
We landed on a show & tell, a talent show and some kid-led learning moments - kids teaching kids. The talent show was a huge hit as Mandi created an amazing character to emcee the event! (Please show her some love!! What an awesome way to bring some joy to our kids right now!)
Fancy Friday Performing Arts YouTube
This has been so fun! The kids and I have really enjoyed dressing up and seeing our friends. We say hi, check out everyone’s version of fancy for the day (fancy pjs or all out dresses, hair and makeup), then we watch the YouTube links separately that I provided before the meet-up. It works great this way! We can still be connected through our Zoom meeting and then we just mute while we watch the performances on a different device. When everyone has finished watching, we unmute ourselves on Zoom and discuss our favorites.
For some ideas on what to watch, here are the playlists I created on YouTube:
Keep checking our YouTube channel for more Fancy Friday Playlists!
While our schedule is pretty complete, we had more fun ideas to add to the mix:
I created this downloadable list of virtual group ideas! I hope this helps you find a place to start in setting up some regular virtual hangouts for your kids and their friends.
Some Virtual Best Practices
Zoom has been the easiest platform to navigate and host our virtual meet-ups, just be sure to secure your meetings:
use a password
have a waiting room and require the host to admit people
try to have everyone choose a username that identifies themselves properly rather than the default which can sometimes be “iPad”
Try to stay away from a “free for all” feeling within the activities, it can be hard to hear each other when even just two people talk at once. Add in the delay so even when kids try to be considerate letting one another speak, they end up accidentally talking over each other. Use a “round robin” approach - mute everyone and “spotlight” each child when it is their turn. You can even unmute the group to clap for the person who just presented. While it can be fun to hear each other, this virtual format can make it a little frustrating.
Keep the meetings short! Plan for a 30 minute activity. Some kids burn out and others could stay connected for hours. Each family can decide to let their kids “hangout” longer and logoff when the activity is over.
Give them a moment to chat. Even though my point number 2 was to stay away from an open format, a little bit of it has been really fun for the kids. They like hearing each other’s voices and interacting without being prompted.
Don’t “screen share” to watch videos. It’s just not a great overall experience with delays and sound. You’d be better off providing everyone with links to what you want them to watch and suggesting they do so on a separate device. For instance, I have the Zoom meeting up on my computer and watch YouTube on my smart tv.
Keep it light and keep it fun!
While these virtual interactions do not replace our in-person adventures and activities, they are a great substitute during a time when we’d be feeling otherwise very lonely.