The summer holiday is almost over and the bells ringing for classrooms. The long and complicated back to school shopping lists might seem challenging. We prepared a comprehensive school supplies list that fits every age group for you! You can manage your time and budget well with the help of our list.
The holiday season is about to end and we are all going back to school soon. This summer was a little bit different from the previous ones. We all wonder if the school year is also going to be different. This era of uncertainties might be stressing for many parents. In order to help you with it, we came up with 7 tips for back to school season.
Establish a consistent sleep schedule at least 2 weeks prior to school season.
Your kids love sleeping late and waking up late in summer, we know! Waking up early in the school season might cause lack of concentration and lassitude. For a better start to school season, make sure your kids have a consistent sleep schedule at least two weeks prior to the first day of the school. Not all kids like waking up early. Try to leverage gamification in such circumstances. Give him a present for each time he accomplishes to sleep early and wake up early.
2) Give them a hygiene tip each day.
Due to Covid19 wearing a mask, washing hands more frequently and using hand sanitizers have become much more important. With the school season, it might be tough for kids to apply all these tips by themselves and can cause stress. Therefore, tell them one hygiene tip every day with the detailed explanation of its importance. If he finds it difficult to manage, try to go on with gamification! For example, if he wears his mask and pays attention to social distance for one school day, give him a little present to appreciate his effort.
3) Set goals for school together.
School seasons can shift kids’ focus areas due to frequent homeworks and exams. You can set goals together to make sure that they develop themselves in all fields they like. Find goals different than homeworks and exams such as reading 30 books in the first term, designing 10 projects, visiting 5 museums or taking part in a social responsibility project.This way, kids can develop their personality as well as their skills.
4) Prepare a comprehensive shopping list for school.
As the school season gets closer, you may forget some important stuff due to high volume of to do’s. In order to make sure that you purchase everything needed, prepare a comprehensive list of materials. If you do not know how to start, Twin is here for you! We already prepared a back to school shopping list. You can check our shopping list that fits every age group here!
5) Visit your kid’s school together.
If your kid has just started school or changed his school, it might be a good move to visit the school together to swipe the worries away. Meeting his teachers, walking around the school garden and introducing him to authorized people might have an impact on decreasing his anxiety.
6) Meet the teachers before school season.
You as parents might have several concerns these days as well as your kids. The first guide you can consult is surely the teachers. Ask whatever you have in your mind to them and do not hesitate to take their advice.
7) Build a healthy meal plan for your kids.
Chips, burger and pizza! All kids love fast food, don’t they? However, having a healthy diet is crucial for a successful school year for kids. Two weeks prior to school season, get rid of junk food and change your eating habits towards fruits and vegetables. The kids might not enjoy this a lot. You can prepare a healthy diet bingo for each week so that he likes it as much as you do. For each bingo completed, do not forget to congratulate him!
Twing prepares unique journeys including hundreds of activities for kids. They can discover their talents, design infinite number of projects or go for an adventure. With 138 skills and 6 different character journeys, they can develop themselves in their favorite fields. New activities are introduced each week so that they can go beyond their imagination.
2) Prepare the lunch box and go for a picnic.
Kids can get ready for challenges of the world this summer. Prepare a fruit salad or sandwich together and go for a picnic in the closest park. Do not forget to talk about your life because sharing is caring. Tell them about your childhood and teach them the games you used to play. What about hide and seek?
A camp includes many other activities in it. While strengthening family bonds, you get the chance to discover nature and get some fresh air. You can watch a movie in the tent or observe the stars all together. Do you know which one is Ursa Major?
5) Feed the stray animals.
Summer days are going quite warm and stray animals need food and water more than any time. Caring about others is an important lesson in life. This way, your children grow up to socially responsible adults.
6) Grow a plant.
Teach your kids to love other living things. Plants are also a big part of this nature as well as animals. Growing a plant is the easiest and cheapest contribution to both world and your child’s development. Some kids might not find this interesting. You can leverage gamification and give a little present to the one that plants more flowers.
7) Make delicious cookies.
Kids love spending time in the kitchen with their parents. It might get a little bit messy but it is worth the joy! Try to get some help from your kid while cooking this summer. Make a shopping list and buy them together. Prepare the cookies and let the kids taste first! Do not forget to offer some to your neighbours. Enjoy!
8) Learn sign language together.
Sign language is one of the most frequently used languages. This summer can be the best time to learn it for your kids. You can start with Youtube videos or books related. There are branches of sign language. Discover the one that fits you best and start learning! Getting used to a language together will be a lot of fun.
9) Arrange a mini-olympics
Remember those days we were watching sports people and holding our breaths in the final rounds? You can bring the olympics to your house. You can plan your own race tracks with box games, puzzles and etc. Keep the results in a scoreboard and learn who the leader is. With such mini competitions, your kids can have fun while developing themselves to be a better team member.
10) Prepare a healthy diet bingo.
It is not very interesting for kids to taste new food. In order to change their eating habits, use gamification! Determine 10 fruits & vegetables and put them on a bingo table. You can give them little presents if they can manage to complete the bingo that week. For example, you can go watch their favorite movie or go for a picnic. Try to keep playing this bingo game until it turns into a habit.
BONUS! : Take a breath and do Yoga.
Get your yoga mats ready! With the current trend of going online and sitting for hours, physical activities gain a lot more importance. You can try simple yoga practices with your kids anywhere you want. While relaxing your mind, you make your muscles move. Yoga builds self-conscious individuals and teaches how to live in a peaceful manner. At early ages, yoga’s lessons are exactly what many parents should nurture their kids with.
The last school season was a little bit different due to Covid19. Many were closed permanently and online education period started. The next school period is expected to be quite similar. Some schools will prefer a hybrid system that includes both online and in-class education and some will only prefer online. These uncertainties might be stressful for many parents. That’s why we came up with 8 tips for a better homeschooling experience.
1. Let your kids give a break if they feel exhausted.
Homeworks are not the favorite things of kids. You may witness that your little ones feel exhausted and bored with the volume of tasks they need to complete. Educational Consultant Tonya Abari suggests to give a couple of days break in such circumstances. These breaks will motivate kids more and they will focus on their future tasks better. This way, you can ensure that your little ones do not lose their interest in school for the whole term.
2. Transform your garden into a classroom!
Did you know that kids who are engaged with nature develop higher self esteem? Forest school learning style is a method that provides active learning in nature for kids. You can find the green spots near to your house and turn them into a classroom where you can discover plants and insects around. Thus, your kids will have less focusing problems and develop better emotional intelligence.
3. The most important lesson: Teach your kids how to overcome challenges.
According to recent research made in China, kids have a tendency to feel anxious more while being homeschooled. In this new education period, encourage your kids to state how they feel and find solutions together. This way they can face exam stress and overcome obstacles occuring due to uncertainties.
4. Do hands-on activities with your kids!
We know that kids love experiments that sparkle and even more: exploding! For each field of science, try to engage the topic with hands-on experiments. This increases their interest towards science while being highly effective to teach them the idea behind it. For many creative experiments, you can check our free app Twing.
5. Make sure to have some “we time”.
It is important to have some time for family bonding as well as developing your kids’ knowledge. Each week, make sure you spend some quality time together and share about yourselves. You can cook together or design projects beyond your imagination.
6. Motivate your kids for teamwork.
Kids can learn how to be a great team member while making projects with their peers. Make sure they enjoy inspiring each other although they can only e-meet.
7. Make homeschooling enjoyable with different online education platforms.
Many education companies serve hundreds of activities and lectures for kids to learn at home. Depending on your kids’ interests and lessons at school, you can join these activities. You can have fun while learning a lot. We searched for 9 supplementary online platforms for you, check them out.
8. Set a learning spot at your home.
A phone ringing or an unexpected sound may shift the kids’ focus. It is important to have a specific spot at home for studying. You can make sure that there are no distracting stuff around such as TV. This way, kids can concentrate on their work better.
The coronavirus house lockdown can cause anxiety, stress and uncertainty especially strongly by children of all ages. If your little one is faced with school closure, and experiencing a separation from friends, they are going to need support more than ever. We created a healthy routine that might help our children during this period using online education tools, apps and fun activities.
Twing is a free mobile application designed for children that exposes them to scientific content using games and fun experiments. Children play and learn educational games with each other and get inspired by their friends’ projects and experiments. It also offers children a digital classroom and community where they can share their projects and learn together. In these days, all students need to achieve well-prepared tutorials and contents. Using twing app not only provides you to achieve these contents but also brings you and your children together with other twinners. If you want to download the Twing App freely, you can visit Twin Science web site.
Wake Up Early and Have a Breakfast
It is very essential to provide self-discipline during the online education process. Of course, getting up too early as school time will not be easy for children. This is not needed anyway. However, it is important not to be late in order to maintain the efficiency of the day. Afterwards, not to skip breakfast, which is the most important meal of the day, will make children feel fitter and energic before starting a long day.
Plan Your Day
When we plan, we realize how much time we actually have. But an unplanned day ends up fast and be inefficient. For this reason, children should write down the activities that they will do by using pencil and paper. Using electronic devices will not be as useful as these tools. In this way, they always know the next step and can adjust their energy accordingly.
Morning Show: Egg Slime Experiment
This is a great way to save the eggs leftover breakfast. Starting the day with experimentation and creating something gives signals that a productive day has begun. Also, downloading Twing App provides you to learn the preparation of the experiments, tools that are necessary for it. ‘How to’ videos clearly show you the construction of the experiment. You can follow and download Twing to learn about other experiments and to develop new challenges.
Reading and Morning Pages
What do you think is the characteristic feature of the most successful scientists in their field? Yes, without exception, they all read a lot of books, some of them also write their own books. Combining these two valuable activities not only improves children’s ability to express themselves but also offers the opportunity to convey what they have learned in the book they read. Morning pages are creative writing workshop where every child writes what’s going on in his mind that morning. In this way, it both develops their vocabulary and helps them to use patterns that they actually know but unaware of it.
Inspiration Time
You can reach all the episodes of the Bilin Deneyin program, which has been broadcast on CNN Türk for a long time, hosted by Twin Science co-founders Asude Altıntaş and Cihan Özalevli, on the Twin Bilim Youtube page. During the day, children will, of course, want to spend time on the screen. In order to increase the efficiency of this time, it recommeneds to follow the contents of different projects, such as Bilin Deneyin. By the way, it can change their perspective about future professions.
Design Your Own Logo
Creativity requires constant experimentation, design and discovery. If you want your children to grow up with ideas and become unique individuals in every field, you should create an environment for them to express their imagination. This experiment is for inventors who want to push the limits of their vision. Drawings, designs, names and slogans. All are necessary for a powerful logo. Ask them to design logos for their future companies.
Watch Twin Online Coding Tutorials
Children and parents are confused, as education is suspended for a while. Twin Science started with the slogan ‘we do not interrupt education’. Twin started to provide coding training, which is normally paid and physical, on a free and online platform. This week, do not miss the online coding tutorials that will take place every day at 13:00 with the presentation of Cihan Özalevli.
Turn on the Music and Dance
Staying home all day can cause children to be unable to exhaust their energies. This leads to constant boredom. For a short period of time, turning on the music and dancing give them the opportunity to release their energy. Without a doubt, having a physical activity will make them feel good.
Watch Movie
The movie is a must for the holidays. In this process, watching movies will both develop their imagination and have fun. Watching movies together in the evenings will create a very lovely synergy in the family.
Plan The Next Day
In order to complete the holiday period planned and organized, it is very important to take notes about what to do next day and making a list according to your needs. In this way, this process becomes more sustainable.
Go to Bed Early
In order to get up early, going to bed early is important. Otherwise, they do not have enough time to carry out the plans they made the night before and they may feel guilty about that.
The number of preventions taken for the Corona (COVID-19) virus, which has been on our agenda for a long time and will continue to occupy its place for a while, apparently, is increasing day by day. The Government decided to give a break for schools and encourage teachers to prepare online tutorials to continue education. We made this 8-step guide to help people involved in the field of education. We hope you will benefit from it.
1- Keep Calm
As a mother, a father, a spouse, an employee, do not blame yourself for the moments that you are concerned about all of the many roles you have and as a result of this concern you cannot keep your calm. But from now, on, when talking to your child, try to explain to him in simple language how this process works. Especially at the primary school level, children will tell each other in the form of disaster scenarios by exaggerating the news they heard from their families. For this reason, you can watch videos from real and reliable sources that he can understand. You can convince him that everything will have an end by showing similar events that happened before he was born in the past. This allows him to adapt more easily to the online education he will start.
2- Set the Appropriate Study Environment
Generally, when it comes to the working environment, there was a table, a chair, a book, notebooks and pencils. Of course, this changed with the changing educational model. Children have gotten used to using the tablets and computers they normally use, or by lying on their beds. But when it comes to online education, this use will reduce their focus levels considerably. Especially when they are bored or tired if they are lying down, their perceptions will shift to other distractors, and maybe they will fall asleep. In order to avoid these problems, the advice of the experts is that at least seventy per cent of online education is done at the desk in a quiet and calm environment by wearing headphones. In this way, high efficiency can be obtained from distance education.
3- Ensure Continuity
The most influential factor in continuing education in the school term was to take the students’ attendance at the beginning of the school. Even if the children were reluctant in the morning, they were somehow keeping their way to the school in order not to write. But, in online education, there is no such force to lift children out of bed in the morning. For this reason, it may be motivating behaviours that parents can do by setting sustainable goals for them and sitting in front of the computer with them for the first few days. It is not a very realistic idea to expect them to get up at school at seven in the morning, but it may be sustainable to set a time for them to wake up.
4- Get Feedback
The motivation we are talking about should actually start right after classes begin. Normally, especially primary school teachers, follow a method that educates their students not only by listening and reading but also by explaining that they understand and reinforce the information in this way. But it is difficult to do this in online education. With your help, this problem can also be overcome. Spend 20-30 minutes with your children at the end of each day to discuss what they learned in education that day. Ask them why they don’t understand that part well when they get stuck. In this way, the efficiency of the lessons will be significantly increased.
5- Create Them Space
Another nice atmosphere created by the school is the breaks where the children run like crazy and have fun. Unfortunately, breaks in online education are determined by the child’s own discipline. But here, too, there will be a never-ending break problem. The fact that the child who leaves the desk once can return to that desk requires severe discipline and responsibility. Generous breaks can be determined from the very beginning to solve this problem. For example, instead of giving a one-hour break, ti would be wiser to give two or three short breaks, not to cool the child from the tutorial.
6- Improve Computer Skills
It will be inevitable for technical failures to occur in training going on on the online platform, especially in the early stages. If you master the subject, you will take the computer or tablet and immediately try to improve the situation, and you will want to minimize the time it has lost. But remember that this process is also part of education. Allow him to discover when he needs to create a new document, download a file or use a program that he has not experienced before. This will positively affect his motor development and problem-solving skills.
7-Develop Their Note-Taking Skills
What we are most accustomed to at school is to put the information dictated by our teachers into our notebook. We do not have to decide what should be written and what should not be written. The teacher writes on the blackboard or reads it to us, and we write them down in notebooks. But in online education, children need to decide which parts are important and worth taking notes. The problem that can be encountered at this point is that children are bored towards the end of the lesson and only keep on looking at the screen instead of taking notes. At this point, motivation decreases because taking notes provides serious follow-up. As a parent, you can check the notebook at the end of the course until this habit is acquired. You can even ask him questions from his notes.
8- Help Them Use Time Effectively
The most effective way to manage your time is planning. Sitting with him the previous day and plan the next day’s online lessons is an efficient way of managing your time. Determining the breaks or even writing what you can do after the lesson step by step will make you and your child feel safe and calm. If you go outside after the lessons, we recommend you to spend time at the seaside, oxygen-filled places and enjoy your time. We hope you can get through this process in the most efficient way.
