Best School Supplies for Online Learning

PGCPS begins the 2020-21 school year on Monday, August 31st with distance learning for all students. If you’re wondering what school supplies are needed for this fall, here’s the official PGCPS school supplies list. If you’re curious what additional supplies local parents found helpful to have on hand, then this Back to School Supplies List is for you.

We put this list together based off of tips shared by Route One Fun families and from our own experience with online learning this past spring.

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Best Back to (Online) School Supplies

These recommendations are based on our own personal experience as well as feedback received by the Route One Fun community. Got a tip to share? Include it in the comments below and we’ll update this post with your pearl(s) of wisdom!

Wristwatch with Alarm – After each class, there’s usually a period set aside for “independent practice.” Many students use this time to complete their homework – and then forgot to get back in front of the computer in time for their next class. We’re considering one of these wristwatches for our kiddos:  VTech KidiZoom Smartwatch.  We’ll program the alarms to remind them when it’s time for their next class (or at least to check in with one of us, who may have also forgotten. Not naming names…!)

TickTalk (Text, Video, GPS, Voice) Watch – We’ve heard from folks that this watch is a great – especially for after-school hours when older kids want to bike around town but you want a way to reach them if need be. While it costs more than a simple wrist-watch, the recommendations sound like the watch is a solid purchase.

Kids Headphones – Depending on your child’s age and whether there’s more than one child learning at the same time, headphones are key to keeping everyone relatively sane. We purchased these kids headphones back in March and they’re still going strong. These wireless kids headphones could be a solid purchase, too.

Child-Sized Mouse (Wireless) – Navigating a touchpad isn’t the easiest even for the best of us, nevermind a young’n new to all of this technology. Consider a small / child-sized mouse for this fall’s distance learning experience.

Fun Mouse Pad – Because, this fall’s going to have it’s trying times – why not try to keep things light with funky mouse pads like this funky cat mouse pad (see what we did there?!), a dinosaur mouse pad, or a unicorn mouse pad. The opportunities are endless….

Daily Schedule – With our Pinterest-pin-worthy days behind us (were they ever really in front of us? ;), we plan on getting this daily schedule to help our young learner see what the school day will look like.

Printer Ink – While we will be learning online this fall, we still found that we were using more ink than usual on our home printer.

Rain Boots that Actually Fit – Playing outside will be more important than ever this fall as our children spend the school-time in front of a screen. So don’t let a bit of rain get in the way of some fresh air. We find the Western Chief line to be reliable – and these unicorn rain boots with easy pull-on handle are adorbs!

Kids Rain Suit – As Scandinavian moms say, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.” With rain gear like this, bad weather won’t stop outdoor recess! Check out this kids rain suit by CeLaVie and get to selecting from over 20 different colors!

Earplugs – While your days at the 9:30 Club may be behind you (for now, my friend), ear plugs will still come in handy when you need to be near your child but also need to focus on your work. These earplugs will help muffle the noise a wee bit.

Hope you find these tips useful! Got your own tips to share? Please do so in the comments below!

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