Recently our school district announced that we will be starting fall semester with remote learning for all children.  While I’m thankful that they made a decision, I can’t tell you how stressed I was leading up to that point.  I had spent weeks worrying about what fall would look like and what was best for my son who would be entering 1st grade.  After finally making the choice that I would enroll him in the distance learning option, I got the email that confirmed the entire district would start the school year remotely.

I’m relieved.  But also nervous about what this year will look like with remote learning.  Last spring was HARD and there were definitely tears from both of us at least once.  

While there isn’t much I can do to control what the online learning will look like, I can help organize my child’s distance learning supplies and create a workstation that will help support him this fall.  

I’d love to create a separate desk area for him to work, but we literally have no space in our small house to put in a dedicated desk.  I also know that I’ll need to be available to help him with his lessons or keep him on track (while simultaneously keeping a two-year-old occupied) so we will be utilizing the kitchen table again this year.  This means we will need to be able to set up and break down our home learning station quickly.

Thus, I’m relying on my organizational hero – the rolling utility cart.  This cart has been serving us extremely well this spring and summer as a mobile craft station and a way to organize alllllll the art supplies in our house.  However, with school looming in just a few weeks it was time to give this workhorse a makeover.

utility cart

Here’s what I included:

Top Rack

• vertical organizer with the iPad and space for the future school-issued laptop
• clipboard for to-do lists, calendars, and other important school papers
• small whiteboard
• spiral notebook
• powerstrip with charging cords
• headphones

Middle Rack

• crayons
• colored and regular pencils
• markers 
• tape
• glue
• scissors
• small pencil sharpener

grey drawer organizers // unifix cubes //blue organizers

Bottom Rack

• unifix math cubes and dice
• wide lined writing paper
• white drawing paper
• small journal

Since the rack is on wheels, we can roll it over to the table and set up our workstation for the day.  We can also break it down quickly and roll it over to an outlet to charge the devices for the night.

I had nothing like this for our 10 weeks of distance learning last spring and man, this would have made my life easier.  Here’s hoping that this fall I won’t have to constantly search for school supplies, blank paper, and charging cords!

I know distance learning won’t be easy this year, but hopefully having all the “stuff” that goes with it organized will help make the process smoother for everyone.