Tips For Teaching Younger Kids In Virtual Lessons

For many early learning professionals, virtual learning is a brand new concept. 

It is very challenging to work with young children in a virtual space. And, of course, while we’ll never be able to capture the experience of an in-person classroom for a virtual world, it is still certainly possible to set an online environment that is relevant, engaging, and appropriate for the developmental state that those children are in.

Let’s look at a few tips for creating a more engaging virtual learning environment.

Allow Young Kids To Guide The Way

Consider keeping up with the lives of your young students to gauge where your lessons should go.

For example, you might ask what kinds of games your children have been enjoying at home. Maybe one of your children recently said they enjoyed time with their family at the beach.

In that case, you could consider finding songs about ocean animals to sing with them, for example! 

Consider trying a number of activities as well and seeing what your children like most. For example, they might love singing, though they don’t seem as enthused about reading. You can take those observations and use them for the next time you meet.

Create Shorter Sessions

It is already difficult to get young children to focus for long periods. Even in the classroom, it is often best to keep things short and sweet! Before logging off, you might do a couple of quick songs or pieces and a single activity before logging off!

Not only will the meeting feel much more productive, but your students will also be far more engaged throughout. 

Do you ever feel like you’re struggling to get your children to participate or pay attention during virtual lessons?

If so, consider cutting things short! If you’re unable to finish an activity during a particular lesson, let them know that you’ll pick it up the next time! You may even consider the fact that the particular activity you chose wasn’t the best activity and try something more interesting the next time.

It is often the case that virtual lessons require a bit more flexibility than those in the classroom. 

Adapt Classroom Favorites

It’s important to try and maintain a connection between the classroom and virtual lessons. You can do so by bringing your favorite activities, pieces, or books into virtual lessons! For example, if there was a particular musical game that you noticed children loved playing in regular classroom lessons, you could consider how to adapt it for virtual lessons. 

By doing so, you can help your young students to feel more connected to the physical classroom environment, creating and maintaining a sense of routine. 

Ask For Participation As Much As Possible

One of the best ways to keep young kids engaged is by asking them to do things! 

While in virtual lessons, invite children to talk about certain things. For example, you might ask what songs your students have been listening to lately. You might even consider stepping out of the realm of the lesson for a moment and putting on a little show and tell where they can talk about their favorite toys. 

Have Patience

Remember, you’re not the only one who is new to virtual learning. There are millions of other teachers who feel the same way, as well as kids and parents. It is only through trial and error that you’ll be able to get comfortable with these new tools and this new form of teaching.

The past few years have been filled with challenges, changes, and uncertainty. Patience is key, both with your students and with yourself. When small things go wrong (as they inevitably will), don’t feel discouraged. 

Use those negative experiences to learn and grow so you can make things better the next time around.

Give Parents Follow-Up Activities

Parents are struggling right now too. In order to help them out, you might consider giving them a few follow-up activities that they can use at home to continue building their children’s skills and expanding on what they’ve learned. 

Give parents ideas that are relevant to the lessons you taught that day. Use ideas that are easy to do and don’t require much setup. The last thing you want to do is put pressure on parents who already feel like they are under a ton of pressure. 

We hope that these ideas motivated and inspired you to rethink virtual learning and make it better for you and your young students!