See how one local mother is taking advantage of PBS resources to ensure her children make the most of staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At home learning has been a difficult adjustment for many families, especially those with younger children who cannot yet read. Online learning is difficult for this age group, and Southern Oregon PBS has been working to provide helpful resources to help bridge this gap in education for young learners.

While learning from home is not the ideal situation for many families, Southern Oregon PBS has been doing what it can to help provide resources and tools to make this process more rewarding for everyone involved. One of the initiatives from the station includes weekly learning packets for young learners, aged Pre-K-2nd grade.

These packets are designed to accompany the PBS Kids programming on SO PBS, and include activities to tie the lessons from the programs into real world examples.

One Medford family has been taking full advantage of these resources, helping to supplement online instruction and a missed year of preschool.

"The PBS Kids Bingo activity packs have been so helpful for our family,” said Wanda, a mother of a kindergartener and a preschooler. “The ideas for these great, educational activities are all put together by age and all I have to do is get everything together. It has definitely helped to relieve some of the stress we have been feeling with regard to education in our household.”

Along with her husband, Wanda’s family (name withheld for privacy) includes two children: their son who began kindergarten this year, and their daughter who should be starting her first year of pre-school.

“As we looked forward to this year, we were feeling all sorts of emotions, mostly balancing between excited and nervous,” said Wanda. “I was supposed to be going back to work this year, so the pandemic has changed everything. After the pandemic had hit and we were considering the coming year, I was hoping our son would be in school at least part time. We knew from the start of the pandemic we would be keeping our daughter home from pre-school. I knew I would be staying home another year.”

One thing Wanda experienced that many parents can relate to was the sudden influx of time. Time that she wanted to fill with meaningful and educational activities.

“We have never been a family that actually stays home. We used to spend lots of time at Scienceworks and Kid Time, or multiple parks. The pandemic has changed all of that,” said Wanda. “There were times when I felt like I was failing, simply because I felt like my children were spending their time in less than ideal ways: on devices, indoors, stuck at home. But all of the tools available from PBS have helped me to re-frame some of my thinking. Yes, my kids may be spending more time watching programs, but with PBS, I know they are trustworthy and educational programs.”

Wanda has her children taking full advantage of the PBS resources available. Some of the activities help to fill gaps in time when she isn’t immediately available to interact, like when she is making dinner or getting activities ready.

“One of the hardest things for me has been actually craft time. Even though I enjoy it, setting it up takes a lot of time and you have to find a way to entertain them during the that time. And then the actual time spent crafting never takes as long as you think, and then you have to clean it up. So you have to find something for them to do when you clean it up. I used to just take them to Kid Time and they would have everything all set up and planned for us.

“One of the reasons I have loved the PBS kits is because I can let them watch a show that I know is educational. I can trust the commercials. Everything about it is great because I don’t have to worry about what they are seeing when I am in the other room getting things set up,” continued Wanda. “And then, the ideas are already there. All I have to do is get it together. And then there is usually some kind of learning element to the activity. Either it gets us outside learning something or I can entertain them with the show while I get it set up. It’s a win-win.”

Wanda also enjoys that the packets are tailored to each of her children’s individual age group. This allows her to focus on what each child needs on their own level.

“One of the best things about this is you can search by their ages. You can print out one activity that is appropriate for a preschooler and one that is appropriate for a kindergartner. And then there are the games and apps, and they are organized by the skills you are working on,” said Wanda. “So with my kindergartener, I am working on literacy and with my preschooler I am working on social skills. There are apps for both of those skills, so when I need a second to make a phone call or something, I can set each kid up with an activity that helps them develop the specific skills each one needs. It really helps me target the skills they need to develop, especially to prepare them for in-person school.”

While there are still many uncertainties for what the future holds, Wanda says taking advantage of these resources has helped her to feel more prepared.

“You know, we are taking things day by day right now, but I do feel like I am doing what I can to make sure my kids are ready,” said Wanda. “Hopefully next year they will be in a school building, but in the meantime, we are learning to enjoy this time we have at home.”