Thousands of teachers have switched to remote learning, especially now that schools are closed indefinitely. The transition isn’t easy, however, as many of them face serious challenges that prevent them from achieving their student learning outcomes.
If you’re a teacher who also transitioned to online learning, you might also be facing some challenges that hinder you from getting the outcome you want from your students. Guaranteed, you are not alone on this journey.
Student learning outcomes can prove quite challenging, especially when you’re teaching from home—miles away from your students.
In this blog post, we will talk about (1) what student learning outcomes are, (2) why you’re not achieving them well online, and (3) how you can acquire them.
Understanding Student Learning Outcomes
Student learning outcomes refer to statements that elaborate on the skills or knowledge students must achieve by the end of a particular course, assignment program, or class. They help learners understand why those skills or that knowledge is important and useful to them.
In other words, student learning outcomes are statements that describe what learners will know and what they can do, perform, or demonstrate when they have completed a course.
Here are some examples of student learning outcomes:
Identify, describe, and analyze the economic, political, religious, and social uses of art in Italy during the Renaissance.
Recognize a range of works of art and artists
Analyze and describe the role of art and the artists in Italy at this modern time
Understand and explain the art of the period according to objective methods
Link different sources, materials, and types of art to the attributes of the period
Evaluate, defend, and elaborate their response to a range of art-historical issues
Student Learning Outcomes VS Student Learning Objectives
The difference between student learning outcomes and objectives is not widely recognized, and many educators may find that what they already understand about the objectives also describe the learning outcomes.
At first glance, some think that there’s really no distinction between the two. And even if you research the topic, you will find most articles use these terms interchangeably.
Student learning objectives refer to the educator’s purpose for creating and teaching the course. These are the specific questions that the educator wants their course to raise.
On the other hand, student learning outcomes give answers to those questions. They are measurable and specific skills and knowledge that the student will gain by taking or completing the course.
Why student learning outcomes are important
When educators know the outcomes, they are more likely to improve the effectiveness of their class. The reason is that it encourages them to put themselves in the learners’ shoes. Also, by stating the outcomes, educators gain a clear understanding of the purpose of their course.
Student learning outcomes can also serve as measurable criteria, whether the course has done its job. This helps both educators and learners assess the effectiveness of the class.
Benefits of student learning outcomes for educators
If you’re an educator and find your course unable to achieve the outcome you expected, you can use that knowledge to improve your teaching techniques or rethink your approach.
The learning outcomes can also help educators be more in touch with the learner’s perspective. Plus, it gives them a clear sense of the purpose of their course.
Educators can also use the learning outcomes as a basis in measuring the success of their course.
Benefits of student learning outcomes for students
Students benefit from learning outcomes, too. After completing a course, class, or assignment, they can assess whether the course has helped them achieve the outcome. Then, they can give feedback to their instructors.
When students focus on the outcomes right from the beginning, it allows them to put greater emphasis on the relevant and practical knowledge and skills to be learned.
Consequently, the learning outcomes make learning more effective as learners have a clear sense of the result.
Why You’re Not Achieving Your Student Learning Outcomes
Teachers carry one hefty responsibility that no one could ever understand. And if you’re an educator, we know you understand what it feels like to achieve your goal, that is, to provide effective learning to your students.
Yet, being a successful teacher is not a walk in the park. There are many hurdles and frustrations, one of which is when you set student learning outcomes and cannot deliver them.
It’s even more challenging now that teachers switch to remote teaching, and they are not able to face their students face-to-face, making it difficult to see visual cues whether their students are achieving the outcomes or not.
What could be the reasons why educators cannot achieve their student learning outcomes in online teaching?
Lack of interaction
Lack of interaction between students and teachers can also be a reason why educators fail to achieve their learning outcomes.
How important is interaction in a web-based learning environment? Interaction is a significant component of successful online learning. However, many teachers still struggle to come up with interaction techniques. Some just lack experience and skills to promote online interaction.
Really, it proves to be challenging for educators. A study says that students expect lower interaction when they take online courses. Plus, not all students want more interaction because of personality or learning style differences.
What can a lack of interaction lead you to? There could be a lack of idea exchanges when there isn’t enough interaction between teachers and students in an online class.
Another reason why you’re not getting the learning outcomes you have set is your teaching strategy.
A poor teaching strategy could be the kind that doesn’t motivate students, lack of engagement, absence of effective individual questioning, and the lack of practical methods to help students visualize and understand various topics.
Infrequent feedback
Your learners are more likely to achieve the student learning outcomes if they receive frequent helpful feedback. When they receive feedback from their educator, they can make changes in their learning pattern and take measures to achieve the expected outcomes with online learning.
How You Can Achieve Student Learning Outcomes
Despite remote teaching bringing massive challenges, you can take steps to ensure that you achieve your learning outcomes
The first step is to make sure you create brief and easy to understand student learning outcomes. Outline what you expect them to achieve when they complete your course.
We understand that every teacher is different, and each has unique circumstances. The tips below are what we have found conventionally effective:
Engage with your students
Student engagement is an important part of teaching—be it an online or face-to-face setup. You might wonder, how can I promote a dynamic interaction with the entire class virtually?
Using interactive digital resources is key. New technologies can help you personalize the learning environment.
Make virtual group activities and encourage them to use the chat feature, discussion boards, or cloud tools to collaborate.
It would be helpful to show your face throughout the class and let your students hear your voice. This being said, make sure to invest in a good computer set or laptop with an excellent camera and microphone.
Plus, make sure to check in with your students via chat or email. Pay attention when a student is at risk of disengagement.
Motivate them
Motivation in a classroom can push students to participate in the learning process. It’s hard to get learners to participate in lessons actively and stay focused.
Make sure to use different approaches that give students a reason to center their attention on your class. How about incorporating gamification into your classroom?
You can help your learners achieve your student learning outcomes if you enhance your learning styles. Teachers always strive to create strategies and come up with tools to reach students with diverse learning needs.
Not all students are the same—they’re unique and have different learning styles. Some learn better through visual aids, while others learn better with logical problems.
It’s your job to determine what learning techniques best suit your students.
Prepare
Once you are done outlining your student learning outcomes, the next step is to prepare for it. Educators always innovate ways to pull off an excellent learning experience for their students. Use technology efficiently, and use tools that can help you prepare.
Student learning outcomes are statements that clearly identify what the students will know and what they can do and demonstrate when they finish a particular course, assignment, or class.
Other teachers struggle with achieving the learning outcomes they have set due to flaws in teaching methods. If that’s also true for you, you must identify the problem and rethink your teaching methods.
Related Questions
What makes a good learning outcome?
A good learning outcome states the intended results of the learning clearly. It must indicate what the students will know, gain, or be able to do at the end of the task. It must also explain what is expected of them.
Is distance learning good for students?
Yes. There are many advantages to distance learning, such as time and place flexibility. With online education, students no longer need to commute and fight for parking spots. Yet, just like anything else in life, distance learning also has some drawbacks.
You’re not alone. Connect with other teachers and parents
If you’ve been struggling with achieving your student learning outcomes, then don’t worry. You’re far from being alone. Other teachers face the same challenges.
Connect with other educators by signing up to All Digital School. By signing up, you get access to our community forum where you can ask questions, solicit advice, and share your experiences.
Until there is no cure to the COVID-19 pandemic, we can only expect school closures to continue. This has got many students to consider distance learning and make their home their classroom. As a parent, how can you provide an enriched learning environment for your students?
The school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic got many students to consider distance learning and transform their home into a classroom.
Does an engaging learning environment really matter? Yes. Many students decide to play sick every morning just to evade school. Parents blame the school’s inadequate education, and teachers criticize the parents for the students’ poor performance.
However, the reason could be neither of the two. Many factors take into account why some students lose enthusiasm for going to school, including a poor learning environment.
Believe it or not, an enriched learning environment can help students excel in many areas. When they are in a colorful and educational space, students tend to sharpen their focus, boost their creativity, and increase their motivation to learn.
In this blog post, we will share tips on setting up a comfortable learning environment for your kids to keep them stirred in learning at home.
Before Creating a Learning Environment
Setting up a learning environment for your students isn’t as easy as it sounds. You must consider these two factors: their age and interests.
Age does matter, and here’s why. What works for a kindergarten will not be the best method for a fifth-grade student. That being said, the learning environment must be based on your child’s age that best fits their educational needs.
For toddlers, an effective learning space is rich in books (storybooks, audiobooks, etc.) and educational toys (for structured and unstructured play; wooden puzzles, kitchen sets, etc.).
Older children may not need as many toys. Perhaps, you can keep the learning place a bit minimalistic—a desk, chair, and good lighting is enough.
Your child’s interests matter, too. These are what will motivate them to study. It helps if you observe your child and learn what motivates them, what sparks their interest, and what topics they love learning about.
Another thing to keep in mind is that kids learn in different ways. Some learn by seeing, while others learn by touching, hearing, or reading. Some are better at learning by using one sense or another.
Parents like you should keep this in mind and determine how your child learns the best.
9 Tips in Creating a Learning Environment
Choose a learning area
Dedicating a specific space in your home as a learning space is the first step. Doing this serves a plateful of benefits. When you designate a specific area for your child’s education, it will show them that you value their learning enough to give it its own space.
The learning space doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive and expansive. Some families have the luxury to dedicate a room as a learning space. Otherwise, you can use a simple desk (or the end of the dining room table).
This area for learning must be free from any distractions. It must have excellent lighting, comfortable temperature, and low noise. Ensure that there is a place to sit and lay out work.
We do not recommend using your child’s bedroom as their learning space. The reason for this is that bringing schoolwork into a personal space brings too many distractions. Aside from that, personal space is supposed to be a safe zone. Bringing homework into it can make it into a stressful environment.
If your kids are in primary age, it is best to set them up a learning space where you can oversee them.
Natural light and fresh air play major roles in keeping students motivated. Hence, consider creating a learning environment near a window.
Comfortable seats
You don’t want your students to keep fidgeting as it can distract them from their lessons. So, think about your child’s chair. Preferably, pick a chair that they can sit comfortably with their feet flat on the floor.
Adding cushions to chairs can also be helpful to make them comfortable. Take note, however, that we do not recommend using the family couch. Although it can work, it may not be the best option for your students. More of this was discussed in our blog post, How to Be More Supportive of Your Kids With Online Learning.
No to distractions
An impactful learning environment is meant to help kids center their attention on the lessons at hand. However, distractions in the learning area are counterproductive.
Mobile phones, tablets, TV, and even pets can be distracting. You should put away their mobile phone or tablet (unless they are using it for work).
Here’s one thing to keep in mind, though. Children are used to working in a busy classroom. Considering that, you don’t want to keep in a place of complete silence.
Some students can focus more on their homework with a bit of gentle music or background noise.
As you may have noticed, removing distractions is crucial in creating a learning environment. Clutters are distractions, too.
Books, toys, and supplies are good, but too many of them can crowd a space, which creates a feeling of disorder.
You can create a clean and orderly learning environment by removing the clutters from the learning area.
Keep all their supplies to hand
Children can use finding their crayons or sharpening their pencils as an excuse to wander off (and later lose focus). So, make sure all the supplies they need are accessible in their learning environment.
Here’s what you can do: sit down and list everything your child would need during the school day.
Your kids must also feel comfortable choosing their next activity without asking for help in reaching high shelves or opening boxes. You don’t have to load the shelves with tons of books and toys. Interestingly, children learn better when they have a few selections of learning materials.
If your kid uses a laptop or tablet, make sure they have the chargers as their station. Make a note of all the login details they need to access any websites they might need.
We’ve already talked about a learning environment with accessible supplies and free from distractions. Another key element in making an impactful learning environment is making it functional.
Our suggestion is to create different learning stations where various topics or subjects will be covered. For example, you can set up a reading corner—a spot dedicated to reading books. Children love a place where they can sit alone and read.
Another example is creating a creative corner where they can make their artworks, doodles, and other art projects.
You want the learning environment to be functional, motivating, and more so inspiring. Use decor that doubles as learning tools—maps, globe, animals, shapes, colors, etc.
Set daily routines and dress for success
Help your child get into a regular habit of getting schoolwork done by establishing daily routines. Set aside 20 to 30 minutes to do homework or read every day.
Homeschool delivers a set of unique challenges (i.e., no school bus, inability to see classmates in person, etc.). Not to mention, they are in a different classroom—their home.
That shouldn’t be a reason for your kids to feel as if homeschool is something they can skip whenever they want to. Breakfast time must still be the same as they were attending their brick-and-mortar school.
Serve healthy and hearty snacks
Maintain a positive learning environment by serving your children healthy and hearty meals. Foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and whole grains can enhance brainpower.
Room for failure
A healthy learning environment isn’t just about the physical space. More important than space itself is to let your children understand that failure is okay.
Teach them that they don’t have to be hard on themselves, and they always have room for improvement.
Conclusion
There you have it. Create a healthy and impactful learning environment for your kid by following the tips above. Take note, however, that some families choose a different home learning environment. Use the tips in this blog post that best apply to your situation.
Related Questions
What are the types of learning environments?
There are four types of learning environments: learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered. Each type has unique elements. Learn more here.
How do you create a fun learning environment?
You can make a positive learning environment by keeping the room clean, creating a comfortable space, and leaving time for breaks. By doing this, your students will enjoy learning at home.
Do you have tips to share with us?
If you have more tips on creating a pleasant learning environment, we encourage you to share your insights with us. By joining our growing community, you get access to our community of teachers and parents from all over the world.
Our community forum is open for every member of our community. You can post questions, look for answers, and share your knowledge and experiences.
Rules, rules, rules… something that can bore kids very easily. But rules are not always as tedious as they sound. When it comes to reading, there are many phonics rules that you can teach in their homeschool reading.
By teaching phonics rules as part of homeschool reading sessions, you help your child learn different word sounds and what letters represent those sounds.
Phonics rules also teach spelling rules, spelling patterns, and syllables. A child who is proficient in syllable patterns is more likely to become better spellers and readers.
Here are 13+ phonics rules you can teach your child in his homeschool reading sessions.
13+ Phonics Rules for Reading and Spelling
The vowels are A, E, I, O, and U. Y and W can be both a vowel and consonant.
Every word must have a vowel. The letter Y is a consonant if you use it at the beginning of a word. Letter W, on the other hand, is usually a consonant. It is a vowel only when you use it with an a, e, or o to spell a single sound (i.e., low, few, and draw).
Consonants are all non-vowel sounds which limit or stop the flow of air from the throat in speech. They are:
b, c, d, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, y, z, ch, sh, th, wh, ph, gh, and ng
Another phonics rule to teach your child in his homeschool reading is that vowels can be short or long. Vowels can make different sounds, depending on where they are placed in a word.
A vowel followed by a consonant is short. Compare these: hi vs. hit, be vs. bed, and go vs. got.
When there is only one vowel in a syllable with at least one consonant next to it, the vowel makes a short sound. E.g., mas-cot, cat, and hot-dog.
We call this pattern “closed syllable” because the consonant “closes” the vowel sound, making it short.
Every syllable of every word must contain vowels
Because English is a vocal language, there must be at least one vowel sound in every syllable of every word. Note here, a vowel can stand alone in a syllable—for example, a-ni-mal, u-nit, and el-e-phant.
Consonants can also surround a vowel—for example, nap-kin, hat, and dan-cing.
On the other hand, a vowel makes a long sound if it is at the end of a syllable and is the only vowel. E.g., ban-jo, Af-ri-ca, po-ta-to, u-nique, la-ter, and my.
The letter C, when followed by e, i, or y, usually sounds soft “s”
Introduce this phonics rule to your child in his homeschool reading. Here are a few examples: celery, celebrity, cement, central, cyst, cinema, citrus, city, and cycle.
When a word ends with letter e, and there is only one vowel in that syllable, the vowel in front of it is long, and the letter e is silent. Notice the following examples (note: the vowel in bold and underlined is long).
Lake, Make, Rope, Sale, In-side
We call this syllable pattern, “vowel-consonant-e.” Many teachers introduce this pattern as silent e rule.
When followed by e, i, or y, the letter G usually sounds soft “j”
Check out these few examples: gem, gender, genius, gel, gentle, gypsy, giraffe, ginger, giant, and gin.
A digraph is a combination of two consonant letters that form one single sound. Sometimes, the combination makes one letter sound, making the other consonant letter silent. Yet, at most times, the combination results in a unique sound that neither of the letters would make on its own.
Examples:
CH produces a tʃ sound (as in cheese, chalk, church, cherry, much, etc.) To pronounce CH properly, you have to press the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth before forcing air. Then, press the sides of the tongue against the top teeth, forming a ʃ (SH) sound.
E.g., achieve, purchase, much, teacher, child, and beach.
CH can also sound as K or hard C (i.e., chemistry, choir, chorus, etc.)
DG and DJ both produce J sound. (i.e., bridge, badge, judge, adjective, adjust, etc.)
GH produces two sounds <g> or <f>. Sometimes, it can also be silent.
Here are some examples:
GH as <g>
ghost, ghetto, aghast, spaghetti
GH as <f>
Enough, rough, tough, cough
GH as silent (OU + GH; AU + GH; AI + GH)
Dough, bought, ought
Caught, daughter, naughty
Straight
GH can also produce two separate sounds when they function in two separate syllables. Example:
Leghorn, doghouse, staghound
Consonant blends are different from digraphs. They are two or more consonants that work well together. Unlike digraphs, you can still hear the individual sounds even when the consonants blend—for example, grasp, scrub, and clam.
When a syllable has two vowels together, the first vowel is long and the second is silent.
This is another rule that you can teach in your child’s homeschool reading. Some examples are rain, pain, boat, beach, paint.
However, this rule doesn’t apply to diphthongs. In diphthongs, two vowels blend and create one new sound. Some examples of diphthongs are oo, aw, au ow, ou, oy, and oi.
Words with diphthongs: loud, coin side, low, lied, lay, lean, leer, cloud, boil.
When a syllable ends in any vowel, the vowel is usually long.
This pattern is called open syllable. You can see this pattern in words such as pa-per, o-pen, my, me, etc.
Using the “schwa” sound /ə/
Any of the vowels can make the schwa sound—a sound the same as weak ih or uh. The schwa sound is a neutral, relaxed, and quick vowel sound very close to u. Here are some word examples:
When there is a syllable that ends with k sound after a short vowel, it is usually spelled with ck, such as trick, tuck, and duck. But when the k sound is next to a long vowel sound, consonant, or diphthong, you spell the word with k. E.g., soak, cake, hawk, and task.
Using -ing correctly
When a word ends with a silent e, you must remove e before adding –ing. For example, dodge/dodging, dance/dancing, give/giving, bike/biking.
This rule is also for words with suffixes that start with vowels, such as -able, -ous, -ed, or -er. For instance, hope/hoped, practice/practicable.
Plurals
Another important phonics rule in homeschool reading is adding s to make words plural, as in dog/dogs, cat/cats, bag/bags. But when a singular word ends with sh, ch, x, s, or z, use es to make it plural—for example, foxes, churches, brushes, ashes, and classes.
Use the Y rules in homeschool reading
When a word ends with a vowel sitting next to y, and you want to make it plural, simply add s, as in boy/boys, toy/toys.
However, when y follows a consonant, you have to change the y to i and add es—for example, family/families, baby/babies, sky/skies, and pony/ponies.
Suffixes also follow the same set of y rules. When there is a vowel before y, you can keep the y and add the suffix, as in annoy/annoying, play/playing.
But when before y is a consonant, you need to change y to i. Only then can you add suffixes such as -est and -ed. Examples include sad/saddest and carry/carried.
When the suffix starts with i, do not drop the y and simply add the suffix. For example, baby/babyish, fly/flying, cry/crying.
This is also called the “fszl” rule, and here’s why. The letters f, s, z, and l are usually used twice at the end of words with only one syllable following a short vowel. For example, fuzz, shell, grass, stuff, class, sell, bell.
Conclusion
Many words in the English language follow phonics rules. But there are also several exceptions to these rules that children need to learn and memorize for spelling and reading. You can find many of these words on sight words.
You can help your child in his homeschool reading by introducing sight words and the phonics rules listed above.
If you notice your child is struggling with spelling or reading, you might want to talk to a teacher or consult a speech therapist.
Related Questions
How do you teach your child phonics rules?
As you notice, there are many phonics rules in the English language, but you don’t have to teach your child everything at once, as it can only confuse them. Start with short vowel sounds first and introduce sight words.
Interestingly, children can still develop excellent phonetic reading skills without learning phonics rules.
What age should you start phonics?
Experts agree that children are ready to start phonics when they learn to identify the alphabet’s letters. Use toddler apps to help your child memorize alphabet letters.
Do you know more phonics rules that can be used in homeschool reading?
More parents embrace homeschool as an alternative to conventional schooling, especially now that many schools have closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many are still scrambling to manage home education.
If you know more phonics rules, teaching techniques, and other helpful tools to homeschoolers, we encourage you to connect with other parents and teachers and share your insights.
By joining our growing community, you get access to our community forum where you can post a thread, ask questions, look for answers, and solicit advice.
The COVID-19 fallout has forced widespread school closures. As of today, there are over 124,000 school closures affecting at least 55.1 million students. With schools closed and more and more people are staying at home, online learning seems to be growing significantly.
Not everyone has a lot of experience in online teaching. According to a 2017 survey by Educause, only 9 percent of educators “prefer to teach in a completely online environment.” But because of the pandemic, online teaching has become the new normal.
Yet, most teachers do not know how to teach online or how to get better at it. If you’re a teacher, you may be wondering: should teachers plan lessons for online classes as they would in a bricks-and-mortar classroom?
The answer is yes. The purpose of this guide is to discuss why it is important to plan lessons for your online classes. We will also talk about the challenges of creating lesson plans and how you can deal with them.
The advantages of planning lessons for online classes
Creating lesson plans has a lot of benefits to offer whether it is for online classes or not. Lesson plans, in general, will help you visualize your teaching methods and their outcomes. Without it, you may slow down the academic success of your students.
Going to a classroom without a lesson plan is harmful to both you and your students. You’re likely to give out mediocre discussions, lecture irrelevant topics, or even puzzle the minds of your students. And worse, your unpreparedness may complicate simple topics.
Online teaching, however, has unique challenges, which make lesson plans even more crucial.
Planning lessons let you identify effective teaching methods and interaction patterns
Now that you’re teaching through videoconferencing apps, your pedagogies should now be inlined with your technology and your virtual environment.
Lesson planning lets you identify effective teaching methods that best fit your students.
It can be quite a challenge, especially if your classes are intended to be interactive and engaging. Take music lessons for example. If you intend your students to perform, lag, echoing, and feedback will make it difficult to play over Zoom.
You should be able to identify such problems when creating a lesson plan for your online class.
Just like in a classroom, you should prepare explanation methods for your students to understand your lessons easily. But the approach can be a bit different. You can give a lecture, yes; but we recommend that you maximize interaction in your virtual classroom.
To keep your students engaged (and not snoozing behind their computers), you can set polls and quiz questions. Many videoconferencing tools have an integrating polling feature. Alternatively, you can easily share a weblink to a poll.
You can also use the chat function in your online classroom. Use it as a teaching aid or to message a struggling student via a private chat.
Use the whiteboard tool to write, draw, or illustrate your points.
Planning your lessons for your online class is essential for creating tasks and identifying interaction patterns.
You can choose which content needs to be chunked into smaller pieces
Without a lesson plan, you might get too overwhelmed with your lesson and end up talking too much. Learning online can be more taxing both intellectually and physically than learning in a face-to-face classroom.
Planning your lesson ahead of time allows you to review your content and cut long text passages into smaller chunks. You can also watch the videos you plan to present and trim them down to create intervals and give students time to process the information.
With lessons planned ahead of time, you can deliver your lesson within the given time frame
Because the online teaching format is still new to a majority of teachers, it is common that educators have taught face to face classes before they start teaching online. Perhaps, that could be your case.
Face to face courses and online courses differ significantly in the process of planning and delivery. And several of these differences are time-related.
In a face-to-face format, you choose to attend to the big picture of the course and introduce details as the class goes on. In online teaching, however, it is essential that you familiarize yourself with the course management system (if your school requires you to have one). You should also develop most of the materials beforehand because technology-related materials can be very time-consuming to produce.
When presenting information in a face to face course, your method is primarily verbal and sequential. Because presentations have time restraints, you present the information period by period.
On the other hand, in an online course, the information is often text-based and non-sequential. That means you can upload documents, papers, or course manuals, and your students can access particular modules at a time that is convenient to them, which varies from one student to another.
When it comes to class interactions, face-to-face classes are usually direct, verbal, synchronous, and typical. Students can ask questions directly and receive answers immediately. And because there is personal contact with the students, you can easily evaluate your student’s level of understanding.
In an online classroom, however, you may not be able to see your students. The interaction can be hard to follow. There could be a delay in giving and receiving feedback.
Time management
Lesson planning allows you to set a certain amount of time to discuss your topics. You’ll be able to make discussions short and concise, depending on the complexity of the topic and your students’ level of understanding.
When you have additional time saved, you can use it to give time to your students that require extra help.
To keep discussions short, exciting, and engaging, you can simplify complex topics by creating a presentation with a meaningful title, headlines, and subheads. Highlight keywords, phrases, and links. Use bullets or numbers when listing important details.
Organize information
When students are confused and are lost, you may end up spending more time on one topic than you should. Lesson plans can help you organize information so they are easy to follow.
Managing your time in online teaching can be an enormous challenge, but thanks to lesson plans, you can still make discussions jampacked with key information, interaction, and engagement while still having extra time to check on students that require additional attention and help.
You will be able to guide your students effectively
Your lesson plan does not only tell you what to discuss in a certain time but also ensure that the learning goals you’ve set for your learners are met in the allowed time.
Lesson planning lets you dedicate time primarily for giving guidance to struggling students
Remember, part of making a lesson plan is understanding who you are going to educate. Hence, you should anticipate various learning styles, be it tactile, auditory, visual, or a combination of the three.
You can tailor your lesson plan in a way that you can incorporate different learning styles through independent or group exercises. This is especially helpful if you know the group dynamics of your students.
You may choose activities that can be completed independently, in pairs, or in groups.
Planning your lesson also allows you to set learning objectives that will describe what your learners will be able to do or accomplish upon completing a course or class. The statements must be short and straightforward. It is your role to help your learners understand how they are going to benefit from your lesson and how they can apply your teachings in a practical way.
Yes, there’s no question of how confident teachers make for confident learners.
There are a lot of things that could help boost your confidence as a teacher, one of which is being prepared.
Lesson planning enables you to anticipate the challenges of your online class, ensuring you are ready for lesson observations, as well as situations that could potentially arise. And when you have these things set in mind, you will know how to deal with them.
Moreover, creating lesson plans gives you time to reflect on your teaching methods and practices and pull out your strengths.
Reflecting on the positives does help to overcome your negative feelings and build a sense of self-worth, which then leads to confidence.
Lesson plans help you pick digital tools to use in your lesson
Not everyone is experienced in online teaching, and perhaps this is only the time that you’re investing in it.
There are a plethora of digital tools that you can use in your online lessons. And while this is a good thing, it makes picking the best ones a bit of a challenge.
However, choosing the digital tools to use shouldn’t be too hard if you sort your options. These are some factors to consider when picking a digital tool:
The age group of your students
Their level of understanding
Accessibility
Ease of use of the tool
Our team at All Digital School is committed to helping teachers like you find resources for your online teaching. You can sort online resources by category, subject, and accessibility. Navigating our online resources is simple and straightforward. You can even filter freemium resources from paid ones.
Having the right digital tools to use in your online classroom can help improve your teaching strategies and can even boost your learners’ engagement and interaction.
Lesson planning does allow you to spend time to carefully go over the online resources and pick the ones that your class can benefit from.
Lesson plans make you an effective teacher
Creating a lesson plan is an active process that allows you to line your knowledge with your students, the curriculum, and the teaching context. And with that, you become an effective teacher.
You see, when you plan your lessons, you produce more unified lessons. It gives you the opportunity to think deeply about your:
Lesson objectives,
The types of (online) activities that can meet these objectives,
The sequence of your chosen activities,
The materials/resources you needed,
How long the activities might take, and
How your students should be grouped (and how you can do it in a virtual setting).
Throughout the course of lesson planning, you can reflect on the link between one activity and the next, the relevance of your current topic from any past or future lessons, and the coherence of learning activities and assessment practices.
Effective teachers create connections explicit to students
As a teacher who considered these connections, you can create connections explicit to your learners, and as a result, your lessons become more meaningful to them.
An effective teacher also evaluates their own knowledge with regard to what is to be taught. For instance, say you have to explain a complex grammatical structure and you have a bit of doubt about the rules. You would become aware of this during your lesson planning and then find ways to acquire the necessary information.
As you can see, lesson planning does give you the opportunity to evaluate your own knowledge. You’ll get to analyze what needs to be done, how, and when. And because you anticipate these things, you become more prepared and confident.
Your lesson plans can be useful for other people, too
You have a class that will start in 10 minutes, but your internet connection keeps dropping and your computer lags. That’s when substitute teachers come to the rescue.
Substitute teachers appreciate it when they receive a detailed lesson plan to follow. And because you know your substitute teacher is following the plan, you’ll gain confidence that the class time is being used productively in your absence.
Furthermore, lesson plans also work as documents when the administrators want to know what is occurring in the classroom. If, for example, a supervisor wants to know the lessons that had taken place one week ago, you can refer him or her to your lesson plan for that day.
Lesson plans serve as your portfolio
If you think lesson plans are merely for class preparations, then you’re absolutely wrong. Your lesson plans for online teaching can serve as evidence of your professional performance.
Teachers are oftentimes asked to include lesson plans as part of their portfolio to support their annual performance evaluation. And teachers who seek a new job might be asked to submit lesson plans as part of their application so that employers can get a sense of their teaching style and organizational skills.
With your lesson plan for online teaching, you can show evaluators (or even future employers) that you’re an effective teacher both in face-to-face format and in an online setting.
You can reuse your lesson plans in the future
Making a lesson plan takes an enormous amount of time. It can be tiring both mentally and physically. Yet, keep in mind that lesson plans aren’t a one-time thing. You can reuse them again, in whole or in part, in the coming months or years.
Many teachers keep files of the lessons they have already taught, which they can easily draw on to facilitate lesson planning for their current classes.
Tl;dr – lesson plans can help save you time later.
The challenges of creating lesson plans for online classes (and how to beat them)
Lesson planning does not come with many disadvantages. It is an essential part of a teacher’s journey and provides nothing but good results. But there are, of course, a few challenges that can make lesson planning rather difficult.
We listed the challenges of lesson planning and solutions to beat them.
Time-consuming
Your teaching time does not end when you leave your videoconference class or when you shut the computer down.
Lesson planning can be really tiring and time-consuming.
And now that classes are transitioned online, teachers now face unique challenges, including using and troubleshooting videoconferencing apps, creating visuals and presentations and learning how to show them through shared screen features, evaluating students in a virtual classroom setting, to name a few.
What you can do
To make lesson planning less time consuming, we recommend using online lesson plan makers to scaffold your next class easily. You can find free and paid online lesson plan makers by navigating through our resources directory.
We also recommend taking online teaching courses to get insights on how you can create lesson plans, conduct classes, and assess your students in timely and organized ways. There are also online courses, webinars, and guides to teach you the technical know-how’s of using different tools, videoconferencing apps included.
Teachers need materials to make online classes more fun, engaging, and truly productive. When you have the things you need to illustrate, perform, or demonstrate a certain topic, you create a lesson explicit to your learners, and that’s crucial if you want them to achieve your learning objectives.
The availability of instructional materials can be tricky depending on the subject you’re teaching. For example, teachers of geography in secondary schools may find it difficult to find materials to use in an online classroom.
According to research conducted by Keshav Raj Dhakal of the Department of Geography Education, out of 174 students from various community schools, about 65 percent of them said that printed materials were available in their classrooms and the other 35 percent responded contrary.
The research implies that printed materials (which include newspapers, books, magazines, teacher guides, dictionaries, etc. about geography) are mostly available in their school.
In the same research, about 78 percent of the students said that graphic materials were available in their school, while the other 22 percent said that the materials were not available in their schools.
This is just one example. There could be thousands of teachers struggling with the availability of materials for their online classes.
What you can do
Are there teaching materials you need but you can’t seem to find them? Trust us, with the rising popularity of online teaching, it’s nearly impossible not to find whatever you need on the internet.
The internet is now bombarded with resources that you can use for your online class. From virtual tours, audiobooks, instrument simulations, to draw boards, you can always find the materials you need.
All Digital School is committed to helping educators get the materials they need so they can teach effectively albeit the online setting. Use our resources directory to find tools, instructional materials, and videos you need.
In lesson planning, your goal is to make lectures short, simple, and easy to follow. But because of your efforts to simplify your teachings, you may end up overcomplicating things. And the worst part, you may go to this path without you noticing it.
You may find yourself perpetually chasing shiny objects: that is, new and exciting trends to transform your teaching. You don’t want to miss out, and you sure do not want to be stuck in the dark ages when everyone around you is innovating.
What you can do
Instead of spending excessive time figuring out what you could be doing, focus on what you are already doing, especially if what you are doing is working well for you and your learners. Spend your time and energy in more important things, and look into what you should be prioritizing.
When you find an activity or strategy that works, you can repeat them over and over. If lesson planning takes too much time, you can list down four to five strategies (or activities) which you know are effective for your learners, then add more slowly over time.
More tips for conducting online classes
Lesson planning is a crucial part of your teaching journey, be it in a face to face environment or virtual classroom. It serves a lot of benefits for you and your students. And although there are some challenges in lesson planning, there are actionable things you can do to still succeed.
Here are some more tips that you might need for your online classes:
Keep it simple
Design remote learning experiences that convey very clear instructions and utilize only one or two resources. We also recommend providing your students with resources like PDFs that your learners can always access.
Prioritize student-driven assignments
What makes distance learning challenging is that you cannot correct mistakes on the fly or immediately pivot when your learners are disengaged or distracted. How can you ensure efficiency in your online class?
Create longer and student-driven assignments and tasks. That way, you’ll have more time to plan your future units (and also get your learners off the computer). Build long-term projects where your learners have autonomy and a clear set of instructions and deadlines to be met.
If possible, give students opportunities to discuss what they are learning with their families. It’s also good to add an element of student choice to build engagement.
Interact with your students
While everyone is on lockdown, your students will miss human connections that are cultivated in your classroom. The brief interactions with them in the hallways before and after class are irreplaceable. While focusing your online class on learning assignments and videos, you should not forget to personally check in with your students.
You can create touchpoints through emails, phone calls, video messages, or comments on shared documents. When you do this, your students will know that you’re invested in them and that you care about them.
Connect with other teachers, and help them plan their online classes
Did this article help you with lesson planning for your online class? There are thousands of teachers out there who are still figuring out how they can ace their online classes. We encourage you to connect with other educators and extend your help by giving out some tips and/or advice about how they can become a topnotch online teacher.
By registering on All Digital School, you’ll get access to our community boards where you can ask questions, provide answers, share resources, or express your experiences. Registering is easy and 100% FREE. Click the button below to start:
Parenting is a joyous and rewarding experience. Yet, it can be challenging and stressful for parents. To be a good parent, some find themselves asking for help in making even the smallest everyday decisions. This is also very true for parents with children with disabilities. Could positive parenting solutions help?
How would you help students with disabilities using positive parenting solutions? And what benefits would it reap?
Many parents have been asking about positive parenting solutions to implement for pupils with disabilities. Now is the perfect time to finally put it in writing.
But first, what is Positive Parenting?
The Council of Europe defines Positive Parenting as “parental behavior that respects children’s best interests and their rights.” Hence, positive parenting involves guiding, empowering, nurturing, and recognizing children as individuals in their own right.
It also means that a parent sets the boundaries that kids need to help them develop their potential to the fullest. Here are the main concepts of positive parenting:
Nurture – providing a child with love, warmth, and security.
Recognition – listening to children, valuing them as individuals in their own right.
Structure and guidance – making a child feel safe and secure; creating necessary boundaries and a predictable routine.
A non-violent upbringing – eliminating any form of demeaning punishments that violate children’s right to respect for human dignity and physical integrity.
Empowerment – enhancing a child’s sense of competence.
A parent who implements positive parenting practices…
Shows warm love and respect
Explains house rules
Praises good behavior
Tries to understand their child’s life experiences
Reacts to misbehavior by implementing non-violent punishments
How about Positive Parenting Solutions for students with disabilities?
Parents enjoy being parents, that’s for sure, but many would agree that the load is often heavy. This is a huge responsibility—all the more so for parents who have children with disabilities.
In our previous post, we’ve talked about how you can help your child with distance learning. But how do you support a child with disabilities using positive parenting solutions? We’ll be glad to share with you some key insights we have gathered.
Positive Parenting Solutions to Implement
All children thirst for love, support, and encouragement. For children with disabilities, these positive reinforcements can help build their confidence, self-worth, and determination to keep striving for academic success despite things being tough.
Remember, positive parenting means helping your child help themselves. You can do that by, as outlined earlier, providing support, explaining rules, and acknowledging their rights.
It is also important to praise good behavior. Regarding misbehaviors, use non-violent punishment (i.e., time-out or confiscation of a device for a reasonable amount of time).
Your role as a parent is not to cure your child’s learning disability, but to give them the tools they need to overcome their challenges. By doing so, you’re helping your student become stronger and more resilient when harder problems arise.
#1 Positive Parenting Solutions: Keep things in perspective
It’s important to remind your child that everyone faces challenges. It is your responsibility to teach your child how to deal with adversity without becoming overwhelmed or discouraged.
You, the parent, must also keep things in perspective. It sure is difficult, but one thing’s for sure: a learning disability is not an insurmountable barrier to success.
Parents of children with disabilities fill out tons of paperwork, keep records, connect with schools, and carry a whole lot more responsibilities. However, do not allow yourself to forget what’s most important: to provide your child with plenty of moral and emotional support.
#2 Positive Parenting Solutions: Be the captain of your child’s education
Implementing positive parenting into your child’s education means not sitting back and just let someone else be responsible for your child’s learning progress. Instead, you have to take an active role in their education.
By law, schools are required to design an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for students with disabilities. The IEP delivers some educational benefits, but it can only get your child so far.
Positive parenting means understanding special education laws and looking for services that can help you get the best support.
#3 Positive Parenting Solutions: Know how your child learns best
Which of the following best describes your child’s learning style?
A. Learns best when the material is presented visually, not verbally.
B. Loves music, languages, and being on stage.
C. Learns by doing, touching, and exploring.
If your answer is A, then your child may be a visual learner. Visual learners learn best by reading or seeing. They love writing notes, creating maps, and making graphs.
Use books, computers, visual aids, videos, and flashcards to teach your child. Make outlines, lists, and diagrams.
If you answered B, then your child may be an auditory learner. Your kid learns best by listening and doing oral reports. You can help auditory learners by reading study materials aloud, playing audio recordings, or using verbal repetition to memorize.
Your child is a kinesthetic learner if your answer is C. You can support your child by doing experiments and taking him to field trips. Use memory games and flashcards, too.
#4 Positive Parenting Solutions: Provide engaging activities
Kids learn best when they are engaged and motivated. You don’t want to bore them, especially when they are supposed to have fun learning.
When children are bored, they are likely to misbehave. To avoid such a thing from happening, provide your child with fun activities, whether indoor or outdoor. Use playdough, make a play kitchen, print out coloring pages, and more.
#5 Positive Parenting Solutions: Set realistic expectations
Parenting won’t be easy as all children misbehave at times. So, set realistic expectations. Aiming for perfect parenting will only result in disappointment and frustration.
When helping children with disabilities, your patience is paramount. Kids with learning disabilities need constant support. Teach them, explain the lessons, and divide the topics into digestible chunks if necessary, until they understand the material.
However, be careful not to overcompensate or overprotect. Your goal is to help them help themselves.
#6 Positive Parenting Solutions: Give clear instructions
Provide not just extremely clear but also high-quality instructions. It will help your student if you provide examples of the kind of work that will count as high quality.
Show them graphics or other concrete examples of the concept to be learned. Some instructions may be difficult for students with certain disabilities.
For example, if your child has vision problems, he may have difficulty seeing non-verbalized actions. If he suffers from disorders like photosensitive epilepsy, videos or images with flashing lights may not be helpful.
Clear instructions are also helpful if your child misbehaves. It’s crucial to let them understand what you expect them to do. For example, you want to give them clear directions to stop misbehaving (i.e., stop throwing your pen. Count the apples in the basket).
It’s also helpful to let your child know about the consequences of his actions if he continues to misbehave.
#7 Positive Parenting Solutions: Set a good example
Positive parenting works best if you parent by example. Don’t just tell your child what you want them to do, but rather, model what you expect. If you make poor choices in behavior, it’s like permitting them to act in the same ways.
Spend time reflecting on your actions and decisions. Think about the words you use and your reactions when problems arise.
Always remember, your kids will mimic (almost) everything you do.
Your reactions can (and will) impact your children. When you give way to negative reactions (anger, rage, sarcasm, ridicule), your child might feel worse about himself. Or, as discussed above, they are likely to mimic you and the way you react.
When faced with a difficult situation, compose yourself, and avoid reacting negatively.
#9 Positive Parenting Solutions: Praise your child and give rewards
Do not underestimate the power of good words. The praises and commendations you give to your children can impact them in the long run.
Acknowledging their development and achievements (even small things) can drive them to do better. Focus on their strengths, compliment their talents, cheer them up, and congratulate them on their accomplishments.
Conclusion
When you implement these positive parenting solutions into your child’s learning, you help them to stand on their feet and overcome challenges despite impairments.
They need your love, encouragement, and unending support. Use positive approaches and motivate them to do their best. Positive parenting can go a long way.
Related Questions
What are the things not to say to special needs parents?
Jessica Heeran reached out to special needs parents on Facebook to get ideas of things that we should not say to them. One parent shared, “One of the most annoying things, to me, is when I tell someone about my daughter, and they automatically make a sad face and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ Like she’s some unfortunate thing that happened to me.”
My child has a vision impairment. Is distance learning possible?
Communicate with other parents and teachers to get more ideas about positive parenting solutions
Get more parenting ideas from other parents and teachers. By joining our growing community, you get access to our community forum where everyone can ask questions, seek advice, and share tips and tricks.
Learn from other parents and educators. Click the button below to sign up:
Is your child having difficulty with speech? Consulting a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) should be your first option. An SLP can provide intervention services that can help your child to learn to communicate more effectively. Then, you can incorporate these best speech therapy apps to your kids.
Speech impediments aren’t new. In fact, only five to ten percent of the population has a normal and undisrupted manner of speaking, and the rest suffer from one speech disorder or another.
SLPs, or speech therapists, use different therapy techniques to improve their patients’ communication. These include language intervention activities, articulation therapy, and other techniques depending on the type of language or speech disorder.
Language and speech therapy apps can also help young people suffering from speech difficulties. The best speech therapy apps do not impugn SLPs, but rather support them by encouraging those with speech impairments to develop their speech, communication, language, and feeding skills.
There are many speech therapy apps in the mobile world, so we’ve done the hard work and handpicked the best speech therapy apps for you.
Speech Blubs is one of the best speech therapy apps approved by therapists. It is perfect for kids ages one to eight and is a great choice for parents who want to boost their child’s speech.
This speech learning app will help your youngster speak better and more confidently. The app features video modeling, face filters, stickers, speech recognition, and loads of fun activities.
It’s a bold statement to say that this is among the best speech therapy apps, but we believe in that. Otherwise, this app wouldn’t be featured on popular media such as Forbes, Vogue, Wired, Autism Parenting Magazine, Brisbane Kids, Bilingual Kidspot, and other magazines!
There are over 1,500 activities in this speech therapy app, all of which are designed for children with a speech disorder (i.e., speech delay, Apraxia of Speech, Down Syndrome, Autism, ADHD, etc.).
Children will definitely enjoy the mini-games, videos, funny hats, and activities in this game, all the while improving their speech!
Otsimo | Speech Therapy SLP
Devices: iOS and Android
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases)
Mobile devices aren’t just for video games and music. Children can also use it to revolutionize the way of getting the best speech therapy. Otsimo | Speech Therapy understands what children with speech impediments need. How?
The app uses voice and speech recognition technology and machine learning to provide precise speech activities that can improve children’s speaking skills.
Otsimo is for young children who experience speech issues, such as delayed speech, non-verb autism, stuttering, Apraxia, Aphasia, and articulation issues.
By using machine learning technology, the app can detect whether or not the articulation and pronunciation improve.
Proloquo2Go
Devices: iOS only
Price: $249.99
How about a speech therapy app that also works as an alternative communication tool? Proloquo2Go is one of the best speech therapy apps, and we’ve got many reasons to prove so.
Proloquo2Go is for young people and adults who cannot speak or need help being understood. It features natural sounding voices and supports both beginning and advanced communicators.
Many parents, teachers, and therapists recognize Proloquo2Go because of its amazing features. One of the prominent features is the tap to speak, where users tap on images that convey what they want to say.
Not just that, users can use two languages at the same time, allowing them to speak bilingually.
Help your youngster to become proficient in speaking with one of the best speech therapy apps, Articulation Station.
This speech app lets your child practice their speech at the WORD, PHRASE, SENTENCE, and STORY levels. These games are so engaging that kids won’t feel they are working on their articulation.
Articulation Station provides quick tips for teaching each sound, 20 target words per sound position, beautiful and high-quality images, flashcard activities, unique sentences, voice recordings, and more.
Speech Tutor
Devices: iOS only
Price: $19.99 (offers in-app purchases)
Whether you’re a speech therapist, a parent who has a kid with speech impediment should look into Speech Tutor. This is also a great speech app for those who want to improve their American accent.
Speech Tutors uses the latest technology and incorporates fun animation. The app offers a Side View and Front View of each sound production, which can be played at three different speeds (slow, medium, and fast).
TallyTots
Devices: iOS only
Price: $2.99
TallyTots is one of the best speech therapy apps for no reason. It’s an excellent language app that allows kids to have fun and improve their speech. Kids will enjoy catching 15 flies with a frog’s long tongue, collecting pennies in a piggy bank, rolling marbles down a ramp, and more.
It’s a fun and engaging speech activity that you can let your child explore on his own. You can use it as a supplement to teaching counting skills, number recognition, and articulation.
There are puzzles and mini-games that help children learn verbs and two-word combinations. Apart from that, they will also love singing the counting songs.
Smart Intervention Strategy (SIS) is a tool to be used by speech therapists and students when working with kids (ages eight to twelve) with speech issues.
This app provides a framework for a program that encourages humor and creativity. Fluency SIS has four components along with different activities, including:
Think Smart, Feel Smart
Cool Speech
Challenge the Dragons
Into the ‘Real’ World
Talking Pierre the Parrot
Devices: iOS and Android
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases)
What could be more fun than talking with a parrot? Talking Pierre is a free and fun speech therapy app that can enhance your child’s speaking abilities.
Talking Pierre is one of the best speech therapy apps because it packs a stockpile of fantastic features. Pierre, the Parrot, repeats and invents his own sentences!
Kids can interact with Pierre, the Parrot, rub his belly, or have him jump the way they want him to.
Cuespeak
Devices: iOS only
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases)
Cuespeak is another speech and language therapy app for iOS devices. It features a suite of speech exercises created by a specialist in Aphasia in the UK.
Aphasia is a communication disability caused by a stroke or other neurological disorders. That being said, you will be confident that this app is aimed at people who suffer from speech impediments.
This speech therapy app is unique from others because it features a big chunk of spoken feedback on errors to bring spoken word production. The app is highly customizable to fit the needs of each user.
Both young and old will love this speech therapy program.
Last but not least, Boo Articulation Helper helps young speakers practice their phonological awareness and letter-sound through fun mini-games. Boo, the frog, shows what actions happen in the mouth during articulation.
What makes Boo Articulation Helper different from other best speech therapy apps? For one, a certified SLP developed this app. Plus, this speech app is very easy to use, and children can play it all by themselves.
Boo Articulation Helper is perfect for those who want to practice:
One or more single speech sounds;
Voiced contra voiceless consonants;
Using two speech sounds together to create words;
Linking between letters and speech sounds to practice reading.
This is the perfect app that serves as a stepping stone to a better articulation.
Conclusion
If you suspect your child is having trouble with his speech, the first option should be consulting a speech-language pathologist. An SLP will perform different therapy approaches to enhance his speech abilities according to his needs.
You can then introduce any of these best speech therapy apps to your child, so they can continue to improve their speaking abilities even when they are in the car, on the bus to school, or in their leisure time.
Related Questions
What are other ways to fix speech problems?
Controlled breathing and muscle-strengthening exercises can improve the way you say words. Others face speech issues because of embarrassment, nervousness, or depression. If any of that is the root of your speech impediment, then a talk therapy may be helpful.
Does speech delay mean autism?
Not necessarily. Some parents think their child has autism because of delayed speech. However, delayed speech can be a result of many other factors, such as hearing loss or intellectual disability.
What other ways can be done to improve speech and communication?
Can you think of any approaches that can enhance speech and communication? Are there any other apps you would like us to include in our list of best speech therapy apps? Share your thoughts with other parents and teachers by joining our growing community here at All Digital School.
By signing up, you get access to our community forum where you can post a topic you want to discuss, ask questions, or solicit answers.
If you want to improve your cooking skills to impress everyone at your next dinner party or become the next iron chef, there’s always a cooking app that can help you. We’ve rounded up the best cooking apps for mobile devices that you must download.
These cooking apps can spice up your cooking skills, providing you with a variety of (mostly free) recipes. From mouth-watering appetizers to delectable desserts, these cooking apps are up and ready to make you the best cook in your kitchen.
So wear your apron, and let the cooking begin with our list of the best cooking apps.
The Best Cooking Apps for iOS Devices
BBC Good Food
The largest news and broadcast company, BBC, isn’t just about providing world news and distance learning, but it is also about cooking and helping home cooks become the best version of themselves. BBC Good Food is a free cooking app that offers a rich library of recipes and cooking tips.
You’ll get new recipes every day and receive tips from the pros to create the most sensational meals. They’ve got all the recipes you could ever ask for—from crisp and golden pastry, perfect steaks, seasonal salads, to indulgent sorbet.
You can also access videos and watch how to cook the recipes. Plus, you’ll never fall short of pro tips to ace your next family picnic.
BBC Good Food is available on the Apple App Store and Google PlayStore. You may also access the web version via their official website.
Tasty
How does having a personal cooking coach sound to you? Tasty comes second to our list of the best cooking apps. It has over 4,000 tasty recipes, all of you you can access at your fingertips!
Tasty proves that smartphones belong to the kitchen, too! The app provides step-by-step instructions and videos that provide clear directions. It will even provide you with meal recommendations based on the time of the day, day of the week, and holidays.
You can also personalize the app. For example, vegetarians can choose to hide all the recipes with meat. Another prominent feature of the Tasty app is its comprehensive search option that allows you to look for recipes that match your dietary preferences.
Tasty is available on the Apple App Store and Google PlayStore.
It would be a mistake not to include Forks Over Knives in our list of best cooking apps. There’s so much about this recipe app that you won’t find on any other apps. For one, the app provides recipes that empower people to live healthier lives.
When you download Forks Over Knives, you get over 400 (and growing) sumptuous whole-food and plant-based recipes. The app adds more recipes each week and puts high-resolution photography so you can visualize your next meal.
The step-by-step instructions make the preparation quick and easy. Plus, you can view the ingredients list with just a tap.
Learning never stops with Forks Over Knives. With this app, you’ll get regular tips on the plant-based lifestyle.
If you think recipes and cookbook instructions don’t suffice your need to improve your skills, you’ll be glad to know that Forks Over Knives also offers cooking courses and books and magazines stuffed with how-tos and recipes.
Forks Over Knives is available on the Apple App Store and Google PlayStore for only $4.99.
BigOven
Are you falling short of ideas for your next family dinner? BigOven comes to the rescue. It is a big, fat recipe book compressed into your mobile device.
BigOven is one of the best cooking apps there is. With it, you get access to over 500,000 yummy recipes. That means you’ll never have to worry about what’s for dinner. When you open the app, you will find popular recipes and the meals your friends and family are cooking.
Everything you need is in BigOven: it has a meal planner and a grocery list. And the Use Up Leftovers feature lets you cook the leftovers you have to reduce food waste.
The app also has a colony of home cooks. By joining the BigOven community, you can read reviews left by others, get pinged when you have new comments or questions on recipes you have posted, and connect with other family and friends that use the app.
BigOven is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Allrecipes lives up to its name—it has all the recipes you could ask for. We’re talking about quarantine cooking, air fryer recipes, BBQ and grill, breakfast and brunch, cake recipes, chicken, cookies, Instant Pot® recipes, the list goes on. No wonder why this is one of the best cooking apps in the mobile world.
Look for recipes that satisfy your palates by customizing your homepage. You may sort recipes according to your preferences (i.e., low-calorie, gluten-free, diabetic, heart-healthy, vegetarian, and quick & easy).
The Allrecipes Spinner Dinner app offers more than 1,000 mobile-friendly recipe videos with step-by-step directions. You’ll get your own profile where you can store everything you have created, saved, and made!
It also has a shopping list feature where you can add the entire recipes or ingredients you need. The app will notify you when there are recipe ingredients on sale near you (select stores).
Allrecipes Dinner Spinner is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Epicurious
Impress your spouse with an ultimate meal. Get recipe ideas from one of the best cooking apps, Epicurious. This cooking app has a broad range of recipes—from affordable cooking to delicate gin and tonic!
This recipe app houses over 330,000 delicious and tested meals. You’ll receive new recipes and incredible food videos every day.
Epicurious can also act as your smart kitchen timer to cook your meals to perfection.
You won’t have to worry about forgetting an ingredient when you go out for grocery shopping. The app lets you create a shopping list on the fly. Awesome? We think so, too.
Aside from recipes, you can also get expert advice in the app. Know the best grills to use, read product reviews, and expand your cooking knowledge with how-to tips.
Epicurious is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Oh She Glows
Get healthy and hearty recipes from Oh She Glows, one of the best cooking apps available. This app is perfect for parents who are always looking for meal ideas for the family and for home cooks who want to become the next Master Chef.
Oh She Glows focuses on plant-based recipes. You will find over 150 toothsome plant-based meals and 140 delectable gluten-free recipes on this cooking app.
With this cooking app, you can browse thousands of recipes with high-resolution photography, filter your recipes based on your dietary needs, and customize your favorite lists with your most-loved recipes.
You will find the nutritional information available for each recipe, and even add notes to the recipes if you wish to make any changes.
What’s more, you can take your favorite recipes offline
Oh She Glows is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Whoever said smartphones don’t belong in the kitchen are clearly mistaken. With the best cooking apps, you can improve your cooking skills, gather more meal ideas, and explore new recipes.
Cooking is a great skill to learn. When you cook, you learn to enjoy healthy foods that you have always wanted. Plus, it saves you a lot of money compared to when you eat out or order a takeaway.
Go ahead and show off your cooking skills with these recipe apps.
Related Questions
How can I improve my cooking skills?
Practice better control with your knife. Invest in a good knife and keep it sharp. We also advise that you start with basic recipes and use the best ingredients. Use your hands to know how different foods feel, even as you use a knife, toothpick, or thermometer.
Is cooking hard to learn?
Not necessarily, especially if you have a natural aptitude for cooking. However, much like anything else in life, you will get better at it when you gain lots of experience. So cook, cook, and cook. Explore new recipes and discover different flavors until you produce consistently good results.
Do you have more cooking apps to suggest?
Many adults do not know much about cooking. If you have cooking apps to recommend or cooking tips to share, we encourage you to join our growing community and connect with other home cooks.
By joining All Digital School, you get access to our community forum where you can ask questions, solicit feedback, and share your opinion. Click the button below to get started:
Did you know? Kids as young as four years old can improve their reading and writing skills with the help of the best sight word apps and flashcards.
Teaching your kids about sight words can be tricky, especially if you have not trained for early education. The good news is that there are many best sight word apps to help your kids learn how to read faster.
But first, what are sight words?
What Exactly Are Sight Words?
Sight words are words that do not follow the rules of spelling and are not phonetically plausible. Another term being thrown in with sight words is high-frequency words.
Kids start learning phonetics in nursery and preschool. They learn how to sound out words, put all those sounds together, and then say the whole word. This enables children to read, then soon, write.
But what about words that are not phonetically plausible, such as was or the? Children cannot sound them out, so they need to learn them by sight (hence, sight words).
For example, kids can sound out the word make /m/ā/kā/ē/, but when the word make shows up in a reading, it will take them a very long time to read if they need to sound out the word make every time they see it.
There are lots of games and activities you can do with your child to teach them sight words. You can use flashcards, read books, or introduce them to the best sight word apps.
Below we listed the most popular and best sight word apps for kids.
The 8 Best Sight Word Apps for Kids
Sight words aren’t easy to learn for kids. However, sight word apps make learning sight words fun and addictive.
The best sight word apps out there use different techniques to make learning easy and engaging. Some apps have cleverly incorporated animated characters, vivid and colorful graphics, and clear instructions.
Pocket Sight Words is one of the teacher-approved sight word apps for kids. It is a well-designed app that packs a handful of extremely positive features that can benefit your child.
The app was carefully designed by using the power of flashcards and technology. Pocket Sight Words is an excellent learning tool for children attending Early Education.
Behind this amazing sight word app is a team of developers who teamed up with early educators to create proven methods. Most kids are excellent visual learners; that’s why this app has playful illustrations and colorful design.
Pocket Sight Words is loaded with 220 words with audio assistance using correct pronunciation, reward system, clean and simple interface, and short sentences for extra contextual learning.
Download: Pocket Sight Words is free to download and offers in-app purchases.
There’s a lot about Teach Your Monster to Read app that makes it one of the best sight word apps in the market. One, the game is stuffed with adorable monsters, and, two, it’s a groundbreaking game that makes learning to read extra, extra fun — to name a few.
Teach Your Monster to Read is an award-winning app: BAFTA-nominee, 2012 Primary Teacher Awards Gold winner, BETT Awards 2013 Finalist, and DfE-approved.
This sight word app takes kids on a magical journey, meeting playful characters along the way, and collecting amazing rewards. The trick is that when kids are engaged, they are more motivated to learn.
While the mobile version of the app is paid, kids can still enjoy playing this game using the computer version, which is 100% free.
Download: The Teach Your Monster to Read mobile app costs $2.99 to download. It is available on Android and iOS devices. You can use the 100% free computer version.
If you want a complete-package reading app, then Reading Eggs is the way to go. It is stuffed with amazing features designed for kids aged 2 to 13, and it covers the five essential components of reading: comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary.
The interactive design and colorful graphics of the app make the app fun and exciting for kids. Behind this amazing and one of the best sight word apps is a team of animators, educators, and writers who came up with a spectrum of reading games, lessons, activities, and more than 2,000 digital storybooks.
Check out the Reading Eggs Junior, which is for toddlers aged 2 to 4.
Download: Reading Eggs is free to download and offers in-app purchases.
Learning sight words has never been so easy, thanks to Sight Words Adventures. The game has ten fun, timeless mini-games, as well as 320 sight words spread across five levels.
One of the prime features of this best sight word app is its real-time dashboard so parents can track the progress their kid has been doing.
Sight Words Adventures is a totally safe and secure place for kids. It has no ads, external links, social media access, in-app purchases, and even personal information requests.
Kids start at level 1, which consists of words corresponding to the pre-K level. Then, as your child makes progress, he/she will go up to level 5, which has words corresponding to third-grade level.
Download: Sight Words Adventure is available for iOS devices only and costs $2.99 to download the game.
Kids who already have a grasp of reading will love this app. Sight Word Superhero is among the best sight word apps in the world. It can help your kid learn sight words in a fun and interactive way.
The game goes around “fighting” the witch and her monsters who have stolen the words from all the books. The superhero — a.k.a. your child — must listen to the voice they hear and read out the words that they need to “free.”
Sight Word Superhero aims to help young children who have a reasonable ability in reading but still in the process of learning how to read faster.
Beginner readers (i.e., toddlers and preschoolers) are encouraged to use Sight Word Superhero to learn how to read words by sight and improve reading skills.
This sight word app does not have in-app purchases and advertising, which should tell you that this is a child-friendly app. By using this amazing sight word app, you can help your child improve his reading skills, comprehension, and cognitive development.
Download: Sight Word Superhero costs $3.99 to download.
Sight Words Sentence Builder is a proven learning tool for children. It is one of the best sight word apps that trains kids to quickly recognize all Dolch sight words and build sentences from them.
Kids can play the game over and over again until they memorize all the sight words. Each level of this app has simple and common phrases that are constructed using sight words.
As kids hear each phrase, they must arrange the words in the correct order to go through the next level. Simply put, this app encourages children to learn sight words by doing, rather than just viewing.
Fast reading and comprehension are a vital life skill. Help your kid read more efficiently by using Sight Words Sentence Builder.
Download: Sight Words Sentence builder costs $7.99 to download on iOS devices. The Android version is free to download but contains ads and offers in-app purchases.
Prepare your child for reading success in school with the help of the Sight Words Learning Games & Reading Flash Cards app. This game is packed with over 220 sight words from the Dolch list.
It is loaded with six engaging and educational games and 314 flashcards that can boost your kid’s reading skills.
The six games are Word Machine, Spelling, BINGO, Memory Game, Gears, and Flashcards.
Download: Sight Words Learning Games & Reading Flash Cards is free to download in App Store, Play Store, and Amazon.
Watch your little ones learn new words and improve their reading skills using Sight Words by Little Speller. There are several reasons why this is one of the best sight word apps in the world.
This parent- and teacher-approved sight app that is incredibly fun, extremely educational, and ridiculously affordable. Unlike other sight word apps, this game lets you add your own voice so your toddler can learn everything in mommy’s or daddy’s voice.
You can also add your own items, like your child’s name. This app supports multiple languages and designed not only for kids but also for special needs kiddos.
Download: Sight Words by Little Speller costs $0.99 to download.
Conclusion
The best sight words apps are guaranteed to help children enhance their reading skills and automatic recognition. And the good news is that you’ll never fall short of options when selecting one. Give these apps a spin, then let us know what works best for your kiddo.
Related Questions
At what age should I begin teaching my kid sight words?
You may introduce sight words to your kid when he or she is about four to five years old. But this isn’t always the case. You may teach sight words earlier if your kid is receptive to the material.
How do I teach my 4-year-old sight words?
Most children can learn a few sight words at the age of four. For example, you can introduce simple sight words such as is, it, my, no, we, see, and me. Use flashcards for repetition or any of the best sight word apps listed above.
Help your child read and recognize words faster and share your story with other parents and teachers!
Some parents are struggling with helping their toddlers to recognize words and read. If you need advice, you may connect with other parents and teachers in our community forum. Or, if you think you have insights to share, you may share your story and help other parents and teachers.
By signing up to our growing community, you get access to our community boards where you can ask questions, seek answers, or share your story. Signing up is easy. Click the button below to get started:
You can also register using your Facebook or Google account. Click any of the buttons below:
Do you have any more questions about the best sight word apps? Let us know in the comments section below or post a question on our community board by signing up now.
As a teacher, your top priority is to ensure all students have equal opportunities to access learning materials and achieve academic success. However, teaching low-vision students has unique challenges. It requires you to modify your strategies and see to it that you address their unique needs.
This blog post will discuss how you can transform lessons for low-vision students, including classroom layout and online options for distance learning.
Some General Facts About Low-Vision Students
A student with low vision is typically one who can read print and has a corrected visual acuity of 20/70 or worse in the better eye.
Pupils with low vision, in general, have poor distance vision and find it hard to see the chalkboard or to gather information from charts or screens. Most of the time, these students can read large-print texts and get information from graphs, charts, and pictures when the material is up close.
Simply put, there is no typical visually impaired student. The needs of low vision students are unique. Take note, visual impairments come in different forms. Some can see only a little bit, and some are unable to see at all.
Some vision impairments are a result of diseases or damage to the brain’s visual processing areas.
Here are some other general facts about low-vision students
1. Some of them are not totally blind
Encourage them to use their eyes as greater efficiency can only be developed by using the eyes for virtual tasks unless a health professional has said otherwise.
2. Glasses reduce glare and aid with fatigue
Students with vision impairment use glasses to help with headaches and reduce glare. Glasses, however, cannot improve visual acuity for all eye conditions.
3. Low-vision students can still participate in physical activities
Pupils with special needs should be able to join in most recreational activities, except if the activities require good visual acuity, such as dodgeball.
4. Holding materials up close will not harm them
Most vision-impaired students find it difficult to read materials unless they read it up close. Allow them to position materials at a distance they are comfortable with.
5. Some students can read with ease
As mentioned before, each student with visual impairment has unique needs. Some can read ordinary type materials with ease, and others require a large-print reading material, a closed-circuit TV, or a handheld magnifying glass.
Public schools offer Individualized Education Program (IEP; also Individualized Education Plan). An IEP is a written legal document that lays out the program of special education, mainly to support kids who struggle in school, including the deaf and blind.
Teachers should review the school’s IEP to determine what specific modifications should be made in the classroom to support students with low vision.
You have to remember that the eyes of the pupils with visual impairments may tire quickly. We encourage teachers to let low vision students engage in activities that allow them to change focus.
Teaching Strategies to Deliver Quality Lessons for Low Vision Students
There is a wide range of techniques that teachers can use to assist all students, but there are some specific methods inclusive and instrumental in teaching groups that include low vision students.
For educators, the main goal is not to lower the standards to accommodate low vision students, but rather to give them a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned.
Transforming lessons for low vision students means you have to consider their needs and modify your teaching strategies.
In the classroom, your low vision students will benefit more if they sit near you. And if there is a presentation or an experiment, the low vision students should be given priority seating or standing room.
It’s also essential that you stay in a consistent location when teaching so that your student with low vision knows where you will be when you are presenting a lecture. If, however, you need to move, always say so. For example, “Now turn to the chalkboard on the left, where we will make a graph together.”
Providing auditory cues is also helpful for low vision students rather than visual cues. Make it a habit of telling students what you are writing on the whiteboard or chalkboard. This way, low vision students can still follow along with the material and jot down notes.
Give oral instructions. Handing out materials with assignment instruction might sound good, but it is not as effective for pupils with visual impairments. They may have difficulty reading the words and learning what is expected.
An example of tactile materials used to teach low vision students about Geometry.
Explain everything in detail, and always offer to read materials aloud. And when you are leaving or entering the classroom, it’s important to speak to the class notifying the low vision students that you are in proximity.
When handing out materials
It’s vital that you, the educator, learns to transform the environment or adjust objects that can make lessons for low vision students more plausible. Consider the lighting, size and distance, and color and contrast.
Below are some recommendations that can help your low vision students benefit more at school. Remember, though, that when making changes, it is vital to consider the characteristics of the visual impairment of each low vision student.
Some students may have reduced acuity, and others may have a central visual field loss or a peripheral visual field loss.
In some cases, low vision students may need extra time to complete their exams and assignments. This is typically because reading braille or other technological aid can take additional time.
Although you want to give low vision students an appropriate amount of time to complete their work, you don’t want them to use their vision as an excuse to submit their work late. Set deadlines and make sure they follow them.
Color and contrast
Low vision students may benefit from objects and pictures with high contrast. For example, the lines on a piece of paper are more visible if they are highlighted with a black marker.
Students with visual impairments can read their own writing better if they use a thicker pencil, marker, or pen.
Here are some basic principles when using color to create contrast:
The colors that give the highest contrast are black and white.
Avoid using dark colors together, such as green and blue.
Do not use white and gray with other light colors.
Avoid using pastel colors next to each other.
For daily life activities, we recommend using objects with bright colors.
Use masking tape to highlight an object (for example, the shelf where the students need to return the books they borrow).
Some low vision students may also need a typoscope when reading. A typoscope is a reading shield made of black material with a rectangular aperture that allows the user to see one or more lines of print.
Most students with low vision are sensitive to glare and light. Hence, you must control the light in the classroom by using curtains, reducing the glare on surfaces, providing (or suggesting) the child with a hat, visor, or sunglasses, or maintaining an even amount of light in the room.
Some low vision children may need more light. If that’s the case, we recommend placing the child near natural light (i.e., windows). When using lamps, they must be behind the student’s shoulder, on the opposite side of the writing hand or the same side as the stronger eye.
Low vision students will benefit more at school if the classroom has good natural lighting.
Size and distance
Magnification is a great tool for students with low vision. You can offer your students pictures, graphs, or maps in large-print. Also, they may prefer to work at close distances.
Allow them to move closer to the whiteboard if they need to or move the objects/materials closer to them.
Provide Braille textbooks
Teachers must provide low vision students with braille books.
You must order all class textbooks in braille as soon as you discover that you have a student with visual impairments in the class. Or, you may use Braille translation software to transfer your course materials into braille.
This process can take a while, so be sure to make a plan.
When teaching students with reduced visual acuity
Some low vision students who have reduced visual acuity can benefit from using prescribed glasses (if recommended by an eye doctor), magnification (i.e., large-print materials), high-contrast materials, and preferential seating.
If you have a student with glare sensitivity, the best you can do is to eliminate or reposition the source of light or recommend the use of visor, hats, or sunglasses even when indoors.
If you have a student who has difficulty with distance viewing, you may try to familiarize the student with the proposed assignment and environment.
As for the students with central or peripheral visual field loss, ensure to identify their “blind spot,” use a multi-sensory approach to gather information, and provide tactile and auditory cues when giving directions or when traveling.
Online Lessons for Low Vision Students
During lockdown and school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of students transition to online learning. Low vision students may also benefit from distance learning during and even after this pandemic.
Low vision students who want to pursue a post-secondary degree or just take an online course for career or personal improvement can take full advantage of online courses.
Many colleges and universities offer online courses that come with web lectures and live chat rooms. The educators send assignments and activities online or via email.
However, most online learning programs are inaccessible to low vision or blind students because the developers are not following basic accessibility guidelines. So, although online courses have videos, graphics, and images, they are not all accessible.
The question is, where does someone who has visual impairments find accessible online learning opportunities? And, can blind and low vision students truly access these online courses?
Yes. And the good news is that some online education platforms are for free.
The Hadley School for the Blind
The Hadley School is the largest worldwide distance education platform designed for people who have low vision or blindness. Hadley offers courses that are free of charge.
William Hadley, an educator who later lost his eyesight, founded the school in 1920. Since its beginnings, the Hadley school offers practical help, connection, and support to anyone with visual impairments, their families, and professionals supporting them — at zero cost.
Hadley uses large print, braille, and audio media to serve over 150,000 individuals each year across 50 states and 100 countries.
There’s a lot of advantages in taking Hadley classes:
Students can study in a location convenient to them.
They can study at any time, at their own pace.
They can receive a course specifically designed for them — online, audio, large print, or braille.
Students receive one-on-one attention from their instructor.
Each student can contact their instructor with questions. Students can call their instructor via Hadley’s toll-free number or email.
Here are some of the courses that the Hadley School for the Blind offers:
Adult Continuing Education Program:
Braille and Braille Readiness (literacy and reading)
Transitioning to Unified English Braille
Using Excel
Market research
Marketing, Financial, and Business Plan
Accounting for small business
Family Education Program
Introduction to Braille
Business and careers
Hadley Institute for Professional Studies
Blindness basics
Braille
Business concepts and skills
Conclusion
You, the educator, play a huge role in making sure that everyone gets equal education opportunities. The first step to helping the blind and low vision students is understanding their needs. Find out how you can help your students benefit from school and be patient.
If you know a student who isn’t able to continue their education due to the school lockdown, you may encourage them to check out the Hadley school.
Related Questions
What are the causes of low vision?
Low vision can be a result of brain injury, inherited disorders of the eye, eye cancer, albinism, age-related macular degeneration, diabetes, and glaucoma. If you are experiencing vision loss, we suggest consulting an eye doctor immediately.
What can be done for low vision?
Although low vision cannot be fully corrected, there are devices that can help low vision people such as tinted eyewear (for light sensitivity and contrast), magnifiers, large-print reading materials, and audio recordings.
Get help from other educators
Connect with other teachers experienced in teaching students with low vision. Ask them for advice, tips, and tricks that they use to teach their students effectively.
By signing up at All Digital School, you get access to our community forum where you can ask questions, seek answers, or share your insights. Signing up is easy. Click the button below to get started:
You can also register using your Facebook or Google account. Click any of the buttons below:
Do you have any more questions about transforming lessons for low vision students? Make sure to comment below or post a question on our community forum by signing up now.
It’s true, there’s no manual for a parent, but there are podcasts now. Maybe you just had your firstborn child, or you’re a single parent or a parent of five. Nevertheless, listening to podcasts for parenting will give you insights into how other parents ace parenting.
When you listen to podcasts for parenting, you’d know that many parents share the same struggles and anxieties as you.
How do you deal with depression during and after pregnancy? How do you deal with children’s tantrums? What’s the best healthy snack to serve your kids? And how do you keep your mental and physical health in shape as a parent?
These are just some of the questions that many podcasts for parenting answer.
In this blog post, we listed our favorite podcasts for parenting. We will also share some of the episodes each podcast has.
Mamamia is a top media company that talks about a lot of things—anything related to women. From health, beauty, fashion, politics, movies, books, true crime, travel, weddings, the list goes on.
They provide valuable and informative content in many forms: articles for you to read when your toddlers are all asleep, short videos that you can watch when your kids are at school, and podcasts that you can listen to while doing house chores.
Mamamia’s podcasts majorly talk about parenting and other related topics. As of date, they have 26 podcast shows; each has 18 episodes, sometimes more.
For example, the podcast show with the title Hello, Bump explains what happens during pregnancy, from day one until the pointy day.
In most podcast shows, you will hear from Mia Freedman (the founder of Mamamia) and her husband. They also invite other guests to the show.
iTunes, YouTube, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Player FM, RadioPublic, Overcast
In Parenting Roundabout, you will meet three good friends: Catherine, Terri, and Nichole. And in their podcast, they discuss what many parents are talking about, complaining about, and obsessing about.
You’d love to hear these three moms talk about what bothers them and what makes them laugh.
In one episode entitled Kids’ Big Decisions, they talk about how parents easily obsess about their kids’ big choices, like what college major to take or what career to pursue. But most importantly, they talked about how to make that obsession become your kid’s and not yours.
Parenting Roundabout is available on several podcast platforms, including iTunes, YouTube, Soundcloud, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, to name a few.
Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, PodBean, Spotify, PodBay, Website
Cool Mom Picks started over a decade ago, and their goal has always been “to make life cooler, more meaningful, and more fun for parents of all kinds.” They have been featured on many news and TV shows, including the TODAY Show, Inside Edition, GMA Live, CNN Wire, and so much more.
When you visit their official podcast site, you will find many helpful and practical information about health, wellness, tips, lifestyle, and so much more.
In episode 213, they had a terrific discussion about how the COVID-19 pandemic is screwing all working moms big time. They had Katherine Goldstein, an award-winning journalist and working mom expert, as a guest.
There’s a lot you can learn from Cool Mom Picks, including pandemic parenting tips, how you can deal with babies, toddlers, twins, and teens. They also provide helpful content covering lifestyle, living, tech, food, gifts, and “doing good.”
Apple Podcasts, PodTail, Spotify, ListenNotes, RadioPublic, PodChaser
What do you know about TikTok? How do you handle an unreasonable child? How do you encourage your kids to exercise while in isolation?
These are just some of the many topics that the Lazy Parenting podcast has covered. Listen to Stephanie Kennedy, the founder of Lazy Parenting, as she walks you through the bumps and ramps of parenting.
She is a mother of four and a former high school math and science teacher. Indeed, when it comes to dealing with kids and teens, Stephanie has a lot to share.
You can listen to Lazy Parenting podcasts on anchor.fm or Spotify.
Spotify, Pandora, iTunes Radio, Radio Public, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts
This American Life is yet another podcast for parenting that you should listen to. They cover a wide spectrum of relatable topics. This American Life is all about journalism but an entertaining kind. They share stories, ideas, funny opinions, big feelings, and anything about life.
They have been on air since ‘95 and have created over 700 episodes since. It’s a great place to fill your ears with slice-of-life, wholesome, and relatable stories. It’s for parents of all kinds and even for individuals who look for dynamic discussions.
This American Life is available on various platforms. You can listen through your mobile device using apps like Spotify, iTunes Radio, Pandora, Radio Public, Google Podcasts, and Pocket Casts.
You may also access their archive on their official website. No internet? This American Life airs on the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) mostly on the weekends.
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, New York Public Radio, The World
Science Friday provides parents a place for learning about science — from the smallest microbes to the most massive matter. When you listen to Science Friday, you will hear many educational stories about science, technology, and other cool *science* stuff.
They first aired in 1991 and have received many awards, such as:
2016 Jackson Hole Science Media Awards: Finalist for Best Audio Science
2018 Shorty Award Winner: Best In Family & Parenting For The Aha! Home Science Experiment Series
2018 Winner, Audible Science: Radio & Podcast, and more.
Science Friday may not be entirely focused on how to raise children, help kids with virtual learning, or teaching kids a new language. Still, it’s an excellent place that allows parents to expand their knowledge of science.
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora, iHeartRadio, RSS
Just when you thought you already knew everything about parenting, you’ve come across The Mom Hour, and now you realize there’s so much more you can learn.
The Mom Hour provides entertainment and educational content for all the moms out there (a.k.a heroes). Their podcasts for parenting will help you get through the daily struggles of being a mom.
They were featured on popular TV programs, including the Today Show (Today Parents) and Buzzfeed Parents.
Here’s an episode that you might find interesting: How COVID Complicates Parenting, Stage by Stage (Part 1: Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers).
You can listen to The Mom Hour through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, RSS, Pandora, and more.
Ohh, toddlers. They’re cute and adorable until they throw a tantrum, screech, cry, roll over the floor, and hurl things their hands can reach. How do you survive parenting toddlers with OCD or anxiety? That’s when Anxious Toddlers come to rescue.
Anxious Toddlers is all about helping parents deal with their kiddos with OCD and anxiety. When you listen to Anxious Toddlers podcasts for parenting, you will learn actionable steps on how you can help your kids manage their anxiety and OCD.
You will also hear stories, interviews, and discussions that will deepen your understanding of anxieties and other disorders. They offer free parenting classes and webinars.
There’s no better way to help your kids manage their anxiety than to understand them. And from there, you can find practical solutions that your kids can quickly adapt to.
Listen to the Anxious Toddlers podcast for parenting through Apple Podcasts, RSS, or Android.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Libsyn, iHeartRadio, Radio Public, RSS
Raising thriving kids? Is that even a thing? Yes, and that’s what Sunshine Parenting is all about. Sunshine Parenting helps parents raise successful, independent, and responsible children. They provide a comprehensive collection of resources that can help parents in many aspects.
Sunshine Parenting has been featured in the Today Show, Camping Magazine, and other popular media outlets.
They have covered many interesting topics that you might want to check out—for example, episode 153 talks about rethinking school and education during the pandemic. Episode 144 gives a compelling discussion about how you can raise happy and durable children in this digital age.
Listen to Sunshine Parenting through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Libsyn, iHeartRadio, Radio Public, RSS, and more!
Apple Podcasts, Acast, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Bullhorn.fm, Stitcher
Raising teens is not easy, according to one mom and a thousand others. Actually Mummy is one of the best podcasts for parenting that teaches how you can raise and thriving teens. A
Actually Mummy began in 2011. Helen Wills, a mother of a toddler and a schoolgirl, first started by sharing her anecdotes of parenting. Many have joined her and shared their humorous takes on parenting.
Now, Actually Mummy helps thousands of parents thrive on the rough road of parenting. By listening to Actually Mummy, you will feed your ears with lots of practical tips, entertainment, and easy-to-digest insights from experienced parents.
They also cover a whole lot of other topics, including lifestyle, fashion, and travel.
Listen to Actually Mummy podcasts for parenting via Apple Podcasts.
Conclusion
Parenting doesn’t have to be so difficult, thanks to these podcasts for parenting that provide tips, tricks, and advice. The best thing about podcasts is that you can access them anytime and anywhere.
Related Questions
What is good parenting?
Good parenting means focusing on helping a child grow up with independence and a sense of responsibility. It also involves different parenting techniques that depend on the child’s age and stage.
What are the four different parenting styles?
Disciplinarian, permissive, uninvolved, and authoritarian parenting. Using these styles simultaneously can help you raise responsible kids.
Learn how to ace parenting by connecting with other parents
Do you know other podcasts that give parenting tips and advice? Or do you have any pieces of advice that can help other parents raise their children? Join our community of parents and teachers now and get access to our community forum where you can tell your story, share advice, and ask or answer questions.
Signing up is easy. Click the button below to get started:
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