How To Keep Your Remote Learner Engaged Throughout The Day
Parents, what are your tips and tricks to keep your remote learner elementary school students engaged? If you’re struggling to keep your children focused in school, you’re not alone.
Teaching children presents hundreds of choices (if not more) every day, and there’s an equally large number of ways to keep your elementary school student engaged. Finding the ideal way to prepare your student for learning success can be done with the right amount of foresight and exploration. Figuring out what works best for your child can take time and is based on trial and error, so if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!
Creating remote learning spaces that cultivate elementary students’ passion and exhilaration for learning is the mission of MUSE Remote School. The good news is that this is enacted on a regular basis by our highly qualified teachers through effective classroom planning skills and teaching strategies.
Whether you’ve recently enrolled your child at MUSE Remote or another online learning program, there are practical ways to keep your elementary school student engaged. Creating an engaging remote learning space can be challenging, but it’s 100% possible. So, parents, you can put that stress ball away! Here are our top five engagement strategies for parents and educators:
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Accommodate for Children’s Short Attention Spans
Elementary school students, particularly younger ones, have a fairly short attention span. Studies have shown that kindergarteners (ages five and six) can focus on a task for only ten to thirty minutes. First-grade students (ages six and seven) can focus for twelve to thirty-five minutes, and second-grade students (ages seven and eight) can focus for fourteen to forty minutes.
To keep your elementary students engaged, educational activities and lessons should be kept shorter to keep their minds active and centered. In other words, this isn’t the time for hour-long lectures on the water cycle. Your child is almost guaranteed to become unfocused and tune out.
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Provide Your Student With Multiple Guided Options for Learning
Students, like most people, prefer having choices and control over their learning. They engage more when provided options on how to learn the material, such as seminar-style or small groups, and whether to use laptops or paper. Allowing students to choose topics and activities fosters engagement.
At MUSE Remote, we emphasize a student-centered approach that recognizes each student’s unique talents, interests, and preferences in their personalized learning journey. Identifying learning styles is also crucial in a remote setting, providing valuable insights for our teachers to tailor instruction. This enables our qualified educators to adopt a holistic approach aligned with each child’s development pace and strengths. Moreover, we incorporate a balanced mix of screen and non-screen activities to keep students engaged.
The freedom of choice empowers students and assigns them the responsibility for shaping their educational journey. However, excessive choices can overwhelm younger students, so it’s important to limit options and guide them through the decision-making process, offering support and pre-approved choices beforehand!
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Have an Engaging Conversation With Your Student
Actions speak louder than words, and in the remote classroom, this is hardly an exception. Rather than focusing only on what is being taught, how it’s being taught to students is equally important, especially while learning online. When speaking with students, adults and educators should be aware of their tone, demeanor, and body language – and what messages these nonverbal signals might be conveying.
When presenting new information to students, try to speak with them instead of talking at them. In other words, engage in a conversation, rather than monologuing to an audience. Ask plenty of open-ended questions, seek their opinions, and elicit their feedback on topics that are being discussed. As your students begin working on new projects, ask about their feelings or reflections, and be receptive if they gravitate towards speaking about more personal topics.
At MUSE Remote, our small class sizes of up to 18 to 20 students allow teachers to build wonderful online and live interactions with children. Rather than feeling lost in the crowd, students join a nurturing learning community that can grow and challenge their thinking. All students participate in online classroom life and are encouraged to engage personally and intellectually by incorporating their passions into their academics.
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Create a Welcoming, Student-Centered Classroom
When students are studying in remote classrooms, they can feel isolated, which can lead to a lack of motivation or disengagement. One way to facilitate more positive social interactions is to create a welcoming, student-centered learning environment. Hold students accountable for attending, participating, and remaining actively involved in schoolwork by building individualized relationships with them.
Use students’ names throughout the session, monitor their academic performance on previous lessons, identify their interests and incorporate them into the lesson, and provide consistent feedback on their assignments. The more interaction, the better! Another way to create a welcoming environment is to provide opportunities for peer mentoring among classmates.
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Bring Enthusiasm Into The Classroom
Be enthusiastic and excited about the topic you’re discussing. If adults and educators are engaged in a lesson, students will respond to the behavior being modeled and act accordingly.
Discover which topics or interests motivate your students, whether that’s Mario Kart, snorkeling, comic books, or competitive basket weaving. Your children may get excited about various hobbies, including music, sports, movies, or video games. To increase engagement, have conversations with students about these subjects and connect these conversations to topics that are covered in the curriculum.
At MUSE, we co-create the educational experience with children through a student-centered academic program that integrates what they want to learn, including their hobbies and interests. Our students’ passions guide their journeys, which builds a contagious and lasting enthusiasm that defines all of their learning. From day one, your child will constantly discover new ways to maintain their enthusiasm and zeal for learning, so prepare them for an adventure!
You Can Maximize Your Student’s Engagement Today
Remember that each student will respond to your strategies differently based on their unique inclinations and learning styles. That’s why we can’t emphasize enough the importance of staying flexible to change. Keep in mind that while keeping your elementary school child engaged may seem challenging, it’s absolutely possible with the right strategies and tactics.
Every day at MUSE, we seek to cultivate and sustain that in-the-moment exhilaration in our students, hopefully for the rest of their lives. If you’re ready to learn more about our accredited, high-performing online program that has been recognized as a global beacon of sustainable living, we encourage you to enroll your child today.
Muse Remote Learning registration for Fall 2025 is now open, and MUSE even offers rolling registration so your student can start today! And join our email list to stay up-to-date on everything happening at MUSE!
