Rocketbook to the Rescue: Homeschooling Through a Pandemic

First let me say, I am a homeschooling mom to an elementary level child. No, not “the public schools are closed so now I have to teach my kids at home” type homeschooling mom, but the one “who has been doing it for years because it’s what works for our family” type. And still, the Covid-19 Pandemic knocked me and many homeschooling moms just like me back on our heels.Though we always had some classroom time scheduled into our school week, our social calendar had never looked so empty. Suddenly, our weekly co-ops and active learning experiences in our local museums and libraries were no more. All of our destination learning events were canceled in rapid succession and my head was spinning. Suddenly, just like those moms (and dads) who found themselves schooling at home, I was existing outside of my comfort zone. I may have been better equipped for the change, but just like them, I had to find a way to adjust to a new normal. For me, that new normal, centered on the introduction of technology to simplify and streamline my homeschooling process. Enter the Rocketbook Smart Notebooks Technology.

I received my very first Rocketbook Everlast, now known as the Core, Notebook as a birthday gift from my computer geek husband. I was ecstatic. Seriously. I love to write. I thought it was another notebook and I am an old school pencil and paper kinda girl. Books and journals are the key to my heart. Then he explained how it worked and I was even more smitten. The possibilities rolled out in front of me like a long country road. I could still enjoy the action of writing (it’s a part of my process), but instead of filling yet another notebook and adding to my impending avalanche of notebooks, I could digitally store my scribbles, wipe the slate clean and start again. It was a win-win for both of us really, so when the opportunity to try their other products in our home classroom came up, I was all in. A short while later the Rocketbook MINI, FUSION, and ONE Notebook arrived at my door along with a set of Rocketbook Beacons. Less than two weeks later our world was shut down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Beacons were installed immediately in our home classroom. It literally took less than ten minutes to apply them to our whiteboard and set up the app with destination points to my preferred cloud storage space and emails. Still, at the time, I had no idea how to best utilize them. Don’t get me wrong. I could see they would be an excellent tool for a virtual classroom setup, but our homeschool style has always leaned more towards hands on experiences through field trips and co-ops (collaborative classes with other homeschooling families). We had classroom time 3–4 days out of the week, but it was mostly for personal instruction for my single student. Little did I know that COVID-19 would change that. With physical meetups canceled, much of our interaction became virtual. Sharing notes, daily lessons and lesson plans in a virtual classroom became our new norm. The ability to share those notes instantly in real time with a virtual co-op classroom via the Snapcast function was amazing. When paired with virtual classroom video streaming technology to allow coordination between the students, it made what might have been the sad end to an enjoyable learning experience far less painful. The only issue we ran into was our phone would have some minor difficulty tracking the Beacons if there was anything of a similar coloring ( bright red/orange) near them while in Snapcast mode. That was easily remedied by allowing some blank space surrounding the whiteboard. Other than that, it worked perfectly.

The Rocketbook Fusion Notebook is essentially a fusion of all the best parts of an excellent project planner. You have a combination of five different page formats within one spiral notebook: project task checklist, weekly planner pages, a monthly planner page, project implementation pages and several blank lined and graphing style sheets for notes and design. We used it for our spring semester project, which was the construction of a home garden using a specific gardening method and criteria. We were able to complete the whole process of planning and implementing our project and keeping our records of observation using this one Notebook. And that was just one way it can be used. I can easily think of several other implementations of its format within a homeschool setting, from a student planner and journal to a teacher’s lesson planner notebook. Flexibility is a large part of being successful as a homeschooling family and the two week planning pages allow for planning short term goals while keeping an eye on the monthly big picture. I loved it and wouldn’t change a thing.

As for the Rocketbook ONE, MINI, and EVERLAST, they are your basic notebook format style. They have either lined or graphing style formatting and function much as any typical notebook would. Do note, however the Rocketbook ONE is a one time use notebook. After experiencing the joy of using, wiping clean, and reusing, I still struggle to see why you would give that up, but if you are someone who needs or simply likes having a hard copy and a digital one, then worry not. Rocketbook has got you covered too.

Now, a few things I really liked about the Rocketbook products, overall…. The QR Code at the bottom of each page in their notebooks is universal. It also allows for the use of reproduced copies on normal paper either via formatted sheets provided online by the Rocketbook website or just as photocopies from your own Rocketbook. I also love that I can pre-set destinations. With the file preset options at the bottom of each page, we were able to set a “permanent file” destination that also received our classroom lessons via Beacons so all related text and work were housed together and filed according to date of upload. So added homeschooling bonus: instant lesson plan and record keeping digitally stored and readily accessible. Homeschooling moms who struggle with record keeping, everywhere, can rejoice! Using Rocketbook in my home school may be a new normal, but it is definitely one I intend to keep long after we’re past this pandemic.