Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Announces New Family-Friendly Online Environment to Support Caregivers in At-Home Learning

BOSTON, Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Learning Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt today introduced Family Room™, a brand new, family-friendly online space that supports diverse teaching environments and makes at-home learning more manageable for families and caregivers using HMH solutions. Family Room provides an intuitive, ever-growing library of on-demand resources created with parents in mind, to provide families with engaging, practical recommendations with no teaching background required so that all caregivers can help their children thrive.

As schools and families across the country are navigating remote, in-person and hybrid learning environments this fall, much of the instructional burden has been placed on parents. Over half of K-12 caregivers say they are actively teaching skills to their children, as HMH found in a survey conducted earlier this year. Within this new framework of primarily digital instruction, HMH seeks to streamline communication and strengthen relationships between educators and families to create a deeply connected learning community.

Similar to Teacher's Corner™, HMH's professional learning space for educators launched this summer, Family Room is easily accessible through HMH's curriculum solutions ecosystem via digital teaching and learning platform Ed: Your Friend in Learning. Families and caregivers can access their child's lessons and assignments via the student's log in and find simple, bite-sized articles, videos and tips from parents and educators in both English and Spanish, personalized to their child.

"Children thrive when their families are a part of the learning. At HMH, we value the time of parents and caregivers and know they have to contend with work and other responsibilities as well supporting at-home learning," says Francie Alexander, Chief Research Officer at HMH. "With Family Room, we strive to make this more manageable and as successful as possible during this challenging school year."

Family Room will help caregivers get started and become familiar with the Ed platform and provide 24/7 differentiated support about their children's instructional programs and insights on how family members can help. Examples of instructional resources include "5 Questions Your Teacher Wants You to Ask Them," "Talk Moves: 7 Ways to Get Your Child Talking About Math" as well as general support that offers practical recommendations for fostering learning including tips for avoiding meltdowns, combatting social isolation, and nurturing growth mindset.  

"Connecting is always key! The relationships we build with students, and with their caregivers plays a big role in student success, especially now, when at-home support is crucial," says Toney Jackson, a 4^th grade teacher in Hackensack, NJ and content contributor on Family Room. "I'm really excited to join the Family Room team at HMH, and to work with folx committed to help foster these connections while so many of us are juggling remote, in-person and hybrid learning."   

Family Room is available now via Ed: Your Friend in Learning for students with programs on the platform and supports Amira Learning®, HMH Into Literature®, Into Math®, HMH Into Reading®, iRead®, Waggle®, Writable®, and more coming soon.

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ: HMHC) is a learning company committed to delivering connected solutions that engage learners, empower educators and improve student outcomes. As a leading provider of K–12 core curriculum, supplemental and intervention solutions and professional learning services, HMH partners with educators and school districts to uncover solutions that unlock students' potential and extend teachers' capabilities. HMH serves more than 50 million students and 3 million educators in 150 countries, while its award-winning children's books, novels, non-fiction, and reference titles are enjoyed by readers throughout the world. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com.

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Contact
Katie Marshall
Communications Manager
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
617-351-5057
[email protected]

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SOURCE Houghton Mifflin Harcourt