Can I ask you to help me homeschool my reception DC?

[letsjog]

I am awful at it. And obviously it will now be necessary until further notice.

We will be getting weekly packs from school but whenever I see other mums interact with their DCs they are so fantastic at explaining things and getting their little minds engaged and those cogs working.
And I just freeze and don't know what to do or say. DCs stock answer is I don't know.

He is behind with writing skills/fine motor.
Also not the best at following instructions independently - as been advised recently.

I don't want him falling further behind over the next months and then get discouraged in year 1.
There's multiple teachers and TAs mums/dads in his class and I know they will all be keeping on top of the work.

How much work does a reception class do daily?
How much reading and writing, arts, maths etc should we do?
We have lots of time so I was thinking of drawing up a schedule but unsure what a good and not too long amount of time to spend on each subject and so on so it doesn't get too much or too boring.

Any help would be very welcome.

[Sunshine1235]

Have you thought about doing projects? So rather than thinking about it in terms of subjects like reading, writing, art etc pick a topic that he really likes - so could be trains, dinosaurs, nature whatever. And then think of activities that fit with that theme, you can use Pinterest or other online resources. So if you pick transport then find books about them to read, paint a giant digger, write a list of all the types you can see from your window, do a treasure hunt with a list of vehicles etc.

So much of the important learning they do at this age is linked with play so I wouldn’t feel like you need to do lessons just think of fun activities that naturally include reading and writing. And read lots of stories together

[Pentium85]

So firstly, PhonicsPlay and Twinkl are normally subscription services, but they are offering a month free, so get on there and download things.

But secondly, I’m a teacher, and the children that stand out to me the most are the ones with the good communication skills, the empathetic children, the ones who love exploring and testing the limits of the world, no the ones who can do maths the best.

So bake a cake, plant some seeds outside, build a den, get the hosepipe out and jump in puddles, make some play dough and drives diggers through it.

Ask the children questions, why do you think this happens? What will happen next? What are you doing with that toy?

A child surrounded by love and positivity will learn far more than a child sat down with pen and paper doing writing.

[sawyersfishbiscuits]

As above. Early years teacher here. He'll get lots of opportunities to decry the muscles for writing later if you do lots of digging, baking, threading, painting. Not forgetting gross motor skills like pulling up on a climbing frame to develop strength.
Read lots of lovely books and do an activity from that... e.g. read the Gruffalo and then make gruffalo cakes, read the hungry caterpillar and learn the days of the week and look for bugs in the garden.
I wish my kids were your DS's age - we're going to do baking and nice stuff but also some hard maths! 😰

[TwinkleMerrick]

Teacher here, don't panic! A lot of parents are in the same boat and a lot won't even bother! Schools will be aware that students will fall behind in this strange time, and will our action plans in place when everything returns to normal. Just do what you can with him. Try to make things into play or games rather than sit down and paper tasks.

Look on youtube for educational videos. Then get him to draw a picture about what he watched.

Try to read to him as much as possible, this has been a proven way to improve vocabulary.

Get him to teach you, do some school work with him and then ask him to teach it to you. Kids love playing teacher.

Check out tes (times education supplement). Make a profile as if you work in a school, then u can download loads of free resources.

Good luck

[GiveMyHeadPeaceffs]

I'm in the same boat @letsjog and must admit that the pp comments have really encouraged me. My ds was already struggling in school, possibly due to being so young (youngest in his year). But I'm determined that between his df and me we'll hopefully make these next 5 months full of great experiences and lots of time together

[Darcydashwood]

One of the best things I have found (the school told us about it) for phonics is the Department of Education is releasing a daily phonics lesson on YouTube that is basically a teacher delivering a phonics lesson to camera. They are really good and interactive. I’d really recommend them!

[0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h]

What websites do you already know about?

[stayathomer]

I have a 5 year old and we were told no more than an hour a day tops.With 3 older kids I'd say at that age the biggest thing for me was always (in that I didnt do it with 2 and regretted it!!) More learning the days of the week, the months of the year, the seasons, animals' young eg a bear has a cub, the colours of the rainbow and where they live, and also singing the alphabet, all through conversation but regularly so every morning talk about what day it is, the weather, isnt it June today and isnt that in Summer and then reading, drawing, throwing a ball, helping around the house to put stuff away, tidy etc. And OP other parents seem like they're doing it better but I can guarantee they're insecure about something else. As long as your little man is healthy and content nothing else matters x

[stayathomer]

Oh and to add the writing stuff definitely fell into place with the 3 elder kids more around age 6/7. I remember panicking with my eldest as in the youngest classes everything was squiggles and all colouring was literally colours thrown across the page but there is no difference between him and anyone else now

[irwellmummy]

If he’s struggling with his fine motor then playing with Lego, play dough, drawing and colouring, playing with water in a bowl outside with scoops and spoons or ‘painting’ the floor with a paint brush and water will all help.
Doing a couple of nice activities with you and chatting as you do it and perhaps a couple of stories during the day will benefit him (and you) far more than anything else (in my humble opinion- early years teacher for over 25 years)

[NotGenerationAlpha]

My DC2 is in reception. I am dreadful at creating cirriculum and I can't follow anything from twinkl to make it work. It's all too vague. DH and I are both working so we were tag team doing this. We split the day into two study sessions. So morning and afternoon schools, with free time in each half. She follows the school homework. In addition, we got her workbooks to do

Hand writing www.amazon.co.uk/Handwriting-Practice-Book-English-Ages/dp/0721712037?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21
Kumon maths, look for ones for 3-5 year olds, like www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Numbers-Kumons-Practice-Books/dp/4774307033?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21
She has graduated now from those Kumon maths, and so we have started her on Year 1 Singapore maths Book 1A. It starts with number bonds mathsnoproblem.com/mathematics/primary-key-stage1-and-key-stage-2.html
She also reads from both Reding Chest www.readingchest.co.uk/ and Oxford Owl www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page

We stopped using the oak academy because we found it is very similar to the school home work. But if your school isn't giving out much, then it's worth following.

when she was at home for the first half of summer term, we have these things for her to do. We don't

[NotGenerationAlpha]

If you need the daily phonics lessons, it's www.youtube.com/channel/UCP_FbjYUP_UtldV2K_-niWw

And the national oak academy is at www.thenational.academy/online-classroom/schedule/#schedule

We don't do the phonics because DC2 find it very long and boring. But yours might engate better. We just get her more books to read to help instead of doing phonics. But she's reading book band 4 and can read all the phase 3 diagraphs in a book.

[NotGenerationAlpha]

Oh forgot to add it's probably just one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon for work! It might look like a lot of workbooks, but it's just easier to do them than us trying to create content. The work given by school contains a lot of craft and activities, like build a car using lego, pack for your summer holiday, have a weather fashion show. (There are some writing too, but it's not all academic). I get my DC1 to do the activities with DC2. The older one is 9yo and is very willing to help.