Homeschooling going to shit - a support thread

[Brokenchair1]

Schoolmum WhatsApp group rapidly filling with messages about people doing the Joe Wicks live PE, photos of kids sitting at desks dressed and working, mum's joking about how lovely it is to home school.

Meanwhile in the broken household....single mum here, I have a Skype meeting at 1 I need to prep for, DD 7 currently refusing to do anything and keeps sitting on me saying she wants to play. 3 months of this 😭

Anyone else where homeschooling isn't filled with colourful timetables and colour coded snack trays...join here for support and commiseration.

Don’t worry, it’s day one and they have a lot to get their head around. We’ve been home well over a week and only just getting in any kind of groove.

Sod the school work, stick on a film, give her a treat bowl (we do mix of fruit and proper sweets) and get on with your call prep.

There are no awards here. Just make sure everyone is vaguely happy 👍🏻

My 3yo got up at 5.45am and was having a knackered screaming tantrum by 10.43am after doing his absolute best to get in the way of me trying to do a 15 min workout YouTube video, crying when I got in the shower, whinging and generally being a horror he is now asleep. I am eating crisps.

Totally agree with that sentiment ie make everyone happy. No point us both being miserable for three months!! We're hopefully going for a nice walk after my meeting. Very quiet around here so shouldn't bump in to anyone.

Mine may not be listening to me but she is doing as Alexa tells her so we are sticking vaguely to the timetable provided by school. I'm so glad I set up a series of alerts last night

Can I join you please? Ds8 is Nt so we nicely agreed a week timetable and he chose what to learn when. Sat nicely at the dining room table and did his maths and English. Younger DS with asd, bloody nightmare!!!! Tearing my hair out, taught him nothing 😢

We've moved on to YouTube and I'm finally doing work :)

Dd16 has decided to start her A level work due to no gcses. Textbooks purchased last week. No problem with her.
Dd9 claims go have no comprehension of any of the learning pack from school or online work set.
Ds 23 months is happy as a pig in shit as we are all here.
Single mum here. School support staff and full pay despite not having to go in to work so I cant complain.

I have a structure but with a 3 & 6 yo and both dh & I having to wfh all we can do is try

Welcome @tipseytorvey. I started up with a timetable too but that has been nixed because apparently it's not like school!!

Like pp I have workbooks that DD can dip in and out of. However, today I realized that this is just hitting home for DD too and to cut her some slack for a few days. We're going for a walk later and might do some baking. She's done some crafts already so I'm just going with the flow here.

As a single parent who's DM is self isolating I literally have no one if I get sick so slow and steady wins the race here. Also avoiding social media for the time being (except MN).

We're self isolating as youngest had a fever on Thursday, Fri and Sat so we can't even go out. Thanking our lucky stars we have a garden with a trampoline. Feel so much for people in flats.

I thought it would be a piece of piss given that I'm a teacher in my working life (I'm a supply teacher so am not at work) but my dc aren't playing ball! Dc2 isn't that bad and is doing the work set, bar a few small hiccups and shouts of, "Mrs. T*** doesn't do it like that!" (she bloody does do it like that because I've got a copy of the calculation policy!)

Dc1 isn't happy. He has adhd though so is struggling to focus as it's a completely different environment. So far I've just scribed the sentences he's said rather than force him to write them.

I'm pre-emptively joining this thread.

At the moment all is ok. I'm a single parent, and although working from home I still have a normal workload so I am a bit worried about juggling the working and teaching/support. DS is 12 and has work set through their normal homework app/portal for all subjects. I spent time over the weekend making sure that everything needing printing was printed and working out how many hours/week was being set by each subject. then drew up a timetable accordingly.

So far, so good as DS has set to the work set to him well and isn't being difficult at all, however I suspect that some of this cooperation is down to the novelty and may wear off by tomorrow, or the day after. Also so far he's understood the work set but I'm sure that that might not be the case for every subject!

I helped the 9yo research some stuff on the Romans in Britain, and we've then watched an Adam Hart Davies on the Romans
13yo was in her room doing maths
They're now playing chess really badly and farting on each other.

After lunch I will squeeze another hour of them if I can, and then leave it. It's my non work day but I need to join a webinar at 2pm so will install them on Yoshi's Woolly World for the duration of that.

Can I join???
I'm nearly in tears here. No idea how I am meant to gets dcs 1 and 2 to complete all their work while trying to work myself.

I am not OK.

How many lessons have my school ever had to suspend because the baby did a fucking biblical shit and had to be stripped in the bath and showered down.

I am a trainee teacher and the amount of work my two have been set is crazy (DS12 and DS7).

I am a single parent and we have one laptop at home. I have two masters’ level assignments to hand in before the 20th April. I have no idea how the three of us are supposed to get all of the online learning done!

The Year 3 team at younger DS’s soon seem to be a sending a fairly short daily PowerPoint and that seems fine... for now.
It’s the secondary school work that looks like a nightmare - the teacher wants us to compose some music!

I'm also stressing about cleaning & having enough food. I can't even stay on top of all the whatsapp groups!

It's really weird on one hand we are meant to carry on as normal & the biggest worry is juggling it all. but if you watch the news it's another story.

Not a teacher but a TA. My advice is to relax about it all as much as possible. Schools are going to be dealing with the fallout from this for years.

I have a son with ADHD, he is 17 but there is little to no chance of him doing anything he doesn't see a need for.

Praise anything your children will do.
Note down what they don't and see if there's any way to make it more fun.

Apart from that make social distancing your priority and make it as bearable as possible for the family. If that means not stressing because your child is refusing work then so be it.

So happy to know I'm not alone. DS (yr8) is expected to be following the school timetable. I'm struggling to keep him on task..

OMG. Yes, me!

I have a 7 yo, 4 yo and 1 yo. It is proving incredibly difficult to get the 7 yo focused and working while the smaller ones demand my attention, climb in my lap constantly and play or cry. I have a time table, trying to more or less stick to it. I am not letting the 4 yo watch TV which is basically all she wants to do (I have scheduled some TV downtime later on but I don’t want her to just watch TV half the day!).

I am hoping it will get easier! In the meantime I am trying not to put too much pressure on us and get outside into the garden as much as possible while it is sunny! This morning has been trying!!!

There are lots of ways to learn.
Why not find some child friendly you tube maths etc.
If you broadly follow the school work but approach it differently I’m sure that’s better than nothing.
And remember 2 to 3 hours is plenty for one to one teaching.

I feel I've found my home here!! Ds (12) is not too bad, has lots of work set and happy to work for an hour then have a break. DD (14) would like to stay in bed, then eat, watch a couple of programmes etc until she feels mentally ready to get on with things!!! I feel a teenage sized strop coming on soon. I'm trying not to timetable their work for them but get them to plan each day the night before so we actually get something done. Success with ds for now but not dd!!

Please remember teachers don't actually expect / need/ want your child to this. They set work because they have to and it's expected by parents and the government and it gives them something to do.

Please, please, please don’t anyone cry or shout or feel inadequate!! All any of us can do is our best - our best, that is, in a very difficult, uncharted and stressful situation.

TheTurnOfTheScrew, playing chess badly and farting on each other is going to continue to make me 🤣 for the rest of the day, thanks for that!

My DS (12) has just stomped upstairs declaring that the school learning platform is down(am not sure it is) so he can’t possibly do any homework, and that I am “Mum: the only person who could make being off school horrible....”

We’re in this for the long haul remember. I work in a secondary (part time) and staff are fully aware that parents will have a range of other pressures on them at this time, that kids will have varying degrees of commitment to schoolwork (!) and that marking, certainly for non-exam cohorts, may not exactly happen as it usually does.

I've been doing it since Wednesday (not in the UK) and there's been a lot of wobbles already but that's to be expected.

Take lots of breaks - DD is 9 and can work for about 30 minutes before she needs to take a break. For younger children I would shorten that to 20 minutes.

If you can go outside (garden for example) then factor in outside time every day, put it in your "timetable" so its non-negotiable.

If your children can't tell the time yet, don't teach them as then they can't tell when your timetable has gone all fucked up

I've started a free trial with smartick for maths, seems good so far (although DD has been very confused because maths notation is quite different from what she learns at school! They do it differently here, it's weird with : for division and a middle dot for multiplication)