WTF is this nonsense- teacher setting tasks like 'Make a meal' or 'Explore your garden with your five senses'

[ChillyColdBottle]

A) No, they are not 'making a meal' as we are in a take it or leave it situation due to not being able to leave the house

B) WTF?

Is it considered unacceptable to ask for some actual academic stuff that they can do silently?!

I wouldn't be worried about getting the wrong things. Just look up their age, print off some activities. There wont be a right or wrong. Just activities for them to do.

seriously Ihavent got a clue where to start looking

You really are coming out of this sounding like a hysterical fool.

Try googling. I just put " free English worksheets UK seven year old" and had plenty of suggestions. Try it for your child. Some will be too easy, some will be too hard, some will be goldilocks.

Personally as others have said, worksheets don't help kids to learn much, far better to give th em sheets of paper, Or look up how to fold up a sheet of paper to make a little book that they can write and illustrate, maybe a cookery book or a book about food , my favourite salad, my best birthday cake, this is how I like my pizza.......

I just wish she'd say 'do this page of sums' and they can do it,

And no doubt the next parent will complain because their child can't do those independently either and they aren't sure what to do.

We are putting out tasks and ideas/suggestions but have made it clear that none of it is compulsory, and that your own activities and entertainment are just as valid. We have no expectations from the parents and children to do it all, or even any, if they choose not to. But we are putting it out there for those that do want it or need it.

We have also made it clear that normal every day activities are learning opportunities at that age - be it counting out the cutlery for dinner, sorting the socks after a wash or exploring their garden (if they have one) for signs of spring.

We are including a range of things inc english, maths, phonics as well as fun or more general activities.

Mine are getting lots of proper work, but there is also a daily 'go out in the garden and looks for bugs' task, which my kids get bored of in about 5 seconds! There is only so much bug hunting one can do, and my kids aren't really interested in the first place tbh!

I have to say though, generally I am really impressed with what my kids school is doing

DD has to make a Spanish omelette for Spanish class.
But honestly cooking is a great life skill with lots of measuring, assessing, following instructions etc.
She doesn't actually eat eggs but the rest of do.

OP the problem is twitter then. Stop looking.

What are they doing all day if not helping with meal prep etc?

I get you're bored/stressed/cabin fevered. We all are.

The teacher is not the unreasonable one here.

Children don't need to sit silently doing worksheets, especially not during a global crisis, especially not ones who are old enough to read the suggestions and needy enough to wish their parent would do it.

Your children need emotional support, interaction, calm and gentle but firm discipline. Not sodding worksheets.

What do you think they could possibly gain from them?

Why can't the dc help make a meal. Life skills

Embed some maths and ratios in the ingredients or measure out something

Education can be practical learning.

Paint a picture about the senses, things you see in the garden e.g. purple flower

We are trying to make "life skills" a little part of the day for our 10 year old. The other day this was helping make his own hoops on toast. A meal that he loves and he did not have the first clue how to make it. This time at home is a real opportunity to do things like this as usually in normal life we are rushing here and there and no time to share an experience that is quicker to do myself or he's too tired after school and extra activities. I'm not aiming for him to be cooking a roast dinner but if he was able to make himself a sandwich or something on toast then that would be great.

I'm a year 1 teacher...
Ideas you could do just around your soup that you had at lunch...

Is the bowl full, nearly full, half, empty, nearly empty (all language on the yr1 curriculum for maths)
Use adjectives to describe the soup or 5 senses (linking to yr1 science curriculum)
Weighing ingredients (maths)
Using a timer (maths)
Preparing food/hand hygiene (pshe)

We had one day to prepare our home learning resources as well as look after the children we had in school and act normal as not to worry them.

For your year 1 child things you can get from Twinkl- numberbonds colouring, number bond bingo, simple addition and subtraction to 20, lots or phonics, sign up to Oxford owl and read the free ebooks that are her level or below to allow for fluency

For year 3 - mental arithmetic, using prepositions in their writing, reading for pleasure and using inference skills.

There is plenty you can do. Hope this helps in some way

Yes, step away from social media, I repeat STEP AWAY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA!

It's the absolute kiss of death at a time like this, nothing good can come of it!

Carol Vorderman's The Maths Factor website is now free to join, let them loose on there?

I'm stepping away from this thread anyway.

Thanks for people who have been helpful.

Yes just chill, seriously

OP they don't do back to back academic stuff in school, you do realise that don't you? Learning through play is a big thing right now

I wish we had tasks like that; I'm swamped in my 8 year old's full 8 hour time table which parents are expected to teach, mark including corrections, and send to the teacher who only acknowledges via a group email with summary statements and dire warnings about not falling behind as work won't be repeated. Schools here are selective with next year's grades making the difference.

At least my secondary age children's teacgers are marking their work rather than expecying parents to.

I'm working late-night-early shifts twice per week and can't do my own college work at all unless I neglect dc3's work.

I'll send you copies of their set work if you like. Its in German, but that should add to the academic challenge.

OP the teachers are actually trying to help you as well - they understand you’re not a teacher & everyone is stressed enough just now so full on academic lessons would be too much for most. They’re trying to give you things that might actually achievable for your children.

Teachers really can’t do anything correctly can they ffs. Those options both sound perfectly sensible to me.

Read daily and talk to them. They don't NEED anything else.

If you go on Twinkl they have specific School closure Packs aimed at the diff key stages if you are able to print them. TTS also have some.

We are getting some random stuff sent through but the teachers are rushed off their feet. I'm just swapping for more suitable tasks.

The award for most random task at our school goes to the science teacher who sent no work first week and a half then sent through a practical which started off take a clamp. DS did also point out he was worried the art one to go out and photograph nature sent after the lockdown might get him arrested but they are trying to give you ideas.

But every other fucker is posting their gorgeous cakes and children chopping up veg etc.

Yeah, so don't look at it. The gorgeous cakes were made by the parents anyway. The photos of kids chopping up veg could be staged.
Ignore.
Get your children to help you make whatever you are making for lunch anyway. So what if it's from the freezer.
You don't have to photograph them if you don't want to.

It's just a suggestion for something to do with them. Teachers are trying their best.

Maybe the teachers haven't got a clue where to start either? This pandemic is new to all of us. Those teachers are having to look after children of key workers while worrying about potentially becoming infected themselves, worrying about their own families. Circumstances are changing daily and every child's learning levels and home cirumstance are different. Give them (and yourself) a break. I've done more home learning than some of my friends on facebook but less than others. The school sent home a massive learning pack and put daily work on their website. I haven't touched it. I was planning to start today but I've now got symptoms so we're all trying to keep away from each other and I'm actually a little bit scared that I or my family might die. My colleague died yesterday. Fuck the school work.

For the next week or two I’d simply concern yourself with preventing boredom and overthinking. After speaking to a few kids today a lot of them are just scared. Occupying minds is great, what it is, less important right now.

Maybe if parents/carers had an idea of what is on the curriculum and use that a prompts - However my worry is who is going to mark/correct/assess the work? I’m quite glad my gdaughter is being gone schooled - she’s y 4 and seems to spend most if her time doing ‘Forest school - pe and outdoor learning 😉