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?!

We are well aware that not all our families have a printer, or even paper to write on, so it's important that there are non-paper based activities available.

UnFuckingAcceptable Tue 24-Mar-20 18:19:29
I do wish people would lay off teachers and schools.
So many of us are having to risk our family's health by going in to work and looking after Key workers children or vulnerable children while also providing tools for those at home to maintain their education.
Sort your own kid's learning out. There are plenty of resources out there.
If you don't like the suggestions, don't do them

Well said - and thank you for what you are doing for the NHS.

I think there is a big divide between those fortunate to still have a job and those who aren't working. Our dc would be eligible to go to school, but we are not doing that. We are though trying to hold down full time jobs, even more work than usual, working from home. I was working 6-5 today as so much less productive overseeing the children, doing IT stuff in between my own work. I realise that we are lucky, and my dc are a little older, but I was thankful that at least in the morning they were working relatively quietly with work set from school.

Clavinova

Your reputation for whinging about teachers precedes you.

So I will leave you to it, just with a nudge to others not to engage,

Cooking teaches you multiplication, ratios, division. Baking when precise can be scientific. Exploring the garden with 5 senses would be part of the mindfulness they already teach at school. It reduces anxiety.

I am on week 2 of isolation with a 8 and a (just) 6 year old.

I am incredibly grateful to the school setting work. Yes I was a teacher (although not for their age range!) so actually sorting out work was not going to be that hard, and I have a fairly good idea of where they are at with learning. However there is no way my 8 year old would have done any of my suggestions, whereas now the school has set work with a letter suggesting dire consequences if it isn't done, he is magically doing it all. (While trying to constantly sneak on YouTube but you can't have everything!)

I'm a ta, please dont worry too much about educating your children at this time.
mine are 10 and 13 for my 10 year old I've given him a 2 hour time table we've done joe wicks for 30 mins 30 mins of stuff school have sent 30 minutes reading 15 minutes spelling try the spelling frame website find your childs year start and the top and work down, then 15 minutes of maths games on top marks maths games which is another free site you might find useful.
Twinkl should have a home closure pack for each year group. I'm going to add in watching something educational too thinking blue planet

well, my 12 year odl learnt to make today.
I have told them they will be cooking once per week each.
I will teach them if necessary (as it was today) but they are learning to cook.

Don't know if that is parenting of schooling, but it is happening at ours.

whoops, my 12 year old learnt to make lasagne today

Your reputation for whinging about teachers precedes you.

I don't winge - I mostly link to facts/make observations.

And I often praise the teachers at my dcs' private school - who have drawn up a fairly full timetable of online lessons this week/google meet, plus marking and feedback - not to mention the emails we received at the weekend setting the whole thing up. But of course we pay school fees and the teachers are paid throughout the school holidays.

@Culinary and anyone whose children are normally FSM: the child’s school should be sorting out vouchers or a way of the child accessing FSM one way or another. If they aren’t, badger the hell out of them. I don’t know if my school is just very organised, but most of us are wfh so have time to answer emails/queries. We’re sending vouchers home, not sure how practical that is for schools with a large FSM demographic.

One of today's home education exercises...

• Food Tech - baking a Victoria Sponge cake;
• Maths - weights and measures, addition and subtraction, telling the time, fractions and ratios;
• English - reading language and literacy in cookery book, including talking about pictures, what we see, phonics and spelling;
• Science - methodology, following a recipe, chemistry/chemical reactions of ingredients, physics/radiant heat waves to cook food;
• PE - Upper arm workout mixing by hand and oral workout licking the bowls and spoons 😁;
• Technology - how to use the microwave and oven;
• Health, Safety and Hygiene in the Kitchen (including Covid 19 awareness of not sharing spoons, bowls, etc!)...

At not one point did we mention school, or education, but we did talk about what we were LEARNING and how much FUN we were having...

So for those of you out there stressing out about how to successfully home educate your children for the next few weeks... chill out with your tiddlypeeps and bake cake! 👌😁🤣

#DailyLifeIsLearning #StrongRoutineButNoTimetablesHere #WeAllHaveSomethingToTeach #CherishThisCrazyTime #StayHomeStaySafe #HomeLearning #WeAreTheLuckyOnes #ProbablyBestToMakeSureYouDoEnoughExerciseToKeepUpWithConstantCake

Ffs some ppl are NEVER bloody happy!!

I don't winge - I mostly link to facts/make observations.

You mostly link to completely irrelevant statistics that lack any context but to be honest, I wouldn’t you to stop as it always gives me a good laugh.
Keep it up Clav

OP, I know you’ve gone, and I was one of the people cross with you earlier, but I read a few days ago about the stages of our response to a high stress / disaster situation and one of the tips was to give yourself a couple of days ‘off’ to adapt to the new normal. I did this thurs - sun before starting new routine & we really, really needed that time and space to process, rest and ‘reset’. All sounds a bit hippy dippy but you can’t run on adrenaline forever and your initial shock - cope energy will run out.

To be honest just type in year 1 maths and print anything out. One twinkl it is all fine. There will be addition and subtraction sheets and workbooks on there.

This is a unique situation and we are all struggling to deal with it. If a member of your family has symptoms you are told to self isolate for 14 days. I sent a child home Monday with cough and high temp. Two children I spent the day with were off today in self isolation. Me and my colleagues, we are in again tomorrow. Let's all just have a bit of compassion for what is a difficult time.

They sound lovely ideas

I think OP has gone but if all meals for a while are batch cooked and frozen how about starting this year's Christmas Cake? Loads of recipes out there, easy for children to help with as there's no necessary chopping, difficult to overbake and it will keep all year in a clip-lock box if you feed it regularly.

I'm working from home. I would so much prefer tour homework for my 5 year old we have so much to do I.e letter formation sentences counting reading I have been gi.ven counters and numbers 0 to 20 needs doing daily my oldest well confused me as well as been at work. No time for rainbows ! And oldest hasnt had time to do flute;(

Keep it up Clav
To be honest I can't even decide if I've made a typo with 'winge' - three days without visiting a coffee shop and my brain has turned to mush - thank goodness I'm not teaching my own kids this week!

For some perspective:
Thread 1 (this one): Why aren't school setting my child suitably academic work? I'm frustrated at these activities that I don't think promote real learning.

Thread 2 (also running on MN): Why have teachers set so much work? I see all these people on social media doing lovely fun tasks and my child is having to do all this academic work set by school.

In other words schools can't win.

Definitely whinge. Consider yourself remotely taught!

At this present time the government is instructing schools and school staff to carry out childcare for the critical workers. This is what there current update and guidance to schools says about setting work.....

“What are the expectations on schools regarding staying in touch with parents whose child is at home?
We recognise that many schools have already shared resources for children who are at home and are grateful for this.

DfE is working with the BBC and other partners to provide advice and support directly to parents, including online resources they can access for their children at home.

Schools should work with local authorities to monitor the welfare of vulnerable children who are not attending school, and other pupils they might wish to keep in touch with, for safeguarding purposes.”

Teachers may be directed by their head teacher to set work and so on but the national curriculum has been suspended and a lot of are in schools for childcare reasons. Let them get this first week out of the way before the complaints and demands flood in!

And this

Do schools need to provide educational support for pupils at home?
We recognise that many schools have already shared resources for children who are at home and are grateful for this.

DfE is working with the BBC and other partners to provide advice and support directly to parents, including online resources they can access for their children at home.

Source www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-school-closures/guidance-for-schools-about-temporarily-closing