Homeschooling - are you carrying on in Easter hols?

[mymoonmyman2020]

On the one hand I think it would be positive to keep up a routine (we do a bit of school work in the morning with more free time in afternoon but no tv etc until after ‘school’ hours).

On the other hand I think we could all maybe do with a break :)

We’ve been ill here so the schooling’s been pretty hit and miss anyway...

My year 7 won’t be. She’s been doing 9 til 2 or 3 most days so definitely needs a break. I will probably do a bit with my year 5 who’s only been doing an hour or so a day.

As a school we are now 'on holiday.'

We've not posted any academic stuff like English and Maths.

But we've continued to post other activities such as colouring, worksheets, links to online games, links to free resources like books etc. Plus we have our ongoing maths and English websites which children access during normal times too.

Good thread. I hadn’t actually considered it, but I’m guessing not really. I’m particularly fortunate that DD has an excellent Teacher who has been setting work each day so Home-schooling has been easier for us than for many.

Now you’ve raised the question OP, I might start talking to her about some projects we could work on. I’ve also seen that some museums do virtual tours, so I wonder if we could do some “trips”. Is it too much to hope that the weather bucks up?

DD is in Reception so she doesn't have anything onerous to do, DH doesn't do anything with her on the days I'm working, so we'll keep at it just to pass the time. We don't do a lot anyway. Today we did a phonics book exercise which took 5 minutes, 10 minutes of the Carol Vorderman 10 minutes maths book, and she practised writing some tricky words. She'll read to me later.

I started teaching in the 1970s!
We used to let the children chose their own topics to do a project on alongside more directed work .Perhaps some of your children might like to do that e.g
Space
A Country
Football or other sport
Animals
Famous Scientists
Dinosaurs etc etc

Not a chance

The regimentality and sheer volume of all the work sent through every day is killing us
Mental health and well-being is definitely suffering

I really really don't want to go back to it afterwards either - I need to find a better way...

My primary kids got set a lot of tasks on google classroom and it was a lot more than I felt happy doing with them, it took us a while to get into the swing of things.
So I'm doing an hour of school work in the mornings with them nothing too much but just catching up really.
Mine definitely benefit from a bit of routine and are ok with doing a bit of work so we will carry on.

Y10 daughter is just doing the homework that's been set for the holidays. She's been doing full school days though.

I won’t be as stringent over the holidays. I have a few Easter based activities planned for the first week and I’m planning on doing one or two educational things a day rather than 9-3 solid education as we do now.

Yes - all the days I'll be working, ds needs to be working! If he completes all the work set by school, I've taken the free Rosetta Stone membership, he has mygcsescience and Memrise (via school) plus Century so no way out of the work :-)

@Bin85 this is what we are doing, ds is nearly 5, we have a group chat with a couple of his friends and we are letting one of them pick a topic every week and doing mini projects about them to show each other at the end of the week, this week, volcanoes !! And they all seem to be enjoying it !!

My dc are doing so little school work i need them to do some over the holidays to catch up. Plus it keeps the home routine going as one has asd. And we are only just getting into the swing of the routine now, so to stop it, would really be detrimental.

We are as DS (10) wants to and he was very anxious at first about wanting to stick to a normal school routine (he’s never usually anxious). He’s stuck to a 9-3 timetable with the usual school breaks so far and he hated last weekend as he was bored! He has a project from school that he can work on to make it really good and he has lots of activities to do from Junior Sea Cadets. I’ve signed him up to Carol Vorderman maths and we’ll keep doing Joe Wicks first thing. He’s also been doing additional year 7 work books so he can focus on them in the “holidays” as he’s finding the year 6 work very easy and he’s due to start at a grammar school in Sept so he can’t afford to fall behind. I’m “off” from working from home as I work in a very niche area of SEND so I can give him more attention. The afternoons will be lots of “PE” (garden time), cooking, colouring, Easter crafts, board games etc and if it all goes wrong and he can always put the PS4 on early 😂

Oh and we’re going to do the English With Holly sessions as DS hasn’t had time to do them so far with all his school work. DH has cancelled his leave and will be WFH still so we’ll have to keep reasonable quiet.

We do Monday, Wednesday and Friday.... 10-4 with 12-2 off and finish early on Friday because it’s Friday
But we’ll probably carry on through the hols because it’s good fun!

I am. I feel like she deserves lazy days without the notion of schooling. We had our holiday away cancelled so she was sad about that. I’m off this week too so we’re both having a lazy hanging out week. Next week I’ll be back to work, and then she’ll go back when she’s supposed to. Structure helps, sure, but I feel like she still needs her actual holidays.

Definitely not. DD6 has been working so hard bless her (her choice) and we are now on survival mode with DS8 who is autistic and not coping!

Holidays will consist of lego and crafts plus a long walk.

I live in a northern city, we've been on Easter break since Friday, I've had to start or I'd never get going again

I worked the first week of lockdown as a key worker and DD went to school so this is our first week, but would have been Easter break so yes still doing some school work

Homework has been set by school for the holidays so they will do that plus revision as they are year 10 and 12 so it'd be expected anyway.

We've treated last week and this one as the Easter holidays and will start school work on Friday.

Going to have a 5 day school week that runs over the weekend so I can have two clear days to work during the 'normal' week

We're planning to do some gentle school things but what they choose to do rather than what's been issued by the school. I'm not pushing it. I did speak with 10yo DD about it and she thought it was a good idea to have something to do as we can't go out.

I expect we'll play some games, do some crafts and watch films.

Hell no.... I need the break..thinking I’m gonna need a psychiatrist after this 😩

Thanks for all the replies :)

We have decided to not do set school work (unless some holiday homework is provided) but to stick with some activities we’ve been doing eg typing, art/craft, reading, board games etc and no tv/consoles until after school hours.

Tbh I’d be happy if it was nice weather and mine played outside all day :)

And yes @Hadenoughofitall441I know the feeling! All sounds very wholesome above but truth is we have a huge amount of bickering here and my anxiety is through the roof (not to mention actually having the virus!)

If we stop, I think we will never get back into it. I might keep it to just one task every morning.

Well, our school has declared the holidays! Work won’t be set per se, but there are some optional activities.... think we will be having a break 😴