Parents -what types of home learning did you and your children get on best with?

[AdultHumanFemale]

In the event of a return to online learning in the near future, I am keen to canvas opinion on what types of learning tasks and activities your primary aged children found enjoyable, and which you as parents found manageable to assist with, or which enabled a degree of independence which in turn allowed you to work from home?
State the age of your child / ren, followed by what online learning activities worked for them / you last time around, please.
I really want online learning to be really rewarding for my class, and think parents have a wealth of wisdom to share on this subject.
Thank you!

Anything that used more than one sort of input. My kids school used an app called seesaw. The teacher would upload photos of the class book pages, then a recording of it being read aloud, and then there were worksheets which could incorporate typing, photos, drawings that could be uploaded, things created entirely online, videos, recordings. It meant that the children were far more receptive to having a go as they could use their preferred style.
They used this across all the subjects (years 2 and 5) and it meant that other than checking they had responded to all the work posted, I could leave them to it for a decent hour or so at a time.

YR and Y2 last time. School did online videos of the teachers reading stories and doing quizzes. These were a success.

Worksheets with no additional input were not well received by anyone.

Thanks, Snowflake, my DC's school also used SeeSaw although my school doesn't. But yes, a really useful platform. Preferred medium goes a very long way, you're right. Thanks again!

11yr boy - can work a bit independently bit reluctant learner

We made our own timetable up with start time, breaks and lunch time all timetabled
He did a mix of
numeracy (sundog website),
literacy (reading- write about what you read),
some topic work (researched online),
some art (disney drawings online),
PE with Joe or if nice some time outside

and one of the things that he really enjoyed watch Newsround after lunch 1pm and write a sum up of the days news.

Glasgow science Centre also did online science things

Scotlass, were these activities set by your DS's teacher or sourced / directed by you?

To what extent did people join in with class zooms etc?
If not, was that because of limited access to technology, eg your DC not being able to access a shared laptop or computer at a set time as it was required at that same time by another family member?
I'm interested in this as would love to find a way to teach more interactively this time, but do not want to disadvantage pupils with limited access to tech. In a normal classroom setting, a practical / interactive activity is such a powerful springboard to a whole raft of other learning activities, all of which are not possible if some pupils are not able to access live teaching. The alternative would be to pre-record lessons, but so much of the interaction, real time questions and answers, is lost. Hm.

Anything that involved actual interaction with the teacher.

My youngest (age 5) LOVED when his teacher uploaded a video lesson. Either the teacher doing an activity for him to watch (we could then do a follow-up activity based round the video) or a whiteboard activity with the teacher doing a voiceover whilst doing the lesson (e.g. writing letters, linking numbers to objects etc). He engaged far more readily than if I did the same thing with him.

Middle child (age 7) loved videos as well, but could also engage with worksheets etc. Again was far more motivated when it was clearly set by the teacher (even if it was just a voiceover of the teacher saying 'now can you try worksheet 4 please) than me saying 'you need to do worksheet 4 now'.

Age 9 loved uploading completed work and getting a response from her teacher, again even just a thumbs up emoji helped motivation as it showed the work was looked at if the teacher didn't have time for more in-depth feedback.

Year 3. His reaction to today’s news is “you won’t make me do those videos again, will you mummy, I think I can manage anything but that” (oak national academy).

Things which worked well within the limited confines were “research a project and draw a picture/write a story/etc” type things eith ideas of places to go for information in different forms (bbc Bitesize, museum websites, google maps walkthroughs of museums, etc).

Our class zooms started at the end of June and were too chaotic and not personal enough. Having been involved in lots of online what’s through voluntary organisations, I would given the choice only do up to ten children at once on one - even if that’s once every theee weeks rather than every week.

The best things were when we got an email from his teacher in response to work.

There are loads of good resources on YouTube and even iPlayer. I know not every child has access to them but basing a learning lesson around an Operation Ouch or a Maddie and Greg let’s go live! session would be better than lots of what we had. And I agree - hearing your voice instructing them makes such a difference.

Agree with coffee required now- anything interactive where they see the teacher or their classmates.

None of mine got on with Oak Academy
Y6 and Y2

@AdultHumanFemale

Scotlass, were these activities set by your DS's teacher or sourced / directed by you?

It was a bit if a mixture with some things lifted from the teachers suggestions and a daily check on the glow site and what I knew would work for us. I was working from home, DH doing shifts and DD doing uni work so we went with a timetable for structure but didn't have pressure from our school to submit. The teacher could see progress on the sites they use at school. I honestly didn't get worked up. I'd rather he researched bridge building and made one with lego than built a castle that was the set task. Thankfully his teacher and headteacher are both very understanding

My kids are y5 and y3 (age 9 and 7). They did very well with a mixture of an app called doodle, reading for pleasure, creative writing with prompts and science projects (the school set the topic and we were free to do what we wanted - mainly experiments found on Pinterest with a little bit of writing to explain them).

DS is 5. I'm a single parent working full time and the only device we have is my work laptop and its just me and him - no support

Last lockdown he did no school work. It's likely that he wont do any this time either - i'm going to be begging the school tomorrow for some assistance as his mental health as well as his education is going to suffer.

@HelloCanYouHearMe phone the school, don’t take no for an answer. We’re going to have under 30 students-secondary and we could definitely add more and did so when a desperate parent asked last lockdown.

We’ll be doing mostly live lessons, but I’m a bit worried about sustaining this, it’s going to be hard going! Looking at this thread, tho, it seems videos of the teacher/live lessons is the most attractive option, so worth it for the kids.

Part time wfh. Kids aged 8 and 5
The best things I've found are online subscription services. Stuff like Reading Eggs, Night Zookeeper etc..
These sorts of resources really hit the sweet spot of being fun/gamified for the kids, differentiated by ability and requiring minimum thought from the parent.
My kids also enjoyed the occasional Outschool class.
Last lockdown the school sent a list of tasks to be completed as and when. It wasn't great fo us tbh as DS (8) is behind and the work wasn't differentiated. One thing I learned really quickly: if the work isn't t the right level it's just dispiriting and pointless.
I still prefer that approach to the idea of online classes. I'm a bit anxious abut the prospect of these tbh. I need to work and it's much better if I can homeschool at a time that suits us, rather than having to get the kids set up with the tech to a particular schedule.

My maths, I think I had more fun than the kids (yes I’m a maths geek) I did get stressed when they didn’t understand my way of working out but I couldn’t understand quickly how they were doing it, oh how times have changed.

Age 7 and 10

They loved open ended tech projects, like “make a PowerPoint about your favourite object, including a graph”. If it was a closed topic then I had trouble engaging them and often changed it to something more suitable.

Also teacher responses to work. We didn’t have video first time round but they were so encouraged if the teacher had logged on and acknowledged their work- and so disappointed if they just got a smiley face for feedback.

Thanks everyone, this is such great feedback. Lots to think about! I think pre-recorded videos of lessons afford parents more flexibility, like you say, Unlimited, while live sessions provide really important interaction.
Differentiation is such a biggie, I think I am going to have to provide differentiated daily videos / Zooms for separate groups in each subject this time around as the range of ability in my class this year is vast.

This is helpful