Wfh, homeschooling and overwhelmed support thread

[MedusasBadHairDay]

Just thought some of us could probably do with this.

I feel like I need to point out I am supportive of the schools closing, I think it's the right thing to do, and I do appreciate the schools efforts to set up home learning. The teachers have been great.

However I have no idea at all how to cope with this. We've been given full timetables for both kids (6 and 8), including daily zoom calls.

Somehow got to manage that while working from home, in an overcrowded house (kids share a room, I have to work in the living room, there's no dining room etc). Doesn't help that I'm fairly new to my job, and as part of that new role I also need to be studying towards a qualification, and this is shaping up to be our busiest month.

Who else is in the same boat? Any ideas how you are going to manage? Just need a vent?

Morning!

I have Yr8 and Yr3 children here, in an impossibly tiny house that we were planning on moving out of last year (but that never happened for obvious reason). The washing machine has broken this week too. Yr8 child is pretty well-practised at home learning after lockdown 1 but feeling pretty miserable at the moment. Yr3 child HATES being at home/home schooled so I'm trying to be very relaxed with expectations.

Neighbours are having some major building work done (which we've known about for ages) but I thought we'd be at work/school whilst the really noisy stuff was going on. But no! The (very nice) builder has just popped his head in and asked me to move my car which is a totally reasonable request, expect I wasn't dressed, it's -2 degrees outside and it's taken me 15 minutes to scrape all the ice off before I could even get the thing off the drive - not the best start to the day!

Think I might have Christmas cake for breakfast - that might put the day back on the right footing!

That's definitely not a great start to the day, don't blame you for the Christmas cake breakfast at all

My DD was very worried in last lockdown but they split the day eg:
Mum had kids all morning, Dad worked.
Dad had kids all afternoon, Mum worked.
After bed time they both worked to complete the working day.

It was hard and at times she felt like being on a treadmill but there was also satisfaction of rising to the challenge and finding resources within herself.

I hope at least you can postpone the qualification until later.

Just say no to the school.
Last lockdown our school hadn’t even managed to set up teams or anything so it was all done via their website with lists to download etc and it was such a faff. I just said we’d do the spelling they’d sent home and I used two maths text books and set my own work for the kids. I am fortunate that my sister is a teacher so could guide me on the levels etc. But even she said that if parents could help their children read every day, do some age appropriate spelling and some writing she’d have been delighted.

We had a 3 week closure in September due to covid so another 3 weeks and this time Teams was a thing for the school. Older dd could manage her own work this way but younger ds not. I was working night shift so I just said no. He carried on with daily reading and did a mini project requiring him to write and record data each day independently.

The schools can’t make you follow their work. Kids don’t need half the stuff taught to them. Reduce it to the basics and encourage some autonomous learning- let child choose a personal project and set them free to work on that. Get them to present it in PowerPoint or a sway or a traditional book form. Great educational experience and they WILL learn hugely from it. Independent work. For short periods and set them a timetable with breaks for them and a snack box to minimise interruptions while you’re wfh.

School doesn't start back here until next week.
I'm really hoping they don't require online attendance for long periods or at particular times of day.
Last lockdown they were a "worksheets-and-fuck-off" school and we just did whatever we liked.
I got into a nice little routine of working in the morning and helping the kids on Reading Eggs during the afternoon.
I know it doesn't sound like much but DS could bearly read at the start of lockdown and he reads for pleasue now.
DD knows her letters and is starting to blend.
Plus it was managable. Noone was stressed.
I'm very tempted to just continue with whats working for us and sack off the school work completely.

I notice that real life home educating families don't give their kids a full days schedule. They tend to do bits every now and again, in a more relaxed way. I think I'm better off following their lead.

My DS doesn't start back until Monday, so I'm just worrying here rather than having to do anything at the moment.

DS was in primary (year 6) last time and basically did what he liked as school only provided SATS revision worksheets. Now he's in secondary with an expectation he'll be on zoom 5+ hours a day. It's going to be a big change of pace from last time and I think a lot of year 7 will struggle. I'm hoping he'll be able to do it all with minimum support, but not sure. He's academically able, but is very anxious so may need a lot of reassurance. I'm also worried about the amount of screen time!!

Last time the focus was on "do what you can" whereas this time it feels like there is an expectation education will carry on as normal.

I'm NHS (although about as far from the front-line as you can get) so not intending to use critical worker provision, although there may be days where I have to do so. For example, I need to interview for new team members and cannot be interrupted plus I'm not sure the WiFi will take the strain. DH delivers online training so has virtually no flexibility to support, and his organisation is pretty cut throat. I feel pretty guilty about this though...

We're lucky in many ways, we only have one DS, we have a decent size house, we have enough devices and we have mostly ok wifi. But it's still going to be a difficult six weeks.

If anyone has good tips / coping plans for all day zoom lessons, I'd love to hear them!

@unlimiteddilutingjuice

School doesn't start back here until next week. I'm really hoping they don't require online attendance for long periods or at particular times of day. Last lockdown they were a "worksheets-and-fuck-off" school and we just did whatever we liked. I got into a nice little routine of working in the morning and helping the kids on Reading Eggs during the afternoon. I know it doesn't sound like much but DS could bearly read at the start of lockdown and he reads for pleasue now. DD knows her letters and is starting to blend. Plus it was managable. Noone was stressed. I'm very tempted to just continue with whats working for us and sack off the school work completely.

I hope you can carry on as last time too! I think schools are under tremendous pressure to keep education going but in reality for little ones you're limited to what the parents can facilitate!

I've already chased and carried my 7yo to the computer for the morning check-in.
Both my two loathe video calls. I'm not opposed to the principle, but the reality is that it just doesn't work for some children. We have brownies abstaining until we get back f2f and my two have flatly refused to engage with scouting since March.

I have to sit with them 1:1 for them to do anything and it is all a complete battle and there is no escape. Now worse than ever as leaving the house to walk past houses or wade through mud is grim. I'm very fortunate not to have to balance this with work having already ditched my career as DS1 doesn't cope with childcare (ASD, also has dyspraxis and dyslecia) but sitting on a chair, nagging, cajoling and guiding both of them is absolutely mind numbing and I don't know how much of it I can take because it was gruelling the first time around.

I wany them to love learning but I just don't know what to do. I don't want them to flounder and fail and I don't want it to be a constant fight. Breaking it down into chunks through the day just turns it into a constant battle becase it takes far longer to get them to the kitchen table than their attention span lasts.

They both need to learn with their peers. (And no, they have never been interested in wholesome do with mummy stuff like baking)

Annoyingly my most important work meetings are usually in the mornings, guess when the kids zoom calls are scheduled for? We missed DDs one today because it wasn't noted online when I checked at 9am, I was in meetings until 10.30, so hadn't had the kids using the laptop, and it turns out her zoom call was at 10. So the school are clearly expecting us to log the kids on at 9am, which just isn't going to work.