Wish me luck! Home learning for 5

[noteabagsleft]

Just that really
Home learning starts today and I have 5 children all different ages to get through!
Just starting a little thread for some support for all us parents having to juggle home learning.
Last time we did this I got myself very stressed as didn't want the kids to fall behind because I wasn't able to keep up, but really struggled getting through it all! Because I have 5 and their all different ages I had to do one at a time as their work is so different, which meant the whole day was spent doing school work.
Good luck everyone.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4130305-Free-Julia-Donaldson-home-learning-activity-packs-at-Scholastic

I made a post for free learning packs.

I got the Julia Donaldson ones already, but will have a look at the thread to see what other ones there are. Thank you 🙏

Good luck! Sounds tough. I have a day of homeschooling to get through with my 5 year old in year 1 who woke me at 4am with earache. I also have a 4 year old in reception to try and do some learning with. And a 4 month old 😩 I can't wait for the day ahead!

@VelvetThunder

Aww your day just sounds as tough! Hope your little one is ok, earache is awful.

We just have to do our best, my DH keeps telling me not to stress cos I'm not a teacher and can only do what I can do, but don't want the kids falling behind everyone else and it being on me.

Hope you manage to get through today. Plenty coffee and countdown till bedtime 😂

Good luck op.

I have 3 dc to homeschool.

There is a lot of pressure on parents and those with multiple children of various ages.

I have 5 kids too but one is a baby so luckily no school work for her, she need to work on her sleeping through the night though!

How old are yours?

@xatcat

Definately is a lot of pressure on us, but suppose we just have to get on with it. Have always said I would never force my kids to do the school work, but their excited to get going and think it's a huge novelty that mum is teacher 😂

@CalmDownBoris72

Mines are 4.7,9,11 and 13
So a full range of ages, and they all get assigned different work. We will get there tho, like we did last time

Good luck!
I also do one at a time... but I only have two! Five sounds exhausting.
I'm also starting today and a bit anxious.
Last lockdown we were left to our own devises so I just had them do a little Reading Eggs and some Outschool classes.
Now I have to adapt to the schools schedule, It'll be an adjustment.
They both have Teams meetings at 9.30. Helpfully clashing with each other and my weekly team meeting (for work) on Zoom.
Good luck to everyone starting today!

Just try your best, try not to panic or worry-easier said than done I know- and pick your battles. Perhaps make a timetable of some sort so everyone can see what should be happening when.

@unlimiteddilutingjuice

Yeah last lockdown a lot of the work was optional and wasn't so much pressure but this time each child has quite a full timetable to get through each day.
I'm trying not to stress though and will just take it as it comes.
Hope your day goes well, and you manage to get there.

Thank you, it is. I gave him some Calpol and he's having a nap, so hopefully it will have eased a little when he wakes.
Exactly that, it's finding a balance isn't. We're not teachers and shouldn't stress too much about it, yet we don't want them to fall behind. We're doing our best though and that's good enough!

I'm going to go against the grain and say that i think education matters less at this time than everyone mental health. I only have to homeschool one fairly resistant DC. Taking it slowly and thinking that even if this turns out to be a whole year with little education, in the grand scheme of things I'm not too concerned. And this comes from someone who is highly educated and thinks education is important. I just don't think at this point in history it needs to take priority. Keeping safe and sane is more important. IMO.

Good luck

@noteabagsleft my dc eyes lit up when I said I would be their teacher. The youngest (4) asked if I was going to wear the same clothes as their teacher 😂 they also insisted they get extra play time if they are good.

@Tidypidy

The school have provided timetables for each child. So that's helpful but looking at it makes it seem more daunting as it seems a lot. But I'm sure we will manage. Wouldn't ever stress the kids out about completing work and if they was getting stressed about it I wouldn't make them do it, think it's a juggling act between making sure their keeping up with the work and looking after their happiness and well being. Such a confusing time for kids just now. So think too much pressure for school work isn't good.

You are running your own village school op!

I am feeling quite positive, but only have two! I have fairy lights, scented candles at the ready. Classical music on standby.

This will hopefully be the last lockdown, I want this to go well and to be remembered by the children, not something that was negative and horrible, but real moments of fun and humour, and extra time at home with their parents and pets that they would not otherwise have had.

Good luck everyone! I hope it goes well, we are not aiming for perfection here - we are aiming for a cheery day getting as much done as possible, and some time outside too.

Too much pressure is definitely not good. Can you combine the timetables to save having to look at 5 separate ones?

Last lockdown my children had an hour of "media studies", aka TV, I set them every day!

A friend of mine has 3 to teach and works from home. She struggled last time so this time is getting the eldest to help the youngest whilst she concentrates on the middle one, then she can help the eldest if necessary or get on with her own work. They are similar ages to yours op, maybe that would work for you some of the time. I only have one to teach, but with a 4 year old to entertain as well can be tricky some days!! Good luck everyone 😻

I'm going to go against the grain and say that i think education matters less at this time than everyone mental health

I agree with this. I'll also say that people who homeschool by choice don't tend to replicate the classroom experience or follow strict time tables.
They just do a little each day, at the child's pace, around their other commitments.
Which is what I did in lockdown 1.0 and both DC made progress.
I'll be giving the schools schedule a fair attempt but I'm prepared to scale back if it gets stressful.
We don't know how long we have to keep this up so let's treat it as a marathon not a sprint!

5 is a lot, but hopefully your eldest will at least be fairly self sufficient aside from technical glitches or the odd question, and a bit of chivvying.

My 3 are nearly 16 in gcse equivalent year, 13 and 9. The eldest is mostly self sufficient but a perfectionist and gets stressed out - last time she needed help with maths, physics and chemistry (taught in German, not my native language) which I had to do by watching tutorial videos with her as it was beyond anything I hazily remember doing at gcse! I did enjoy discussing her history assignents with her.

13 year old is self sufficient but lazy and just needs checking on and nudging/ chivvying.

9 year old needs a lot of help and gets an astounding volume of work - more than he can physically do in the time, all compulsory, accompanied by dire warnings about failure and slipping behind couched in very long waffly letters from his teacher. We had to pick up a learning packet yesterday - only option was between 2pm and 3pm, when I was at work (healthcare) an hour away! Good job we have 2 cars and DH could pick it up - we're rural, big geographical catchment, almost certainly some people couldn't get to the school during that tiny window of time with one day's notice!

The secondary school use Microsoft Teams which works well, but the primary use a local platform which is rubbish - and down, predictably. The learning packet directs the children to listen to a recording on the online platform in order to start the first activity, and the Platform is down - d'oh! This happened last lockdown too...

We're abroad and had full time tables for all the kids last lockdown too, so they're used to it at least. Last time I was studying for my own finals at the same time, and working 30 hours per week theoretically but actually more than full time due to colleagues constantly off, and it was incredibly stressful - essentially I had to do my own studying instead of sleeping, aside from trying to look engaged during the dial in compulsory classes which were frustratingly badly organised and unstructured yet compulsory...

This time its easier because it isn't new and we're only juggling with work, and no colleagues are off (touch wood!)

Good luck!!! I'm starting the week with the usual good intentions, and I am weirdly grateful to be unemployed today. I really sincerely wish you the best with the week
Just keep chanting "marathon not a sprint".

Yours are similar to mine, I have Y8, Y6, Y4 YR. I focus most on my Y4 8 year old as I find he’s at that funny age when they’re too young for independent learning but the work is quite tricky.

I’m resorting to CBBC for the first part of today for my reception age DC, their age group is on at 9.

Timetable wise, the primary age ones stick to the same one and I’m being really strict about a ‘morning mile’ which they also do at school so after their first 45 mins of learning we get our coats on and have a few laps around the block. This went down really well last week.

@Longsleepneeded I did this last week, my 12 year old knows much more about history than me so I roped him in to help his sibling!

Can I join you? I have four but two of them are in school. 13 year 8 is at home doing pretty full on live lessons from a private SEN school and I think my 17 year old is still asleep! I will check he is awake in a bit but he broke his PC last night. He might have borrow my laptop