For those homeschooling young DC with a baby/toddler, how are you doing it?

[sortmylifeoutplease]

Any tips? I've got a baby, reception and year 1. Crying daily and depleted. I've quit work for now as no childcare now, but need some coping tips and strategies for how to practically fit in homeschooling without neglecting baby so much. My kids are generally good and pretty bright and I'm still failing on all fronts.

@MyCatShopsAtAldi collage . My DD’s reception teacher sent a topic of bug hunt and house building for this week with requests of evidence of completed task. 😂. Not a chance.

I would only do reading with the younger one, plus a bit of daily counting, watch Numberblocks etc (expectations by Easter will be counting to 20 and recognising shapes, lots of very everyday language about heavier/lighter/bigger/smaller).

Have a focussed hour (or two half hours) with the older one, either when your partner is home and/or during baby's naptime.
If the videos from school aren't working for your situation don't do them - there are lots of resources out there. Order some workbooks off Amazon, do some BBC Bitesize lessons etc that you can do in 15 minutes.

There's lots of educational stuff they can watch on TV or games they can play - Teach Your Monster to Read, Alpha/Numberblocks, Team UmiZoomi, Odd Squad, Operation Ouch, TT Rockstars, Bitesize games.

They're not doing their GCSEs, they just need to keep up with the basics - reading, writing, maths.

@EcoCustard . The nuttiest one I’ve seen was on here where someone’s DC (secondary school age) had to cook a specific dish and send photos in.

I am trying really hard not to be That Parent but am really hoping I get asked for feedback as my constructive feedback would be: no fucking collages, please, or papier mâché (I can feel it coming); and could you please let us know at the weekend what we’ll need for the week ahead, eg this week it was PVA glue, post-it notes, child-friendly scissors, and wrapping paper/newspapers/magazines/photos ( - she didn’t think that through, though at least did tell kids to check with their grownup before cutting up photos...)

I have a 2 year old and a 7 year summer born so in year 3 KS2 which means he has around 4-5 hours per day work set which he needs almost constant supervision for to keep him on task/work the technology/stick to the timetable. It's an absolute nightmare. It's ok people saying just to not do the work but my DS is already behind from being the youngest in his class and the last lockdown so I really can't not do the work with him. My 2 year old DS (3 in March) who has been potty trained for 6 months has stared weeing/pooing himself up to 10 times a day I presume he's not getting enough attention I feel like I'm split in 2. I work 3 days a week and my husband has just managed to get part furloughed to cover them so there's only ever 1 of us at home apart from Sunday's. I'm so fed up of it all now.

I have a ds in reception and an 8 month old. It’s bloody hard. The school send so much stuff every day and the pressure some days feels immense. I’m lucky that the baby will nap twice a day so as soon as he’s in bed I will sit and do stuff with ds. But that depends on what kind of mood he is in, how compliant he is as to how successful we are. I’m not going to stress about it. It sucks and I feel so sad that his first year of school has been totally ruined. But the headteacher did write us all a letter this week to tell us to not stress about home learning, it’s more important to look after our families mental health etc which was nice.
I think we just have to lower our expectations. If we achieve one thing in a day then that’s great. I’m just grateful that I don’t have children in really important year groups, that must be so so stressful and difficult.

I'm a childminder and worked through the last lockdown with 4 under 5s, plus my own Year 1 child.

I couldn't do hours of work with him or much of the school work, but I would skip through the school videos to see what topics they were covering.

I got these English & maths practice workbooks collins.co.uk/collections/collins4parents-year-1
and we did a couple of pages every day.
Plus reading, educational TV and he enjoyed the Karate Cats maths & English games on BBC Bitesize.
Also did some history/geography/science 'topic' lessons on BBC Bitesize when we had the chance, with some Twinkl worksheets.

He actually returned to school further ahead of many children in his class just from doing a little bit every day in short bursts.

Also bear in mind that the government have ordered schools to provide 3 or 4 hours of work a day.
That doesn't mean you as a parent have to do 3 or 4 hours work.

Reception & Year 1 children are not doing that much in school. There's a lot of playing, waiting, lining up/sitting down, break times, arts & crafts, going to the toilet and staring out the window in school too. An hour a day of focussed time at home is easily worth 2 or 3 in school.

I'm teaching a reception age child (youngest in class) and have twins just turning 1. School were staggeringly unhelpful when I said I can't home school as I cant take my eyes off the twins. They have never napped at the same time. School said what time does your husband finish work he can do the school work then??????? Um no, my daughter goes to bed and I'm not keeping her up for this day in day out for goodness knows how long.

It's definitely hard. On the 2 days a week I have all 3 DC at home, I don't try and do different work with my year 1 and my 4 year old, that doesn't work at all. I ignore a lot of the school work as it seems to assume I can devote myself exclusively to doing it, which just isn't realistic. Instead, I've bought workbooks like a pp at the right stage for each of the DC. We do 4 pages of English and 4 pages of maths. I sit between them with my 18 month old intermittently joining us, and I find I can manage them both doing workbooks as they are designed to be done a bit more independently. The books we have have stickers which helps a lot! Other than that, I do some reading and some phonics videos. We are luckily not getting chased to do the official school work.

Thanks all. Taken the night off with a bath, a couple of glasses of wine and DP. Feel better now. I've got loads of workbook type things, so I'll do those I think, dig deeper into resources if they don't get a concept, do a token piece from school, some reading from a book and can then not have to worry about laptops being pulled off table etc by baby. Even if I just use the time I would have spent logging in and out, jumping all over portal to find videos and associated worksheets, printing, uploading and downloading, that will help us massively and free up space. Less stress. I'm going to prioritise getting out every day and reading and let the rest follow. Something needs to give. Good luck everyone.

I've found a travel cot with toys in the kitchen while we home school helps a bit

@ColdCottage You haven't seen the size of my kitchen/cupboard!!

Mines not that big either but bigger than my last house. I just spend my day moving the high chair, travel cot and kitchen chairs around. Good luck

@ColdCottage We don't have space in ours for a dishwasher or even two people at a time!!
I know what you mean about the furniture moving around

It’s difficult. I have a 6 month old and 2 year old as well as an 8, 9 and almost 11 year old. I’m on the verge of a total breakdown tbh. My 8 and 10 year old mostly crack on with the work with little input from me so that’s fine. 9 year old is a different story, she needs 1:1 support with pretty much all of the work.

I am an English teacher but I teach adults so it’s a totally different kettle of fish, I take my hat off to primary school teachers- it is not for me! I’m pretty rubbish at maths so struggle to help with that, my 8 year old’s maths is about my level . It’s an uphill struggle every day and I don’t know how I’m still standing most of the time. I’m battling through a chronic case of nipple thrush at the minute too and nothing is really helping that so I’m in pain or feel unbearably itchy a lot. I honestly could scream.

Well I hope it might fit in the room you home school in. We home school in the kitchen. Good luck it's like a hamster wheel isn't it 😊

@Norwayreally Very similar to you! My 13 yo is fine but my 10 yo wants constant support and the baby is always on the boob!!! Arrrrghhhh!