[sad] AIBU to HATE HATE HATE homeschooling?

[MrsNWT]

It's only been a couple of days and I'm f*cking losing it. I'm so depressed. We've got a small place, I have my own work to do (self employed) and I've reached my personal low trying to teach one of the kids.

What are you all doing? I'm throwing in the towel. I want them to learn and not been their screens all day and I WON'T do arts and crafts and learning activities all day long. Simply hate it.

My kids are 12, 9 and 7

AIBU to lose my SH*T already?

@ineedaholidaynow

My only gripe with all this is exactly as you describe with the timings. I’m not sure if schools are of the belief that all children live in a large spacious house with individual laptops with individual desks and work space. There seems to be very little thought or consideration as to how exactly the child can realistically get this level of work done and it simply isn’t doable in some households to have a child at the only workspace available to the household all day.

I have a website that I am sorting out and for what I am doing I need the entire table space. My son wakes up before anyone in the flat and he would happily start at 7.30am and if the school just uploaded the work from the night before or all in the morning around 7-8am then he could get all his work out the way and then I can do my bits. Trying to recreate a school setting and structure when we are all working on top of each other and all need the table simply doesn’t work ( well not in my household) and schools need to stop this. This should actually be the least of their worries, give the work by all means, this isn’t the issue but do not try to control when he does it when he is no longer in your setting as then inadvertently the school is controlling my day and that is a huge issue for me.

I will see what next week brings and if they continue with this trying to recreate a school timetable in my flat I will be telling them straight, after 1pm he will not have access to the work therefore won’t be doing it. We all need to be flexible to some degree, I have no issue giving him 4/5 hours work per day but give it all either from the night before or at 7am. It’s not as if the teachers reply back instantly when he’s asked questions anyway, so far the responses have taken hours rather than minutes so there doesn’t appear to be any reason to have the lessons at the set times.

We now have a timetable, based on what the school have sent out, so I can roughly tell what I should be doing, DS is up for that, but if by Friday its not working its going out the window.

We have set aside an hour a day for what he wants to do that is somewhat educational, be that baking, playing monopoly or monkey island in the xbox. Lego is going to be a great one and I have high hopes for actually sorting out all his lego by the end of this and in a very educational way

The schools can't possibly parents to recreate school at home.

That would discriminate massively against children whose parent is WFH, who have limited access to resources or any other personal or domestic circumstances which hinder this.

Definitely focus on the wellbeing of you and your children xx

I teach and ny kids hate learning with me, all I get is "that's not what my teacher says!"! I will also be working at school, potentially 7.30-6 so will have to home school after this plus plan and put up lessons for my own class as well. I aim to do 3 or 4 activities a day one of which is reading, some maths, spelling and a daily diary. Keeing it simple because my eldest is highly anxious and struggling just now.
Just doing a little each day, not anything extream, can be finding out about an interesting topic or being outdoors. Try to make some sort of routine to keep yourself and kids going and that is enough. Don't put pressure on yourself.

i am a key worker and i've never felt so lucky in my life when i was speaking to my dd's teacher.

i was expecting the school to be more child care and not teaching but my dds teacher basically said don't send anything in they will teach them, they love teaching and it's what they want to do.

there's 8 kids in the school going to be attending, all of which are key worker families.

it's a very small school in the countryside, i feel so relieved, especially at a time when i just want to protect my kids and keep them at home but i'm not in a position to do that

The local schools I know will be going through the work that has been set for all children, with the children that are actually in the school. So not just childminding.

For DS a rigid timetable will be good as otherwise the call of the PS4 might be too much!

I am sure schools will end up being flexible with when the work is being done. This is all new for them too. They are just trying to do their best in awful circumstances. Their job is to educate children and that is what they still want to do. They also care deeply for the well-being of the children so won’t want them to be put under too much pressure.

If you can, spend some time looking in social media. I'm on twitter and follow Science people in Patti yuans so many wonderful folk are giving free online lessons. Also, bbc are going to be doing a lot more education online. Things like draw with rob are great. Maybe some if you have a group of parents you could collate a list between you and make a timetable, and get the kids to Skype each other at lunchtime to chat about what they've done?

My next door neighbours are both doctors so their DS is going to school each day. His school have advised that they are continuing with the usual timetable. It’s teaching not childcare.

It’s early days. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Get out in the garden if you can. Get them to read a book, they have quiet reading time at school anyway so should be used to this.

If they get sulky and stroppy like mine did yesterday then walk away for a bit. It’s such an unusual circumstance. We can’t become teachers overnight.

Teacher here - remember every single child in the whole country is in exactly the same situation. Every child will be 'behind' where they would have been (academically) if this hadn't happened. But they'll all be 'behind' at the same time - so not behind! Our head has said that we should expect to be closed until September and when we re-open it's not going to be business as usual from day one. It's going to take a long time to get children used to the routines and expectations of school again.
I'd say try and relax and have confidence in yourself. No child is hard at work from 9 til 3 everyday. If you don't like what school has set - look up home schooling websites, or home schooling sections of educational websites. Loads of them don't involve lots of worksheets but have great practical ideas.
Children and working from home will be so hard, you have my sympathies. But thinking in alternative ways could be the answer?

Parker231 our head teachers are saying it's child care not education. There will be a teaching element but the approach is creative, big project ideas.

If anything positive comes out of this horrendous situation, perhaps it will be more respect for the incredible and very challenging job teachers/school support staff do day in, day out! 😊

In school environment we get up and move around frewuently, get sensory feedback from our changing environment, other people, pupils, random interactions. Noone can sit in front of a screen all day waiting for instructions as per a school timetable online. It isnt possible to replicate that atructure in that way. Structure, yes, but not sitting still at a table all day. It has to be an adaptation to the home restictions/freedoms.

My kids are year 1 and year 4. The school have sent us a huge amount of work for them and the email says it is mandatory that we do it.
But we have no online learning or communication with the school at all

I am a secondary school teacher and parent. I am setting work and posting it online with a deadline. To be honest it doesn’t matter if they do it or not; I just put a deadline to give it more meaning. There is no problem if kids do not do the work as there are so many other ways and things to learn that they don’t normally have time for.

If they get bored, the tasks are there, although I will be mainly expecting them to self-mark using the answers I post. To be honest, some children will learn far more at home than in a classroom: they just won’t learn the standard curriculum.

Unfortunately, those without internet access will have less guidance from teachers, but I don’t see a way around that right now, unfortunately. Please do not stress about your children’s education though, especially as by September they might be so desperate for school they’ll all double their efforts in class. 😂😂

AIBU To hope that you all might now have a bit of understanding of what parents of SEND kids go through every day due to lack of provision?

My children get a task a day on show my homework so they do that but wondering if I should do more. They are Y7 and 9 though so I'm not really sure what to teach them but am worried especially about my oldest going in to Y10 in September.

Several parents are teachers and will have no problems.

I'm a qualified primary teacher - and I'm hitting the point of a nervous breakdown over it all - I'm mid uni degree myself hitting exam period, husband is working from home - and there's a bit of an expectation that this is all going to fall on me.

DD2 has SEN, it was just really starting to come together for her in school and I've got to sustain that momentum, plus take over the intervention work that was narrowing the gap with her difficulties, DD1 has challenging behaviour (I suspect ASD to be honest but she masks so won't get anywhere at present) and then I've got my work to keep on top of as well.

I'm having panic attacks and a little cow on my uni course has just had a massive sanctimonious go at me over the parent students wondering how the fuck they're going to do it all - I can't see me keeping it all in the air to be honest. The shit going around on social media about how enriching people are going to have their kids' days (and I know it's bullshit) are really piling the expectation on as well.

School have not sent much of any use out - I know it's been done last minute - but it was very much a "bake with your children and kick a ball around" worthy-sounding but very very adult-led and time dependent stuff. So I've made a rough timetable which is at the level of a very early morning dog walk/run feral through the woods before people are about, quiet time for an hour to do reading and the online stuff the schools HAVE set up or I've set up myself - and a couple of activities a day. DH has been told he HAS to be available for those couple of hours and support and not just hide on work skype "calls" which are usually discussing where to find loo roll. It's mainly because mine will need the structure than any grand educational goals.

you dont need to keep up with the curriculum. Even if they are watching documentaries and reading books, taking walks etc and then spending some time gaming or chatting to friends online, I think its fine. Its not forever. If you CAN homeschool, then great, but actually, try not to stress too much. Thats the last thing any of us need

@Rosebel

I was using the CGP books until all
This happened, just to try and keep
My son ahead of the game and found those to be quite good.

@Nettleskeins exactly, it’s a totally different set up etc that can’t realistically be replicated at home unless your child is Sheldon, who would absolutely love this. My DS is already wanting to go back to school as he can’t stand this set up and would prefer to be able to sit in a class and ask a teacher there and then.

@BBCK you are right as I said my ds is already desperate to get back. He is very much about everything having its place, so to him his bulk of his education is at a school with the exception of a bit homework so this situation of 5 hours school work at home is causing him to short circuit

My 11 year old won't be doing any online tasks because other than our phones we don't have Wi-fi. Am I worried about her missing out? No. We have the CGP books for the basics - maths, English and science but to be honest most of the rest of what they learn at school is useful and interesting but not a disaster if they don't learn about Vikings or whatever.

My son has now locked himself out of the system, before he's even started!!

Thank you so much all of you for your replies, the practical tips, websites, encouragement and I don’t mind at all if my desperate post cheered you up a bit! That’s a good thing and I totally understand and we are all in the same boat.

I also get that I used the wrong terminology (whatever this new situation is called) and that it’s different from ‘home educating’, and hats off to you, that’s a whole new level.

I’m ready to try again tomorrow with a calm mind and less expectations. We can get through this.

I’m setting a low bar; if the DC’s education is minimal/non-existent for a year, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

Concerns:

1. All of us staying alive and fed.
2. The country not going to shit.

and

then

1. Other stuff

im thinking of signing my 13yo son up with online schooling for a few months as I think it would be more structured and interactive than just completing emailed tasks or whatever. Especially knowing the challenge that ive had trying to do homework with him. Does anyone think schools will be ok with me just doing that to keep him going rather than completing the work they set? Is it going to be obligatory?