Routine for your secondary school dc

[mostwonderfultime]

Going to try and work out a plan with my two today. They’re year 8 and 10 pretty good kids generally but without a structure will definitely end up staying in bed until lunchtime then sat on their devices until late. I want them to get school work done, do some exercise, help with chores, do something creative, as well as time on devices. Seen some suggested timetable around but I think they’re aimed at primary dc. What are you planning with your older dc? I am panicking a bit. Both were so happy and on track at school and I really want to do everything possible to help them stay motivated. I work 3 days a week so will be relying on them to get on with things on their own those days.

Mine are Y6, Y8 and Y11. I'm hoping to keep their morning routine in place (breakfast, shower, get dressed) and then do school work first thing. I already use the Apple parental controls to limit their screentime so I'm hoping to amend the settings in a way to encourage this routine. I'm intending this to be about two hours in the morning - doing their work and then reading for the rest of the time. After that I will need to be working (including making phone calls) so they will have the rest of the day to play, screen time etc. I don't want to limit their screen time beyond this as they're using it to keep in touch with friends (obviously there's a switch off time in the evening)

DS2 (Y8) has work set on Google Classrooms, so he's doing the work for the lessons he would have timetabled that day, if that makes sense. He's been off since Wednesday due to partial closure and that's working ok so far, but he is the most conscientious of the three of them! DS1 (Y11) has obviously finished his course now, but we're looking up some free online courses to do that will hopefully keep busy and keep his brain in school mode.

DS is getting up, showered & dressed as normal (albeit 2hrs later) and going for a walk as he has always walked to school.

He will then spend the rest of the day being yelled at to get on with his bloody schoolwork, with a break for lunch.

Secondary age DS is being set work that follows the timetable and the teachers are monitoring that they log on and complete the work at the right times. Primary age DS I have made an timetable for that starts at 9 and ends at 3. I have told them they need to up washed and dressed.for 9am no sitting around in PJs.

I make mine get up, have breakfast, shower and get dressed.
She is then supposed to do her work till lunchtime when we go for a walk.
It’s 10.08. She’s still in bed, having breakfast. Give me strength, I’ll start yelling in a minute.

BuddhaAtSea it's the weekend. I wouldnt expect them to behave like it was a school day on the weekend

Oh blimey, yeah! DS's is only a Mon-Fri thing. I'd have to be a real bitch to make him get up at the weekend. Hell, even I don't get up at the weekend!

Mine are continuing the same schedules they have st school

I believe most schools are sending work electronically. Check they can access that.

Don't feel you have to create the entire length of a school day. 2-3 hours with breaks in between is plenty.

What work books do they have at home?
Reading
Kahoot quiz's on any topics
Art/ crafts

My year 10 and year 8 will go into school on the days I am working. Other days my very flexible time table is get up, breakfast, dressed, walk dogs as a family. Then home and do school work until lunch, chill out in the afternoon and walk the dogs again

@Bunnybigears bloody hell, I lost track of days, we are in isolation. So it is!
Well, she didn’t twig either, so 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

DS will have video lessons from Tuesday although he only has one lesson on a Tuesday anyway. He is carrying on his athletics training in a small group obeying the social distancing and I am hoping he might take the opportunity to do some "super"curricular study via Futurelearn/Openlearn (the latter may be very optimistic).

DH and I have to work so we can't keep an eye on him all the time, we will just have to hope that he doesn't spend all his time on screens.

Mine are 13, 15 & 16.

Up by 8am. Breakfast, dressed, out for 9.

Coming to work with me (it’s my company and there’s only me working there now!) and using our IT room. Fortunately school are setting work online each week so they’re working their way through what’s set.

Planning 30 minute bursts with a 10 minute phone break.

Lunch.

Exercise in the afternoon (dog walk) but they’re tree apart from that.

Worth remembering that kids learn better in the morning and don’t need to do full days!

Thanks for your ideas. I’ve calmed down a bit now. Dc had reassured me that they will do the school work set, help out with house chores and get some exercise. We’ll see on Monday

I think the senior schools seem pretty organised with work set. The PE teacher at my DCs school emailed today to say that he would be doing daily fitness classes for them which is great.

I think they have to register in the morning also so that will get them up. I've said to get up in time for that, then have breakfast, shower etc before cracking on with lessons. From what I can tell they are set daily work that needs to be completed by 9pm for marking, so we'll see!

We are home educators. This is disrupting our routine hugely too as all groups/classes/social activities have stopped. Not to add that older brother and husband are home and we were busy preparing to sit 2 GCSEs with now no idea of how the arrangements will accommodate private candidates.

Anyway our routine of it helps.
Gets up 8.
Breakfast, brings down laundry, but of bedroom tidying, sometimes get dressed (pjs on the occasional days we are home/no visitors)
I write all his academic work in a diary as a list but he does it in order of choice. He does have a routine around what order he prefers to do things. I tend to sit with him for the morning so available to answer questions. He has some Skype tutorials at set times so for around those.
Documentary over lunch.
Bit more work usually anything left is homework from classes so I can let him get on with it.
After that there is usually swimming, a walk, a trip to grandparents. I think we'll be spending some time working on the garden to keep active if we go in to full lockdown. At the moment we're walking on the beach nearby as easy to avoid people.
Then it's help tidy up and a shower before hitting the screens. Gaming stuff goes off after tea. Evening is spend reading, playing board game, doing a quiz, watching tv, or at the moment he's back on computer because he's got in to coding again so has a project on the go.
A day and a half a week are normally spent completely out socialising. Not sure how we'll adapt around it yet. probably spread the work over more days, have a family board game in the afternoon before tidying up or more time online but using it to keep up with friends rather than gaming.

Ds (y9) schedule (Monday to Friday term time)
9am- wake up/go on phone/breakfast
10am- Assignment 1
11am- break until lunch
After lunch -Assignment 2
After dinner- Assignment 3

He's not been set more than 3 assignments.
Personally I would do Assignment 3 earlier but he prefers this schedule so I'm happy to go along with it. He broke up on Tuesday and has done this without any problems for 3 days so am happy.

DD Y10 will be told by me to follow her usual timetable. She has enough work to keep her going for Monday. DH will be working from home and I've told him to check in on her every hour. In reality he'll get so engrossed with work he won't look up from his laptop until 4pm when he starts to feel hungry.

DD will have trashed the kitchen baking a cake.

Ds in yr7, so up at 8 instead of 6:30, the on with school work between 9:30 and 12 then lunch and break. He likes to jog around the block or down the back street and back.
Then log onto Microsoft teams to connect with any of the days teachers IF he needs help with that days subjects.
He's been given a timetable as to when each teacher will be online to help so will try to stick to that. They've been given a timetable for mon- Thursday. Fridays are free.
After 5 both boys be practicing their recitation for evening class and contacting their tutors.

Will try this for week one then after the two week break might tweak it if it doesn't work

I tend to find that at home lessons are quicker than in school as there is no coming into the classroom getting equipment out, register, or settling a class.

I have year 12 and year 9. I am a SAHM, Dh is a key worker but is able to work from home. I know Ds1 is capable of managing his time well as he proved that with GCSE revision last year, even over the summer holidays he taught himself piano, guitar, learnt a language for fun etc etc. Ds2 will probably need more structure.

Ds1's stuff is online, YouTube videos are being made by his teachers, Ds2 has work booklets. He was advised to do 1 task per day per booklet. So they usually get up at 6.30 but are pushing that back till 7am. They will do their usual morning routine of shower, dressed, breakfast, chores. They usually leave the house at 8, so they will be ready to start their "school day" at 8.30.

We will break after each task and Ds2 knows there will be addtional stuff to watch on YouTube etc for a broader look at all topics. Ds1 did the same to get a fuller picture of time periods which helps with English Lit, History etc.

They know the quicker they get through their school work the more time there is for freetime.

I wfh normally anyway, so am busy 9-5. DS (yr 9) will need to be working from 9-12, then 1.30 till 5 (I am fully aware that he will take advantage of his PC access in this to do non school work). Plan is to follow his timetable. There is some work set by school already, but I had also bought a load of learn and revise books on ebay, the GCSE literature texts and he has access to Memrise and some other online things.
At lunchtime we will go for a walk or run with the dogs, and in the evening he'll do Zwift.

Won’t work past lunch time, 2-3 hours is plenty. No chatting or distraction like classroom , no time spent moving round. Can get same work done quicker. Stick to routine and encourage time in garden. Observe all holidays and weekends.
Mine will choose a longer term project each to fulfill a creative project suggested by school.
Each can plan and cool a meal. (Good plan for me!!)
Think of all the things you liked growing up and share them, do them with your kids. If you enjoy it, it will show.

Will fit in with Dd's natural body clock so she'll sleep in till late morning while I go out to work, then I will come home at lunch time and start cracking the whip! She said she'll follow her timetable but just later in the day, which is fine by me as hopefully she won't be grumpy. She is going to arrange some group chats in some lessons so they can work together but I will judge how productive these actually are and intervene if necessary.

On days DH is WFH, she can follow his timetable. I'm determined the days will not be wasted away on devices, and I mean that for myself as much as her. I've written myself a list of things I want to achieve whilst in isolation too.

I'm struggling a bit. My Y7 has an online English booklet and gets set a maths task every other day so she does 1 or 2 pages of English and her maths task. Y9 gets set a maths task every other day too but has had nothing else which is ridiculous. I'm hoping she will get some next week.
We are kind of sticking to a,routine. Up, shower, dress, breakfast and a walk. Then school work and a,few chores but because they have so little work they're bored by 11. Screen time has crept up!