Not to have done any school work yet?

[Wolfie11]

DS(8) was still in child care for the first week of lockdown. I’m a key worker and had to get things in place to work from home. As of this week, he has been at home with me.

He came home with a homework pack but it’s basically just a massive list of educational websites. There’s a system set up for teachers to put up tasks/work for their classes but not much has gone up for his class. We never really get any proper time at home. Between being at the childminders after school, sports clubs, staying with his dad half the week and visiting family at weekends we are generally running around like blue arsed flies. This week and until the holidays are over I decided that he can pretty much do whatever he wants. He’s played with toys he has never even had the chance to open properly before, spent hours drawing and reading, played on his Nintendo and his tablet and played with the cats. When I’m finished working we’re watching movies, playing board games, getting out for fresh air and eating ice cream!

Any family who call to speak to him (dad, aunties, gran) are not happy when they ask how his school work is going and he says that he’s not doing any. You’d think I had just written off his entire future by giving him a few weeks off . I had planned on getting into a bit of a routine after the Easter holidays. PE with Joe Wicks first thing, some maths and English from a workbook we have at home, some reading (which he does constantly anyway) and he can choose one of the educational websites to have a nosy at each day.

Is it really so bad to let him just be a kid for a little bit, especially with the chaos we are currently surrounded by? AIBU to think like that?

It's hard not to feel guilty when we feel we're not able to do what other parents are doing and lay on a full school day for our DC, like some other parents are managing. Especially as some parents manage to homeschool all the time and not just during lockdown.

I've had to accept that for the moment it isn't going to happen the way we would like it to. But DD1 (11) has adoption related attachment issues and SEN and has always been so resistant to doing homework at the best of times and she can be all over the place sometimes. She can have violent meltdowns, usually provoked by jealousy of DD2 (8).. It is getting better, and they are doing a bit now, but we can't do more than that, as my DH has to WFH as well as supervise them whilst I've been very unwell with COVID-19 symptoms (not tested). I reassure myself that I'm on the mend, so after the Easter holidays I'll hopefully be able to get involved with that (I'm still self-isolating obviously).

YANBU, OP, you seem to be doing really well. It's not as if you're saying you won't be doing any schooling at all; you have a plan of action and you can aim to start properly after the Easter holidays, you can prepare your DS for this.

It sounds idyllic! He’s probably having a better time than a lot of children.
However, I do think there’s a balance to be had. There’s a lot of these ‘as long as he’s happy that’s all that matters’ posts about that I find so naive. Children can still be happy but do half an hour/an hours work first thing before having the rest of the day to play. People are thinking long term here - how happy will your child feel when he’s sitting in a classroom again and he realises he’s potentially struggling or even if he’s not, children that he was similar to work wise have surpassed him.

I think yabu sorry

Closures look set til Sept that’s a hell of a lot of work to miss out on

Mine are older at 12&14 but they’ve been given the lesson content of every lesson they would have had for everyday

We are doing minimum 4 hours w day and not managing it all

But if they don’t keep up they will fall behind and drop sets which mine would be gutted to have to do

Our school have sent their half twenty assessments out too

I think you should be doing couple hours at age 8. There’s still many hours of day left for fun

I’m really pushing my three but I’m a teacher so perhaps part of the territory for me . I’m allowing a two week break as they would have had for Easter but after that work resumes as normal. Children tend to thrive on structure and routine.

Half termly

I teach Primary (Y4) and had to call all families of kids in my class this week. The work tbey were doing varied enormously, but I was just glad to hear all of their voices telling me that that they were okay and doing what they could. Most were doing some reading every day, a bit of maths and some drawing/baking/lego etc One child had planted seeds, another was making a book about how to care for pets etc I think the main aim of this whole surreal experience is to hopefully emerge at the end with decent physical and mental health. You know your sin best so you need to do what is right for him.

My 5 year old is in foundation but still in school through the lockdown. They aren't doing My of the set work at school but I'm not making her do it at home either. Mental health and wellbeing is number one priority here.

Ds is 15, school have said it’s the easter holidays, have a break, have fun, don’t worry about school work for two weeks and get back to the time table after the holidays are over.

I think people need to think of mental health for children in the future though. I don’t think parents are always imagining how their child’s mental health will be affected when they return in September and find they need more help than others. Then the weeks of choosing to keep your children happy in the short term won’t seem like such a great idea. I don’t think getting children to do some work each day is going to make them unhappy. There’ll be a massive shock for some children in September then they’re suddenly expected to slot back into concentrating on schoolwork.

@ADreamOfGood it was the ‘visiting family’ that caught my eye, but I think she meant before lockdown.

The fault here lies with the school and not you. He's year 3 or 4 I imagine, the work starts to ramp up them in amount and difficulty.
We have been sent a lot of work and our sons books from school. We are doing 4 hours a day. The head teacher sent us an email saying it is mandatory and she expects all work to be done to a high level

Ilovetea09

You see I admire the school for doing that. Much easier to be popular with parents and not give much out. I think it’s a lot to ask to do that much to a high standard though but teachers are thinking long term about the massive impact this lost learning is going to have, especially for those children who struggle already.

I have Y4 DS and an 8 month old. I did try for two days but it was impossible. Set him up at the kitchen table and then spent the whole time trying to stop 8 month old going in the kitchen to see his brother.

So we've stopped with the school work set on Google classroom. He's reading every day and I've got some stuff together (paper packs school sent home, junior encyclopaedias, books about astronomy) and he's been picking stuff to do. My only rule is no electronics between 9am and 3.30pm.

School have been pretty relaxed and know this is what we're doing and are fine with it. As long as reading is being kept up and they are doing something educational.

I’m sure children who don’t do anything at all will potentially struggle when they eventually go back to school. I’m just not sure how it’s relevant when DS will be doing some schoolwork every day by mid April. Our school have now sent out a text message advising the online system will close for the holidays, so he has missed one week of schooling. DS is fully aware that he will be doing more after the holidays, he’s a laid back, easy going kid. I’m not worried about it being difficult to get him to do whatever I ask him to do.

It’s more the opinions from people that aren’t looking after him and don’t know him as well as I do that make me a bit . Obviously not including mumsnet, thank you for your replies.

Ps. Whoever thought that I’m visiting family, no of course I’m not 🤦🏼‍♀️!

I would not worry.

with lots of parents WFH, I think it is ridiculous of parents to expect to do homeschooling esp when the kids are younger or have special needs (I have one of each). We don't do anything. it's not possible

I’m furloughed so not trying to work at same time as looking after DD. This makes an ENORMOUS difference in what I could do.

So far: every day she’s read a chapter of book, she’s told me what’s been in it, she’s not a fan of reading.
Sumdog (maths), usually 15 minutes.
She wanted to do some French so 15 minutes on Duolingo.
School sent them home with some work, we’ve been doing a page or activity of this each day (eg, find 20 adjectives from the book you’ve read, etc). Varies how long it takes, probably 15 mins average.
Quite a bit of one off “odd” bits that one or other comes up with, eg taking flowers apart to see what’s inside, how long seeds take to germinate, how long sweet corn takes to digest (grim but interesting if you’re 9).
Spelling -I quiz her on words she’s already covered in the school year until now. I assume the school will send new word lists soon. Only do this a couple tunes a week. Also old fashioned times tables quizzes on other days.
Jo Wickes most days.
So in all about 2hours of “school-friendly” activity, which feels more like treading water than teaching her anything new.

Then Lego, jigsaws, board games, baking, helping round the house, weeding garden, colouring in, etc. Also outside/walk/bike ride/run.

And screen time, obviously 🙄.

We haven’t been going as mad as some with the school work but I do think a little is important.
We have been doing English and maths until lunch time ,reading and then she is free to do whatever in the afternoons (she’s 8 too)
I don’t want dd to be too far behind when they finally go back and it’s easy to forget things like times tables etc and decent handwriting.
It’s Easter hols now so no work now for 2 weeks .

Oh and no Joe Wicks in this house , can’t stand him

As a primary teacher I say go for it - after the Easter hols you can try to settle into a routine with a little bit of work each day but I would definitely enjoy the time you have together just now.

Op - fair enough and hope it all goes well 😊

Thank you for your post. Mine have been doing very little since school closed and I had been feeling very guilty.

Week 1 they had come kind of virus (I suspect seasonal, not covid) so I let them relax. I am lucky to be working from home, but my workload has ramped up since the lockdown, and i cant easily stop to persuade DS to do a story board of the easter story or whatever is set.