No school work during lockdown ?

[mononospoke]

Is it unreasonable for a 9 year old not to do any school work during lockdown ?
If they simply reuse ?
Doing other things like playing in garden/baking/drawing etc...but won't do school work

Oh and agree with PP thst an NT child that age does not get to refuse, and you have bigger issues with their behaviour if they are.

dd2 refuses. Dd1 at the same age wouldn't have refused but they are completly different personalitys. This morning dd2 sat with a blanket over her head, shouting it's not fair dd1 doesn't have to do school work.

We managed to get the maths and english done. I'm not stressing it too much.

Do people really let 9 year old children simply refuse to do something?

I do think that many people have no parenting skills. It's very strange. We rejected the totalitarian style of our parents and just didn't bother learning any new ways. Well, I did. I went to classes and read books and it worked.

Maybe spend lockdown reading How to talk so children listen. It really works. And my 9 yo has ADHD so it even works on children that struggle.

I'm at the point that she's so great I make up punishments. She wanted to refuse to go to bed recently and I said, "I will grind your Nintendo Switch to powder". She said, "no you won't". I said "no I won't but you're so well behaved I can't be bothered to think up real consequences any more". She went to bed. At 9 they should be used to doing as you say. If it's hard you sympathise, find rewards that work, do it with them, make it fun. You don't just give up.

I think the big risk is re-intergration. Its very hard to go from nothing to FT school and you will face this at some point.
I mean this supportively, but do you have other boundaries like getting dressed, eating meals as a family?

A few people i know, with more challenging children, are doong 'something active, something creative and something academic' each day. And keeping up reading. Would something pared back like that with some more 'choice' of the somethings help.

How old is DD2 @kimlo?

I would be encouraging some sort of work for all children, whether it is what the teacher has set, or something else. There are so many free resources out there at the minute, there must be something that would suit them.

Children who have done no reading, writing or maths will be at a huge disadvantage especially if the schools don't go back until September. It can be bad enough when children come back after the summer holidays and there is always an element of catch up and getting children back into learning mode.

I would be encouraging some element of writing as often as possible, as that will probably be the skill that is most lost, particularly with most tasks/games etc being played on some form of screen.

I assume when schools go back teachers will have to be going over work that some children will have to catch up on, and those children will probably have to have extra lessons whilst the other children do other curriculum work like art, music etc.

@Kaykay066 is there a reason your children are not able to go to school as both you and your partner are key workers?

@Ineedaholidaynow she's 10.

And like I say she did do it, once she realised it was getting her nowhere she sat and did it. She is just a different personality from dd1 and needs different parenting.

I think the big risk is re-intergration. Its very hard to go from nothing to FT school and you will face this at some point

Is it? What are you basing that on? Normally at the end of the summer holidays kids are ready for a change of scene, ready for school, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to think it'll be similar after this break?

And how do you know that the "routine" of having remote learning, parental input, scaffolded individual work won't harm the re-integration into school work with its peer learning, 1 in 30 input etc.

There's no evidence for what is right or wrong on such breaks of school work, so I don't think anyone can dogmatically say X or Y is right.

For me, like education at any point in time, it's the self motivation that is the key thing to foster, dictating things is not the way to go for that.

I would insist on at least a bit. Some reading a bit of maths and a bit of English/writing then lots of playing in the garden and a bit of screen time.

This is a tough one. To all the comments saying, "he's 9, he's not in charge" I would say, Be realistic! Children in a foul temper will not learn anything at all. And children today at school are not told to sit still in silence and learn ; it is all about persuading them to do it because they want to learn, so they are not used to anyone telling them they have to learn.

I do think you should try and do something though. I tackled this several ways with my usually highly motivated daughter. Mostly with compromises and trade offs. I started small and built up. Now my DD is cross every morning but settles quickly and gets a lot done.
Don't give up, your son does need to keep some regular academic work going otherwise he will struggle to readjust to school when he gets back.

I would not be afraid to have a serious chat with him about what happens if everyone else is working and he's the only one not learning. My daughter was petrified by the idea she might end up being "the most stupid child in her year". Explain the value of an education to having a job,.being successful in life. It might sink in.

@sirfredfredgeorge

There is the well known "summer slump" where kids can take months to get back to the level they were at before the summer holidays so it's well established that this effect exists.

I’m lucky if I get an hour out of them
I’m working from home and am a single parent
I hate myself and it annoys me but ....

Depends on child and where they are in school really. If I had a bright child who was doing well at school, wouldn't engage in 'work' but would happily write stories and do art and crafts the livelong day, I might be OK with them to just do that until they return to school because they'd pick up again just fine.

DS is in early stages of being diagnosed for ADHD, has real difficulty with handwriting, and only wants to watch TV or play games in his free time (no crafts, lego anything vaguely educational, though he will read some of the time) so we really can't just leave it. We're keeping things realistic - there is no way he'll write a letter for history, or a story for English unless we were to spend all day working closely with him, and we are both working - but he really does forget things and backslide if he doesn't practise.

There is the well known "summer slump" where kids can take months to get back to the level they were at before the summer holidays so it's well established that this effect exists.

Well not exactly, the slump is due to not practicing, and most get it back very quickly - the same as kids who spend the summer swimming get a slump in swimming skills when they take a break from it and return to school, they'll get the skills back quickly once swimming again.

Those who don't get it back, will be the ones who have a disadvantaged home environment, and it's not the amount of academic work that the parents make the kids do through the summer holidays that limit it - it is parental input, diet, etc. So again is the evidence there for worksheets through this there - they are weakly evidenced for learning stuff 'cos without the feedback / help / discussion / adjusment of difficulty / review often fail - there's a reason we have teachers, if worksheets were good enough we'd save millions.

@sirfredfredgeorge - i'm basing it on the period of time my son didnt have a school place due to his SEN. So it is personal not evidence based and i was aiming to help. My son was out of school for one whole academic year and re-intergration has been incredibly hard. Being off wasnt like the summer holidays because, a bit more like lockdown, he wasnt able to socialise or do days out and other children were still progressing as they were doing lessons and it was longer than 6 weeks.
You will note i didnt say do remote learning, scoffolded, 1:1. I suggested to do something active, something creative and something academic. Plus get dressed and eat meals together! This was based on how many of who have had children out of school for SEN try to keep things ticking over. Something academic doesnt mean a remote lesson. We did a game using timestables today.

Mine (6 and 9) are getting some done every day. No screen time at all if they don't. It's a pretty big motivator at their age!
But I'm a SAHP and DH has been furloughed so we've got the time and resources. If you're having to WFH full time or have other demands it's much harder. If I left my two with the work on front of them while I was trying to do something else they'd get no work done at all. Probably end up trying to eat the pencils or something equally as daft.

I am struggling with my 12 year olds. If they do 30-60 mins a day without me in the room that is a good day. (I try and get some of my work done at this point).

Then i struggle to get them to do another half an hour with supervision. One has asd.

The school have been supportive though and said do what you can. Something is better than nothing.

Don't kids have tasks from school that you need to complete and send to teachers? My brother is a teacher in elsewhere in Europe and since it is mandatory for children to a trend school, if teacher has not hard from student in x time it is treated similarly as if student didn't show up for school and social services are involved.

Hugely unreasonable for a 9 year old. A 4/5 year old is fair enough, I’d probably expect them to read every day and do crafty things a few times a week plus a little learning through play. A 9 year old should be doing some academic work every weekday, they’re not babies and can’t afford to fall behind their peers.

I have a 9yo with ASD, dyspraxia and dyslexia (and a 7yo who may possibly be dyslexic but certainly not to the same extent). I have the benefit of being a SAHM with time to spend at this, and a decade of teaching experience. It is still bloody tough inflicting an education upon them and it's taking much patience, gentle persuassion, and laying down the law. It's taking my full attention .

DS(9) is the kind of child who finds holding a pencil physically painful as he puts too much pressure through his grip. He struggles to write his name legibly, very frustrating to a very intelligent child who is an expert on WW2 in the Pacific Front thanks to the Smithsonian Channel!

I'm finding the BBC stuff good as it's brief and interractive. I'm adapting heavily from school and playing to his interests. Some days are better than others. My goal is to maintain basic skills (revise in some instances) and just keep habits of academic learning. DS will find it tough returning to a normal social function on its own.

The legacy of this time off school will be very varied. Some children with little support and weak skills and motivation will fall further behind. Some will adapt back pretty soon. Some highly motivated children with good access to resources will fly ahead. DS has his challenges, and while I'm picking my battles over this for everyone's sanity, I'd be doing him a disservice in the long run to allow full neglect of his education for an easy life.

(Please, parents trying to work at the same time, just do what you can to keep everyone sane, your goals are different to mine and this is no criticism of anyone elses's circumstances that differ to mine)

It is unreasonable but I understand how difficult it can be at times.

Our school has said something, anything, is better than nothing but don't beat yourself up over it.

I have 4 DC, inc 2 with SEN. It can be a battle some days to get them all to do the work the school has asked for. It can be a battle every day to get the SEN 2 to do any of their schoolwork. Which sometimes leads to wails of 'it's not fair!' from the youngest.

There are ways of encouraging learning without it being sat at a table and death by worksheet.

Find the child's interests and build learning around that. Baking can include maths - weights and measures, fractions, adding and subtracting. Being in the garden - the science of growing things, what do plants need to grow, do they know the names of the plants, their parts. The creatures that visit their garden. Can include maths - make a simple chart of all the insects they have found. Grow a sunflower, measure and record every day to see whose is growing faster.

Write to friends and family - ask them to write back so there can be 2 way dialogue but also comprehension, understanding what someone else has written to them.

Share a book with them - read to them and ask them to read to you. It doesn't matter if it's a comic book.

Right now, if you can't get them to learn new skills, at least encourage them not to fall behind in others. Even if it is just as @Grasspigeons says and is as simple as getting up, dressed and ready for the day each and every day. Mine are allowed to have a pj day at the weekend but are firmly discouraged from that during the week as we have previously had battles getting the 2 SEN DC into school. I can carry the 9, nearly 10 year old over my shoulder still. But it's not something I wish to go back to when all this is over.

And also remember, this is crisis schooling. This is us doing our best to make sure our children don't forget everything they have already learned. The argument about them doing nothing for 6 weeks is an absurd argument imo. With the long summer holiday, we know it is coming to and end and when. Right now we don't know when this will end or even how our children will return to school.

Keep in contact with your child's school to let them know how you are getting on, even if it's a once a week email to say X was achieved successfully but Y wasn't and this is why.

I am in regular contact with my sen DC's teachers through the various platforms and emails they are using. Just so when this does come to an end, there isn't a shock to the school as well as to the DC.

@MrsTerryPratchett

Have you heard of PDA? Children can refuse no matter what their parents have read up on or how much they try to parent.

My 13 year old has PDA, he is bright but has to be in control. If he perceives anything to be a demand he refuses to do it, even if it is something that he would ordinarily want to do.

With a PDA child all you can do is give access to learning and hope that they will chose to do so. Most children naturally want to learn, although not always what we want them to.

I am not saying that the OPs child has PDA but many anxious children become demand avoidant so these techniques may work.

The assumption that a child who is talked to correctly will do what they are asked is wrong though, this does not work with all children with Sen.

zgaze what is your opinion if a 13 year old won't so any schoolwork (no games console in the house) ? we get some phone calls from school as they are very caring and it's quite embarrassing to be honest . I cannot force a 13 year old to do the work. We have tried removing WiFi but makes no difference

I work full time and am a single parent. Work is busy. I lost my dog walker, cleaner, childcare etc.. due to COVID. The time I can grab away from my laptop is being used to walk the dog, make food and being a mum. We talk and do stuff together on the weekend but there are no school days here for my 9 year old. It’s just trying to get to the end of each week in one piece!

I've been furloughed so its easier for me to deliver some schooling than people who are still working. The two weeks before easter I was working from home and honestly DS did very little.
I have discovered that DS is much happier with a routine and knowing what his day will look like so we've put together a rough schedule. A bit of maths & English every day, then a different subject daily and hes picking things he wants to do within those subjects. For example for geography he wants to learn about the Amazon so tests what we're doing. No idea if its in the curriculum but as long as hes happy and engaged I dont much care! Today was ITC and he made a PowerPoint about aliens I'm finding it enjoyable as hes choosing the subjects so hes happy to do them.