How are people working from home and homeschooling?

[movingoceans]

Hello,

I am really struggling combining home schooling and working on my assignments and preparing for exams (online).

How are other parents doing? Can you give me any tips? My 10 year old son has significant speech and language needs and dyspraxia, so to get help him as much as I can... he has a private remote session with a speech therapist, once a week, but gives me activities and homework that I need to do with DS. We do maths and spelling, reading, English daily, set by the school as well his physio exercises that I need to do at home and outside. We wake up at 9.30 and start the work at 10.30am.

But I am really struggling ! I have three online) exam that I need to prepare in two-these weeks. I need to edit and redraft my research project and hand in assignment in the next few days !

By the time I'm finished with DS, I clean, cook and by the evening, I'm so knackered that I end up going to bed.

Please give me any tips ! I really do not want to do another year of studies. This is my final year. Am I doing too much? Should I cut back? I feel like I should not even be complaining as I only have the done DC so far.

If it's just the next two/three weeks until your exams are over, I'd be inclined to say "stuff the school work" until then. You can always do a bit more in the summer holidays. Decent schools will understand.

I'm with lanthanum
Its so difficult, and true, you can't do everything.

I'm making a hash of it, failing at work and school work, trying to do both, so in effect that 2 days work into one day... Iykwim

I'm not really.
11yr old DD has probably done 30 mins in the last month.
Her teen brother does get on with it so he just pings ideas off me.

Can you get up earlier. Start at a normal school time and get some evening back?

I have just had 4 consecutive nights finishing at 2am (though the weeks before were much lighter) as I can only start work after child bedtime.
It is checking boxes but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "solution".

Get up early and get some study in before your kids get up. It’s only for a few weeks and usually concentration is best in the morning

Is your child's other parent at home, if you arent a SP?

Failing that... I'd ditch the education for him for a bit and make it up later.

Honestly? Not really! Have a nearly 4 yr old and nearly 7 yr old. Am managing about an hour a day split between maths and writing. The rest of the time it's tv or playing together in the garden.,

When I was studying with toddlers and preschoolers, I would go to bed at the same time they did and get up at 3am to study for 3-4 hours before they got up. I’d supplement that with an hour here and there stolen from nap or tv time and that way I could get close to 30 hours work done. Helped that I was a single parent so I wasn’t missing much socialising in the evening. I tried studying in the evening but yes, I was knackered running round after them so this way worked better. I’m not a morning person at all, weirdly the 3am helped me because it felt like night, not morning, and it was very quiet and like my own secret world, quite nice really. I’ve gone back to this pattern many times as my children have got bigger, because I’ve always worked or studied from home and never used childcare. I know your DC has extra needs, I’m not comparing him to toddlers, it’s just that was the age I had when I was doing exams. Apart from one set which were when I had a three week old, they were fun. At the moment we have a morning school, afternoon work type rhythm going on which is working OK, we do however get wakened at the crack of dawn, so days are longer. I’m still supplementing working into the evenings but it’s going OK. Good luck op.

As pp have said, the window is surely in the morning? 9.30 is v late to be getting up really. Get up 7 or 7.30 and do a couple of hours before he wakes up? If it's just the two of you, let the cleaning and tidying take a back seat, it can't be that bad.

My DH and I tend to do it together. We do get up at 7.30 (both work full time for the public sector from home now- but we are in bed by ten because you are right, it is exhausting!) to start our stuff and then DH organises DS (11) and I pop in every so often to put a gun up his arse. Today, I have been doing a mix of contact and non-contact forces physics home work and reviewing serious crimes. My head is mashed and I started on wine at 4.00pm.
My boss did do a " welfare check" e-mail and I told her I was sweating a bit with the work (she knows I like the work and am happy to do it) and DS's school work; just for me being that little bit honest meant she told me that the big boss was perfectly realistic and not expecting normal output in these times. It really took the weight off. If your boss asks how you are doing, tell them! Tell them that you are sorry, you are feeling you are not up to your normal standards, you are trying, but you have a child at home demanding your attention. You never know, they just might be realistic and understanding. Good luck, go easy on yourself x

And we don't do a full day with ads. A few hours is enough.

Thank you everyone!

Yes, I'm a single parent. I used to study until the early hours in the morning. But my body starts cramping and my eyes start twitching... I can't do it anymore.

Is the general censors go to bed early and wake up 7am? Do you think that's enough time time do work before DS wakes up?

I would love to leave DS school behind for the next few weeks. But mentally, I can'. I need to find the right work balance between working/ studying whilst supporting his needs. Otherwise, I would be left in a vicious cycle.

Badly. only managing anything at all because my DH and I can swap. Miss 6yo won't do anything by herself.

Badly. Varies with the child and how many calls I have. Plus kids are nt.

Eldest gets on with it. Or seems to. I have no way of checking. For the others, I try and set things up early. So websites, videos etc ready to go on the computer. Worksheets printed. Folder for work with week planner from the school, stuff to do and stuff done. Then 'educational' on line games.

Plus tv, garden, pe, art. All a bit hit and miss.

Yes to starting early and yes to having a plan, with a few set activities to try and get through.

I am in a similar situation. I feel bad letting school work slide as I think it reflects badly on me as a parent but I am going to email the school and explain the situation.
At the moment I am getting up early and doing my work whilst she plays on her xbox, then we have a couple hours for lunch and going outside for a walk and then we do her work in the afternoon and then after tea I get back on with my work.
It's not great and she is spending way too much time on the xbox but at least I am getting something done.

I’d let his schoolwork slide.

Few schools will expect the kids to come back having learned anything new. Take the pressure off yourself.

Fuck the school work.

Not very well. I work 10 hours a day, Monday-Thursday. She's 9, I got her set up on her laptop with the apps she needs to do her school stuff, but she hasn't been consistent with it and I feel to frazzled to follow up.

Our governor announced that school is closed until August and no one is being held back, so it's not like she even really needs to do the work.

But I do still feel sufficiently guilty for not doing it.

We’re frazzled, honestly. We’re booking calls into each other’s work diaries and both workplaces have been pretty good (my boss has more or less said ‘do what you can, when you can’). I’m taking a few days of scattered annual leave to let my DH keep up (teacher, usually working 12 hour days in term time, six days a week...he’s having to focus on the more important stuff and leave other things!). DC at being pretty good but they’re 4 and 7 so need supervision most of the time.

I'm a teacher. We do not expect you to do all of the work. We have provided stuff for those that want it, but it is certainly fine to let it slide for a few weeks.

So leave the schoolwork and the housework.

Get up at 6:30 to do 3hrs before he wakes up.

Put a dvd on in the afternoon and get another 2hrs in.

Then as much as you can manage after he's in bed.

Yes, it'll be full on for a few weeks but worth it if you don't have to repeat a year. You can suck anything up for a few weeks surely?

I'm a fellow single parent with a 10 year old working full time from home at the moment. We still get up at 7:00 and do our usual morning routine. I write out a schedule the night before with him and it helps doing that as he has some input.

He starts at 9:00 with the Joe Wicks workout, then does 45 mins of some Maths which is either a workbook or TTRockstars or myMaths . He then has an hour to play on the iPad or switch. Then he does an hour of English which could be spelling shed, reading or work set by school. Then he goes in the garden and plays until I can stop for lunch and we have the hour together chatting. In the afternoon he does a bit of art, French, science or music for an hour or so and then he has free time.

Having a schedule works, as we both know what to expect and I can actually do my work. I am lucky that he enjoys doing his schoolwork and does it well without complaining or bugging me (unless he has a question which is obviously ok)

I also can't 'let it slide' with a child with SEN. Gets too far behind and it distresses her.

The rule here is a whole day of 'school' but basically hour chunks of:

Reading
Writing
Art
Exercise
Etc

Then we fit the teacher's work into those slots. The slots we have to help with are before work, after work, lunchtime. When we're working she does the things she can do alone.

I think you need to get up earlier, sorry. DH amd i have a preschooler and a Y2 child. We both work full time. I get up at 6.15am and am working from 7am to 1pm. During this time DH is in charge of the kids and does some homeschooling with them while doing work when he can. We switch at 1pm and i homeschool and look after the kids until 5pm and sort their dinner. I then manage an hour and a half or so from 5pm.