To ask if anyone else is actually home schooling their kids?

[candyflossicecream]

I feel like the only one! People keep telling me "oh they'll catch up" "have some fun" i'm trying my hardest to keep them on track, entertained and keep them away from the tv, devices, etc.
Ps. We are having fun. I just keep getting made to feel like an arsehole for teaching my kids things and it's disheartening 😔

DS is doing three subjects a day, but only a couple of tasks/worksheets for each. Plus some music and PE with his dad. We both WFH full time so sitting at his side schooling him all day is not feasible for us.

He is also making his own lunch, feeding the puppy, and has started doing his own laundry each week. I figure this is a good opportunity for DS to learn some basic household tasks because we had been doing too much for him before.

His school sent a lovely email out on Monday, saying they understand that not every child will be able to do much schoolwork for whatever reason and not to get stressed about it. They sent links to online resources and suggested other offline educational things to do as well. I'm quite happy with what he's doing.

Yes OP it is just you, no one else is at all.

Or maybe they just don't post it on social media, maybe they play it down, maybe their children are old enough and motivated enough to do it alone.

DS isn't doing much though, he has autism and getting him to do homework usually is hard enough, no chance of making him do school work at home.

Mine is being homeschooled, she mostly takes care of it herself as none of it is new stuff.

She’d be bored witless sitting doing nothing whilst we work.

Yes because we all need some structure and the school has sent through weekly planners which helps. I have been furloughed though so it's much easier for me than those WFH. I've literally got nothing else to do!

I am but only because I only have 1 in school and 1 toddler.
She struggles with school so I worry about what will happen if I don’t!
It’s been hell at times though as I’m not very academic and she doesn’t like doing it at all, but we’ve muddled through

We are but taking flexible approach. Today dc just wanted to play in garden and do crafts. She's come on loads in her maths work since we've being homeschooling which is a bonus.

I am.
I'm not really worried about DDs academic progress shes year 1 age 6. She's very bright and even if we did no work with her until September I'm sure she would be at the right level.but she needs the structure of some work to keep her busy and so do i. I work full time still but as a nurse so shift work so u do have a lot of time to do this with her. She spends roughly 2 hours a day doing work suggested by school and then extra pieces I have taken from twinkl etc. She then has the whole afternoon to play. It's a good balance for us.

I'm doing little bits during the morning: novel study with the eldest and reading comprehension tasks with the youngest and then some maths work using the worksheets on the White Rose maths website.

In the afternoons they're doing some set activities online on their school's learning platform but I'm not really supporting them with that; instead I'm just letting them get on with it until they ask for my help.

It's working fine for us. I really want to avoid crossing the line between mum and teacher if I can.

I am too. Her school checks her work as it's mostly on line. She didn't do any for 2 days due to a migraine and I got an email asking why she'd not done any

Not as in sit down with test papers or whatever but I am teaching them at random stages through the day, figured this would work better than expecting them to sit and listen to lectures like school..and seems to be sinking in better this way.

DSD though, is in year 10..her school uploaded NO work at all for them to d, and have not updated any either, which is worrying. We have been getting her to do random stuff but I cannot believe theres nothing set by yhe teachers at such a crucial stage in her schooling..

@BatShite, that is very worrying as Yr 10 will be the worst affected by lockdown as they'll have lost a term and a half of learning. Have you contacted the school?

Iv done some but I’m dyslexic

Me and DH both working ft. Secondary age kid has work set from school. Primary has suggested links which she doesn't want to do, I don't have time to make her & school seem like they don't mind.
My primary objective is to stay sane. You do you, I wouldn't stress about what everyone else is doing.

Yes with my 6 year old, no with my 4 year old. Probably an hour a day max spread across the day - phonics, English comprehension and maths. I feel like he needs to do something otherwise he’ll just forget so much of what he knows!!

My 4 year old reception gets set daily work of literacy, maths , phonics send weekly expression and design, + around us projects. It's hard enough trying to "teach" a 4 year old but also have a 3 year old who is constantly bored. The 4 year old (who I am now suspecting has adhd although difficult to tell as I feel the expectation is too much) to do some reading, explain a few phonics and when i can be bothered to do the weekly projects. They help me in the kitchen and also in the garden. And they play a lot... My emphasis is on play because I feel anyone that wants me to explain bossy verbs to a 4 year old needs a reality check

that is very worrying as Yr 10 will be the worst affected by lockdown as they'll have lost a term and a half of learning. Have you contacted the school?

I know, really concerning. We were trying to contact before easter, no answer on phones. Tried a few times throughout easter hols, no answer but..it was the hols so that could be normal. And no answer all week either No reply to email sent to teacher either, not sure what we can do but you would think y10/11 would be the groups mst focussed on. Shes going to be fucked for her exams next year (assuming everythings back by then..which surely it should be). She might be a bit infront of classmates, as we have tried setting random stuff for her based on stuff shes been learning about prior..but..a lot of parents will just think 'no work..no problem' and leave the teens in bed staring at screens as its easier to deal with younger ones without sulky teens there! Been tempting to go down that route mind recently! But yeah, her school is shite. Totally shite. I know academies tend to get complaints a lot, but since hers turned acamdemy its horrific.

10 and 12 year old. They’re in ‘school’ for the usual time with two short breaks and an hours lunch.

Their three lots of work time are 9-10.30, 10.45-12.15 and 1.15-3.15.
5 hours every week day - but this includes PE, arty stuff, reading etc as well as academic work.

Friends of mine think I’m ‘mean’ and it’s ‘too much’.

Why exactly? They’re well used to bring in school for these hours. And once school has finished they have more down time than ever as they have no travel time or extra curricular clubs.

Personally I don’t understand why you’d let your dc (of a reasonable age) do nothing. No way am I going to let their brains rot away until September!

@LuminousAmber I home educate my children and that would be too much for us. My younger children are finished in less than two hours and my eldest (almost 12) takes around 2 hours a day.

We can get so much covered in such a short space of time as we are 1-1. They aren’t doing lots and lots of filler work whilst the teacher is busy with all the other groups for math, reading, etc and they are waiting their turn for the teachers attention.

We follow a curriculum from the us (which is quite an unusual thing to do here in the U.K.) and get all of the work done in a timely manner. Obviously as they get older they will spend more time on their work, but even then it won’t be a full day of sitting at the table.

How old are your kids? It is hard for kids to not learn something just by doing everyday activities. Worksheets etc are just busy work and have no real value. If they are about to take their A-levels or finals it’s a bit different though. Otherwise why wouldn’t they catch up?

We are. 8 and 3. Maths and English in the morning. Then music practice. Then play time. (Roughly an hour) Then lunch. Then something else post lunch for about 90 mins. Then back outside to play. (Roughly 1.5-2 hours) Back inside for music practice. Dinner. Bath. Reading. Bed.

We are into Week 6 of this. School is setting some work but I am doing a bit more on top of that. Roughly 3 hours a day. I am reasonably confident in my teaching abilities (I am a University lecturer) even though this is not the age group I normally teach! Even the 3 year olds gets to do something ‘educational’ twice a day.
And we still manage to do craft and baking and all that stuff every other day as well. It helps both my kids are NT and DS1 who is 8 can work quite independently. I encourage as little screen time as possible and for him to use paper and pencil for his work.
In their play time I might suggest some of the above activities but actually I leave them to it. It’s also important for them to get bored and do their own thing. Yesterday in the morning DS1 didn’t want to go outside to play so he sat outside and read and that’s fine by me.
DH is working insane hours (he’s a doctor in infectious diseases- hah!). I am an academic so working from home. I aim for 3-4 hours of my own work-2/3 in the day and an hour or more at night. DH does his share of the housework and I get the kids to help as well.
We are indeed unusual in actually keeping to a ‘homeschooling’ timetable but that’s fine.

We can get so much covered in such a short space of time as we are 1-1

Yes - but my dc don’t have a FT 1:1 teacher so 2 hours a day wouldn’t be enough.

Homeschooling takes place whilst I’m working. If I had unlimited time to actually ‘teach’ I’ve no doubt we could cut the time in half. As it is, I’m there to help them organise themselves but they’re learning and working solo...so it takes longer for them to understand new concepts and actually take the work in.

They generally have no problem concentrating or applying themselves - I think 5 hours work with regular breaks is fine.

@LuminousAmber I’m not working as such so we are 1-1. You’ve got to do what works for you and your family at the end of the day. If they are happy with it and so are you then that’s great and all that matters.

For my kids, who have been home educated for several years, if I sat with them for five hours they would be bored out of their minds. Their attention span couldn’t cope with that, even with regular breaks. That’s what works for us.

Are you getting your kids to do a lot of filler type work and worksheets whilst you are working?

They’re just working through the stuff school has given them...so I suppose there is some filler stuff in there. There’s resource videos to watch, stuff to read, various assignments and a few worksheets.

What I find though is that they both have ‘mum I don’t understand x’ or ‘mum I can’t find the right answer sheet to mark these’ type questions.

If I wasn’t working I’d probably just answer/explain/help them sort it within a minute - but I can’t stop ten times a day to do it. So they get a ‘try again and if you’re still stuck in 15 minutes I’ll help’ answer. And by the time 15 minutes comes they’ve usually solved it, but it does obviously take up more time.

If nothing else I suppose it’s teaching them some self sufficience!

I work from home full time so it's hard having people in the house when I'm not used to it. My eldest is in year 10 and she is on Teams everyday from 9am and is getting on great. My youngest is another matter, he is 11 years old and in year 6 and I feel like I have failed with him. He is easily distracted, doesn't want to work and I can't log off and keep battling with him. I generally get a piece of maths from him and get him to write 20 facts on a subject he likes,ie space, football, anything to keep his brain going. I asked him to find out 10 facts I didn't know and he told me about a law that women could pee in policeman's hats! Oh dear god :) so you can see,its going well

I've got 3 dc, 1 at primary and 2 in secondary, one of whom is in year 10.

I am on my own with them and tbh I am run ragged!!
I have days that I cry in the kitchen because I feel like an absolute failure.
My yr10 child is not self motivated at all. I struggle to get her out of bed before 1030 some days and it can be 1pm before she starts working at all.
Her teachers are all expecting high quality work from her and I get regular contact telling me so. One of her GCSE subjects is particularly "busy" with the demand to show improvements as she goes along.
Regular calls from teachers for her.

I have now negotiated with ds (yr7) that I expect 3 hours from him every day, after which he can do whatever he likes as long as he does go outside too.
Tbf, his form tutor is good and rings twice a week and she has a list of who is completing work and will let me know if he hasn't done anything for a particular subject etc.

The youngest in primary has I believe a lot of work set. Daily eng, maths and topic. Weekly things too. (make a video and edit it)
The teacher is constantly on their app, telling them what she expects and how much they need to do by the end of the day / week etc.

Added to this, all work is online for her so I have to separate the dc out in the house and trust what they are doing to a certain extent as if I monitor too closely they can get annoyed.

I really feel for those trying to juggle numerous children, jobs, tech issues etc.

I was talking to my friend the other day when I was particularly down and she reassured me that I'm doing enough but I do know they spend too much time on tech, be it for school work or pleasure.

I take them out for a walk or get them to play outside with the dog or the younger two and I play ball games every day.
Ds is also painting the fence in and amongst.

I guess I'm just doing my best and keeping them safe and happy as I can.