To not do any schoolwork with DC at all?

[HomeSchoolingDodger]

NC as I expect to be completely castigated!

DC is in Yr5, above average in terms of reading, spelling and maths. Just had another excellent school report again. Not behind at all.

School have been posting weekly activities for DC in each year group to do on their website with a small project each week. Work is not handed in but DC ‘can’ bring some of the work into school after lockdown so teacher can look through it.

DC did a bit in the first few weeks but quickly lost interest as he needs class stimulation really and didn’t see the point in doing it if it doesn’t need to be handed in each week and tbh I can’t be arsed to chase him!

I am planning to start getting him into ‘school mode’ on the last few weeks before school goes back by completing all the work set then so we have a timescale and motivation to complete it

AIBU?

He is currently learning a lot from Animal Crossing, which involves setting up home, debts, loans, so he tells me . We also do a daily bike ride or walk, he helps me cook, looks after loads of seedlings we’ve planted for veg, reads, plays Articulate, Monopoly and Mexican dominoes with us.

"I don’t know people are insisting he’ll fall behind seeing as he’ll have completed all the work set before he goes back to school and it’s not new stuff anyway."

Your day sounds lovely, op. I don't begrudge you a minute of it, and I certainly wouldn't expect children to spend hours every day completing work with stressed parents.

But 'it's not new stuff anyway' is such a daft thing to say. Children consolidate and revisit concepts and skills all the time. You wouldn't teach fractions in Year 5 and then consider it 'job done' until they were sitting their GCSEs. Instead they revisit familiar things, tweaked and varied, many times but each small step is valuable.

I don't know. Your ds might bounce back to school enthusiastically, catch up in no time and look back on lockdown as a wonderful period in his childhood.

But surely you would concede that this is a risk? Why take the risk, when it would be so easy to slot in, say, an hour each week day to do a minimum of reading and maths?

My kids have been on a long walk today. They climbed trees, held lambs and fed horses (on a friend's land). They prepared and ate a picnic, then came home and played in the paddling pool. I don't think they're suffering.

But they knew they had to do 30 mins of maths at some point, and chose to do it first thing. I'm glad because DS2 had some misconceptions that became obvious when I looked at his work, and we're going to sort that tomorrow. We'll read together at bedtime. They want to do a project about a lizard we found. Fun and keeping on top of schoolwork are not mutually exclusive, and a compromise might be what is best for your boy.

Wrote a list of what he wanted me to order from Amazon with his monthly allowance and totalled it up (English and Maths)

😂 you’re kidding yourself op.

This would be appropriately stretching ‘English and Maths’ for a bright 5 year old not a bright Y5 child.

The bright Y5 kids I know are doing increasingly complex fractions and percentages and writing book reviews and creative writing essays or poems. Lots of repetition and regular practice (which you’re so dismissive of) is essential to embed the basic concepts EVEN IN very bright dc.

Jotting down an Amazon shopping list is hardly equivalent.

I feel for your ds. You’re doing him a massive disservice. But I suppose as long as you don’t have to lift a finger to help you can dance around writing lists and baking cakes and all will be well for you - it will be your ds having to deal with the fall out when he struggles on return, not you.

Oh OP you were brave or reckless to post this.
In a way I admire your bravado and ability to do your own thing. I'm a SAHM with 3 school age DC, plus a toddler and truthfully the home learning has left me exhausted some days. Our school send maths, English, PE and one other subject daily. About 3-4 hours of work.
My eldest is like your boy. Year 5, bright, working ahead of her age in some things and she has really struggled to settle into a home learning routine. It has been like pulling teeth some days and I've quite often wanted to quit. She is also very anxious at the moment and I can't help but think the home schooling is part of it. Truth be told I think she may have favoured better if I had eased her into at the start instead of going in all guns blazing.
The other 2 get on fine but my eldest has found it massively challenging (not the work, but the 'new normal' way of learning).
Not all children who are working every day will be flying ahead or having a calm, content lockdown. Some are doing their school work and struggling a lot.

' Favoured better' should be 'fared better'. D'oh.

I would at least try to do some Maths and English, even if it is just revision/consolidation of key concepts.

I understand that it's hard -I am working from home, often on live zoom/teams meetings and I have a 6 year old son, so I know it's difficult to juggle it all. With my son, we make sure we do some Maths/English and phonics each day. Then some days we will do other things such as the craft projects or baking.

If you can't be arsed helping your child manage this gap in his education and would prefer to just leave him on games, well that's your call, but I don't see why you think you deserve a medal for it.

He'll be competing for positions, roles and placements someday with young adults whose parents do value education and did bother.

Then the school will have to deal with all the issues created, like lack of structure to the day, catching him up.

Why do people have kids if they just going to opt in and out of their responsibilities. Then again why do I care it's your child if he falls behind or builds in bad habits that take ages to undone if ever that's up to you. I just couldnt imagine having a child and just giving up on their education like that when its mg responsibility to make sure they have one

Are you expecting schools to kick in to gear with a full schedule in September and simply hoping your ds will be able to fall in to step on his natural ability alone after 6 months off school? Because I think both those assumptions seem based largely on wishful thinking. If you have the opportunity, I think you should get him in the habit of learning at home.

Well I'll admit we're not doing much with our kids by way of "homeschooling" . They're in yr1 and yr3 (and a preschooler) and we just cannot. We work FT and apart from a few work sheets here and there, some education city, a few educational programme and writing about it, we've been quite laid back. Because we can't do more. They'll catch up eventually.

Don't beat yourself up OP!
I've not done much either with my year 6 son. I have an 11 Month old baby. Working full time in a keyworking role, some from home some in the office. My older two can sort themselves but I'm not forcing them.
My son has a diagnosis of ASD and adhd and I really cannot fond the time to sit with him one to one and do the work. It's exhausting as it is!

I help my clever DD(11) with exams/school work on a normal day/termly basis anyway. Ordered extra books, helped with everything, as far as I can.

Especially now. More so.

I've always supported her learning. But that's me. If you're fine not bothering, don't bother.

Every kid is different! My parents never had much (if at all!) involvement in my learning at school from about age 6 onwards and I ended up doing very well academically. My worse time was actually when I was bored at school, I was getting average marks then because I wasn't interested. When I found it more challenging I worked harder and did very well. You know your child and whether he will find the motivation to 'catch up' once back at school. A few months of lazy 'homeschooling' isn't going to be the end of him.

I think the number 1 priority has got to be wellbeing and if school work causes too much stress it’s not worth it. Academic learning is just one aspect of child development and balance is key. There is maths in cooking and learning life skills is great. My son has learned how to do all sorts and we are growing loads of veg too. We do the school work mostly but if it started to be too stressful and effect relationships we wouldn’t hesitate to drop it. Apart from lots of computer games time it sounds like a lovely rounded experience and they will all catch up.

Being mentally stimulated, learning and achieving is part of good wellbeing.
They don’t need to be stressed and challenged too much but if they don’t keep up with some stuff, they may get stressed when they have to go back to school and it feels too overwhelming.

Working silly hours so no time for homeschooling. However the twins have been amazing, baking, cooking meals for the family, creating miniature theatre sets for made up plays, making assault courses, walking the dog, reading, watching films, minecraft, the odd squabble and building a bridge over the paddling pool so they can walk the plank. Kitchen is much messier but their rooms have never been tidier. They seem happy and busy.

So I see this thread had been hijacked by the Daily Fail, who are obviously scraping the barrel for a story today in amongst their CV scaremongering, and I must be on benefits, completely thick and DS is feral according to the comments.
Made my day that has and given me a good laugh!

I’m glad you’re taking it in good spirits OP!

Ignore the DM trolls - they always talk shit about everyone.

Year 5, in my opinion, need structure and the learning is more about emotional well-being.
Also, developing independent learning would be a good skill.

I have 2 year 4 dc and a year 7 dd. Dh and I both Full time key workers but dh working from home so dc are home. It’s hard work but morning has a lesson structure. After lunch dd2&3 play but dd 1 generally has lessons with some video lessons so usually finishes at 2pm then joins in playing. Weekends and half term are school work free!

I can’t imagine allowing my bright dc to wallow and bum around, risking depression and low self worth. It’s not all about intelligence.

If he falls behind at any point don’t say it’s the schools fault

If our school had the same attitude as yours, there's no way I'd make DS do it all. You'd be shocked at the amount DS's class are obliged to do. He is doing almost as much as he does at school (and at school they do a LOT). It is making for a very stressful home life, a job that is not being done.well and is making me scared and stressed, and a neglected four year old. But apparently DS should be able to do all this independently by now, including figuring out the ten million printouts with various links (he's 8!).

Quite a few pp have said that they're not doing much either, because they're wfh or looking after vulnerable parents or have a new baby.

I think that's perfectly understandable. All you can do is your best, and if circumstances means that 'your best' is an occasional worksheet or a few educational games then so be it.

But op has said she's a sahm so none of that applies really, and an hour each weekday should be manageable.

I also agree with everyone who has said to prioritise well-being. I'd completely agree with that. But wellbeing doesn't mean just allowing children to refuse anything that they don't want to do, for fear of an argument. And wellbeing could be similarly compromised on the return to school, for those dc who haven't engaged with school for six months. I really think a compromise is best.

Here is a very average week's work (it's in Italian, sorry, we are in Italy but the volume speaks for itself!) which they spot check every Sunday night by asking for photos. There was also English homework to sing a song and make a video (more.wor uploading for me than for him singing)! It's not just the homework supervision it's all the printing and cross checking of various files and sheets. Stress.

Grammatica
-Leggi e fai pagina 189-191+fotocopia allegata "Il gioco dei contrari".

• Ascolta il link allegato + leggi e ricopia sul quaderno il quadratino tratteggiato di pag 195 (ricordati la nuvoletta), poi esegui gli esercizi che propone + fotocopia allegata

"Comuni o propri".

Italiano
-Leggi e completa pag. 84-85 (non fare "Racconto")
-Leggi e cerca di capire pag. 160.
-Ricopia sul quaderno pag. 161"Scrivo una ricetta", sopra in alto scrivi in rosso "Testo regolativo".
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COMPITO MATEMATICA
Copiare nel quad. la spiegazione della prova della divisione.
Fare nel quad. l'es. 2 a di pag. 161.
Calcolare nel quad. con la prova le seguenti divisioni:
826 : 5=
766 : 6 =
488 . 3 =
509 :4 =
Fare gli es. 1 (nel libro) e 3 di pag. 73 (nel quad).
Risolvere il seguente problema nel quad. (provare senza l'aiuto dei genitori).
Per la ricarica del suo cellulare Paolo spende 15 euro al mese.
Quanto spende in un anno?
Leggere e completare la pag. 89 (fare l'es. indicato di tagliare una scatola).

COMPITO GEOGRAFIA
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Infine rispondi (nel quad. o in un foglio) alle seguenti domande:

• com'è il clima sulle coste?

Quali pianti puoi osservare sulle coste? Quali animali vivono nel mare?

"If our school had the same attitude as yours, there's no way I'd make DS do it all. You'd be shocked at the amount DS's class are obliged to do."

At our school it's been very difficult to get the balance right. At the beginning, half of parents were clamouring first more structure and schoolwork, and the other half were struggling and wanted less. We opted for providing it, but making it clear that you should only do what was manageable for your family.

So I shouldn't worry. If you're doing some of it, you're doing ok. But I'd agree that your ds should be able to access the school resources independently by now. In our school, children from Y3 onwards are certainly doing that. Really sitting and showing him might pay dividends for you, in future weeks.

@Pluckedpencil

I'm in Spain, more or less exactly the same as you, even down to the recipe, plus French. Plus presentations etc.

It's a lot of work and I have to be involved, really no choice. Or she'd fail.

Ive unschooled four kids for the past 15 years. We did traditional homeschooling at first, but it was grim, and it really damaged their natural love of learning. Unschooling is bloody brilliant - kids learn through fun, and we are all so happy, no stress. They learn HEAPS, and are interested, curious children and young adults. I highly recommend it, and I wish I could tell people now to just relax and have fun, do what the OP is doing, because they actually will learn more in the long run because kids (and adults) just naturally want to learn all sorts when they aren't forced into it.

Yabu, my ds (9) school are setting a fair amount of work via the website, daily spellings, timetables, maths, literacy and some science, history and R.E. We were both unwell one Thursday-Monday, and it took the rest of the week to catch up on those three days work, an extra few hours a day. We agreed it was worth it though, to be all caught up (I hate having things like that "hanging over me' iyswim, ds is the same). I despair at how long (and how much effort and extra time) it will take for kids doing no work at all to catch up on months worth. How will those kids ever catch up? Will they be doing this terms work, when other kids who've already done it or moving on to new work in Sept..?