Anyone else NOT home schooled their children?

[VelveteenBunni]

Don't get me wrong, I tried in the first couple of weeks. But with three kids and one with SN it's really difficult. I don't feel I have the capacity to educate and surely the most important thing is they are healthy and safe?

Underhis
Other people will having to make an effort about things that you are not having to make an effort about.

I am sure they are, but I am not making sarcastic or nasty comment about them, that's the difference.

YABVVU to do absolutely nothing, I have three of varying ages and I've struggled a lot, especially since I have mental health issues.
Today has been a bad day but we've done a bit of English and maths, watched Blue Peter, deadly 60, newsround and discussed and done some BBC bitesize French, we'll read this afternoon and do some art and yoga and maybe watch horrible histories and discuss. It's not a lot of effort to switch on educational tv on a bad day and rely on BBC bitesize!

I’ve done barely anything with mine. Everyone’s circumstances are different.

Op this first few weeks the teachers went into panic mode and fired tons of stuff at the kids.

But after Easter they became much more focused on what they are sending. So actually I wouldn't compare what they sent in those first two weeks to what they are sending now. Its clearly not just revision work either.

It's going to be hard on teachers later to get all the kids back to the same level.

With young children as long as you're doing something even if it's not curriculum.set stuff it's better than nothing. Younger kids are.learning every day stuff of life around them.
We can only do what we can. Everyone is in different circumstances.
Reading most days is brilliant and could be easy to fit in as not "let's sit down and learn" which if the Kids are restless can be a problem. Instead of a v3dtime story read to them get them to read a few pages each or 1 one day and one another.
Make it fun short and snappy. Let's have a snack on the floor with juice and read together, rather than let's sit at the table at 9am to do sums.
Educational TV programmes age appropriate, perhaps look at BBC But aside and see if there are any activities to suppport the topic.
It may not be ideal but its keeping them away from just doing nothing and opening their minds.
If.you want to catch up with more structured stuff you can over the summer. They've got weeks and weeks off ahead of them.

Not really...
A-level age DD has some tasks from school, private, we still paid a full term's fees for this. She is good at being self-motivated.

GCSE-DS : vague suggestions of learning things from the 6th form he may not get into; he is very unmotivated without structure so we encourage but he's not trying to learn anything.

yr7 DS: has online learning, few hours/week he does without complaint.

It's not stretching any of them.
They might (or might not) have some F2F learning in September 2020.

I am a terrible cowbag parent (but we knew that) because I never wanted to home-ed and am not making it into a giant issue now.

I'm doing very little, and the kids are doing a lot of gaming.
Both have autism (one with an EHCP so far).

On the plus side, we've kept up bedtime stories, including a Narnia book for each of them, leading into chats about Christianity vs Greek and Norse gods.
One has learned a lot of cooking, mostly because it keeps her out of my hair repeatedly and results in lunch.
The other has been building Roman architecture in Minecraft and mastered his 25x table in order to calculate buying options in another game (now just need to master 4,6,7,8,9x...)
They've both been doing very well at negotiating with each other and Ds will read chapters to Dd in exchange for food.

We talk about lots of stuff (politics, history, science) and they're well ahead on general knowledge. They probably read a book a day (we have bought dozens). But getting them to do anything they don't want is a huge hurdle for both us and school. I'm focusing on skills like washing and getting dressed - the professionals can get back to making them write and do maths in due course.

Partly we all had Covid and weren't up for doing anything the first two months of lockdown, so getting started now is harder, especially as DH and I are meant to be working. It is what it is.

After reading a few posts on here since lockdown started I thought teachers were pretty laid back about it so thought i was doing a good job but when dd’s teacher rang and I told her we were just concentrating on English and maths she sounded taken aback and mentioned we should try and do a bit more ... great 😑

DS is 14 and we do very little as both DH and I are wfh. After getting an email saying he hadn't done something (he had but hadn't submitted it) I've become more involved and DH and I help on the subjects if he's struggling with the work set.

It's not brilliant and the work is not coordinated in terms of how the teachers send it out and if they run online classes. I'm not terribly impressed with the school tbh - its fee paying - and by now I feel they should be more coordinated with teachers approach and involvement of parents.

I'm glad he's not in a key year - I can only hope they have got their act together for S3 for this blended learning- as I can't keep my job and spend the time I would need for him to get the same level of education he would in a learning environment with people trained to do the job.

@ProsperTheBear no, we don't have that. I send my kids to school, they do the homework, they do well. Now there's nothing it's shit. I'll get accused of teacher bashing. I have no doubts about the abilities of the teachers and school to teach the kids when they're there but this is a shitshow.

Also I would say to other people that have posted that I'm passionate about education, I do training and learning myself, I love sharing knowledge with my kids, I loved school, straight As always did my homework. Teaching my kids using bitesize and all the rest of it is the most mind numbingly boring thing I have ever done. I love my children and being with them, but not like this. If you like it, it's easy but there is no choice in this matter so when people are struggling some things you can't force.

What terrible situation some of us are in. Parents are the completey unacknowledged heroes in all this, no matter how much work their kid has managed. It's more than a teacher has managed, remember that. Because they say they can't mark, they can't talk to your child, they can't give them any different, they can't have them in school. They can't, and whatever we can is therefore a bonus.

I am honestly confused, how can you be passionate about education and not have a clue what the year expectations are for your own children

and stick to resources you find boring when there are so many available?

People talk about disadvantaged children sliding behind are children whose parents didn't engage with education when schools were open and don't engage now.

So children whose parents didn't regularly read to them and listen to them read regularly when schools were open are probably not doing it now. Op are you reading with them and listening to them read on a daily basis - that makes a big difference.

I was always amazed how rarely lots of parents did this....that they hadn't realised that if it happen 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, it just doesn't feel like work to anyone, just life. Battles tend to happen when something is irregular, so routines make a huge difference even if it's a short routine.

What about some of the online maths programmes - even by going over stuff they have done before on these,nit will stop them slipping behind and going backwards.

So to be honest, with primary, I'd focus on doing some literacy and numeracy each day. Some reading, some writing and some numeracy will be good enough. If you don't do 25 projects it really won't matter. Those can be fun (or not) but it's the reading,meriting and numeracy that you need to keep going.

I think that not engaging in these 3 key areas is a mistake. It isn't just that children's progress will stall, but they will go backwards. It doesn't need hours and hours - even 20 mins of reading and 20 of writing and 20 of numeracy will keep things going. But if that hour is missing I think the problems are building.

Because there are well paid people teaching my kids and targets that I know they need to meet that they will meet. I don't need to know the details. If they send me anything I read it.

I work full-time, although not today don't know why I'm wasting my time on here, I don't have time to do their job for them and wade through all the stuff. Been there, done that but tired now.

For what it's worth are dad's worrying about this crap and signing up to twinkl?

I don't know if schools realise or care how much parent support and engagement has plummeted.

@WombatChocolate isn't an issue that there are no books? The kids are bored of the ones we have at home. School didn't give them any. There are no libraries open. eBooks aren't nearly as easy to read and engaging although I have to admit my kids aren't tech savvy and we don't have a tablet.

@RoomOnOurBroom

You can have all the resources available in the world (and let's face it you need time and headspace too) but if they don't, or you can't, engage your kids to learn, then what?

Please tell me what this secret ingredient is? I hear teachers are good but not currently available.

This.

She runs shaking from the room when I try to get her to watch a quick video update from the headteacher.

Her class teacher was due to phone yesterday; she ran and hid in the toilet and begged me not to make her talk to him.

I load up ANYTHING that represents 'education' on the computer and she flatly refuses to engage.

You can't bully children into learning! So what are we supposed to do when they just won't engage? As @RoomOnOurBroom says, the secret ingredient is school, and teachers. Neither are currently available to my DD, at least not in the usual way.

I find your attitude not to be involved at all a bit strange, Frazzledmrs even if it's just the sheer lack of curiosity, even in a private school where you can reasonably expect results.

For what it's worth are dad's worrying about this crap and signing up to twinkl?
looking at the communication on our classes and school pages, fathers are even worst than mothers , or at least as much if not more involved.

They might spend a lot less time on this specific forum.

You can easily buy any book you like online, and there's no lack for second hand and very cheap options.

I don't disbelieve that some have children that point blank refuse to read, do any activity book for the youngest, and watch any tv whatsoever, I genuinely wonder what do they do all day!

Explain to them that it will make schoolwork much easier when they go back?

Me.

I did try, but it was either I get frustrated with them (because they knew what they were doing but decided to play dumb) or I don’t do it, and we have a chilled out couple of months.

They will catch up quickly. I’m sure not every child has gotten a school level education which means lots of kids are going to need to play catch up

I would try to do a little bit every day. It doesn't need to be "school" work if you find that overwhelming.

Do some reading - you to them and them to you.
Do some maths - if little then watch some numberblocks, do everyday counting eg when you're setting out plates or walking up steps. If older do a bit of counting in 2/5/10s or times tables each day.
Do some writing - you could all write a diary every day, or write letters or postcards to grandparents. Write shopping lists out or plans for after lockdown.

There are lots of free online educational games too - bbc bitesize, topmarks maths etc.

We are behind because I find it hard to motivate my DD but we haven’t stopped.
She will be a bit behind when she does back but I am actually planning on keeping going over the summer because I think that break would actually negatively impact her more.
If I stopped altogether I’m sure I would get a concerned call from the school as even though she’s reception we have to post pictures and videos of the learning we are doing.
Have the school been in touch OP?

These are all great suggestions and appear to be working for many families, but again I ask, what do you do when your child, as campdragon says, runs screaming from you at the mere mention of a teacher video, BBC bite size etc?

Really, I try every day. Everyday it's the same, tears, refusal to even look at whatever it is. Freaks out at hit the button or anything time pressured, or where there's a right or wrong answer to be selected. Bribery hasn't worked. Praise hasn't worked. Threats haven't worked. Leaving stuff around hasn't worked. DD spends most of her time playing Sylvanians, watching a couple of hours of TV (as educational as I can make it) and chatting to her imaginary friends.

We've had to be creative.

I also have 3 kids, toddler is disabled (plus I WFH 3 days a week, DP works out of the house)

I get the older (7) to read to the younger (5) and the 5yo in turn reads to the toddler!

I make things around the house into lessons - so cookery, DIY etc becomes something they watch / learn get involved with.

Walks can be combined with school work - animal / flower / tree spotting.

We don't have a printer and have been sharing a laptop [3 of us for one computer] but I've still managed to get them both to do a bit of school work - set via our school portal - each day.

My reception age child is set much more rigid daily structure so we just pick a few things we can do each day [we couldn't stick to such a structure that assumes everyone is a SAHP of one child and has all the tech they need available]

My year 2 is set work that is more "open" IE projects he can research (we've done The Titanic / Neil Armstrong and Florence Nightingale). Science topics are geared towards things we can do / find locally, same as geography. The work set for Y2 feels as though the teachers get that parents have lots going on... the work set is creative and open to interpretation.

Sorry I've really digressed here!!

2 kids, eldest with SEN and no support from school,bar a few worksheets.

We keep being told here that school is not childcare, but neither are parents trained teachers! Right now, I consider it a success if they are fed,alive and done some reading each day.

@crunchymum that's really helpful because that work does sound far more engaging. What we're seeing is a huge disparity.

We get told to each day do:
Maths
Maths Skills
Comprehension
Spag
Reading

Once a week
Writing task
Topic task
Spelling test
Creative task

So get 20 worksheets a week. The once a week tasks really unexciting so the topic is history of the school which I swear they've done every year so far!