To ask for an honest thread about how much homeschooling you've been doing? Primary age

[ElephantsAlltheWayDown]

Just read another thread about homeschooling and now feeling anxious.

DS is in year 2. We started out strong at the beginning of lockdown, I bought some maths and English workbooks from Amazon and signed him up to Prodigy Maths online. We were doing all that daily plus some writing and fun science experiments... that lasted two weeks, tops. After that we did the White Rose maths sheets four days a week plus a bit of English. That lasted until a few weeks ago.

The last two weeks we've done nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Work really picked up for me (WFH) and I just haven't had the time or energy to do more.

He reads daily on his own. If I remember I'll have him do Prodigy for an hour (but I usually don't remember).

What have you been doing with your primary kids? Honestly. Whether that's five hours of intensive homeschooling or absolutely nothing every day for all of lockdown, I just want to know. I thought we were about average but now I'm wondering if I've completely dropped the ball.

Year 3- first couple of weeks she had a folder of worksheets to complete, covered various subjects. It worked well. Since then work has been set on the school website for us to print/ complete online. We're gradually managing less and less. Currently each day she does a maths worksheet, English task, times tables, spellings. Could be done in an hour easily but with the arguments and procrastination it can take almost all day.

Year 6- had some workbooks and print outs from school for the first few weeks, since then has had work set on the school website. The teacher suggests 45 minutes maths, 45 minutes English. He does the absolute bare minimum and like his sister spends more time arguing than actually doing his work.

I feel like I've spent three months arguing with my children.

Reception. 1 page of phonics a day, on an average day.

On a really good day, we've done all sorts of stuff that's educational but rarely school work. On a bad day I've had to work all day and DD has been plugged into her tablet or the telly.

I do feel bad because if she'd been at school DD would have been reading fluently by now, and she isn't.

Yr 1 and Yr 5.

We aim for a minimum of 4 hours a day, split between me and DH. We're both working and extremely busy but with fairly flexible hours, so by working most nights and part of the weekends, we just about manage to educate the children.

In some ways it was easier at the start when for weeks we had no guidance at all, so I devised classes I could teach together. It got more complicated when the Yr5 teachers started sending work, and Yr1 nothing, as since then we've had to simultaneously teach them.

Yr 5: A whole week of timetabled activity, including 4 days of White Rose maths, 4 days of English (teacher sends ppt with video links, and worksheets), plus geography, science, RE, PSHE, history etc... They're pretty good at getting on with work, but need 121 help on maths, and at least some of the classes need me to interact or actively deliver the lesson. Also preparing for 11+, which is harder than the school work.

Yr 1: School occasionally sends home a vague list of 'nice' activities, usually involving terrible messes and close parental supervision. No consideration that parents might be working and teaching yet another child, simultaneously. The list is laughable, or would be, if we weren't close to a breakdown. Naturally we have plenty of time to make, paint and furnish a Victorian dolls house, or costumes for a civil war re-enactment they want filmed.

Instead we've gone completely off-piste, teach alongside our daughter, but differentiating, or we do white rose maths we've found ourselves, or workbooks we've bought. I'm not worried about Yr1 child's educational progress, as they're very bright and well ahead, but more concerned about their engagement in education - easily bored and then disruptive. Needs intellectual stimulus or intellect turns to creative, clever, and yet expensively destructive occupations.

We've been increasingly paying for OutSchool, which has some interesting classes that keep Yr1 child engaged, and other classes that reinforce curriculum for Yr 5 child.

Both class teachers are giving feedback on work, but it's another 2 hours per week liaising with them, uploading stuff, downloading stuff etc.

It's a nightmare, and I'm just thankful Yr1 child isn't a year younger, as that would have been impossible. DH and I are exhausted and only spend 1 evening a week together. Plus side is we have a really good picture of Yr5 child's strengths and weaknesses now and can work on them. Suspect we might have had a nasty shock in the 11+ otherwise, as school reports always very positive.

Mine did really well for the first few weeks, they enjoyed it actually. Then it became a bit of a struggle to get them to do anything at all, and eventually the youngest (6) point blank refused to do it. I gave up in all honesty. I wasn't prepared to upset them everyday.

Yr 5. Does the set school work. Takes about 90 mins and some reading/music etc.
Yr3 x 2 - massive struggle to get to do anything. Lots of tears and tantrums. We manage some maths and some English 4 times a week. But its been very very tough. We are exhausted

Yr 4 about 2 hrs a day school set work and we have also learned tables and spellings.
I've enjoyed being able focus on stuff she is struggling with and help her gain confidence. She's very average and has partial hearing loss so tends to get forgotten and won't say if she is struggling.
I work from home and dh is working out of home but she's a good girl and happy to sit with me while I work and I use oak or bite size if I need to make calls or zoom.

Oh, I upload one page/week of work. The portal is a nightmare and if I do it more efficiently (ie upload a multipage pdf) the teacher doesn't even open it. I'm not spending nearly as much time as was spent on the work wrestling with a portal.

Importantly for everyone's mental health, I don't argue. I just put the switch on a high shelf above my desk and it only comes down again once educational activity requirements are met. If he wants to chatter, hug, read in a corner, spend the day pottering in the garden, whatever, that's fine. But he's very motivated to get his switch time and I'm strict on that (and the compulsory level of effort is easily achievable).

44 minutes a day maximum. Some days we o it manage to read.

I'm a year 2 teacher. One of my class is doing the work I set! About 5 more are still logging on to the online activities but most gave up long ago. A few asked for paper packs about 3 weks ago - some have collected, some haven't. I don't think it's unusual to have given up now. If you are able, keep up with some reading, do a bit of spelling of the Year 2 Common Exception words (easily searchable on Google), try to write something or do colouring to keep the muscles needed for fine motor skill active. Maybe some mental maths like adding single digit numbers, or some practical activities that you can fit into real life like using different coins. Learning to tell the time on an analogue clock would be really helpful as that's something they always find hard. Try to keep up the reading at least over the summer.

But work around what you can fit in. My DCs are in school apart from the day I am at home but I still do a bit of maths and reading comprehension as they aren't doing much at school because of the mixed age group. If I didn't do that, they would just be on Roblox!

We've been doing about 3 hours spread over the day with dds y4 and y2. There are 5 pieces of work set by school which we do, they also do Joe Wicks PE every day (since it stopped being daily we do Cosmic Kids Yoga on the days it isn't on) and the practice the piano (and have a weekly distance lesson). They also read.

I feel like we've kept up, but we're lucky that both dp and I have been able to be flexible with work so we can do stuff with the dds and catch up in the evenings.

Y10 -what school sets plus a couple of Zoom lessons for the past three weeks.

Y2 - Honestly? None. Zilch. Nowt. BUT he hates school so seeing him so relaxed and happy has been the most important thing.

Yr3 dc: homework from school not so great, mainly some crafty rubbish....so I make her do doodlemaths/tables/English/Spell pretty much every day (and sit with her)
Also we check out bbc bitesize daily lessons and another free maths site as it was great for explaining stuff after I realized how behind she is at maths
After all these she reads for hours or plays a bit on a laptop.

Year 6 about 3 hours a day set by school then they do some form of exercise and 30 minutes of reading. Very consistent, in the holidays we did 1 comprehension, 2 pages of maths and 30 minutes of reading. We'll not continue this all summer holidays but we are going to read and do some book reviews and the odd bit of maths.

None of the stuff the school have sent out... Its awful worksheets and dd hates them. She doesn't understand it, my mum is looking after her in the day as I am a key worker and work full time. It was causing huge rows so I emailed her teacher and said I refused to do it. It's not healthy for dd and my mum to be fighting and I can't afford for mum to refuse to have dd. I tried to ask them to take her at school due to the fact myself her dad and my dp are all key workers but she is severely asthmatic and is on a low dose chemo for hyperactive immune system so the head has refused to have her in school (Sept will be interesting!)

She plays on maths factor, mini mash and purple mash on her tablet every day and reads a lot but otherwise we aren't touching it.

Since we stooped(about 6 weeks into lockdown) dd has been a different kid, no tantrums, she's sleeping, less stressed and less depressed...

Dd year 1. She's very reluctant with reading and writing but I've tried. Probably not hard enough. It's been a strange time in our house, not just because of corona, we've had family problems and it's all a bit of a mess at home. The most consistent thing has been maths factor, probably doing 1 session every 2 days on average. Drawing, baking and making things out of her building blocks and we've been for some nice walks... I know these aren't exactly school work, but it's something. We were doing the work set by her teacher but since she returned to school part time I've got quite bad at checking the portal.

Year two child, he works from 8.30-3pm with an hour for lunch. He does two zoom lessons with school, a sheet of handwriting, maths and English set by school and then 2-3 oak national lessons.

For the first 4 weeks we did 3/4 of the school day.
Then down to half a school day with walk and gardening.
The more gardening, cooking, painting and walking with some lessons...
Now Yr 6 back to school///////

Reception, year 2 and year 4.

I’ve tried to do bits each week. It’s nowhere near the amount they’d be doing at school.

Year 5, we did all the work set by the school, including optional extension activities. We are already in summer break here. DD’s planned summer camp for academically inclined kids became an online summer school so she is doing that to keep busy. She is definitely ready to dive right in for year 6.

Not enough as we’ve both been working throughout . I’m paying a tutor 2 hours a week atm as son will sit aqe in December.

Y2 and Yr5

Yr 2 DC around 1 hour daily. Plus half an hour of reading SOME days and a bit of Purplemash online. DC is incapable of doing any work independently so it's been really exhausting. First few months of home learning I was unwell with morning sickness, DH WFH full time and did the cooking and cleaning on his breaks etc so it was unrealistic to really expect him to homeschool as well! By the time I felt better and wanted DC to do more, for longer, the lazy attitude had fully set in and it was too late to reverse it.

As for what work he's been doing - on the school website class teacher set 6 fairly easy weekly tasks to complete and to email back which then went up on the website for everyone to see. This really helped DC as he is extremely unmotivated but didn't want to disappoint his teacher and has enjoyed seeing his work on there along with his friends'. However in recent weeks he refuses to engage, faffing, throwing huge tantrums and feels the need for a lie down every 15 minutes. So we've given up. Last month the school provided some basic English and math workbooks, he prefers those to the online tasks so for an easy life I will stick to those. I also ordered my own from Waterstones (comprehension, punctuated & grammar, mental maths), so he completes a page each from all of them.

Yr5 DC also 1 hour daily, half an hour TT rockstars and half hour reading. DC is extremely bright and gets on with it, however school has been very disappointing. Provided some printed English and Maths sheets which he finds repetitive and dull, and a few creative 'projects' on Seesaw. Eg take a photo of yourself reading in an usual place.

He also prefers workbooks ordered from Amazon and Waterstones so gets on with those. We do some art stuff in the afternoons and mindfulness exercises. He has developed terrible anxiety during lockdown (withdrawn, panic attacks, eating terribly, having to sit with him until he falls asleep), so I try not to be forceful or too rigid with routine and rules. His mental health comes first, even if it means allowing him to play out with the neighbourhood kids. fuckin' corona

My Reception child does 2.5hrs before lunch which is usually reading, maths, spelling then something else like a bit of history, learning to tell the time or geography. After lunch she is free to watch television or use the iPad and independently play in her bedroom. We might do some art or baking before dinner time. She’s happy to do the learning in the morning and get it out of the way to leave rest of day free to do other things. She has really progressed in lockdown and we are onto Yr2/3 level work now. We are lacking in PE as we only go for walks/cycling once a day in the evening.

DD, Y4. English, maths, spelling and tables we manage most days about 2 hours of good learning time. Then usually add another lesson from somewhere else in the curriculum (eg science, geography, history) either using Oak, BBC Bitesize, random YouTube videos on various subjects. Two times a week she reads out loud to a grandparent on Skype, and she reads her book or I read to her for a bit every night.

We go through phases, at one stage she was loving history, then it was Mystery Doug videos, then we got heavily into cycling, then she wanted to learn Lua for Roblox coding (shame that didnt last), for a while we went rambling in the woods every day, right now it's all about Blue Peter Badges, drawing cartoons and watching Bear Grylls!

On very hot days, we don't bother working. On Fridays, we slack off a bit too. We have struggled with how much I expect her to do since day 1, but probably this reflects the fact they really don't do all that much at school. Teachers I think spend a lot of time just attempting to organise the class and maintain discipline. It seems like as long as your kid is bumbling along, there isnt much attempt to bring out the best in them at school, so it's not surprising at home they don't expect to be required to do much. What's the point correcting this, as they will just return to school and be utterly bored by the snail's pace of the class and the children who the teacher STILL can't prevent from jumping on the tables or trying to climb the walls or chatting/shouting and deliberately disturbing the other kids, not to mention the ones who LITERALLY run screaming from the classroom and run round the playground during lessons?

This week, I've decided we are going to make it a celebration week - we will only work a bit, and every day we will choose a different playground and go out for the afternoon. We might meet friends, or head out in the car with a picnic. I'm really excited as I know DD will race through lessons then we can enjoy the day and next week, we will re-engage with her timetable more fully.

I'm actually less and less bothered by the amount of work done. DD is happy, her brain hasn't rotted away, and the teachers REALLY aren't bothered which makes me think as parents we are stressing out FAR too much. I will be bearing down on the school next year to make sure my DD is learning something, as we have barely heard a peep from them since March. Not much you can do about it really, is there.

Just try not to worry and enjoy this time with your kids, try and keep up with reading and tables/maths and handwriting, and hopefully all will be fine.

Y2 - 3 to 4 hours a day. I bought books for this year and for the year ahead and have been doing my best to actively teach. I am mainly doing maths and English . DC1 is bright and picks up new concepts easily but is not always willing to learn. We are working on Y3 books. I touch on other topics infrequently as I don't know how to teach them in a way that interests DC. I'm concerned I will turn him off particular subjects altogether if I persevere. I'd really like to do some geography, history and science but apart from trying very basic science experiments, we haven't done anything worthwhile that taught them anything.

YR - 3 hours a day. DC2 has made really good progress and is very interested in learning. We have covered a large chunk of Y1 work.

Both DCs read independently at bedtime.

I'm not including time spent walking, baking, jigsaws or art as these are normal home activities and I wouldn't include them in a school day either.

Both children are spending far too much time on electronic devices and watching tv.

Reception: average 3h a day (4 including faffing about) of phonics, writing, reading, maths and art. Work all set by the school using online platform but no live lesson, suspect she’s done far more than she would have if she’d actually been in school. I do all of that with her.

Y3: average 4-5h per day of all subjects, set by school on online platform, mostly ppt / video with questions and activities to do independently, links to online sites like my maths. I’m there to help but rarely need to get v involved. Brief feedback (eg 2 words, usually well done) from teachers but not enough to make a meaningful difference.

We try to finish as much as we can by lunch then go out for a walk or play. I’ve shifted my working hours so I home school in the day then wfh from about 4pm to midnight on average. Like pp said, it’s been a good chance to see strengths and weaknesses, reception age child has definitely benefited from being at home most. Y3 less so as he doesn’t get extension work he normally would in school.