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.

A couple of hours a day. School setting practically nothing, so I'm trying to find stuff that interests them. Youngest has it in her head she can't do stuff. Eldest will happily go on Maths Factor, Bitesize and Duolingo for a few hours... But one laptop gave up the ghost last week... So only one can be on the computer at once.

Not much sadly. I have been working out of the house all through and my dh has been working full time from home and looking after dd1 who is in year 1 and twins aged 4, one of whom is autistic.

We're so relieved dd1 is back at school.

Mine does maths and English tasks each week. That’s it. About an hour and a half a day currently.

P3 child here. He had Zoom with his class for storytime/chat pre holidays, then some English and Maths work. About 2 hours, plus he likes reading and does it anyway. We've been doing half an hour maths/English a day since the holidays too. I don't do anything formal at all with the child who is going into P1 next month though, I've no idea where to start with the very basics.

@stayingaliveisawayoflife

Folks please be careful about going up a year especially in maths. The curriculum is very strict and we as teachers are not allowed to go into the next year to stretch the more able. It actually says that. This means your child could end up repeating work which will not be good for them. Have a look at the nrich website which has lots of problem solving activities to stretch but still within the year's content.

Well I'm not researching the curriculum. Or spending ages picking out tailored activities. I just keep buying progressively harder maths books, occasionally pause work to explain things and insist on 30 mins maths every day. I'm working and studying which is combined over 40 hours a week and dh doesn't help with DS until after 5pm

I don't just chase up yr5 work, he also has done "fun" maths books (ie one on doing KS2 maths to run a rocket launch), taken his set work and done it in the garden with floor chalks, done the pen and paper exercise for a teams training course I was doing for my maths phd etc.

If school wanted us to stick to a rigid framework they should send more than 2 worksheets that take 10-15 mins in total as all the maths input for the week. I want DS to have learnt and developed his independent work ethic during this time. Not learnt how to cling rigidly to a framework set up for the median child.

We have kids in yr 5 and yr 2. School have not set much at all, esp for yr 2. Daily, we do spellings, english (spag, comprehension, writing etc), maths workbook, times tables rock stars. We also do 'topic' where the kids pick things they're interested in like science, baking, history etc. About 3 hrs a day I reckon. We've made sure they've completed the syllabus for their year groups and we're having a week of revision this week on bits they've found tricky. We're starting our summer holidays a week early next week. We're all ready for a rest!

Y4 and Y7 here. We are both working and have been busier than ever so we’re not doing anything with them. Y7 has several hours a day set by school so we just check in, make sure he’s doing it. Y4 has a few tasks a week from school which she does plus mathletics. She’s on an online platform as well and does a few lessons on that. Hopefully they’ve both developed independent learning skills....

I've been doing all the work set by DS's teacher. He's also in year 2. But we've been slacking a bit the past couple of weeks. I want to keep going though because he struggles with some things and I don't want him to fall behind.

Both mine (y1 and 5) have been doing 1-2 hours a day. They get through everything set by school in this time - that’s a maths worksheet, English activity and “other” eg science, history, phse, phonics for y1 etc.
They are both very able and DH and I have been working so I’ve considered it our job to keep them ticking over rather than push them on. They are both where they should be national curriculum wise, and both ahead with reading. Y1 in particular has made huge strides in reading over lockdown, but I suspect that was coming anyway so just a case of keeping it up.

Y5 with ASD & dyslexia.

Everything the school set, plus typing practise. He is quite behind and can’t afford to fall further behind. Fortunately, he has been happy to do it, but has required a lot of support. He’s been at the table with me while I work for about 3 hours a day. He was offered a place in the year 5 bubble two weeks ago and has been happy as Larry to be back at school. He says they’re doing less in school than he’s been doing at ho e, which may or may not be true - who knows - but it’s doubtless better quality than my distracted efforts.

I'm currently a SAHM so, in theory, we should have done all the school work plus lots of amazing extra stuff. I've got time, right?

In practice, the work school sets mostly gets done. Y4 child gets three activities a day which take maybe 2 hours of focused work. Can drag out if it's something hated like reading comprehension. Quite often I say not to bother doing something that is causing too much upset as nobody is going to know anyway.

We've done occasional baking and science experiments, but it's a lot of effort for 5 minutes entertainment. She has read a lot of books, played a lot of Animal Crossing, and thanks to Disney+ watched a lot of The Simpsons.

It’s just gone on too long now. Ok in a crisis March - May. From June onwards when access to f2f education depended on your date of birth and your parents job - nah, no longer fit for purpose.

My hours are not flexible (9-5.30) and homeschooling isn’t going to happen during the evening / night / dawn so, 🤷🏼‍♀️

Our school haven't set any work (yr 3) except what I would refer to as 'busy work' - simple exercises designed to keep children busy but not learning new material. It's been incredibly hard to engage my yr3 boy to do anything remotely school like especially as school are not offering feedback or communication. We've had one phone call since March 20th. He's been doing occasional maths, watching bite size learning and reading loads and looking at the ancient Greeks and things like that. We've also done couch to 5k, watched lots of nature programmes etc but in terms of 'homeschooling' in a conventional sense, we've done very little.

1-2hrs per day mainly using online resources. Gave up using the stuff on Google Classroom as it was a mess and they weren't marking it anyway!

DS is in year 3 (I think? We're in Spain, he's 8.5 yo).
He'd do the set schoolwork through gritted teeth. We'd always start with the English and maths as they're easy for him (particularly the English, lol! Lots of 'match the clothes to the noun').
Most of the work was mini projects, combining writing, maths and creative thinking, some art. We did, overall, about 90% of the work set. For example, he had to design a circus big top, draw where the seats would be etc, totally boring and he doesn't like drawing, so he made it out of Lego as a compromise, it had trapeze artists and contortionists, it was fab and he enjoyed it much more. Anything artistic I did with him as DH can't draw a straight line!
School term finished on 19th June, and I've been doing an hour a day with a maths book and a specialised year 3 activity book which is excellent and he likes doing it (it's a trip around Kenya, so far he has had to write down 10 African countries and put them in alphabetical order, calculate the price of various things you put in your suitcase, how much change your get back from €40, wordsearch, write an email saying how your trips going, etc). It's a lovely wik book and he's actually enjoying it. I'll be sewing it ironing, he'll be working. I think he likes to have me near, but not breathing over his shoulder.

So now it's summer, he does about 1 hour a day on that and some reading, 30-60 minutes, some during the day some in bed at night.

During lockdown, both DH and I were working from home. I went back to work at the end of May, but my summer hours have been cancelled so I'm on the dole until October. So I have more time to do fun things with DS. Most days we're on the beach or he's out on his bike with the dig, sharing ice creams!

He is somewhere in the middle of his class, not the brightest and not struggling. We get him to read signs etc when we're out and about, menus and wotnot, get him to help us pay for things by counting cash, asking him how old our 4yo dog is in dog years

There are many ways to keep kids engaged and interested without resorting to worksheets, but it depends on the child.

When they all go back to school there will be children with very different experiences of lockdown. We've been very mindful of DS' mental health more than schoolwork. Here we had total lockdown, no one allowed out at all (we are lucky to have aforementioned dog!), so he didn't actually leave the house for 2.5 months and had anxiety attacks. Now he's much better and I've made him some masks out of funky fabric and he has been to the beach with friends, so life feels more normal.

God what a ramble

I agree @elQuintoConyo, I think it’s more important to send them back to school mentally healthy than having done the entire maths syllabus. If they are mentally well they are in a more robust place to catch back up and long term will have developed valuable resilience and coping skills. If doing school work is making everyone miserable it is so much better to sack it off and keep everyone sane and healthy.

I make a reasonable effort, juggling with home working.

e.g. son in year 4 has been doing some maths sheets every day, was upset to discover this AM that they've also had a 5-10 video to watch every day, he's missed every one, that's 5 days times 5 weeks times 8 minutes ish, several hours' worth of missed watching.

I have kids in Yr 1 and Yr 4. The school had been ok in sending work out. They send it in 2 week blocks. It is varied and interested for the kids that want to do it. BUT it is not marked or looked at by school at all.
The first few weeks I made them do absolutely everything but it has got less and less as times gone on as their motivation and also mine as dwindled. Every day its "oh not again" etc. We are now just sticking with the key subjects maths, English.
I am not concerned about them being behind when they go back as I know for a fact there are children in the class who have done zero. We have done alot but not as much as some. I'm happy with that.
We aren't going to anything over the holidays tho, maybe a little refresher in the week before they return to school but we all need a break

Started off ok. Beginning ofJune, it dwindled to one piece of set work each day (out of about 4 pieces set) , these last couple of weeks it's more like one piece of set work every 3-4 days which is rushed and done badly.

@Newdaynewname1 how have you done 4 hours a day and worked full time? I just can't seem to manage it unless I stop work and guide my children 😭. Any tips??!
@ursuslemonade whet was the maths site please?
Thanks. I feel crap about how little we have done

Y2, started strong then a few weeks in we spent more and more time outside in the forest (we live middle of nowhere) and I only really logged in to check we hadn't missed anything vital. At 6 years old I don't think it will have disadvantaged her to miss a few months of school and the confidence she has gained physically has been more beneficial. I appreciate we are very lucky to have so much outside space but for a child who has always fallen over her own feet she is now running, using her scooter, climbing trees.

@Polkadotpjs i’m lucky in that I don’t have to work set hours. So i’ve done 30 min work, 30 min school, ... and catch up at night and weekends. Plus things like mathsfactor and handwriting exercises where they know you see the results, but don’t need support during conference calls.
It was a killer.

Year 5. She has done about 3 hours a day. She sits next to me as I prepare lessons for my own pupils. It's getting harder to motivate her .

We have done a lot but not this week as we’re on holiday.

DS (primary 3)
Per day: One lesson on Reading Eggs. One session of Mathseeds. Few minutes of times tables.
Per week: Two half hour sessions of Gaelic conversation. Two hour long Outschool lessons (any subject he likes)
Dd (due to start Primary School next term):
One session of Reading Eggs and One session of Mathseeds per day.