To have no faith in myself to home educate my kids

[Meh21]

I know everyone’s in the same situation right now..

I have two children with sen. They didn’t go to school last time around despite having ehcps because they didn’t meet the criteria as vulnerable. Not sure what’s happening this time and whether I would want to send them. This isn’t what my post is about really.

It’s about that I have no faith in myself to teach them at home. Last time I utterly failed at it all. My partner worked throughout the whole thing, just before lockdown I lost a close family member, I was grieving what felt like on my own. My son doesn’t respond well to any form of home education. School is school, home is home. He has autism. My daughter is more willing but often got distracted by DS.

It wasn’t all that bad. Although we didn’t get much work done, the weather was beautiful so we spent so much time outside, more than we ever have before. We live in the countryside so plenty to explore, we managed to do work in our garden we never had time for before. My daughter who has a mild physical disability really built on her gross motor skills too.

But home learning? Absolute fail 😭

The weathers shit, the kids can’t go in the garden (our garden is like a bog in this wet weather). We can go for walks but I just feel like I’m destined to fail already. I have no faith in myself.

Not really an aibu but advice on how to motivate my children to do home learning?

Both my children have mild to moderate learning difficulties. They have 1:1 help at school and I’m just not any good any sustaining their interest. I would make a crap teacher.

Aibu to just do fun educational things? Rather than lots of written work. Perhaps fun apps on their iPad, looking at books, puzzles, flash cards, play board games? We have some educational things at home like globes, world maps, magnetic science kits etc.

These things really help my two. They just struggle with writing etc. They are visual learners.

DS didn’t really get set work last time as the work his peers do is too complicated. We were left to our own devices most of the time.

Definitely just stick to your plan of doing fun educational things, maybe learning some practical skills like cooking, crafts. They learn a lot from these things. Try to get outside for a walk everyday if you can.

How old are they? At primary age they just need a general education in understanding what history, geography etc are. Keep them aware and interested in the world around them.
Play games with them. I like Orchard Games - quick and simple but all educational. Or look up 5 Minute Mum - lots of quick activities and games.

It really matters how old they are.

For younger primary age I'd just do small bursts of core stuff, times tables, writing, hfw, reading every day.. For older dc I don't know.

I had some Carol voderman books

Stick to your own plan- fun educational games are great ways to engage children in learning.

Remember your not just the teacher, your the dinner lady, the cleaner and the mom doing all the household stuff as normal, so just take each day at a time.

With your son having autism, could you set up a desk in a corner of a room or a specific area and call it ‘school’ and just do formal work there, even if it’s simple work for a few minutes a day and build the time up, just to get him used to that for a few weeks? It might be a rubbish suggestion (my children don’t have SEN) but hopefully it’ll help?

Also, I have noticed spelling mistakes in my above post, sorry about that!

Your plan sounds great. I would also recommend audio books for children of any age. Kitchen sink type science experiments can be fun too.

Free play is just as important. They learn it's ok to be bored sometimes and it can fire up their imaginations.

They'll learn more and be happier from free play and educational play with you than with all of you stressed and miserbale trying to 'home school'. Kids are resilient, they'll catch up.

Also, sod the weather and get outside as much as possible. Get puddle suits, raincoats, wellies and head on out to the garden or park. Google 'Forest school at home' - there's loads of educational actvites you can do and it will stop you all getting that cooped-up feeling.

I don't know why you have no faith in yourself to provide home learning, it sounds like you know well enough how best your DC learn and have a plan how to meet that with suitable learning activities. Crack on I say. No one knows your children better than you, and that is the best starting position to be in. My own personal opinion is that one of the most valuable things you can pass onto your DC is a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge, a sense of curiosity about the world, it will set them up for lifelong learning beyond all this. It doesn't have to be through traditional methods, going for walks and talking about things you see, playing games together, making and crafting things, telling stories, it's all learning.

You sound like a great mum! You understand your children and their needs. Personally I would do as suggested above and concentrate on fun education, building up the family bond and making the best of a difficult time. You've got this!