do you let your child play or keep up the school work during this school closure?

[gina8127]

I am letting my children to just free play in the garden, etc. today and I feel guilty because other mums seem to work hard and encouraging them to sit and do their work. (English, Maths, PE etc. using the source provided by the school).

They are 4-5 years old so are reception.
It's especially difficult for me because I and DH both working from home!

Do you think IABU to let them just play?

I'd be doing exactly the same in your position OP. My child is 10 so she's been working most of today but she really wants to! I suggested stopping at 3.30 when school would normally finish and she wanted to keep going for a while. I did give her a couple of hours off for lunch though to make sure she had a decent break.

You can throw education into play

Numbers and letters - the foam type
Building LEGO
Counting and sorting

Lots of ways to learn paper no required

I have older ones and doing both. I am not going to stand over them all day and make them work, but neither is it a free for all. A bit of tweaking is needed, but it will possibly work, with the least amount of stress possible.

In school, Reception classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework (2017).
You can google it to have a look if you’re interested. All learning is play based.

I’ve done a bit of both, the ‘learning’ was minimal because I’m not sure what I’m doing and the two year old wanted to join in. We walked the street measuring things like Daddy’s car wheels etc.

Let them play :)

Try to make it fun. Maybe find a funny picture on the internet and ask them to write a few words about that (don't worry about spelling).

Some fun activity books which include colouring, stickers etc. The works has cheap ones.

Maths, maybe snakes and ladders? That involves counting and seeing numbers on dice. Keep it active: write numbers 1-10 on paper, write words 1-10 on paper. Get some small objects (marbles, Lego etc) together. They have to match word with number with correct no of objects. Then maybe do same no. of star jumps.

One day of this, one day of play or half and half. I think it will keep them more entertained than all free play.