Reception age child... how much are you doing?

[new0rules]

Any other mums of reception-ish age children who are also working from home: please tell me how much you are doing with your child doing the week as I’m feeling increasingly anxious/guilty about it! We do about 20-30 mins of a phonics/reading app and 30-40 mins numeracy per day, some form of exercise whether it be a kids yoga or just a walk, and generallg some supervised colouring/crafts.. but other than that I’m getting slammed at work (customer facing role and very reactive) and I keep having to tell dd5 to play on her own/do a sticker book or let her watch stuff in between. She is an only so I’m feeling extra guilty all the time. We are chatting and interacting all day and I know this isn’t forever but I’m just feeling crappy as a mum right now.
Anyone reassure me please? I hate just fobbing her off.

That sounds plenty. I'm doing 30 mins of phonics, some maths/counting & a few pages of reading. Then baking, crafts, garden time. And a board game.

I am not working from home, but am a keyworker who regularly goes to work and doesn't see my children on that day. We are doing reading most days (biff, chip and kipper books on oxford owl website), maths via a website the school already had set up (Numbots), watch some phonics videos that are linked on the school website, occasionally do some of the other activities the school have suggested. I also have a DC in year 4 who I have to help. The work the school sets for both of them is almost all online and I have 1 ipad. Today my reception child has been 'learning through play' on her own for most of the morning while I discovered that I don't know how to use the programme all the older DC's work is set and needs to be submitted on and nor does she. I have had enough of homeschooling. I think (hope) that Reception children will be able to catch up as long as we continue to reinforce phonics and numbers as much as we can.

To be honest recption age is mainly play baised learning and having, volunteered in recption your probably doing as much sit down learning as they would at school. Let her play a lot, so sounds like your doing great.

I’m a reception teacher. Sounds like you’re doing plenty! We’ve sent out quite a detailed plan to our families, as told to by the head, but at this age, as long as they are reading, counting, writing the odd sentence etc they’ll be fine! It’s much more important that they enjoy plenty of play and chat instead. Don’t give yourself a hard time!

DD5 - we do 30 minutes on a morning of reading/writing/sums, we watch the live science show on YouTube at 11am daily (30 mins) and then another 30 minutes in the afternoon of science experiments, (she got a set for her recent birthday which was a well timed gift!), practicing spelling or handwriting or similar. We've got a few workbooks from Amazon that we're working through. The rest of the time is up to her - free play, crafts, TV.

Can anyone expand a bit more on “learning through play”? What does that entail?

You’re doing more formal learning than me and I’m a SAHM, so not balancing working from home.
My reception and year one children are both spending most of their day playing on the trampoline or in their playhouse outside. We’re reading together for maybe 20-30 mins a day, 20 mins a day of number work, the odd bit of baking or craft activity. Both mine read independently so are also spending some time reading alone. They’ve also watched a lot of Disney plus.

Mine has been set quite a few activities on Education City by her teacher. She does 2 maths activities and 2 phonics activities per day.

We have done a lot of baking and colouring etc but no more formal learning than those 4 activities (takes about 40 mins per day)

We are also keeping up with her dancing as she obviously can't go to training. So she does about half an hour practice every couple of days and workouts/yoga on the days in between.

We play LOTS of board gams (she is really relishing having us around so much and wants to play them all the time!), but most games teach counting, turn taking, learning to be a good winner and loser. We also have some games that challenge her a but in terms of maths and some where she has to read cards or similar as we go along, so all are teaching her, but she doesn't feel like she is learning.

I'm a SAHM so potentially am fully available to being 'school work' all day, but we are doing the same amount as you are. Half an hour reading, another half hour maths. Then we do a variety of playing, independent play, drawing, some handwriting practice and then maybe a lesson on youtube. From parents that I've spoken to I think it's quite tough on this age group - the video chat thing is harder for them than older children. We are just trying to focus on keeping as happy.

I think learning through play means - learning self regulation when things go wrong, creativity, narrative etc. Not actual content, but skills.

My lo is 4 and in reception. We've been given homework sheets and so we do between 1-3 sheets a day (weekdays). It takes between 10 - 25 minutes. We then go through sounding out each letter from the alphabet and numbers up to 20. So not more than 30 minutes a day.

In the afternoon we go for a walk and then usual stories before bed. I also try and do another activity like painting or baking but I hat depends on time l as I'm also working from home.

I'm really just aiming to keep his basic writing skills and memory for letters and numbers ticking over.

My gd is doing reading, some writing practice, and some number work each day. She asks to do it and would prob do more if allowed. Also doing art, crafts, lots of play, watching stories and films and talking about them, cooking and then general messing around.

Can anyone expand a bit more on “learning through play”? What does that entail?
I had a prime example of this in my house yesterday. My five year old had finished his bit of 1:1 learning with me and went to play on his own with the duplo while I worked with my 9 year old. He made a camera out of it - a massive complicated looking camera - and then went round the house taking pictures of things. My 9 year old made one too and joined in.
So, learning through play is undirected learning, where the child challenges themselves at their level. The problem during this crisis is that they probably haven’t got anyone to bounce ideas off. Learning through play often works best when they work together with their classmates.

That sounds loads. I have an August born son. He was doing really well with reading before all this and is good at Maths naturally. But we are doing v little with him. Reading one songbird phonics book a day. Two pages of a phonics workbook, 1-2 pages of maths workbook. Then I write him out 4-5 sums and he does a bit of Lexia app which he quite likes. Then it’s colouring/building dens/bit of baking/gardening/running about. And TV and long baths when he gets grotty (often).

That's quite a lot! I can't get my dd to focus for more than 10/15 minutes... we do a bit of reading or writing and some maths spread out through the day plus whatever else she wants eg. games, exercise (joe wicks or yoga), activities the school have sent, I read to her, board games, crafts, baking, science experiments. I have a 4 month old too so it's a tough balance between them both.

Today we made 'mail a hug's to send to my mum. I drew round both kids and dd spent ages painting them, tomorrow we'll cut and post them.

I'd rather spend time with her making sure she feels secure and is happy than pushing schooling, after all I'm not in anyway a qualified teacher and would do more harm than good long term.