Is anyone not going to do the homework primary schools set?

[M0recakeplease]

I have two primary aged children (5&7). Before the Easter holiday a little bit of work was set and that was manageable.

Now they know that schools are closed for the foreseeable our school has just sent out a big list for each year group to get through weekly with daily activities for maths and English (less so for reception - just reading, letter formation and a few bits).

My DD is a summer born year 3, and more of a creative than academic child. She’s also very sensitive and quite young for her age (sucks her thumb still and very into princesses/role play). Whenever we do work, as soon as she gets one thing wrong she starts to cry and wants to give up. She also is not very good at listening when I try to explain the task - I lose my patience and then feel guilty.

I don’t want her to fall behind but it seems very stressful for her (& me), & does it really matter at this age?

She misses routine, friends, GP’s and school so much this just seems to be another stress that could be avoided.

I've got a yr6, yr5 & yr3 & it's pretty hard going.

The yr6 works pretty independantly but because we only have 1 laptop (they have kindles but not easy to work from) I have to print the worksheets & resources first.

Yr5 is very academic but is hard to engage at home so needs more 1-1 to stay motivated.

Yr3 is summer born & it really shows with him. He is below the expected level at the moment & needs 1-1 to do the work but is fairly keen.

DH is still working as normal (essential services) so it's mostly down to me.

It takes about an hour to print & organise the work everyday & then it's a juggling act to support all the DC.

I'm marking or checking the work & then photographing it & messaging it to the appropriate teachers.

We're doing the maths & literacy first where possible & then french, science, topic work etc

I'm finding it hard to squeeze in housework & feeding everyone! I'm VERY glad I don't have to try & work myself as well. No idea how working parents are coping!

I was loving lockdown (not the reasons obviously!) but I feel like it's getting harder.

I think to make the best use of the time without stressing everybody out your daughter could use this time to learn her times tables (using games/apps so it doesn't feel like work) and lots of reading for pleasure - taking turns with her to read out loud from her favourite books (even better if you can chat about what you read). I think if you only did those things but did them (nearly) every day then she would feel the benefit later.

There's a lot of pressure coming from my children's primary which I really don't need tbh. Trying to keep that at arms length and ensure we keep up a good daily routine with some Maths, English and Science plus plenty of reading every day (books to pass down between four DCs so lots of reading material for the next few months, Harry Potter, Famous Five and Worst Witch at mo!)

Start off at 9 with PE with Joe live every morning then go out in the garden for a short time. Do another of Joe's five minute move workouts after lunch to start the afternoon.

The websites their teachers set short tasks on include Developing Experts for science (love that site), purplemash for English Maths and Science, Spelling Shed, TTrockstars and Numbots for Maths. They're completing all that, taking it in turns on the laptop they share.

Youngest brought some Abacus Maths workbooks home for the summer term we're working through, eldest two using White Rose Maths home learning page (brilliant) which they follow in school. They have reading comprehension and SPAG set, we're doing some of it. Quality over quantity, trying to ensure they understand the basics of a topic and really learn something rather than rush through.

School are setting a topic each week (Spring, local city etc.), we're choosing an art activity for that each time.

I'm very interested in the BBC Bitesize homelearning that's just launched, planning to look at particularly the Science and History lessons alongside again doing bits of what school are setting but not all. It's too much!

Focus on work which she finds easy and praise, praise, praise. This time shouldn't be about teaching and learning as such, it should be about building confidence so that when schools resume our children feel enthusiastic about going back and able to tackle anything.

Don't do anything that makes your DD feel like she's a failure, school work can wait.

Thanks for all of your replies. and @Year6teacher754 - thank you for sharing that too!

I think we are all just having a bad day. A month in and no sign of let up yet....tmrw is another day!

We start with Joe most days which is a good way to begin. I think I’ll just have to take each day as it comes and make the most on when she’s having a less emotional day. Luckily she’s always been a strong reader, it’s more maths and spellings. As soon as I see her getting frustrated I’ll change what we are doing. Hopefully normal life will be able to resume soon.

I'm not doing "school work" we haven't been sent packs just ideas like reading cooking etc and the obvious apps/sites we are reading always doing arts and crafts puzzles etc where we stand right now as long as their brains are working on something that's not a screen and keeping up basic skills that's perfectly fine