How much schoolwork are you doing?

[lovinglavidaloca]

I’m concerned we aren’t doing enough!

About 2 hours.
I have to work until 12.30
Then I need to clean the kitchen and make lunch.
Then eat lunch and tidy
So we don't start until 2.00pm
The kids can't really concentrate past 4pm (even with short breaks)
Then I do some more housework and start tea.
DS is 7 and does some reading, writing and maths. Thankfully this is all his school requires.
DD is 5 and practices her name and learns her ABC's.
I've also been experimenting with a company called Outschool that do online zoom lessons.
DS is really enjoying it and I'm giving him free reign to choose whatever interests him.
DD is not really feeling it.

My DD is 5 and in reception and we also have DS aged 3. I’m WFH all morning until 12 and DH is WFH all day. So far we’re probably varying between 1-2 hours on and off. Very similar to post above after finishing work I normally have to tidy up/do lunch then we all need to eat it, clean it up. Then I try to do some literacy/phonics/writing practice and some maths. Reading Eggs app has been good, school only just starting to get organised with suggested activities so we are using some of those too. My 3 year old wreaks havoc and has no patience for me trying to help my DD with her school work so that’s a challenge. They’re playing so well though, really creative stuff with their lego/Magna blocks/garden/v long walks bike rides. Reading some of these I wonder if I’ve been trying to force doing too much 🤔 also trying to get her to practise reading every day.

Hardly any, kids in year 8 and 10 and school seems to give no shits!

Year 8. No live lessons but work from every subject set each week. He is doing two lessons a day and we are just about keeping on top of it. Some.of the teachers are very engaged and wanting the work sent to them and marking it. Others are saying write it in your exercise books and they'll mark it later. Not sure that will ever happen realistically.

Y3 child.
The school has sent through a mountain of work across multiple platforms. Maths alone uses three websites, all with different passwords I can't remember, plus also a workbook which has got lost in the post. Nothing hangs together and none of the tests seem to match the lessons. Lots of technical glitches. Zero personal contact from school.
I was totally stressed out with my FT job, an ancient laptop shared with her big sibling... I decided not to bother with it all frankly.
DD keeps herself busy with projects, lego, art, reading. A family film in the evening. Most of all we are having some very interesting conversations!!
There will be a time to freak out about what part of a sentence is the determiner, the difference between London and Edinburgh and the story of St John the Baptist. Can I face it right now? I cannot.

Yr5. The teacher sends us a time table every Monday but most days go like this;

Joe wicks 9-930
Spellings and handwriting 930 - 955
20 mins silent reading 955-1015
15 mins break 1015 to 1030
English (the teacher sets a different work sheet every day via google classroom)
Maths - times table rockstars and again, a worksheet set by the teacher.
Lunch 1215 -1315
Online games until 2
Spelling shed online against classmates for 15 mins
Last hour is a subject worksheet - ie. art, french etc, which changed every day...

So pretty much the whole school day, 9-3 is taken up by school work. Sometimes there is the odd half an hour which he has nothing to do, school wise so he will play in the garden, fill in his coronavirus time Capsule or add to his bucket list of things to do when this is all over (bless)

I'm trying to keep my DS in as much of a routine as possible.
I'm working from home (Albert very quiet) and he's working beside me so I can help when needed.

After school time, is straight to bloody fortnite.

@barbites is that because the school isn’t sending any work for your DC. I would be concerned for your Y10 DC.

My 7yr and 9yr old are doing 1hr math in the morning and 1hr of writing/English in the afternoon. Often it just one of us wfh as we both have to go in to the office. It's challenging but I feel we are doing a reasonable amount. We are trying anyway. I have no idea what other parents in their classes are doing but would love to know.

Year 2 and year 5 primary.

2 to 3 hours a day. Full daily plans sent by there schools. Rest of the find out in the garden or toys or books. Screens after school time unless I’m desperate for a quiet tea.

I’m confused about those with young children and wfh - do you just leave them in the sitting room on there own while you work elsewhere?! So they get up and play for 5 hours until lunch by themselves ?! I wish my children were that good!

Our family all works together at our dining room table. The kids don't work independently at all so we take what breaks we can from work to do it with them. Then lucky for us our boys are bffs and play together until end of day with their toys and in our small garden. Today they spent two hours making mud potions with old pots and pans. I am deeply grateful for how good they are at playing.

My dcs are in secondary school and doing full days now. School got their act together over the Easter holidays so plenty of work to do.

@MrsPear DH and I generally alternate who is working and who is dealing with the boys. Although if DS1 is doing school work he is supposed to be sitting with whoever is working, he isn't good at just getting on with things and constantly interrupts and fidgets so achieving any level of concentration with him next to you is impossible.

It sounds so varied between different schools and different areas ! We have 5 short varied tasks set by school. There is a maths based, reading based, p.e, art and then a choice of activities like 'write a letter to a friend' or 'write a shopping list' none of these are compulsory and we are always finished learning by lunch and relax for the afternoon, bake, play in the garden. My older child being set short videos to watch and few questions on topics but again, less than 2hrs per day. Just wish we knew how long it was going to go on for.

Three of my DCs are in primary, Years 5, 3 and 1. We start every weekday morning with PE with Joe live and do one of his five minute move workouts for primary to start the afternoon. Time in the garden after the morning workout.

Between around 10 and 11 DCs do Maths work set by school, take it in turns on the laptop they share to go on their school websites and complete set tasks (Developing Experts, Spelling Shed, purplemash, Times Table Rockstars, Numbots). Then a snack break.

We're now using BBC Bitesize Daily, it's an outstanding resource and the programmes are really fun. My three already loved Karim (who presents the iplayer programmes for primary) from CBBC and Strictly, we have an hour before lunch watching the three daily 20 minute programmes (one for each of their age groups). Lovely to see them giggling through as well as learning a lot. It was Science and Wellbeing yesterday, they were good.

After short PE with Joe again after lunch between 1.30 and 3.15 they all take it in turns on their Bitesize Daily lessons plus school sites on the laptop and we do lots of reading. Maybe a piece of topic work set by school. We finish by 3.15.

Have had to resist all the pressure from school for daily contact with all three teachers, photographing all work, completing endless worksheets. Feel like Bitesize Daily has come to my rescue and we now have a routine that's sustainable through the whole of the summer term, Autumn too if that's necessary. Relieved Mum here.

DD is year two and exceeding in everything, according to her latest report, so I must admit, I’ve been a bit lazy If she needed to catch up with stuff, I’d likely be a bit more motivated
(I’m also shopping and doing errands for three households and keeping my own work and training ticking over, so not sitting on my arse OH is working on COVID IT stuff (NHS), so he’s run off his feet)

I’m planning to do a bit more this week, school have set quite an interesting topic, so we’ll focus on that and I’ll do a bit of French with her, as suggested by school.

DH and I working full time still, so all children are doing schooling that is mandated by school. Year 7,9 and 10 have a pretty full timetable, a mix of self directed work and live lessons. All work has to be submitted on the day, and I get emails I'd they haven't done it.
My year 5 similar, but doesn't get a full day, but is still at her desk all morning then a little in the afternoon. They all still have music lessons.

I am very grateful their schools are doing this as I couldn't be working full time and 'home schoolong'. It's also very hard to homeschool a year 9 or year 10...

Our school are amazing

They've said we aren't teachers and that they don't expect us to be. They've told us not to stress; reiterating that the children will all be fine. The children should be happy and do reading / literacy and some
Maths each day.

They've also said that the children don't "learn" at school the whole time between 9-3 so that we shouldn't force them to sit and learn all that time.
They have provided lesson plans etc for us, but it's so relaxed and lovely compared to what I'm hearing other schools are giving.

They also call us regularly to check how we are doing.

@indeedaholidanow they are setting work but not chasing it, marking it or contacting students. I'm able to manage a community mental health team from my lounge so it puzzles me as to why the school can figure out some more input! I am indeed concerned for my year 10
☹️

My oldest is Y8 and has work set for every subject that he has to complete and submit online - I am really proud of how he has organised his time and got on with it.
Youngest Y1 is doing reading, maths, writing every morning - suggested tasks set by school plus a 'daily challenge'. We have a platform to upload photos which the teacher will comment on but they don't seem too worried how much we complete.
Middle one in Y5 does the absolute minimum with much complaining.
We all do Jo Wickes at 9am, school work the rest of the morning with a break in the middle, have lunch, take the dog out for an hour then do another activity like art or baking.
It's actually been quite refreshing that all their evening/weekend activities are cancelled - oldest one does air cadet stuff online and cycles on turbo trainer, middle one is teaching himself piano and scratch coding, youngest has lots of time to watch disney movies and play.
It's possible at the moment because I am furloughed, I couldn't work full days and also homeschool. Schools will just have to be sympathetic to different family circumstances.

I’m confused about those with young children and wfh - do you just leave them in the sitting room on there own while you work elsewhere?! So they get up and play for 5 hours until lunch by themselves ?! I wish my children were that good!

Yep pretty much!
I get up at 8 and make them cereal. Then I go upstairs and reemerge at 12.30 to make lunch.

My 8 year old (year4) is done for the day. We breakfast, school work, joe wicks then back to work til were done.
My 10 year old (year6) is still going - researching a famous world landmark, and drawing it. But everything else is dealt with. Art is nobody's forte in this family, so frankly it's not going to take very long, and wont be great..... (put it this way, before Easter he had to draw a map of somewhere identifiable from google maps, so found the school football field, grabbed a green piece of paper and put some line markings on it!)