Bit of home schooling over summer holidays

[frozendaisy]

Ok being honest, home schooling with our Y4 has been part-time and school transition Zoom meeting said they are going to look at the Y4 & Y5 circulumn on return and cover the essentials from Y4 march and remove some of the stuff they like but are not essential from Y5. With all this in mind would you continue a part-time, very part time, bit of home-schooling over summer holidays? I am thinking we are going to have time to kill seeing as our go to activities and travel are presently not available (subject to change of course).

[Nat6999]

Ds has his transition assignments for starting A levels in September, he isn't happy as one of his choices was politics & his school aren't doing a course due to a lack of students selecting it as one of their Alevels. I'm hoping he will get his head down & get the work done, I'm gently encouraging him, I know he is worried sick about what grades he will get for his GCSE's.

[BaconAndAvocado]

My Year 7 and 8 DCs won't be doing anything, except a bit of reading.

This pandemic has taken away a chunk of their normal childhood so I want them to enjoy their last summer holidays.

Like many households, homeschooling has been stressful and we all need a break.

I feel very lucky that they're not in more important years - 11+, GCSEs, A levels - as things may have been different.

[Lemons1571]

@ineedaholidaynow sounds like he’ll be fine. My DS’s school halted the syllabus in line with the curriculum suspension on 20th March. He has been working hard on all the consolidation work set though.

I just think with the levels of disruption still anticipated in the winter, the schools need data on individual kids ASAP. September might be as good as it gets in terms of timing as corona cases should still be low-ish. Less issues with lots of students missing individual exams due to pockets of isolation.

[ineedaholidaynow]

@Lemons1571 mocks are planned for January, normally do them before Christmas. DS has had full timetable this term and working their way through the syllabus, but it is not the same as being in school. He had been working very hard so I am hoping he is not too far off where he should be, but there are bound to be gaps.

[RoryGilmoresEvilTwin]

Yes. I plan on printing out enough resources for ds to do a few hrs each week.
As another poster said of her dd, my ds mental health deteriorates without structure and routine.

[WeakandWobbly]

That's good to know, @MrsWombat. Thanks for the reassurance. It looks like our camping holiday in France is happening now, so we'll do some French and keep her reading and music going. I reckon "summer brain" will be particularly tricky for everyone this year!

[Lemons1571]

@ineedaholidaynow I suspect there will be exams in September for the new year 11’s. Some data is needed to award them gcse results, in the event the exams can’t go ahead. The whole academic year plus exams could be very disrupted with isolations and local lockdowns, so it makes sense to get this in the bag in September before covid cases start rising again.

[ShanSun]

We bought the home learning packs from lilxplorers.com for my DD who is in Y2 which covers the national curriculum and it was quite useful learning.
It comes with a magnetic flash card that can be stuck to the fridge and every time she enters the kitchen she talks about it.
It was a bit of a relief for me so I filled that gap.

[skankingpiglet]

We will be doing a small amount each day if at home (we'll definitely spend a few days camping, and it looks like there's a good chance our France holiday will be happening), probably about an hr/day. They have missed so much already and I don't want to add to this with a summer 'brain drain'.
My 6yo will just be doing a doing a page out of a few different work books (reading comprehension, maths, French, science, spellings). She has been struggling with maths so we have organised a tutor who should be starting with her soon, and will be 30mins each week. She will be expected to read everyday whether on holiday or not, but she doesn't see this as work.
My 4yo is starting school in Sept, so we would have been working on 'school readiness' anyway. She has made huge progress with her reading and writing over the last few months and as it's so new and not necessarily cemented yet, we will keep it up so it isn't forgotten.

[MrsWombat]

@WeakandWobbly As a year 7 grammar school parent I really wouldn't worry. They will teach them everything they need to know. Let them relax as it's going to be full on. Reading and maybe some of the new language might be fun if you are going to do anything?

[bluevioletcrimsonsky]

I have been doing this during holidays through out my dc's school life. We had no problem with home schooling over lock down.
So yes, we will be carrying on. Though it only takes about 15 minutes in the morning to do regular work, and maybe 30 minutes extra in the afternoon if we have no plans.

[wendz86]

Our school are providing packs of work for the summer so we will do some here and there .

[Woeismethischristmas]

I'm going to keep going not massive amounts but a little week day maths, reading, writing. The dc now have an Xbox to earn time on so it's less of a battle ground with 7 yo.

[WeakandWobbly]

We're also transitioning to grammar school in September, and I'm starting to panic that my DD who is leaving a tiny village school will struggle to make that leap. She's bright, but lacking confidence. Last summer we were preparing for 11+, so I'd said this would be a work-free summer holidays ... before COVID struck! (she always reads and does crosswords, cooking etc but the homeschooling has been a bore).
Should I do anything other than reading over the summer- or just leave her and see what happens?

[Nquartz]

Actually times tables is a great idea, thank you @Grey DD has been doing it every week day of lock down as .part of her work and has improved loads, we never did it at home before because we didn't have time

[GreyishDays]

Couple of sessions a week, I meant to say.

[GreyishDays]

We’re going to to a very little. Times tables and reading each day and then a couple of short sessions on each child’s’problem’ area!

[Nquartz]

We signed DD up to the maths factor when it was dree, we've decided to pay for it from July because DD likes doing the 30 day challenges which means she does 1 module per day. We'll encourage her to do a bit of writing (if she's in the right mood she enjoys it luckily) and read most days.

Apart from that she'll (hopefully) be at holiday club some days and then we'll do the stuff @NeurotrashWarrior talked about on our day off just to have some fun!

[ineedaholidaynow]

Y10 DS has been given revision packs for the summer holidays. His school normally do end of year exams now but will do them early September, which I assume will highlight any major gaps that need to be quickly filled.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

I am concerned that most schools aren't going to be able to do as many practical subjects in September eg art, dt, cooking, music, singing, drama, practical science etc so actually doing this sort of thing might actually be of more value at home.

[NeurotrashWarrior]

In September it's highly likely that children will be taught what they need rather than what people think they need.

And to be honest, that's long over due.

As a consequence, lost learning, especially at primary level, is going to be zilch for the majority of mainstream children, minimal for others. Later secondary is a different kettle of fish but at that age you're doing more self study and self directed learning.

Any holiday stuff I do with them is going to extremely minimal. Mainly reading. Tonnes of practical stuff.

Unschooling theories are definitely extremely useful in these circumstances.

[Lemons1571]

Same as @Orangeblossom78 though my youngest is year 4 going into year 5. I’m far too miserable trying to work 14 hour days to cover my full time hours and a full school day on top. He’s miserable and getting prone to tearful episodes. I think he’ll have to make his way in life somehow without a few additional twinkl worksheets.

Plus his feedback today was to check his maths answers (most were wrong). He says he’s never seen this topic before. I thought the curriculum had been suspended? Am I really supposed to attempt to start teaching new stuff at 7pm??

I read somewhere else that from September schools will probably take some of the “nice to have” year 5 stuff out and put in the catch up “essential year 4 learning” instead.

So no, won’t be engaging in anything further.

[manicinsomniac]

Nah.
My 6 year old has been in school full time throughout in key worker class so she's fine.
My 13 year old has just finished prep school so has completed one curriculum via full time Teams lessons and will start new one in Sept.
My 16 year old has had full online support for largely practical subjects and has had a few sessions in school over the last week or so.

[CaptainMerica]

We will do the library summer reading challenge, occasional sums and some fun things (virtual tours of museums are a favourite).

[NeurotrashWarrior]

I'm a teacher, ds is in y2. I'm going to keep up with a bit of reading and reading eggs over the summer. He's very secure in maths. I think as a teacher I drop random bits of 'teaching' in all day long anyway, force of habit...