Homeschooling : The Return

[ilkleymoorbartat]

Please please can I have your ideas of schedules / how much work we should be doing per day / how much we should be 'encouraging (pushing) a year 1 boy.

Last time it was pretty hard to get him to do any learning at all, and quite frankly caused myself a mountain or extra work attempting it at all. School were rubbish, and just sent home vague ideas of stuff we could do. Although I guess it didn't matter too much because he was in reception. Now he's in year 1 and I really don't want him to fall behind any more.

So any tips about the above would be a huge help!!

As you will be working with him 1:1 you can get a lot done in a short space of time so you don't need to do hours and hours of work. My DD is in Y4 and this is what I'm planning for her:

30 min English - mixture of reading, Bug Club, practicing spellings, some writing, handwriting practice
30 min Maths - mixture of practicing times tables, TT Rockstars, My Maths and general Maths workbook.
30 min - one other subject
15 min - keyboard practice
1 hour - Art, crafts, sticker/colouring books etc.
Walk at one point

30 min might be too long for your Y1 DC so just work until their concentration has gone.

I'm not sure exactly what is going to be provided by school yet - they are closed to all DC on Monday to sort out their provision so we'll wait and see what is provided but will generally follow the above. Good luck!

You shouldn’t be doing it the school
Should be doing it remotely. Obviously they may not but they are being paid so wait until they tell you what they have planned you don’t have to plan it!

Thanks @SpringTime2020 That's really helpful.

@Wsdhgujn they did nothing last time. I suspect it might be as minimal this time too! But you're right it's worth seeing what they come up with.

@SpringTime2020

As you will be working with him 1:1 you can get a lot done in a short space of time so you don't need to do hours and hours of work. My DD is in Y4 and this is what I'm planning for her:

30 min English - mixture of reading, Bug Club, practicing spellings, some writing, handwriting practice
30 min Maths - mixture of practicing times tables, TT Rockstars, My Maths and general Maths workbook.
30 min - one other subject
15 min - keyboard practice
1 hour - Art, crafts, sticker/colouring books etc.
Walk at one point

30 min might be too long for your Y1 DC so just work until their concentration has gone.

I'm not sure exactly what is going to be provided by school yet - they are closed to all DC on Monday to sort out their provision so we'll wait and see what is provided but will generally follow the above. Good luck!

This sounds about right. I'll be doing similar with my year 5 son.

The schools had to have plans in place (by October I think?) in case of school / bubble closures.

1 of my DC isolated with his younger sibling. The work set was the same work the children in class were being given.

Other DC's school closed fully a week before Oct half term. We were given a pack & log in details for a few different online platforms. I sorted the rest but he's in a SEN school so different set up to mainstream.
Then he had to isolate due to cases in his class. We were given 1 lot of Maths to work through but his teacher was really ill (and is still suffering now) with Covid, other staff came down with it too so planning went out the window!

All mine are off as of now, so we'll see what work is like this time.

Last year with my y1 child I planned 6 little activities a day. This time I have upped it to 8 in theory. But it's really flexible. If we find that we go off on a tangent that is fine. It's not rigid. However I have added in additional SATS focus where as last year the focus was more phonics working through the previous tests and sounds that were unfamiliar.

Thanks for starting this thread OP. I'm going to crack on after breakfast as tbh that's when my Year 1 boy can focus best. I'm not planning to spend more than 1.5 to 2 hours a day as I found this was enough to cover everything last year (plus he got too tired by then anyway). Our school has said there will be some online lessons this time and worksheets so I'll go by what they've planned we'll see how it pans out tomorrow. I'm going to try to incorporate a walk outside together everyday too.

Does anyone have any information on independent online learning sites. Our school is open and will not provide an online service unless you are classed as vulnerable or self isolating. We both have asthma and I am unhappy about myDS returning to school as they have made no changes since last year when infections started spreading in class and they are now reopening in a T4 area, numbers are higher than when they closed. I honestly expect the school to shut in 2 weeks time but I need something to tide me over until then.

@SinisterBumFacedCat

Does anyone have any information on independent online learning sites. Our school is open and will not provide an online service unless you are classed as vulnerable or self isolating. We both have asthma and I am unhappy about myDS returning to school as they have made no changes since last year when infections started spreading in class and they are now reopening in a T4 area, numbers are higher than when they closed. I honestly expect the school to shut in 2 weeks time but I need something to tide me over until then.

You can obviously use Oak academy and the BBC learning. I would also look at some of the usual workbooks.

Sorry to seem ignorant @MotherExtraordinaire but what are the usual workbooks?

Last time i bought a few of those Collins Easy Learning books from Amazon and laminated the pages so the could be used repeatedly. They're pretty good.

Year 1? As in 5-6 years old? Just play with him.

Year 1? As in 5-6 years old? Just play with him

This.

Lots of games like orchard games. Read a bit. Stick the subtitles on while watching telly.

The Teach your Monster to Read www.teachyourmonstertoread.com and The Maths Factor www.themathsfactor.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAlsv_BRDtARIsAHMGVSbptAb28cW9RR16d2tme5ikC5ODlWp5AM9H8Bz0ItQl14rVX3ls3MAaAtcMEALw_wcB are really good too for younger children.

Read with him
Let him draw and do crafts.
Find a topic he’s interested in, like dinosaurs or space and learn a bit about it. YouTube has lots of kids stuff on pretty much every thing.
BBC bitesize for some maths.

Exactly, I’m not saying do nothing. But give him the opportunity for child led play. Bake with him, read stories, draw. Orchard toys games are indeed brill.
You could do a bit of forming letters and counting. Oxford owl has reading scheme books online. But 15 mins a day of that is loads.

Look at The Imagination Tree blog. She has lots of lovely ideas for play based learning. But I promise you can’t stop them from learning at that age. A nice environment and an engaged adult and they will be more than fine.

@SinisterBumFacedCat Twinkl

@ArosAdraDrosDolig this is what I mean. I'd much rather play with him, it'd make my life a lot easier. But he learns when he's a school and I don't want him to fall behind.

He's 6 and old for his year. But there seems to be a mixed picture of 'just okay' and our school is doing 3 hours of virtual teaching sessions a day.

Sorry cross-post. That's all really helpful, thank you!

My ds is year 1, we are not homeschooling yet but expect to be shortly. Last time we read together everyday, taking turns to read paragraphs/pages depending on the book. We did some colouring, some hand writing practise. We did some maths with coins, buttons, telling the time etc.we talked about what we could see and played lots of games. Aim for 1-2 hours a day - at whichever time of day works best for you and him.

We also aim to be physically tired at the end of each day so some trampolining, dance video on YouTube, kids yoga, Joe wicks or a long walk.

Read together (Oxford owl E book if you have no books)
Get him to write something
Get him to do some maths (you can buy workbooks in the supermarkets, pound shops...)

Op its definitely quality over quantity, I would not stress at all, focus on quality slots throughout the day. My DD has sen and I was astonished at how much I was able to bring her on in short bursts. I used all sorts of things to negotiate, screen time, sweets....then she got used to it...

I understand totally, my youngest is year 1.
But honestly I think play based learning trumps anything the school can send out at this age. Remote learning at a computer or sitting at a desk isn’t appropriate for very young children and it isn’t what they would be doing in school. Teachers are obliged to provide something but they know too that it isn’t ideal.

He will learn more by experience and having fun at this age.

Sorry if I sound preachy. I don’t mean to. I think it’s hideous that parents are made to worry about a young child falling behind.

If it helps, I home educated one of mine up to year 5. We never followed the curriculum but he was ahead of expectations when he started school in y5.

op I did 2 x 20 mins or 30 mins a day but I did do weekends as well

I found some good videos on you tube that helped with maths: my daughter's favourites were by 'scratch garden' counting in twos, fives, tens and hundreds. We did a free trial of Carol vorderman's maths factor which is an online maths programme. It's been so good that we now have a subscription (about 4.50 per month I think) and I'd highly recommend it. My daughter hated maths and felt useless at it after just one year at school 😔 but now maths is her favourite thing and Carol explains it all so well. There's a phonics teacher on YouTube that would be good for year one too, can't remember the name but he uses a giraffe puppet.. Good luck!