Worried how on earth i will cope with 3 young children at home and having to homeschool ?

[Worriedlyworried]

DH is a key worker and works long hours. I've only survived the Xmas hols as he used 2 weeks a/l to help me.

I have 2 daughters, one is 3 years old one is 5 and in reception, and a baby boy who is 8 months old. We have had a shit year and my MH is down the drain. No grand parent (or anyone) help what so ever.

Seriously have no idea how I will cope homeschooling for the next 6 weeks and beyond. We had to self isolate last week of term before Xmas and it was pure hell trying to do the work set by school and the zoom meetings. I have no idea how my daughter will be able to access the Google teams meetings as there is no quiet working environment for her, or for me to help her. I literally get zero time to have any quality time with either of my daughters at the moment as my baby has driven me to the edge. I get zero time to do anything.

He whinges and cries from the moment he wakes up till he goes to bed. He will not nap in the day for longer than 20 min unless he is in a quiet environment and i lay with him. Or i take him out the buggy for a short nap, but will wake at the slightest noise. because he is so tired he is just miserable all day and will not be put down or play with his toys. He is so heavy I can barely hold him (he is way over 100th centile) so it's not like I can use a carrier. He just wants to crawl and can't yet and slips over all the time. If I put him in a play pen he will just scream and scream. He has been this way for over 2 months now, Xmas day was pure hell as he was just so miserable. I've taken him to docs to check for ear infection etc and he is fine supposedly.

I had all 3 of them today for the first time without DH and the entire day was a complete shit show. Thr girls wouldn't stay down stairs alone whilst I attempted to feed the baby to sleep upstairs. The poor girls couldn't even do an activity in complete silence (and they shouldn't have to!) Because the scratching from a craft tool they were using kept waking the baby, it was seriously like a mouse scratching.

My poor 3 year old doesn't stand a chance with the baby how he is at the moment.

I just dont know how I will do homeschooling for 6 weeks when I can go pretty much the entire 5 day week without even having a shower until dh is here at home to help with the baby and he works extremely long hours and weekends so its not even like we can just do the home learning at a later time.

Is anyone else facing this? I just dont think I can go on anymore. I love my baby boy so much, my dh got the snip so he was a surprise baby but I feel like because he is so difficult these past 2 months I keep thinking how much easier things would be right now if I just had the 2 girls to manage and I feel.so awful. I'm so sleep deprived and he just constantly nurses but all I care about is wishing I had 30 mins a day to solely dedicate to my daughters.

I have a toddler and 8 yr old. 8 yr old will only do what he can do by himself.

I'm tempted to say we are unschooling tbh. I have to go in to teach in an SEN school part time and Dh can't handle home school much.

If toddler doesn't get kw place I can't do much home school at all.

Can you apply for a keyworker place? Your DH is a keyworker and your other caring responsibilities make it impossible for you to home school.

I echo that you do not need to worry about schooling at 5, so go easy on yourself.

I’m in Australia and my son didn’t even start school until 5 1/2 (normal starting age) so he started reading then. It’s now 5 years later and he can read everything. By age 7 he was onto Roald Dhal and Harry Potter etc.
My other son started Pre Kindy at 4 and they started doing phonics - so a whole 18 months before my older son (who went to a different, totally play based Pre school). Now, at 8 he’s at exactly the same level that my older one was, even though the older one started 18 months later.
So honestly, don’t worry. Just do some letters and sounds, point out words, read to them, pointing it out as you go. Let them play with books, draw letters etc. Look up Jolly Phonics. My son was learning silly songs about sounds, making letters out of play doh etc.

I wouldn't home school in your situation. Fun home activities, play dough, colouring, fun outside are worth much more. Please be kind to yourself, you can absolutely do this. Tell the school you won't be doing it. Read stories together, YouTube has loads of fun stuff on which is educational. There is more than one way for children to learn

I'm in a similar boat 6yr old (y2) 4 yr old pre school and 9 month old just walking not able to be left for a minute.
It's a joke to even think I can adequately Home school my 6 year old plus provide activities for 4 year old while also looking after the baby.
I'm just going to try to read and focus on learning in different ways . There are already 8 activities on google classroom it's really stressing me out as I don't want my 6 year old to fall behind .

MN won't let me upload but there was an encouraging tweet going around by a refugee who said when she was 4 she missed 4 years of school because of a war in her country. She's now grown up with a degree, good job, home etc. She was encouraging parents to keep sane and happy and not worry about school. Kids catch up and at least it's a level playing field at the moment. Everyone is struggling.

Another lady at work ditches home schooling completely Monday-Friday and then when her OH is around on the weekend they do a couple of hours.

Do what keeps you sane not what makes you panic.

Hi OP that sounds really, really tough. I just wanted to reiterate that young children can catch up really fast - my daughter was reception in lockdown one. She didn't move forward with her phonics and reading during the whole period March-August. We managed to revise/secure what she'd learnt but I felt very demoralised when she was on the same reading books in October that she'd been on in Feb....but by Christmas she'd jumped up several levels and her progress seems really, really speedy.

So please don't worry - alphablocks and numberblocks cartoons, do what you need to survive and she will catch up! I would also suggest getting your DH to be in charge of formal learning - bits and pieces around his shifts will be fine and will all add up.

Just as something to consider - nurseries are still open here so could you send your middle one for a bit? Or get a childminder or even nursery for the baby a bit? A couple of mornings for your own sanity?

No way I'd be even attempting to home school in that situation. We're both at home (working) and our jobs are reasonably flexible and even then I'm only able to do the very bare minimum, and that's with 3 old enough to get themselves dressed and understand somewhat the point of home schooling!

Email the school, reassure them you're going to do everything you can and then forget about it. When the dcs teachers called a few times during the big lockdown I was very honest with them and they never flinched, they couldn't have been more understanding.

Don't sweat it at these ages.

Lots of reading to them/with them. Watch cbeebies together. Let the older two watch ALL the reruns of show me show me.

Play simple games with the older ones.

Go for walks.

Put cbeebies on.

Put cbeebies on again.

Baby sounds a bit like mine; super frustrated till he could do it. Massive hugs.

I absolutely would not be attempting to get a reception aged child to engage in remote learning as you describe given your circumstances. They won't be damaged by not attending zoom lessons. I would try and do 10!mins a day maybe of reading if she is up for it. Don't stress honestly, just do what ever makes all of your lives easier right now.

Please don't consider home schooling any of your children and certainly not for the next 6 weeks. They are all young and they will catch this up. Take it one day at a time and whilst yesterday might not have gone too well, that's passed now and you have already learned something's don't work. Take the pressure off yourself and whilst your husband works long hours, he is also a parent and needs to pitch in.

Primary teacher here.
Don’t homeschool. Your children will be fine. I promise.

@Velvian

Can you apply for a keyworker place? Your DH is a keyworker and your other caring responsibilities make it impossible for you to home school

This. You can apply for a keyworker place as only one of you needs to be one to qualify.

I had a very active and unhappy 2 year old and a 6 year old in the first lock down. My eldest watched a lot of videos on Oak National Academy. It is free and covers the curriculum. The music ones were good for both kids. I also bought a lot of workbooks from WH Smith and let her do whatever she fancied. You could get some workbooks for your girls.

Hang in there, keep everyone fed and safe. Anything else is a bonus.

Email the teacher. As a teacher and mum of little ones, I know they’ll understand.
Read stories to them all when you can, go out for walks, encourage your DDs draw/colour and play together. If you have an iPad let her listen to the songs on the Jolly Phonics app, use Teach your Monster to read app etc.
You deal with the baby.

Gosh, my 2 are in reception and I haven't even considered homeschooling. I highly doubt there will be much work set for that age. Parents are working and at that age they cant learn on their own. I would just tell the school you cant do any online stuff but ask to send you some worksheets to do when you can.

I’ve only got one DS 17 months currently, but he was never a great sleeper and just wanted to suggest a few things -
He wouldn’t let me put him down for AGES. I used to carry him in a baby carrier so he was close to me but I had hands free to do things like eat (little napkin over his head to catch crumbs/splashes), do a bit of tidying. White noise machine does work well to drown out other noises and we still use it now so he doesn’t hear us pottering about (noise travels so much in our house).
Baby gym kept him occupied for short periods. Also on YouTube there are videos called baby sensory videos. Rainbow dance party particularly used to mesmerise him so I could trim his nails, get him changed or clothed etc. Or so I could do something for me.
It’s difficult when you have a “high needs” baby, just have to muddle through and use anything you can to get through. He’s a lot happier now he can walk.