What is your expectation for home learning for nursery children?

[Msgiggles30]

Hi,
After reading lots of information on here about home learning I just wondered what parents would want for a nursery age child? Everyone's views are so varied.
Our nursery children do 2.5 hours a day usually and the learning is obviously play based which is tricky to replicate at home. The majority of our children have siblings in the school and are sharing devices. Yr2-Yr6 are having daily zooms but we decided its too complicated for nursery and timetabling all the older year groups is already tricky.
At the moment this is what I currently do -

• Set a weekly grid which contains 3x maths, 3 x literacy tasks and one task each in the other areas such as ICT, Science, motor skills etc. Linked resources uploaded.
• They can choose how much or how little they would like to do and send me pictures or videos on our app. I have made it clear they can do what suits and that all play is learning at this age so they can send me photos of other things too if home learning is too much and I reply to photos of walks, cooking etc.
• I reply to all work sent in real time or as soon as possible and when I am in school for keyworkers my TAs also respond to all work.
• I am available for parents to directly message from 9 - 4.
• I upload childrens work to the class feed to celebrate and share with their friends.
• 3 x recorded videos weekly e.g. story, number work and phonics.

Would you feel this is sufficient for your 3 year old? I'm really aware of how many working parents we have and that lots of the children are currently with grandparents, in addition to trying to compete with siblings doing work. However I want to do the best for them and set enough for those that want it..really I just want to be in as its just not the same for young children and not the way we do things! Thanks

@bettyboop82 that is practically the type of stuff I do set all linked to the story I post of me reading. Just in a weekly grid that they can pick and choose from at a time that suits x

I honestly wouldn't expect anything. When nursery was shut in the first lockdown we didn't get anything and it didn't occur to me we should.
The idea of videos of staff reading stories sounds lovely though and would be appreciated.
As a working parent, ideas for really simple activities would be helpful but more formal learning would make me feel pressurised to do it and even more guilty about neglecting my child while working!

You sounds great but I would stress about (and then completely ignore) this to be honest. Today we went to the park, he helped me make lunch, we read some books, had the longest bath in the world, watched CBeebies, played with kinetic sand.

Did we do literacy? Well he learnt how to spell “vet” so I’ll count that one (thanks Mog). Maths? He counted out two slices of ham for each wrap - looks like I’ve got a full house.

Seriously though - I’d prefer boredom beating ideas with no expectation of sending in proof. Nature walk lists, “safari” walks (list of local wildlife to spot), recipe for salt dough, art theme of the week, discussion prompts, quiet game ideas, etc.

My (just) three year old DS was sent lots of wonderful activities in the first lockdown from his nursery, but I felt very overwhelmed by them all. It was a relief to me that they started to scale back on expectations over time and felt much more able to engage with the activities when the pressure was removed. At the time I was working full time and then some.

As a nursery parent last year I’d have liked

• an idea of things we could do (maybe even around a theme) from the very easiest things (get them to count the cars on their playmate) to links for more complex things.
• a little bit of explanation about what I could do to help them out on what they were missing (“usually at this point in the year we’d be learning to get ready for school by practising doing x,y,z - a good way of doing this is to do a,b,c”)
• constant reassurance that playing is good :)

We get a daily message from the teacher just to say hello which my son loves. Each day there has been a little communication task, e.g. draw a picture of something you did over the holidays and video the child describing it. It keeps the link there with school but is very achievable.
Weekly with have some number and phonic task ideas but nothing set daily. We have also been given a sheet on this half terms topic with some creative ideas of things we can try this week so we have done a few of them.
This works well for us. I'm only having to do minimal work so have plenty of time for homeschooling but my 4 the old won't focus on a rigid timetable and its nice to give his choices of what we can do. The amount you a doing puts a lot of pressure on parents but also itis unrealistic to expect 3 and 4 year olds to concentrate for so long when they are at home surrounded by fun things. I would raise it with you head and suggest surveying parents to see what they would like.

Just keep it simple, stories, ideas for play.

Baby sensory tried to send home learning for my 10 month old in the first lockdown. They wanted me to make a pompom out of plastic bags. I was feeling so inadequate I tried it. He destroyed and tried to eat it in about 10 seconds.

My nursery still open so I don't have to worry about this at the moment but I think suggestions and no pressure good idea - maybe some ideas for easy things to do.

Themes also good I tried to do that in first lock down when nursery was shut. For a couple of weeks we thought about underwater related stuff. We sang sea songs ( thanks Alexa ) we danced like a shark, octopus, crab. We watched octonauts and finding dory. We read books about sea creatures and named them and counted them. We did craft and stuck all on one wall in living room so coloured in dolphins one day. Used glue abs glitter to make a crab, used scraps of paper to stick on sea horse etc. We watched our wall grow fuller and named the animals and counted them. We played floor is ocean abs jumped from cushion to cushion.

Also did autumn themes and did something similar but incorporated more walks in the woods/ park collecting pine cones - painting some and putting glitter on others. Watching gruffalo. Collecting leaves, making a autumn wreath, doing leaf rubbing ( forget the proper name but when you rub a crayon on paper with leaf underneath- I only remembered to do this when we saw it on Bing)

So yeah themes help me and you can do lots of play and activities around a theme abs then change the theme and do similar things but feels different. Can get language, geography, counting, science into any of the themes pending on how ambitious any parent is. I think examples on easy some things are could really help parents though. We are moving onto jungle theme soon...

Thanks for posting this op - I’m at home with a bright 3.4 yo (and work!) and find myself tending towards quite a rigid approach, shoehorning in simple worksheets from the internet, puzzle games, drawing/writing and “Teach your monster to read” on the iPad along with walks outside, TV, baking etc most days - ie I feel like I need to actively teach.

It’s quite difficult to know where the balance lies at the moment.

Thanks all. Currently we aren't sure if we may even end up opening back up but if it goes on and on I will bring some of these ideas to SLT!

But nursery isn't compulsory so why does your LEA to contact parents who haven't sent anything for two weeks?

I also wouldn't share the children's work. It's their own private choice to share if they want to.

@lifeinaonesie sorry for laughing but that really cheered me up!

@meringueCloud god knows its ridiculous and I will question it! Parents have all made choice to share. Any could opt out (all private messages)but they all said they like seeing the pics in school and would like to continue to see them at home.

My 3 year old is outside playing, walk (beach, woods or scooting), playdough, Duplo, CBeebies, books, general toys, some puzzles, colouring, Paw Patrol/Peppa/bloody Baby Shark Fishmas special on loop whilst I cook dinner and try to get some time out, fighting with his baby sister, demanding snacks....

I must try and do some cooking or crafting with him but oh my god the mess and the tantrums when the cupcakes have to go in the oven... the joys of 3 year olds!!

I would do a story a day for them to listen to. That gives parents a bit of a break while their child is doing something meaningful (recorded so they can watch the same one multiple times!!) . Maybe a sing along nursery rhyme session daily as well.

Other than that I’m sure parents would appreciate ideas rather than set tasks - ideas based on what the kids are used to doing at nursery.

Mine was 3 in the first lockdown (now in Reception) and I totally ignored all the suggestions that came from nursery as my focus was on my Yr 1 child and I just let the preschooler join in or adapted things to her. If most of your nursery children have older siblings then especially please please don't add pressure to parents (even "suggestions" can make you feel guilty). A 3 year old will be learning whatever they are doing.

Yes the tasks are just ideas they could do and are practical things we would do in small group time. Maybe I've made that bit sound formal and more complicated than it is but its not really. Just things like learn a song, mark make your family, share this story, shape hunt, dough disco, digit dance, looking for signs of winter on a walk etc x

For nursery? Absolutely nowt. Nada. Nothing.

Instead - focus on disney films, baking and doing crafty stuff with the most mess, making indoor tents, makeovers, basically anything other than worrying about academia!

We share videos of staff reading stories. Home learning packs with suggestions for things to do at home linked to literacy, numeracy, topics etc like sorting the socks, finding the first letter of their name. We also send home bits & pieces for suggested craft projects - a bag of lollipop sticks, material, wool, glue etc to make puppets

We also did mark making packs & fine/gross motor skills packs with ideas for parents at home if they wanted & resources for any that needed for example the ingredients for play dough

Should add - we did this fortnightly last lockdown.

@musicalmistress that is the sort of ideas we are sending. I love the idea of sending craft packs but we have 45 per am/pm session!

It’s nice of you but I think it feels overwhelming. We’re just doing a bit of drawing (or pen control if you like!) and trying to write her name. We got given some play doh too. We do jigsaws. We watch telly. During isolation we had a couple of 10min FaceTime sessions with teacher but it was to play games like find something blue or a circle shape etc. This was twice a week.

It sounds like so much extra work for you. I think you are very dedicated. I think the main thing that toddlers miss out on when out of the nursery environment is the topics. It is easy to find generic counting activities and phonics practice online (there are so many apps and resources out there) but there is often a lack of typical EYFS topics. I would prefer a grid with some activites themed around a topic that we could tick off as and when we felt like it. For example: weather and a dozen activities in a bingo grid about the topic.

We've got three days with 15 mins phonics game, 15 mins of maths (singing songs) and story time (15 mins) spread over the day. I'm happy with that as DD1 misses her teacher and likes to see her, it's short and sweet, keeps her attention and she can wave at her friends. Ive emailed the teacher a few photos but only because DD wanted to. She emailed back and DD was thrilled. Its all very laid back and we can dip in and out as it suits us. I'm on mat leave with DD2 though and we have plenty of time for this stuff. If I had older children and a job to be doing I don't think I'd be joining all the sessions. I think what you're doing sounds a lot.