The worst bit about home learning.....

[beckypv]

I’m generally a person who ‘gets on with things’. I normally put a positive spin on things, and like to follow the roles. I’m lucky to me furloughed and able to support my kids with their home learning..... but I am coming across the first thing that has really stressed me out in this whole pandemic. It is realising that my year 7 boy just doesn’t give a s**t. The standard of work he produces is awful. He doesn’t always follow all the instructions, can’t be bothered to correct mistakes even though he sees them, doesn’t care about presentation, spelling is terrible .... no effort to do it the best he can. Honestly, it’s hurting me. If I help him, and encourage him to do it properly, he just moans that his friends don’t have a mum sitting over him checking up on him and ‘not everything has to be perfect’. He doesn’t seem to understand that hard work and doing your best is one of the foundations of a good life as an adult. It worries me that there is no way he’s going to do well in future exams if he ‘can’t be bothered’ most of the time. So then where does that leave his future?
How do you encourage a child to do better? He never gets feedback on his spelling or presentation from school. And rarely about content .... so why would he ever bother to try harder?
Sorry for the moan.....

Half term is coming up. Then, on the 22nd, we get to hear what is happening next. It may well be that we only have 2 more weeks of home learning after that. If this is the case (fingers crossed) then I think Popfan's advice is very good. Focus on what happens when he is back at school. If he has some kind of planner, make sure he is filling it in and doing all his homework to a good standard. If he's not getting homework set (empty planner) and work marked properly, that would be a good time to chase up the school.

Also, as a teacher, if he's been slacking a bit, it's really useful to us if you can do a weekly check and make sure he has a pen, pencil, spare pen, ruler and calculator in his bag every Monday morning. It makes such a difference to presentation if all diagrams and pictures can be done in pencil and all dates and titles underlined neatly. I know it's a very little thing, but if the little things are done, it all starts forming part of a bigger whole.

@beckypv does he prefer homeschooling to actually going to school.
2 off mine prefer been at home so I tell them the school will take them back early if they don't do it properly they will think you can't cope at home so it gives them a bit of a push to do their best.
Their school gives very little feedback and my y8 in Ni doesn't even read any feedback.
I would go through it when I have time.

@Nellodee oh how I dream of him using a ruler to underline his work 😂 I completely agree with you that it’s these small things that are the steps to taking pride in what you do. I have discussed with him that school is like building bricks, he does need to put the effort in now because it’s too late to decide to work hard in year 10.
@Andi2020 in some ways he does prefer home schooling but I’m not sure he’d fall for a threat of getting sent to school, as he is doing the work and isn’t getting any feedback that it’s not up to standard!

It's just so frustrating when your 13-year old submits an assignment saying something like "....and perus main rainforest has lost it's conversation status..." when Word/Grammarly has underlined all the mistakes for them, but they can't even be bothered to right-click to correct them before submitting!

Maybe it's a subtle form of lockdown depression? The same way that depressed adults, even though they know getting up and having a shower will be good for them, can't bring themselves to do so?

Roll on the return to school, where the higher expectations from school, and a bit of competitive spirit, will hopefully get them back on track in terms of effort!

Foster child is in school now but when he was home learning and he did some atrocious writing I looked at it and told him I was truly shocked it was so untidy because I know he can do beautiful writing. The next piece he did was much better. I asked him to show me everything before it got sent in to school and because he knew I was checking it, he did it nicely.

Maybe it's a subtle form of lockdown depression?

It is, I think. My son has lost all motivation this week. He has hit a wall with it. His behaviour has been abominable today. I've been nagging him about motivation - and this evening he said - at school we'd been seeing all different people and going into different classes and being taught by different teachers. At home I'm just with you all the time. I don't even go out for lunch ...

We do go out for a walk every day - I might add. But it doesn't make up for all the rest. It's hideous for them. First they were told two weeks. Then after half term. Nobody is giving us or them a bloody clue how long this is going to go on for. My two believe it could be years.

DS (year 6) has improved massively over the past month or so with his online learning. He only pulled his socks up when we became stricter at home and teachers did too. He has spent more time at home than at school this academic year due to bubbles constantly bursting and can now finally get on with it without my nagging. The teacher sends work back if it's incomplete or has any spelling or grammatical errors, even if a single fullstop is missing. I do still have to support him because he doesn't pay attention to all the instructions (currently being assessed for ASD and many things do go over his head). No TV or gaming until all work is completed to a satisfactory standard, no online friend distractions ie messages on hangouts, discord etc on mute. If he rushes through it he knows there will be consequences. He prefers homeschooling and I think somewhere deep in his mind he believes if he works hard then after Covid I will pull him out of school and continue at home. Ahahahahahahaha.